In Pursuit of Mysteries

Tick…tock…tick…tock

Well, four days to go…It's midnight on Tuesday and I will be married
Saturday morning.

If anyone plans on kidnapping me, I think your window of opportunity to put
me on a pirate ship is closing. Take me while you can.

I'm still surprised by the number of people, including family, who didn't
RSVP. Yeah, I know, putting a pre-formatted reply with two blank check boxes
into a self-addressed stamped envelope is pretty fucking hard, isn't it? <sigh>
At this point, I assume that people who didn't RSVP just aren't bothering to
show up. If they do, they sit in the back, so there, and they better bring us
something either cool or containing alcohol.

We're still waiting to hear back from the jewelers with the rings. They know
the deadline is Thursday and they made special notes (I saw them) about it so
this isn't unexpected.

My non-tumerous cat has become worrisome in his weight loss over the last two
quarters so I'm going to take him into the vet this week to see if he needs
thyroid medicine, a different diet, or if he's just a gaunt, old man. I'll be
very happy if I come back from Italy without a mound in the backyard and a
missing cat. That reminds me that I should leave access to money to my ex-wife,
who is watching the cats, in case one of them should expire so she can dispose
of the remains. There's a happy thought, eh? It isn't like she can call me in
Florence and tell me the sad tidings if something does happen.

I haven't gotten the other one x-rayed yet because I realize that if they did
it now and I then I waited a month for the surgery, that the cancer might spread
in that month. It's a shitting time to try to put her in for surgery now so I'm
going to have to wait until we come back.

I get the feeling that I'll have one cat and one ferret by this time next
year though. We'll see.

On a different note, I finished the fourth (and "last") of Gene Wolfe's
Book of the New Sun this evening. That leaves me the single volume, Urth
of the New Sun, followed by the four volume, Book of the Long Sun, to
read still. I can then close with the three volume, Book of the Short Sun,
as a finisher. Perhaps I should just go re-read the Dune series.

As with R, I've been collecting a short but thick set of books to take with
us to Italy. Since we have to carry anything we have for 16 days, the
requirements are:

• You have to be a paperback.
• You should really be a mass-market paperback (this shorter and
  less wide).
• You should be at least 400 pages long so I can love you for a while.
• You should be cheap and used so when I am done with you, like an
  ex-from-hell, I can toss you aside and not feel bad about it. Otherwise, I
  have to carry you forever on my back (like the previous mentioned figure).

So far, I'm carrying C.S. Friedman's In Conquest Born and Stephen
Baxter's Timeships. Hardly the poster children of high brow fiction but
they'll do. I might add some Gene Wolfe in except he tends to write thinner
novels and the collected volumes of two tend to be trade paperbacks. I was going
to ascend Mt. Stephenson again but, alas, only Quicksilver (which I have
read) is in paperback and there is no fucking way I'm carrying a 900+ page
hardcover on my back for two weeks in Italy.

Nuit and Mom

I see that my mother’s article on Nuit for The Scarlet Letter is available online now.

http://www.scarletwoman.org/scarletletter/v7n2/v7n2_nuit.html.

As some of you know, my mother spoke on Nuit at Notocon, the OTO national convention, last year, as well as doing a version of that presentation here in Seattle last fall. She’s also written a ritual, The Vespers of Nuit, that a number of people and groups have begun performing from time to time over the last year or two.

Nuit is her bag and I encourage interested parties to read her article.

Doings of the Day

Today
was my day to visit the inmates at McNeil Island and to lead them on their
voyage of self-discovery in the joys of Wicca and the arms of the Goddess.
Actually, since certain troublemakers got the boot to other facilities, the
dynamic of the group has continued to be friendly and easy going. I like the
guys, for the most part. For a bunch of criminals, they are a generally sane
bunch and are very intent on improving their lives. In many ways, they are truer
believes that many of the pagans that I know as the inmates are much better
focused a lot of the time.

We're also preparing for their annual feast (think Christmas equivilant),
which is done for Samhain. We're doing it on October 30 this year. I'll be going
out for my normal visit a week before and then I'll follow it up on the 30th
with Samhain ritual work with them in the morning. I'll hang out until the late
afternoon, when family and guests will arrive for the dinner feast. Monk might
even be in town from Kuwait and I know the guys would love to see him at the
feast if not the week before.

After I got back in the early afternoon, R and I went over to Rubylou's place
for Olivia's first birthday party. See picture to right of me being distracted
from taunting the little bug. She's a sweet kid and obviously was having a good
time. She really likes her new musical toys as well!!

When R and I finally got home, I took a nap for a while (I'd been up about 12
hours at that point). She went out after a while to meet friends for her
batchelorette party. I'd decided not to do a bachelor party for myself (too many
things during the day and a lack of desire, really) but R convinced me to drop
by the Vogue around 10:00 or so and meet up with her and her friends. This I did
after watching Snake Blisken on TV for a while and many drinks were had by all.
We got to hang out with our friends who, amazingly, all turned into pumpkins
before us. We were the last to leave with many begging off with the
"explanation" that they were the mass team for the Gnostic Mass tomorrow and
couldn't be out late. Bah!

Tomorrow is house-cleaning day since we have a bajillion freakin' people in
our house at the end of the week. We're doing the rehearsal dinner at the house
Friday night and the wedding is Saturday. My mom and Bill arrive on Thursday
night and will be staying with us as well. My brother and his new wife will be
staying with my grandparents (y'all knew I had a brother, right?). Along with
this, I'll be picking Sam up at
the airport on Friday and taking care of him since he's doing our wedding and
all. Everyone leaves Sunday except for Mom and Bill, who leave Monday afternoon.
Monday morning, R and I will get up, drop the ferret off at the Vet for storage
(they do a kennel thing) and then taking the shuttle to the airport to fly to
Milan!

Busy times, indeed. I know that I should be excited about the wedding and I
am but I just have visions of hordes of fucking people in my house. <sigh>