LariLee's Hutch

Proudly stolen from jackiejlh, The Book Meme!

1. Pick 10 of your favorite books or series.
2. Post the first sentence of each book. (If one sentence seems too short, post two or three!)
3. Let everyone try to guess the titles and authors of your books.

I was terrible and knew most of hers, so I have to play. God, I love books!

( The Book Meme )

Thanks jackiejlk for letting me play! And I do recommend all of these books, in the most eclectic mixture possible (horror, romance, young adult, dis-Utopian, what-have-you).

Current Location: Home again, home again, jiggity jig
Current Mood: thirsty
Current Music: Some movie on ABCFamily channel

When I was driving to the nursing home, I saw an old fashioned broom lying in the middle of the street. My first thought was a caption: "Harry Potter and the Big-Ass Truck," then I thought "George vowed to stop playing Wizard Chicken after the death of Fred."

And it keeps coming back to me. "The latest Wizarding game, Dodge-truck, is gaining in popularity." "Fly high is more than a slogan." "The Dark Lord thought he'd reign over the Muggle world. He never understood the concept of Rush Hour."

Anyone else want to play? I'm still smiling over it and wish I'd thought to take a picture on my phone.

Edited to add: "Friends don't let friends fly drunk."

Edited to add: "They might have magic, but we got really big, fast trucks."

Current Location: home, the ninth circle of Hell
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: some Steven Segall movie

Well, the good news is that Mom is coming home from rehab Tuesday (as it's after midnight, I guess that means today).

( Whine, whine, whine... It's okay not to read. I just needed to express it. )

Current Location: Purgatory if not Hell itself
Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: Dog snoring.

Hugs to everyone! Sometimes I feel like I've been forgotten, though I've never forgotten fandom. Fandom remains my happiest time.

( Personal Update )

( Bella and the Dark Lord snippet )

Yep, I'm going through my writings. That might be good news. Let us hope!

Current Location: home
Current Music: House on TV

Since

Current Location: Home again
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: The Nanny rerun

Whew! Everyone's asleep, so I'll try to update before they wake up. Fortunately, I've been working on this update for a month now.

( The Update )

Later!

( Twilight )

Current Location: Not in Edward's arms...
Current Mood: groggy
Current Music: Walker Texas Ranger on TV... WAH!

Sunday, Hurricane Ike, now Tropical Storm Ike, blew through Kentucky. And blew and blew and blew. Winds up to 80 mph. Now, I don't usually whine about bad weather. Especially since Ike already caused so much pain and suffering and damage elsewhere. And after all, Kentucky is on a fault and we don't get earthquakes like we could. We're in a tornado zone, but Louisville only really got hit hard back in '74. We rarely get more than two inches of snow all winter. So we miss a lot. But I do object to getting tropical storms and hurricanes when we aren't in a tropical region and don't have a beach. It just doesn't seem fair.

My heart always goes out to hurricane survivors everywhere. I hope you're doing okay, Southern. I've been worried about you since Gustav. I hope everyone is doing well. Not sure offhand who is in Texas, but I'm still worried.

Anyway, we've got our taste of it here. Nearly half of Louisville is still without power. We were lucky. Our electric went off around 11:00 am Sunday and came back Monday about 3 am. I was very happy about that as Mom was running out of her oxygen. No electric means her machine doesn't work and we switched to tanks. I need to call and request the empties be changed out, but I know they're pretty busy getting the emergencies handled.

We were lucky. We lost about half of a maple tree, but it fell on the drive and missed the house. Our neighbor across the street managed to pull and cut it so it's almost off the drive. I can get in and out which is a blessing. Our one neighbor has two trees in our yard, but they didn't hurt the fence, so that's good. We did lose most of the roof on the 'new' addition to the garage. It's 30 years old and one of my dad's friends did it. Basically, it was corrugated tin sheets. A tree came down on part of it and the wind basically tore the roof and gutter off. It's rather odd to see these sheets of tin peeled back like a kid tearing into a Hershey bar.

Overall, we're very lucky. Across the street, one house has a tree in it now. No one was hurt though and stuff can be fixed or replaced. I had to toss most of the refrigerated food out, but the packed freezer is okay. I'm just sorry all these hurricanes are raging. Our tiny taste of it was enough for me.

I think my personal theme for 2008 is "Good News/Bad News".

