Peeking into the rock

I stayed home today because I was feverish and achy in the morning. I called to bargain for more time, so I could come in later, but my coworker and my boss both told me to stay home, so I did. I thought I might clean house as it was obvious I would feel better as the day went on.

Instead: I wrote a thousand words or so each in two romantic "comedies" (everybody always thinks I'm writing High Angst when I write comedy, what gives with that?) -- the one about the guy who's looking for his Prince and the one about the botanist and his brother-in-law -- and the not-Poland story, and had a long conversation with Frank online about smeerps vs. moss-trolls (calling everything, even the most mundane things, by new names as a shortcut to an exotic setting, vs. the consequences of bringing in counterfactual things to the story). I did not solve the problem of what to do about not-Church in not-Poland, but I did get some clues. Frank keeps thinking I am doing not-Poland in the actual middle ages, but I am doing not-Poland in about 1900. Many things do not look much different. Also, I realized that I really am going to have a pattern, in which the first section of a chapter proceeds along a timeline, while the last bit flashes back to all that stuff I already wrote, and later to other things, in whatever order is relevant for the story.

This means that I am not as much in control of not-Poland as I would like to be. I like to know everything that happens before I write (and then discover I am mostly wrong, but you know), and this time there's much more than I like that I don't know. There. a sentence I could never say in Czech or even in Spanish.

Thanks to personhead dd_b and personhead randwolf, I am now making progress in learning photoshop and illustrator.

Illustrator is the cat's meow. Due to its marvellous programming, I can draw with the mouse more smoothly than I can with a pencil. I spent a long time doing calligraphic alphabets for experimenting purposes, with both programs open, and it was really really nice. Personhead diminshedsheep, thank you for doing the legwork, and don't forget to rock out with those programs too. I think I want to uninstall the forty-eleven other programs that adobe wished on me, though.

Last thought before bed: yesterday Zack found a lump on Truffle. It was the size and shape of the one we removed a bit over a year ago. I made an appointment to have her looked at. I was sure it was the same malignant cancer, and didn't know how I would handle it this time because of the trip and the fact that I had sworn not to put her through multiple surgeries.

Today, while I was bathing her (belatedly, she had already tracked foul mud everywhere), I discovered there was no lump at all. And she was tender yesterday and not today.

So, dodged a bullet, so to speak.

Locals: there's going to be a meeting on March 21 to talk about tsunami preparedness. It was already scheduled, because that week is Tsunami Awareness Week in California. Just one of the many trifles that Republicans don't think we should be spending money on.

Why did spellcheck remove all my tags so I have to tag all over again?