The Best Laid Plans...

Today was mostly a "deal with the foster kittens" type of day, but at least I got some writing done at the weekly Crepeville meetup with my Wednesday writing buddies.

Update on the Articulated Skeleton Thing From Yesterday

Maria and I both found this wiktionary entry that claims that paleontologists use "articulated skeleton" to mean "a fossil skeleton found all in one piece with the bones still arranged in the proper order." So I guess it sort of makes sense in the context of the book. (Not really, though, because they know the bones were moved after all the soft tissue had disappeared, so I don't know how they would have been transferred without everything getting rearranged. But at least I'm not imagining bones wired together.)

News on the Mysterious Murders Contest

My story made the short list! Final winners will be announced on Dec 20th. I'm amazed to have gotten so far.

Foster Kitten Stuff

This is where you should just imagine me looking like that guy from The Scream by Edvard Munch. Four of the five kittens in The Snack Pack have had horrible diarrhea for the last week and a half. They were supposed to go back to the shelter for surgery and adoption next Wednesday, but now they've been bumped at least another week.

Meanwhile, all six of The Vampires were supposed to also be going back for surgery and adoption next Wednesday, but two got bumped to the future because they're still a little congested and they're just barely big enough.

So I thought I was sending off all eleven kittens next week, but instead only four will be going. Yes, four is better than none, but things will get tricky if I still have fosters at Christmas because I'll be traveling. (It's not a real problem for me — the shelter will find a vacation foster — but I'd hoped to avoid the problem.)

Obligatory Kitten Photo

Cool Ranch found a great place to hang out this morning — on the headrest of my office chair. He looked extremely comfortable.

Suspension of Disbelief

Stirring

Last Thursday (Thanksgiving), I had intended to make this fancy mac & cheese (French Onion Soup Mac and Cheese), but by the time I'd finished the 10k and come home and cleaned up, I didn't have 2 1/2 hours before I needed to get in my car. So I just brought the vegetarian gravy I'd already made, and that was fine because there was already too much food.

Today I finally got around to making the fancy mac and cheese. (Meh. It was fine, and my kitchen smells divine, but I feel like the cheese overpowered the caramelized onions that I spent over an hour stirring so I wouldn't bother making it again.)

While I was stirring onions and bechamel, I listened to the first couple hours of The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths. It's a British police procedural (-ish, because the main character is actually an archeologist but she has a child with a detective chief inspector and POV changes to him in some chapters). The characters are interesting — I haven't really gotten far enough to find out if the mystery part holds up overall.

Suspension Failure

Here's the start of it: a body is found behind a wall in a very old building. Multiple times, the remains are referred to as an "articulated skeleton". We know there's no soft tissue because the archeologist can clearly see a surgical plate on one of the bones. (I'm not entirely sure why the archeologist is getting it out from the space behind the wall instead of the police, but we'll pretend that makes sense because otherwise our main character doesn't have a reason to get involved.)

Here's the problem: an articulated skeleton is a set of bones held in place by pins and wires to approximate the location of the bones in a living body. But as far as I can tell, there are no pins or wires on the skeleton removed from behind this wall. Unless I've missed something, the author is picturing a skeleton that hasn't fallen apart. But if the soft tissues are gone, there's nothing to hold it together.

I really feel like I must have missed something somewhere. Or maybe there's another meaning of "articulated skeleton" that I haven't been able to find?

This book is traditionally published. (I wouldn't have named the title and author if it hadn't been.) There had to have been multiple editors — familiar with the genre — who looked at this. How did nobody stop and say, "hey, that's not what an articulated skeleton is"?

So now I'm thinking more about how this skeleton is held together (a trivial thing that has no bearing on the mystery) than the actual plot of the book. My suspension of disbelief is dragging on the ground.

Ugh. I still feel like I must be missing something.

Obligatory Cat Picture

This is Akasha, mother of vampires. Or at least, mother of the six kittens in my spare room who are named after vampires. The kittens are weaned and Akasha kept trying to get out, so she went back to the shelter today so she can be spayed and adopted.

She's a super sweet cat. Hopefully she'll find a good home soon!

Welcome Back!

Oh hey, it's December already. That means it's time for Holidailies, the daily blog challenge!

Quick introduction

Hi! I'm Theresa. I write SF/F books as T.M. Baumgartner and cozy mysteries as Tess Baytree, but much of my time and energy goes toward fostering kittens for the Yolo County Animal Services Shelter.

My current (10+ year) knitting project is The Dragon Who Has Seen Some Stuff — so far I've finished the wings, which are not even approaching identical. If I ever finish it, this thing will have loads of character, which is the polite way of saying I can't be bothered to go back and fix mistakes.

10k Turkey Trot 2025

A few months ago, I decided signing up for my town's Turkey Trot would be a good idea despite being in my 50s and not having run for at least five years. I had to modify my training schedule from three times weekly to twice in order to keep my knees and shins happy, but I finished the 10k last Thursday with a blistering pace of 14:06 minutes/mile. And I didn't come in last place, though I'm pretty sure everyone who finished after me was walking.

What to expect for Holidailies 2025

That's a really good question. About a week ago, I decided I should come up with a list of topics so I wasn't desperately casting about for something at 11:30pm every night in December, but there was zero follow through, so... Expect kitten pictures, random anecdotes, and probably some feedback on my attempts to learn Affinity.

(Affinity 3 just came out. I've been using Affinity 2 for the typography on my covers, but going back to GIMP when I need to manipulate the image. Will Affinity 3 inspire me to do everything in one place? We shall see.)

Kitten picture of the day

This is Cool Ranch, one of the Snack Pack litter. He has discovered the best way to get through a gloomy December morning.