Good news: My computer is working great!

Bad news: LariLee and the Lost Book of Secrets (aka my book with the passwords in it) is still ongoing. I hope Gracie hasn't eaten it.

Good news: I can pull Dragonspeak from my old desktop.

Bad news: My copy of Word is missing. As it failed on my old computer, I don't dare copy it.

You know... I've been having computer problems since last fall... and people wonder why I keep looking up for the black cloud that's been following me. Am I the only one who remembers The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show? They had a character names Schleprock, who had a black cloud that caused bad luck to whomever was near. Then he'd say, "Oh wouzy, wouzy, woo."

I am Schleprock with computers lately. Wouzy, wouzy, woo woo.

Anyone have Word? on disk that I could borrow? :-)

Is it worth it to open a new mailbox? I did remember my password to Occlumency, so I could start re-reading A Right Bastard and No Good Deed. And I have an idea for a canon-compliant, post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Boring Camping Trip that's HG/SS that I wanted to do for Sbrande's birthday. I'm late, but I'll work on it, I promise.

Hugs to everyone! Thanks for not forgetting me or hating me!

Current Location: Breezy, breezy Louisville
Current Music: None

Testing, one, two, three. Testing, one, two, three...

I hope I still have friends out there. It's been a rough couple of months, man. I kid you not. It makes me wonder if someone doesn't have that little LariLee doll with several hundred pins sticking in it. And maybe an ax buried in its head.

Almost immediately, my new laptop started having problems. I couldn't run some programs and couldn't access the Internet. David tried to isolate the problem, which took ages, then I had no alternative but to go the Geek Squad. Unfortunately, they suspected it was a virus (as I do download a bit) and wanted their fee upfront. Their fee was almost one-third of the purchase price of the computer. So I had to wait a bit for that... until second quarter rolled around. Then we started getting into a "good news/bad news" situation. Good news, it wasn't a virus. Bad news, it was the motherboard. Good news, it was covered (and I got the money back that I had to pay them). Bad news, Geek Squad couldn't fix it, HP had to. Good news, it was an 800 number. Bad news, it was to India and I have trouble with certain accents. It went downhill from there. I'm still fighting with them to get my computer fixed... and I'll never buy another HP ever again. Should I ever get to India, I want to slap "Nicky" and "Joseph" a bit. Just a little bit. They are refusing to send me the box needed to ship the computer back to the company because they can fix the problem over the phone. They've disregarded everything I've had to say about the computer and insist it's working fine. Yeah, they can tell over the phone.

So how am I back? An unexpected monetary bonus plus the money we had earmarked for repairs with the additional incentive of a really great sale at Best Buy on Dells... Mom and David agreed to split the cost on a Dell notebook.

I'm back now... sort of. I don't have many of my passwords, so I can't access anything but livejournal. I shudder to think what my gmail looks like. I hope I'm not bouncing. And I can't get into yahoo groups to set Freecycle on administrative notices only. That group averages 100+ emails a day. *sigh* But it's great to be back online, even limited. I know that somewhere is a notebook with the passwords in it... somewhere. The house is dying of neglect (but not the people inside). The last thing I've really done was paint lambs' blood on the door jams and hung up the "Abandon Hope" sign.

( Family Updates )

I'm starting to live in my stories again. It's so good to 'see' Maggie and Trish again. And I might be having an original novel brewing too. That one frightens me because I only have a few ideas, but the characters are so vivid in my head. I've never started a story without knowing almost everything that goes on in it. Now, if only I could find time to write.

I also really want to apologize for

Current Location: Great question... next?
Current Mood: but reasonably happy
Current Music: Olympics... go USA!

This was supposed to be a good news posting, but... life sucks.

Mom's been sick and in mid-December, my computer lost the Internet connection. Many programs were just not working well, but accessing the Internet was impossible. So, after a few weeks, I got a new computer. It's a laptop and I've been trying to get it set up. David's trying to move files for me, but it's a slow process. I'm not even half-speed right now, and I don't have Dragonspeak.

However, I'd gladly give it up if it could bring Mitzi back. My little dog died last night. She'd been really sick last month, spending three days in the puppy hospital, one of those was in critical care. It was an upper respiratory infection, but the problems came in with her heart. A murmur developed and the vet was finally able to release her December 27th, but told me she'd probably be on heart medication for the rest of her life as her heart was enlarged.

