Unthemed Medley

Today the steri-strips came off, leaving me able to--nay, let us say unable to not--look directly at my scars-to-be for the very first time. They're not wonderful to behold, but at least they don't make me want to retch. Also, I think I was absolutely right about where that smell was coming from, thankfully (ie, the decaying paste underneath the strips themselves, rather than my own flesh). Next up: Washing more often, applying Polysporin, changing bandaids on the few raw spots left. Tomorrow/today equals exactly one month since my operation, which makes me a third of the way through my primary healing; two more months, and I can start working out again. Five more and I can get pregnant, if I want to. Eleven more, and they'll look pretty much like they will for the rest of my life...unless I get pregnant, I guess.;)

Meanwhile, Russell won So You Think You Can Dance 6, beating out both of my favorites (Jakob and Ellenore)--not that I didn't like Russell, because I did. But once more, we have to remember that the title is America's Favorite Dancer, and America really doesn't like people who are A) classically trained/technically adept and B) don't necessarily conform to "normal" sexual paradigms. (Jakob, sweet guy and great partner that he is, is both creepily flexible and undeniably gay; Ellenore has been labelled "kooky" and "eccentric" throughout because even though she's frickin' gorgeous, her sheer inventive athleticism always outshines her sexuality--she competes like a dude, and makes no apologies for it.)

On the writing front, I've made copious notes, but haven't gotten around to inputting them as yet. This is somewhat because I'm waiting to start edits on A Book..., and also because Christmas is catching up to me. Cal has Mom's cold, which is making him nutty. OTOH, he's also experimenting with parts of speech, probably because of Schoolhouse Rock. The other day he took a phrase and started bending it, provoking an interesting series of back-and-forths:

"The baby is a boy."
"You're a boy."
"The baby is a scream."
"The baby is screaming. And 'to scream' is a..."
"Verb! That's what's happening! The baby is a cymbals."
"The baby has some cymbals."
"Crash!"

And--there you have it. I need to go do some dishes, then go to bed.

Words for Today: Achieved

A Rope of Thorns: 1,173. Mostly notes, but parts are getting perilously close to an actual chapter outline; I don't know how much longer I can hold myself back from jumping right in, or even if I particularly want to. Especially so since I only just realized that the perfect "previously, in the Hexslinger Series" Prologue would involve writing a bunch of newspaper articles and Pinkerton dispatches, prefaced by an Allan Pinkerton's Professional Thieves and the Detectives-style multi-title chapter heading which acts as an amusingly curt precis of the chapter's content. Like so:

CHAPTER IX, from LIGHTNING-STEALERS AND THE DETECTIVE
The Discovery of Osbourne's Flight--Unsuccessful Pursuit--A Camp Suddenly Deserted--Left to Die--Rescued, But Again made Prisoners

Or this one (possibly my favorite):

CHAPTER X, from THE EDGEWOOD MYSTERY AND THE DETECTIVE
Franssen is Discovered--The Detective is Employed as a Shoe-maker--A Nightmare--The Ownership of the Blood-stained Hat Decided

Like most people intent on cornering a market and building a brand, Allan Pinkerton was obviously very much in love with the idea of his own legend. The book begins with an essay in which he recounts his meteoric rise from unsuccessful cooper in Dundee, Illinois to equally (if momentarily) unsuccessful private detective, and how he got screwed out of most of his fee by the tight-fisted Scot who employed him, mainly because they made an oral contract which wasn't very well worked-out and didn't sign anything beforehand. Pinkeron himself being a pretty tight-fisted--or at least two-fisted--Scot, I'm guessing he probably never did that again.

Speaking of which: I need to figure out what I'm eventually going to do with ol' King Pink, by the end of my saga. And I was thinking about putting together a Book of Tongues pimp-post, and putting it up at Music at Midnight for anybody who wants to know just what this whole shebang's about: Cast of Characters (possibly with photos of the actors I modeled people on), Background, etc. What do you guys think? (I'd probably need advice about how to link those photos in, because I'm Luddite-ish. Though getting less so...)

All right: Off to pick up the dude. Later.