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So I was minding the store today, minding my own business as it were, and it was a fairly uneventful day. A few customers, but since it was raining non-stop all day, there wasn’t much foot traffic in downtown Pine. So I took the opportunity to work on part of a painting that someone commissioned recently, and was making some good progress. Around 3 or maybe 3:30, Perry came over to let me know that he was closing up for the weekend, and whether I knew whose dog a little dog following him was. Nope. Never seen it. No customers or customers’ cars in sight. No idea. He says it just walked up the road, came right towards his store and inside. It followed him right over to my store and inside, too. Browsed for the rest of the afternoon, but didn’t buy anything. I think he was like most of the people who stopped by today, just trying to get out of the rain.

No one came by (or drove by looking like they were) looking for a dog, and when I closed up shop I got the little guy to follow me over to the grandparents’ cabin to see what they thought we should do with him, whether send him back out onto the highway or tie him up or what. He tried barking at the cats, but we wouldn’t allow that, and he ate all the cat food, and he sure was someone’s pet, since he has a collar (no tag, pretty beat-up collar, actually) and thinks it’s okay to sit on chairs. We decided we couldn’t leave him down with my grandparents because of the cats, so he’s up here with me now. My room (my life) is simply not equipped to deal with pets, but after a bit of whining I figured out he needed to pee and took care of that, then that he was thirsty and brought him some water. Now he’s sleeping peaceful-like in the handy-dandy I-never-sit-in-this-chair-so-you’re-welcome-to chair (with a uhaul blanket over it). I sure hope he doesn’t think he wants to get up early in the morning. I certainly don’t.

Anyway, I took a couple of shots of him to send down to Phoenix tomorrow so my dad can make up a ‘found dog’ sign for us to post at the Post Office, though it is highly suspected that this 3 or 4 month old pit bull (am I even spelling that right? Does it have a silent ‘q’ or an extra ‘i’?) was simply let out of the car by tourists who didn’t want him anymore. About the right age to have been someone’s brand new puppy on christmas morning, I suspect. I also hear that this breed likes to eat children. So, maybe I’ll keep him around.

I’ve never liked dogs before, but if I can teach this one to climb trees, maybe he’ll trim them for me.

So, for unspecified reasons, the first book reviewed by the Modern Evil Virtual Book Club (MEVBC) will be Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. At least three members of MEVBC have already read it, but we’re going to give the rest of you … one week to read it before we have our VBC meeting. The Virtual meeting will take place in MSN Messenger, though we will consider other means in the future. Also, because I don’t know everyone’s availability, I’m going to say that we’ll meet online sometime next weekend: Either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Probably in the evening. Potential MEVBC members, let me know what day/time you think is best. If you don’t, you may miss out.

Oh, and the second book, for those of you who want to get a head start, will be Isaac Asimov’s The Foundation Trilogy. Probably we’ll meet about that one in a couple or three weeks. From there, it’ll be books from the SF book list mentioned before, selected by the MEVBC members. Moo.

Look at that! The front page of Modern Evil has every color link on the right but Purple. It almost makes me want to find something to review. Maybe I should write that review of Bringing Down the House with my imagined mystery ending I was threatening to make. Or review … Ooh! I know what!

There’s something strange when I’m even late for movies in my dreams. For some reason last night/this morning I found myself dreaming of going to the movies. Except I was going to see Equilibrium again. Except I knew it should have been long out of theatres, and didn’t do particularly well when it was in theatres. And I was late, and things kept getting in my way but then … not, like, there were huge lines of people at the box office, but then I noticed a special line for people who wanted to see Equilibrium. And then the young woman taking tickets stopped me and I had been in such a hurry at the box office that I must have put the ticket someplace in my wallet… but couldn’t find it… but she knew me really well from having been to the theatre so many times and let me by after just a bit. It was weird.

I mean, I really liked that movie and would like to own it on DVD someday, but … what was that about? Was it about the trouble I had seeing movies on Monday night? Was it about overcoming superficial obstacles to get to the things in life I really enjoy? And what’s the deal with meeting a great person who lives in Canada? I’m nowhere near Canada. Gha.

I should probably be sleeping now, but I feel like posting something so you don’t all think I’ve fallen off the edge of the world. I’m still in Phoenix, but I’ll be going home tomorrow (Wednesday). Everyone else in this house has been asleep for hours. I haven’t checked my email since Monday morning. Shouldn’t be too bad, but here’s your explanation for my not responding. Anyway, a post.

I’ve begun learning Japanese again. My younger brother Heath will be trying to learn along with me, so that should help. I have some basic software and some basic books, but I’ve recently added a whole slew of books for learning Japanese on my Amazon.com wishlist. Except I added them in the order I need to get them to learn in, so they’re on my list backwards now.

(* Dangit. One of the cats here is walking around with a dead mouse or something dead like a mouse in its mouth, making noise. I don’t know what to do about that, exactly. I don’t know what the protocols are here for dead mouse disposal. Or even how to get it out of the cat’s mouth so she doesn’t try to take it to someone who’s sleeping. … Yargh. Now that I’ve tried to take the mouse from the cat, I see it isn’t quite dead yet. Graarghh. What’s the procedure for that here? … Okay, now she’s played with it to death, but continues playing with it as though it were tying to get away by tossing it away from her then running after it. What a silly animal. I guess dead mice are just as much fun as living ones for this cat. *)

Anyway, I’ve learned the Hiragana and I’m about to start on the Katakana, but I need to get some books on the Kanji. I have a Japanese 101 book and that basic software to get me started on actually recognizing some words and being able to speak them and put together sentences, but I’d also like to be able to read and write in Japanese, and to do so at intermediate and advanced levels. That could be a long time coming, depending on how much time I can devote to it, but unless my art starts selling or I figure out some other way to earn money, I don’t know how I could afford to buy the books I need.

Maybe I’m looking at it wrong, though. Each book (for most of them) isn’t too much money, and will take me a while to get through thoroughly, and could then be shared (for most books) with my brother. So maybe I’ll be able to afford it slowly. It’s only so much money when I add it all together. Much cheaper than paying for classes. Probably when I feel more confident with my progress I’ll order a japanese keyboard for my Mac and start a Japanese blog. Figure out how to program web pages in Japanese. That will certainly be a valuable skill. You know, since I never want to do Web Design ‘professionally’.

I’m going to bed. Or… well, the cat has stopped playing with the mouse. Actually, I can’t see where it left the mouse, the cat is just harrassing me now. I’m going to try to find and dispose of the mouse and then go to sleep. Grr. Arg.