Yesterday, she suddenly stopped playing and curled up on the pillow next to me. Her breathing was laboured, so I rushed her to the vet's, but despite all the treatment, she died around 7 p.m.. Needless to say, I'm devastated. Mitzi was my baby and the perfect dog (despite being a yappy butt). She was hypo-allergenic and tiny (7 pounds tops) and just a love puppy. She was my baby.

So I'm working my way back, but I'm so depressed, I'm not sure when I'll be transferring the files. Right now, I just don't care about it. Yes, I'm doing okay, except for the crying. I'll be glad when I have Dragonspeak again.

Current Location: nowhere
Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: none

Okay, I'm going to take a deep breath and try to update before anyone calls my name.

( It's taken me two days to write this... )

Believe me when I say that there's a lot I'm thankful for, but most of all, it's for my friends. I love you guys!

Mom's back in the hospital. Starting having problems breathing around 2 a.m. Saturday. Took me eight hours of begging, pleading, screaming and threatening to get her to the hospital. As soon as she agreed, I had an ambulance on the way. Which really pissed her off. She kept wanting to wait to see if her medicine was going to kick in. After having so many asthmatic bronchitis episodes in my own past, I already knew it was a lost cause, but I was afraid if I called for an ambulance before she agreed to go to the hospital, she'd refuse treatment. Let's face it, she's a stubborn woman, and yeah, she'd die to prove she was right. Which wouldn't prove it, but hey, she's a stubborn woman.

Last time, she went in with heart problems and developed breathing problems. She's done the reverse this time. Her cardiac enzymes are "whacked" according to the doctor ("whacked" being medical term, I'm sure) and she may have had a minor heart attack. EKG normal, but some other test showed a gray spot which they're concerned about. Her docs still do the 1 a.m. trips to her room.

I'm a bit sleep deprived right now, but David told me to go ahead and smoke indoors. "If the raccoons eat your face, I won't know and I'll be stuck in here with the backdoor unlocked." I think he's concerned about me (Note to FX: insert eye roll here).

Called all the relatives and told them. I think I mentioned that is one "unforgiveable" in my family. And I'm using my "rest time" at home to organize, sort, move, box, etc. all the junk in Mom's room. I'm hoping to get the kitchen, dining room, her bedroom and the living room done while she's in. So, no, I'm not resting until my body drops. Wish me luck. My poor relatives don't realize it, but their next "Let me know if I can do anything to help" is going to get answered and they're getting a list. :-) Teach them right for always saying it, right?

Okay, gotta run and take stuff to the hospital for Mom, stop by the grocery, and work on the list of who I want to do what. Wish me luck! And whatever happiness your personal religion allows for my Mom. We'll let David manage on his own today without supernatural interference.

Current Location: It has to be Hell, seventh circle at least.
Current Mood: Overwhelmed
Current Music: Dulcet tones of David calling for me...

I think I'm back! Time is still scarce, but removing some programs, running defrag endlessly and tossing Holy Water at the tower seems to have helped. Word still is funky though, and some of my games are screwy, showing a spit screen (all the Diner Dash games and The Sims, which is sad because I can't lock people who annoy me in their Sims home, remove the doors and have them light the fireplace until they all go up in a blazing inferno, screaming their little Sim heads off... not that I'd ever do that. Really.).

Thank you all for the birthday wishes! It was a low-key, quiet day for me, which I appreciated greatly. I even had a good sleep, which I think was my body's present to me. :-)

Try as I might, I can't get my e-mail below 700. I don't know how I'm going to catch up. Especially since Christmas is coming and Mom keeps coming up with more torturous, pointless, make-me-hurt jobs for me to do. It's been a bit wild here... Mom's sick again and the doc put her on Sta-hist (I think I spelled that correctly). She began having waking dreams, very vivid, and was confused most of the time (more than normal). Until we figured out it was the drug, I worried about Alzheimers or sudden onset dementia or any other horrible disease. Turns out, that is a common side effect of the drug on seniors. Oh yeah, the doctor and I talked about that. :-)

I've been excavating in the basement, trying to find some room to move some of the junk from up here to out-of-the-way-down-there. I know how archeologists must feel. Hidden on the bad of the shelves Mom's using to store her canning equipment (she'll never can again, but doesn't want to get rid of it because I might decided to try my hand at canning. Yes, I laughed hysterically at that one) were two dozen cans of pinto and Great Northern beans. I figured out that they were about 29 years old. Bulging, discolored labels, and leaking. My Dad knew a store that sold by the case and we'd stock up on cases of stuff. Pain in the ass to move it all downstairs to the pantry area, but we did. the last trip I recall making to do that was in 1978. I know I'll find Jimmy Hoffa down there eventually.

