Brrrrrrr

I took the boys out to get haircuts this morning. It's frickin' blustery-cold today. Strong winds and chilly temps. They were, as ever, good for their haircuts, and I was pleased to see the ace stylist at the place we usually go to in; she did a great job. I had the boys get lil' Britpop shags, so they're looking very sharp.

We also broke ice on the ground, where we came across it, various petrified puddles. I showed the boys how a good axe kick could break the ice, and they went at it, which amused me -- made me feel like we were doing a pint-sized "Goodfellas" kickathon on the ice. B2 said, after we finished, "Ice versus People!"

Now I have'em back inside and we're toasty, and I put out a lunch tray for them to nosh upon, while watching their favorite show of the moment, "Samurai Jack."

I've been blazing away on fiction -- after all, the cold months are my prime writing times. Love when winter sets in, and this winter stands to be my most productive, ever. Psyched about that.

Thanksgiving went well, although the boys didn't eat much of the menu, as I figured -- they nibbled on the bread and the chicken tenders, ate some carrots. Picky as ever, although I did what I could, and they had a lot of fun.

Again, I love holiday times in the city, when so many people leave. It just makes it nice and peaceful. I love not having to travel on the holidays.

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving! I have the boys today and tomorrow; I think Exene is running the Turkey Trot 8K today (I'm almost positive she is), which is fine by me, since the boys'll have fun with me as I cook'em a nice lil' meal. The game plan is (this is obviously geared toward the boys)...

Turkey with gravy
Chicken tenders with sweet BBQ sauce
Macaroni and cheese
Mashed potatoes
Steamed broccoli
Tossed salad
Sliced Honeycrisp apples
Crusty bread
Gingerbread cookies
Plum pudding with hard sauce
Apple cider
Calvados (for me -- haha)

I was going to bake some pumpkin muffins, but discovered that the pumpkin I thought I had in the cupboard wasn't there, after all.

I'm setting up shop in the living room, around a little table I'm going to cover with an Indian blanket we have. The boys should enjoy at least some of it, anyway.

Interesting piece on Thanksgiving.

It's all nice and toasty in the apartment, and with the Christmas tree up, it looks extra holiday-homey.

Light-Hearted

Sure, tomorrow's Thanksgiving, but I had to jump the gun a little; the boys were clamoring for Christmas stuff, so I set things up, got the tree up, all of that good stuff. I told them the lights around the window would help Santa navigate. B2 said that Santa would use magic to open our window and get the presents inside. He's got it all figured out.

The city should be quiet the rest of the week; so many people travel, it's actually really nice for folks who stay in town, like me, for example. No travel stress, and the city is peaceful and nice. I love it.

Things that go THUMP in the night

Thumper, the ghost I don't believe in, has been more active of late. The other night, in a cold apartment, I laid down and felt a throw pillow with my foot that was warm to the touch. Odd, because it wasn't anywhere near any heat source, but it was tangibly warmer.

A few nights, the computer switched on. It actually turned on, waking up from sleep mode. That's happened a couple of times, now.

Two nights ago, I went to sit in my favorite chair, and heard a creak of the cushion on the futon, like somebody was sitting down in it.

The other night, I woke with a start and slugged the wall beside the bed. I don't know what made me jolt like that, can't remember the dream context of it, but it hurt like hell, since I really nailed the wall -- and then, while rubbing my sore hand, I saw that the computer was on.

And just last night, in my left ear, I heard a woman's voice whisper "Daddy," right in my ear. Clear as can be. It was extra-weird, because B1 had been asking me questions earlier, saying "Daddy?" and then asking me his question. And then came that whisper in my left ear, even though I knew B1 was to my right, and I said "[B1], did you just say 'Daddy?'" and he said "No, why?" and I said "I thought I heard you."

We'll see what, if anything, Thumper does next.

I put up the Christmas tree tonight. It looks nice.

Two-Step

The Chicago late autumn two-step has commenced -- we had a blast of unseasonable warmth and a pile of rain (and thunderstorms), and then the temperature crashed 40 degrees and now it's blustery and cold, howling winds. Very typical Chicago fare.

