Rust, Rats, and a Reminder

I'm probably the only person in the country who seriously DOESN'T want a new car. I don't like switching cars and tend to drive mine until they're on the verge of death. My last car was 2 years old when I bought it, and 18 when I sold it (poor Merrie Grace couldn't manage the hills around here any more, but I sold her to people who lived in a flatter part of the state and just needed a second car for the wife). The car I have now, a Mazda Protege that I love, was 2 when I got it and is 12 now. And the car stills runs great, so I'd hoped to keep it for another couple of years. But then there is this:

 Rust--the scourge of New York State. It is caused by the salt they put on the roads to deal with the ice during the winter, and it eats away at cars like nothing else. Bah. There's quite a nice breeze through the bottom of that door, and the other side doesn't look much better.

My plan had been to replace the car before winter, but I've run into a snag: there are very few decent used cars available (due to the crappy economy and living in a small area with limited options to begin with and a bunch of people who can't afford to replace their cars until they're in the same state mine is in) and the few that are out there that are on my "list" [Mazda 3, Honda Civic or Fit, Nissan Versa...but only some years, Ford Focus, ditto, and the Hyundai Elantra] are priced almost as high as the new cars.

So I broke down yesterday and actually test drove a new Honda Fit. It was quite nice, actually, but I can't deal with the thought of paying full price for a new car (nor, honestly, can I afford to). At the moment, it looks like I'm going to try and get through another winter with my trusty rusty Mazda and hope for better results in the spring. But it is kind of discouraging.

As is the fact that I heard a noise in the walls a couple of weeks ago, so I put the rat traps out in the basement again. I checked them every day for a week, and nothing, so I figured it was a mouse. Went down last night to pick them up, and out of the four I put out, one had a dead mouse (sorry buddy), one was empty, and one had a rat in it. DAMMIT. So now I'm back to putting down traps and checking them daily, and hoping that lone rat was somehow one that just wandered in by mistake, no relation to the outbreak I had earlier in the year. (On the bright side, I haven't heard any more noises.]

What's that? Oh, you caught that, did you. Yes, I put down four traps and only told you about three. Why? Because the fourth one DISAPPEARED. Yes, you heard me. It's just GONE. VANISHED. I checked the entire basement, and I can't find it. So now I have visions of some rat with a trap on its tail, dragging the thing back off into the walls. Seriously, no clue. And it is freaking me out a little.

On a more positive note, my last (sniffle) online class, the "Crystals & Gemstones" workshop that runs Monday 23-25 is filling up fast, which makes me happy. I just finished writing it up, and I think it is going to be a lot of fun. I've got mixed feelings about giving up the classes, but I just don't have time for them now that the writing career is taking off. Don't forget to sign up soon if you wanted to take the class. Class registration
You can also still sign up for the ongoing Sabbats class if you missed it. We only have the last three Sabbats of the year to go, but all the info for the first 5 is still available, including rituals, recipes and more.

So, you have any interesting "R" words going on in your life this week?

Feline Friday: The General Update Version

Is it just me, or is spring/early summer a crazy time? I feel like I'm racing around like a crazy person (no comments from the peanut gallery) trying to get everything done. Of course, dealing with the Year of the Rat in the middle of everything else didn't help...

So--here's a general update on what I've been up to:

Rats! -- I think I've gotten all the little devils. Fourteen in total. (Even the pest guy said, "Wow, that's a lot of rats." Seriously...you don't want to impress the pest guy.) It has been over a week since I caught the last one, and I'm not hearing anything in the walls anymore. Whew. As a bonus, two not-very-bright mice came out of the walls a couple of days ago and were summarily dispatched by the cats. (Who were clearly trying to prove that it wasn't their fault that the rats had only come out into places that the cats aren't allowed to go.)

Today, the appliance repair guy comes to replace the chewed-through hoses on the washer and the dishwasher (ka-ching!), so I will be back in business there. Sometime next week, the pest guy will come back to clean the disgusting mess the rats made of the basement (those suckers poop everywhere). More ka-ching, but he can do it safely and I can't, so there you go.

Once THAT'S done, one of my handyman pals will come over and patch all the holes in the walls of the basement (some of which are so large, you can see daylight through them...thanks again, RATS) and generally try to spiff the place up a bit. (Ka--oh, nevermind. You see where I'm going with this. The damn rats are costing me a lot of money.) After that, or maybe during, I'm going to have my electrician put much better lighting down there, so the next time there is a problem, I will hopefully spot it earlier. Also, it will be a little less spooky....

Jewelry -- It's spring, so I am in the midst of a spurt of jewelry making, trying to round out my existing stock at The Artisans' Guild with brighter seasonal colors (like rose quartz and aventurine) and fill in the gaps in everything else (how did I end up only having ONE pair of lapis earrings?). In theory, I'd planned to finish this before I started work on the next book. In reality, life interfered (see rats, above) and so I will probably finish up this weekend. What, you thought I was going to be relaxing?

I've pretty much given up on the Etsy site, mostly because I just don't have time to keep updating it, but if you ever want a piece of jewelry [I'm looking at you, Lisa Shearin], just let me know and I'll see what I've got.

Writing -- I'm waiting for my lovely new editor at Berkley, Leis Pedersen, to get back to me with edits for The Baba Yaga (gulp). I just went through and reread it prior to starting on the 2nd book in the series, and the good news is that it was even better than I remembered. The bad news is...it was even better than I remembered. (GULP) Now I have to equal or exceed that quality in the next one. Oy. If you look at the word count meter at the top of the blog, you can see that I have started working on The Baba Yaga's Sister. It's going slower than I'd like (see rats and jewelry, above), but the beginning of new books almost always is slow going for me.

I'm also getting ready to teach another couple of classes, and madly trying to get the garden in the ground in between torrential rainstorms.

What are you all up to these days?

And as promised, here are this week's cute cat pics. You're welcome :-)

Oh, and a belated happy birthday to my pal Sierra Meinster, who as usual, is giving me an invaluable assist with research for the new book. She rocks.

Samhain and Mystic on the couch. You can really see the difference between their sizes here (and why it is so rude that he is usually trying to beat the crap out of her for no particular reason). Every once in a while I will find them sitting on the couch next to each other. Samhain is seemingly relaxed, but she always has one eye open. On the other hand, she is stubborn, so she also doesn't budge...

This is Angus, shot over my shoulder the other day while I sat in the Red Chair of Writing. Clearly, he was taking his job of supervising my work very seriously. (Cats are the only creatures on earth who can supervise with their eyes closed, you know.)

I hope you all have great plans for the Memorial Day weekend (if you live in the US), and that you aren't feeling too crazy trying to keep up with life.