Other than that, everything is about the same. I miss y'all. But after Christmas, things should die down a bit... I hope. I decided to postpone job-hunting until after the New Year... mainly because Mom gets so upset at the thought of me escaping leaving every day. But, if and when I get a job, I am going let them know in advance that I'll need to have July 8-15 off due to a prior commitment. I want Dallas so badly! And droxy, that you so much for letting me stay with you! I so appreciate it! I found your e-mail tha other day and haven't been able to reply yet.

_vocalion_, congratulations also! I'm so happy for you! And as soon as I get a chance, I'm going to run your book again.

Thank y'all for not forgetting about me! I hope to be back soon... especially since all these scenes are running through my head and I don't have the time to write them down. I feel like I've missed so much. And I couldn't get into the Gay!Dumbledore debates or JKR vs. The Lexicon. I'm sure there will be another debate on something soon. I hope to be here for it. Have a great day!

Current Location: the dining room
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Refuge - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Been trying to get this posted for nearly two weeks now... I have bald spots on the sides of my head from pulling my hair out. So I'm typing fast here. Please forgive any typos or incoherent thoughts.

( LariLee's Whinging On and On Again and Has More Pathetic Excuses... )

Current Location: Pit o'Despair
Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: Gene Autry in the other room and kill me now please before he gets to the chorus

Not sure if anyone noticed, but I haven't been around lately. When I started tapering off the steroids, the hives returned with a vengeance. Shortly after that, so did the headaches, nauseaness, muscle pains and spasms, and general fatigue. After a "quick trip" to the ER (which lasted for 31 hours), they discovered that my right kidney has three stones and my left has just the one. Fortunately, all are small enough to (hopefully) pass on their own, but the ER doc did give me some great drugs (for once). And an emergency referral to the local hospital's urologists and allergiests for indigent care. It's been a few days and I still haven't heard back from either of them. Of course, it's been 15 months since my emergency referral to their cardiologists and I'm still waiting.

I've spent much of the past week -- two weeks? whatever -- sleeping, scratching and crying. My family isn't too thrilled with me, needless to say. And the temperature for the past few days has been over 100 degrees (around 40 celsius), so going outside to smoke is a trip to hell. The sweat burns my hives something fierce. And apparently, one of the creams I'm using seems to attract the raccoons... there are now five of them and I'm convinced they're going to eat me one night.

And it only took me two days to finish this up and post. I hope y'all's lives are going better than this.

Current Location: crawling back to the couch
Current Mood: indescribable
Current Music: bongo drums... no, the blood pounding in my ears

( Health )

( Deathly Hallows )

( Wildlife Update )

One day, I'll get the hang of not being late... Happy belated birtdays to jiapa on the 16th, avidreadertoo on the 19th, elektrik_storm on the 21st, potionmistres60 and perselus, both on the 22nd, and wolfma on the 25th!

Happy early birthdays to 29: angulique and woomama, both on the 29th, dazzleberry on the 30, and one of the Bourbon Street Bitches ellaselenelupin on the 31st

Current Location: Purgatory
Current Mood: bitchy
Current Music: Awesome God -- Hillsong United

Oh my goodness, I'm going to type fast because I'm supposed to be cleaning the kitchen, but I'm just tired of working, and I've been chewed to pieces by mosquitoes. The only drawback to smoking outdoors. I now have five squirrels, though the original three are fighting with the newcomers. Why can't we all just get along?

Saturday, I went to the book party with plaidpooka and daisyjarvey, daisyjarvey's daughter and friend. plaidpooka went as Trelawney and was in the finals of the costume contest... she was that good! I was a generic, modern witch, which is rather weird because I can pull that together from my closet. :-) And plaidpooka was so sweet, she stood in line with about 500 people and let me sit outside and smoke. Thank you so much for that! I ended up talking politics with some young people there. Thank God there are people like them running around, politically saavy, motivated and willing to talk! It gives me hope this country will survive George Bush's pResidency.

