The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz

[18:24]* KK (~) has joined #deryni_destinations
[18:24]<jojo> Hello KK!
[18:24]<the_Bee> Hello KK!
[18:24]<KK> Hi, guys.  Folks tripped up by daylight savings, it seems.
[18:25]<jojo> something...
[18:26]<jojo> I fear the site being down for over a month is starting to discourage folks....
[18:26]<the_Bee> i missed one or two when I had trouble installing MIRC on my new computer.
[18:27]<jojo> How was your week, KK?
[18:28]<the_Bee> so, KK. any writing, movie or fur-person news?
[18:30]<KK> Hmmm, tax prep for the past two days, but that goes out tomorrow.  It gets easier each year, as I refine my record-keeping procedures.
[18:30]<KK> And I did get some writing done.
[18:30]<jojo> :)
[18:32]<KK> And I nearly went a week early to Charlottesville for my item for Virginia Festival of the Book.  We were ready to wealk out the door when I looked more closely at my stack of written material and--whoops!  Better then, though, that to arrive and find it not yet happening.
[18:33]<the_Bee> That would have been embarrassing!
[18:33]<KK> It would have been extremely annoying!
[18:34]<KK> Oh, and after Booker broke through the electric fence several times, I took his collar over to the Invisible Fence folk (he needed a bigger collar anyway) and had them turn up the power.  So I <think> he will now stay in the yard.
[18:34]<jojo> Bee had a rainy week.. we're having a lovely spring weekend in SE Tex.
[18:35]<the_Bee> only rainy for the weekend.
[18:35]<jojo> How is spring progressing in your area?
[18:35]<the_Bee> i had a brief glimpse of a robin.
[18:35]<KK> Unless, of course, there's something <really> interesting on the other side--like a skunk, maybe.  I am <not> looking forward to his first skunk encounter.  They're already barking at deer.
[18:36]<jojo> Time to stock up on tomato juice??
[18:36]<KK> Spring is here, though we, too, had rain.  And we thought we'd lost all our fish, but it appears that at least half survived, of the 30-40 we had.  We lost a big bullfrog that we didn't know we had; fished his semi-frozen body out of the depths of the pond.
[18:37]<the_Bee> I saw a skunk in my back yard once.  I just hope none of the neighborhood dogs meet it.
[18:38]<the_Bee> I heard a recipe for skunk-cure.  it involved vinegar, baking soda and detergent.
[18:38]* Icarus looks up in surprise, and realizes that he's about to miss Katherine!
[18:38]<Icarus> Hello there, Katherine!  It's good to get to see you!
[18:38]<KK> Scott saw a really big one making its way across our hard, heading toward town last summer--and saw it again, farther down the street, where it apparently lives.  Hope it stays there.
[18:38]<the_Bee> welcome back, Icarus!
[18:39]<KK> Hello, Icarus!
[18:39]<jojo> Howdy, Icarus
[18:39]<Icarus> Hey there, Jojo!
[18:39]<Icarus> I haven't been home on a Sunday in, like, three months.  It's great to get to be here.
[18:40]<KK> BRB
[18:41]<jojo> Hope you've enjoyed our spring weather.
[18:41]<Icarus> It's been absolutely beautiful, to be honest.
[18:42]<jojo> How are the azaleas?
[18:43]<Icarus> I can't say that I have seen any in my neighborhood.
[18:43]<KK> I'm back.
[18:44]<jojo> Here either... but lots of pear trees and redbuds.
[18:44]<Icarus> I wish my neighborhood had such things.
[18:45]<the_Bee> Is spring springing your way yet, KK?
[18:45]<jojo> bee had a robin, and KK had fish that survived the cold!
[18:45]<Icarus> We do have a Mockingbird in our courtyard, though, and that's a beautiful song to listen to early in the mornings when I walk outside.
[18:46]<jojo> I have a family of cardinals that have returned for the third year ; nesting outside my bedroom.
[18:46]<KK> We have some kind of bird that sort of goes "Choo, choo, choo, choo."  It might be a cardinal.  Always does the call 4 times.  Lots of birds have been out in the past week.
[18:47]<KK> Squirrels are also very active.
[18:47]<KK> Nothing blooming yet, but the weight of the snow certainly broke down a lot of shrubbery.
[18:48]<Icarus> Jojo ... wow.  the cardinal is one of my favorite birds.   I love birds, wings, and flight ... in fact, I have about twelve beautiful birds tattoed across my right shoulder in full colour, and the Cardinal is one of them.
[18:49]<the_Bee> KK, does the bird sing a lot of othernotes before the choo choo choo?
[18:49]<KK> No, just repeats that call, over and over, always in groups of 4.
[18:50]<the_Bee> I heard a bird sing a long strain ending in cheer cheer cheer.  My brother the bird-watcher ID-ed it as a cardinal.
[18:51]<jojo> perhaps a quail?
[18:51]<the_Bee> Have you seen it and is it red?
[18:53]<jojo> or female.. she's rusty brown.  And it flies close to the ground.
[18:53]<jojo> Lots of mourning doves in Houston... do you hear any where you are Icarus?
[18:55]<Icarus> Not often.  I see them when I go anywhere though.
[18:56]<jojo> KK & Bee.. we have lots of robins that winter in our area.
[18:57]<KK> I know we do have several pairs of cardinals, but it's hard to know who's sining what song.  It isn't a quail.  And it isn't a mockingbird, though we do have those.
[18:57]<the_Bee> When I was a child I used to see flickers, scarlet tanager and sometime cardinals.
[18:57]<KK> singing what song.  I don't think birds sin.
[18:57]<jojo> Used to be a joke that the animal lovers here should provide them booties!
[18:58]<KK> We have lots of little sparrowy birds, too, of several sorts.
[18:58]<Icarus> Katherine ... really?  you have mockingbirds?  They have a lovely song, and they are the State Bird of Texas, but I hadn't thought them too common in many other places.
[18:58]<the_Bee> and pigeons.
[18:58]<jojo> M. doves go choo CHOO chooo chooo chooooo in a mournful tone.
[18:59]<jojo> Mockingbirds to a fairly good imitation of cardinals, if they are in the same area.
[18:59]<KK> Mockingbirds are the state bird of Florida, where I grew up, and we had LOTS of them.  So I know their song.
[19:00]<jojo> do a fairly good...
[19:00]<Icarus> Hm ... I never paused to consider they'd be the state bird of more than one place!
[19:02]<jojo> kk, I hope the Virginia event goes well
[19:04]<KK> I'm sure it will.  I did this gig last year, and it was good fun.  A panel with two other authors plus moderator, with free dinner to follow.  Oh, and I'm being interviewed for a public access station in the northeast, which will also put it on line.
[19:04]<the_Bee> let us know what station.
[19:04]<KK> Will do.
[19:08]<KK> Well, I'd better shut down.  Hungry guys, and a chicken to strip, leftover from last night.  Costco makes the best rotisserie chickens around--always big and plump and moist.
[19:09]<jojo> Bon Appetit - and have a great week, all!
[19:09]<the_Bee> nighters and have a good week, KK
[19:09]* KK steps onto her Portal, waves goodnight, and disappears in a shower of green sparkles.
[19:10]* KK has quit (Quit: )