Life has been really hard around here this past week or so, mostly because of beautiful little animals dying. I've managed to work on the new novel in fits and starts, so that's a good thing, I guess. But this morning, I went for my 3 mile walk and everything was feeling beautiful again, so I guess all are finding their right places in animal heaven and we are moving on.

I am hoping to get to the Hunter S. Thompson documentary on Wednesday afternoon. When I first heard it was coming out, I didn't think I could handle it. Everything I'd seen about Hunter since his death just made him seem like a drug-crazed lunatic who shot himself. Well, okay, yes, I knew he was a drug-crazed lunatic but I never thought that was all he was...

However, the reviews for the documentary have been so stellar that I changed my mind and decided to go. Actually, I decided I'd be crazy not to go. So, assuming my cousin's ear infection is no more by Wednesday, or is at least tolerable (for her, not me; I'm finding her ear infection remarkably easy to tolerate), then off we will go to the cinema. I can't wait. (I haven't been to see a movie since Scorsese's Shine A Light documentary on the Rolling Stones -- and what a fine time that was! Wow. In fact, I was with the same cousin; my faithful movie-going companion here in Happyland, Ohio.)

And -- yes! -- in case you were wondering: I am still dating! Although she has asked me not to publicly blame her for any weight gain on my part. Well, okay; I won't. And yet... she has very good taste in red wine and makes it so readily available. Plus, she is the only other person I know of who, like moi, always seems to have Blue Diamond Smokehouse Almonds at the ready. I love those fucking things and cannot stop eating them if they are anywhere in my field of vision. (Perhaps I am always secretly wishing I were on a plane flying off to somewhere -- remember how they always used to serve tiny packs of Blue Diamond Smokehouse Almonds on airplanes, making you just crave more of them and getting you so fucking thirsty?) (BTW, it has been pointed out recently that I talk like a sailor. Who'd a thunk that? What, with all my many pretty sun dresses and pairs of espadrilles...?)

Anyway, okay, I take full responsibility for any weight gain. No one is holding a gun to my head and forcing me to drink the wine, eat the almonds, pop the brie en croute into the oven, or go out to dinner all the fucking time...

So, that's life in a smokehouse-nutshell. Work on the new novel progresses, though not as speedily as I would prefer; mom recovers nicely from still more surgery; I still have two groundhogs who are in good health, a rabbit, 2 chipmunks, a zillion squirrels and a trillion birds, and -- as always -- more spiders than you can shake a stick at. The all-out war continues between me and the many Japanese beetles who are forever attacking my roses. And I'm dating someone who is almost as crazy as I am.

Life is good, gang. Hope all is copacetic wherever you are. Thanks for visiting!