Trapped by ice!

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I'm the first to admit that I don't get out much. I'm a writer. When I'm not working the parttime evil day job, I hole up in my writing cave and write. I can go days without traveling farther than the patio or the mailbox. But it's my choice.

Thursday night, bad weather moved into this part of the country. Freezing rain, sleet then snow. Not tons. But this is Arkansas. We don't get a lot of snow and ice so we don't have the equipment to clear streets. I started to go to the coffee shop on Thursday but the weather people were iffy on when the actual crap would hit the fan. I didn't want to get stuck in Little Rock.

Hindsight and all that stuff, I should have gone. I'm now officially going stir crazy. I want out of this house! I can't stand it anymore! The cats are driving me nuts. My dog, MeiMei, won't stay in the house if I'm in the living room or kitchen so I'm more or less confined to the bedroom or I have to let her freeze. Or lock the pet door and be at the beck and whim of nine animals.

I had plans today to have lunch with my sister, my mother and a friend. It was to be an early birthday celebration. Now, I'm not sure if I can get to Little Rock. Add the possibility of an unfulfilled promise of sushi to my bad mood.

Iz need sum wun to terrorize... *pouts* I keep trying to tell myself that at least I have power. It helps a little but not much. And yes, I have a new online name--Little Miss Cranky Pants!

How is your weather treating you?

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!

This Sears Optical commercial just cracks me up. I can't help it. I was once blind as a bat so it could have been me without glasses. Best thing I ever did for myself was Lasik surgery. I went from being legally blind without my glasses to being able to see 20/15 distance. I still need reading glasses because I was already in bi-focals before the surgery. Lasik can't fix both near and far sight but my distance vision was awful! I love technology! Just wish Lasik had been around all those years ago when I wanted to fly helicopters in the Army. LOL

The things we take for granted...

This afternoon my mother and I took my grandmother to see her pacemaker doc. She had a new pacemaker installed? Inserted? Implanted? whatever...in December. Last Thursday, I wrote a blog over at Delilah Devlin's talking about watching the Apollo moon landing as a nine year old child. Amazing technological advances over the last fifty years.

But today, watching my frail eighty-nine year old grandmother, I realized that I've seen nothing compared to her. She grew up with no electricity, no phone, no running water, no indoor plumbing. One of her chores was to pull water up from the well with a bucket. Her mean spirited male cousin enjoyed spiting in the bucket after she hauled it out of the well. She'd have to pour out the water and wash the bucket before hauling up more.

She remembers when people supposedly died of heartburn because they didn't understand heart attacks. Her own mother died at the age of forty-nine due to complications from gall bladder surgery. Gall bladder surgery! My mother had her gall bladder removed as an outpatient last summer. The difference between medicine in 1946 and in 2009.

And today, the doctor showed us the monitor for Granny's pacemaker. Her pacemaker has gone wireless! The box hooks up to the phone line. There's a splitter so you can still connect a phone. You place the monitor near the bed. During the night, the monitor will run a scan of Granny's pacemaker without her ever knowing. If there's a problem, the monitor can send an alert to the doctor's office.

When she was born, the technology we take for granted wasn't even dreamed of. Today, she walks around with a phone in her purse, a tiny device implanted under her skin to regulate her heart and a monitor doing things I thought only Star Trek could do.

What a world we live in and take for granted. Even now, I'm writing on a laptop with more computing power than rooms full of computers when man walked on the moon. I'll click on a button and send the post out into the ether where anyone can read it, anywhere in the world. How cool is that. Wonderous times we live in.

Diet...er...Lifestyle Change

Okay, I'm the first person to admit I'm overweight and it's messing with my health. But I'm of the Garfield persuasion--diet is 'die' with a 't'. So everyone tells me I need to make a "lifestyle" change. Ugh.

The problem is I've never met a food I didn't like. That's saying a lot since I've lived in Europe and New York--two places known for an amazing variety of food. And while I love to eat, I'm not big on cooking. Most of my family and friends think I can't cook. Not the case. I can cook I just don't like to! LOL

However, as I rapidly approach the "big 5-0" I really need to take better care of myself. Which means pulling out skills I haven't used in years and backing away from the nuke'em frozen foods and easily slapped together sandwiches I've subsisted on for years.

I spent some time over the last month looking at different "philosophies" regarding dieting...er...lifestyle changes. I've settled on a cross between low carb and Alton Brown. *cackle* Fresh veggies, low fat meats (fish & chicken), minimal pasta and breads but plenty of fruits! I saw Alton Brown's Good Eats episode about how he lost weight. Love the fruit smoothie idea for breakfast. Can't go wrong with fruit! But while I do like sardines, I'm not too sure about his sardine and avocado toast.

So dinner tonight? Grilled skinless chicken breast, grilled asparagus, grilled cherry tomatoes and half a baked sweet potato. Seasoning? Kosher salt, pepper and, on the asparagus, lemon juice. All the grilling was in my stove top grill pan and everything cooked together. The sweet potato was nuked. I'll still get some use out of the microwave! Minimal fuss, muss and clean up. Just the way I like it. And while it did take longer to make than a sandwich, this dinner tasted a lot better too!

So what kind of food lifestyle do you live by?

Guest Blogging on Delilah Devlin's Blog!

Guesting on Delilah Devlin blog: Talking about imagination the final frontier and my new release, ANGEL MOON! http://www.delilahdevlin.com/blog/2010/01/14/shayla-kersten-angel-moon/

ANGEL MOON Cover & Release Date!

ANGEL MOON will be out on January 13! Woo hoo! My first true scifi story, I've blended elements of paranormal. Kind of. In my new galaxy, vampires and angels aren't myths. They're aliens. *cackle* Think gay space cowboys! Hot cover!

ANGEL MOON
By Shayla Kersten
Copyright © SHAYLA KERSTEN, 2010
Coming to Ellora's Cave, January 13!

Terra offers sanctuary to both Angellum and Virkola. Unknown to the humans, a truce exists there. To Terrans, the two species exist as myths. One is a frail, winged creature from religious texts. The other, a demon of the night, living off blood. Both are far from the truth…

Sorin thought sanctuary was the answer to their problems. Terra with its plentiful creatures, full of fresh blood and off limits to the millennia-long war with the Angellum—who wouldn’t think it paradise? Except paradise comes at a high price. Claiming a bounty on a renegade angel hasn’t ended up the way he planned at all.

Teo loves his ship, his life in space, but he loves Sorin more. The plan seemed sound, but the bounty is a fraud and now the price is on him and Sorin. He’ll make the best of the rest of his life with Sorin, even if it’s only for a few weeks.

But when hope appears from an unexpected source, both men grab chance by her wings.

Click here for an excerpt!