I took advantage of the mild weather to bike out to the grocery store, load up on supplies, and get back before the storms rolled in and the temperatures dropped.

As ever, very grateful for steam heat in this building.

Wolfen

I love the look on this wolf's face. Like "Yeah? What?"

Sonday

Man, I woke up around 1:30 a.m., and couldn't go back to sleep for a bit. Just worrying about stuff. I took a shower and went back to bed, and eventually conked out and had odd dreams. One had this group of WWII-era OSS types, kind of like the A Team set to WWII, on these missions. Very "Guns of Navarone" in scope and presentation in my brain. That's "Guns of Navarone," NOT "Force 10 from Navarone," mind you!

I've got the boys today. They were very glad. Exene dropped them off with me a few hours earlier yesterday, said the boys were "clamoring" for me, so I took'em, and we watched episodes of "Samurai Jack" and I read stories to'em. We had a good time.

Trophies

Before I forget, I saw a junk truck that had a bunch of trophies in the back. It was such a great image, like all this detritus, and then a pile of gold sports trophies (like baseball, etc.) piled in this crate in the back. Sadly, it went by too quickly, before I could snap a shot of it, but it looked neat.

I mailed a book query to a publisher today. Hope something comes of it. In likelihood, nothing will, but we'll see.

Fast Forward

I can't believe November's nearly over. After that last six months kind of grinding along, this month has been hurtling toward conclusion. Man.

There hasn't been too much of interest that's jumped out at me, or that I've remembered enough to post and blog about of late. Part of the battening down of autumn, I guess. My boys keep asking whether Santa's dropped off gifts, yet, and I'm like "It's not even Thanksgiving yet, Guys; there's no tree up, either! It's too early!" But each day, they ask.

I'm sending a book query packet to a publisher today. I'm tightly targeting it to a particular publishing house, hoping they'll at least give me the benefit of a doubt. We'll see how it goes.

I'm going to have three books I'm a'pimping to publishers this year, if I can find suitable homes for them. Always the big IF in the mix. But I have to try, have to persist.

Argh!

Slow commute yesterday. Drives me bananas! Get me where I'm going! Argh!

I still keep waking up a bit too early (and going to bed a bit too late). Also Argh!

The radiators are kicking into gear. I always love that, their rattle and clatter and the wonderful warmth they bring.

I had a lot of odd dreams last night, although I remember only bits of them. Sometimes my dreams unfold in a documentary style, like I'm watching a movie. This one was about an intentional community for the rich somewhere, living in these Green eco-mansions, while the narrator was talking about the community. And I was trying to read some article about it, while these preppy brats were trying to take the magazine from me (which turned out to be SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN except printed on very high quality paper, very thick -- to the extent that I was musing while reading it "Is this a special issue or something? Must cost a fortune to produce this.") There was some section about composting, and some eco-wags had written a message like "Over here, Grandmother!" in some kind of stuff that drew honeybees, because that message was written in bees on the ground! That was particularly dream-weird, had me almost waking up from my dream. Then, at some point, I was in a cavernous building like McCormick Place and was talking with Obama, trying to set him straight, saying he needed to take moves from LBJ's political playbook and really play some political hardball if he had a hope of getting things done. He didn't appear to be listening, but I pressed on, at least until Michelle Obama turned up and some staffers of his. Then I just went my own way. That's about all I remember.

Oh, Io!

http://www.salon.com/wires/us/2010/11/15/D9JGTIU00_us_arrow_shooting/index.html

Lordy, lordy.

Going Ape

Another anti-Halloween dildo in action. And, of course, a faked story...

Gorilla Suit Attack a Fraud

Yawn

Winterish weather finally has arrived, although no snow, yet; that all appears to be north of here for now. But the blustery, rainy-cold thing is going on, now. Glad for steam heat, that's for sure!

I keep waking up around 3:30-40, legacy of daylight savings. I wake up early, anyway, so roll that clock back and it's super-early for me. Gonna take a bit to get back to waking up only crazy-early, instead of obscenely early.