God, I'm hiving up here. Anyone know of a good bug spray? I've never had to use them, being an indoor cat person, but this year I'm going to have to. Or else die of malaria.

Oh, I've reached the conclusion, after reading DH earlier in the week (yes, I'm one of the evil ones who read it off the Internet), that I'm going to keep writing fan fiction as long as I have stories that need to be told. I'll probably stop canon compliance after OotP because I hate Dumbledore being dead. I like the more innocent stories. However, I'm also going to be trying my hand at original fiction, which is harder because you don't get feedback on every chapter. :-( I just want to kick one of my friends. Four years ago, I told her that I thought there was a market for supernatural love stories. She did a good job of ridiculing me, until I thought it was one of my dumber ideas. *Mental note: I'm not always wrong and go with my instincts more*

And, for those of you wondering, I finally cooked a meal Mom liked! Woot! Go me! And yes, David liked it too! T-bones, creamed cheese potatoes, salad, and orange Jell-o with orange slices. I'm so glad I bought a lottery ticket because it might be a lucky day!

Current Location: Itchy and Scratchy the Movie
Current Mood: itchy
Current Music: none

Howdy, all!

( Wildlife... )

( Family Ties are Choking me... )

No DH spoilers here. But I will say it's not my favorite book. There are parts I enjoy immensely and others that are, imho, rather weak. Fandom has also been doing a number of twists, plots, etc. for years now. Yes, it's her series, but I was hoping for a bit more of the unexpected... and fewer plot holes... and fewer mistakes. :-) I still like it, even though I'll probably ignore most of its existance from here on out, but it won't be my favorite (though I really did love parts of it).

I've been writing this for a week, just typed in my DH comments and my family is calling for me. Popularity is not as much fun as I thought it'd be.

Current Location: hell again...
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Passion -- Rod Stewart

I'm late again...

Happy belated birthday to <lj user

Current Location: hell's backyard
Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: none

I'm late again...

Happy belated birthday to hsgranger (the 10th), and hsgranger (the 10th), countrymouse1 and katers007 (both the 12th), and haraheart (the 13th... I hope it was lucky for you!)!

And, as I'm never sure if/when I'll return, happy birthday jiapa (the 16th)!

I hope everyone had lots of cake and cute, nearly-naked dancers!

Current Location: hell's backyard
Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: none

apisa_b, it's here, it's here!

I opened the front door to find the package tucked between the screen and the front door. Needless to say, we never use the front door except to take wheelchairs in and out, and the mailman ignored the "Please Use Side Door" sign. But it's the softest, most beautiful scarf imaginable! Thank you so much! I adore it! To let everyone know, it's a Ravenclaw scarf! Woot! I get to display my House now! I can hardly wait for winter! You're way too kind to me! Thank you!

foudebassan, I got your postcard today as well! The stamp brought a chuckle to me! I had no idea there were Harry Potter stamps in any country. :-) Thank you so much!

All the good news balanced out the bad. Mom's barely out of the hospital, mainly because she got hysterical at the thought of being admitted. She's accused me of trying to kill her all day. The doctor sent her home tonight on meds, with the promise she has 24 hour monitoring by family. She doesn't want anyone but me, so I gave away my OotP tickets to the friend I was going to go with. She's not sure if she can find someone to go with, so I told her she didn't owe me for either ticket, but they were non-refundable, so I'd have been stuck regardless, I guess.

As Mom pointed out, she smoked for 25+ years, but quit in 1976, so it is odd she has COPD now, except for the fact I've smoked in the house for a couple of years now. I hadn't thought of it that way, but she does have a point. It probably is because of me and not because she caught something in the hospital. Anyway, I'm monitoring her and am supposed to call for an ambulance if she has distress, however, she told me if I did that, I could pack and leave. My aunt said if I didn't, she'd never forgive me. I figure I'll do what I think is right and someone will be pissed off at me. Par for the course. :-)

Anyway, we have to be back at the doctor's tomorrow morning and if she's not better, she's going to be admitted. She's not a happy camper, but the medicine is making her sleep, so I can't complain. I just hope she's better soon.

Current Location: Nowhere
Current Music: None