The Most Wonderful Night of the Year!!!! And it’s here!!!!!

Makes a girl pretty happy, it does, all the little trick or treaters coming, my Spooky Town is all lit up and running, the ones that have batteries anyway, I have a seriously weird Rabbit….You HAVE to see this rabbit….But first….

Cabal the Pirate Dog!

And my Boss’s Sweet Bunny….

Or not…..

Here’s Mim doing her best impression of Halloween Kitty in front of the Spooky Town. Spooky Town is hard to shoot, I think we will wait and let Miss Kitty shoot it when she comes next, and give it it’s own post….

This being The Most Wonderful Night of the Year, this is only the FIRST post of the day. I’ll do another when I get home from the gig late tonight, after Midnight, Mmmahahahah!!!!!

I want to call out especially to our Lurking Fiends. This, being Halloween, you are very safe, especially here with us. Why not, for this one night, one magic night, de-lurk and be Fiends with us, all together? You may melt back into the Mist tomorrow, but tonight….

Is ours…

Love and Magic,
Lorraine

I have long known that Bengals are highly intelligent creatures, more so than we can know, and that they most likely DO have designs on ruling the world. But I had not suspected the extent which they were utilizing the Internet. Nor did I suspect they followed my blog as closely as they, obviously, are.

I think it is certain to say Venus and Mim HAVE been reading the blog, and are getting a LITTLE but tired about me going on and on about how clever it is of my Leopard to put his toys in his food bowl every morning, after eating his food.

I do not lie. I speak and write only truth. (ok, writers are liars, but I am writing truth now) This was what I found in the Bengals food dish this morning….

I am not alone in being a tad worried now, am I?

Leopard, by the way is fine, and my French Prof used him in the lesson today. It was adjectives, and we wrote a little story on him. Sadly, she did not tell me how to say “He is a fiendish creature of doom and the night” which is how I suspect he sees himself.

I got this today from one of our Fiends, a small bookshop owner in Dublin, Louisa. Lovely about the Boss’s books, but notice what she has done with her Shrunken Heads! We will populate the world with our Shrunken Heads!!!!!

And for some good news…Fiends, Thank You for donating to my “Any Amount, Any CD’s” Bengals Rescue fundraising. Because of you, one of the things that happened this week, with only some of the money you gave, was that a Bengal who needed some heart tests and meds, got them. YOU made this possible. The fund did not have the money. YOU saved this Bengal Kitty.

And that is Something. We can’t save the world. We can’t save all the Bengals or Kitties, or Dogs. But we can do Something. We can make a difference for some of them. And to the ones we help, that is all the difference in the world.

I sent our Giftie Packs to everyone today. I hope. If you donated and do not get something from me within the week, I am sorry I missed you and you must drop me a note, please. UK, and Australia, give it a bit more time. Or if you get your pack and find something not what you wanted, let me know. If you still want to donate, go for it, this will be in effect until at least the end of the year. GREAT stocking stuffers….

Love and Magic,
Lorraine

First things first, since we have been talking about this hair of mine and what to do since last night….Fuchsia, pink, light purple, dark purple and black. What’s not to love??? Once again, I am hampered by my poor camera, so we are mostly relying on Photo Booth tonight. We’ll get some better ones soon, promise!

Like say, at my Gig on Halloween! It occurred to me today driving down that I had NO plans for Halloween! And here it is two days away? What’s up with that? The most wonderful day of the year????? Did some checking. Nope. No gig. Hmmm…

Here’s some of the Hair in process……That was the Rat Nest of my head!

Well, Mineapolis is a small town, what are the odds I would not be welcome somewhere? (especilly with hair this cool???) The odds turned out to be very good, and I am playing at Kierran’s, with Big Johny and Bedlam. Kierran’s is the BEST place to play on Halloween.

Here’s another of the Work in Progress….

When I called Johnny he said OF COURSE I was welcome! Did I have to ask??? I said, somewhat arrogantly “I know THAT! What are we WEARING??? It’s Halloween! The most wonderful night of the year!” (Johnny and I go back 20 some years, we don’t play stages the other isn’t welcome on)

Turns out the band is doing Vampires. Hmmm..Kind of a stretch for me. Something black, flowing and Gothic. With cool hair. And a velvet cloak. May be covered.

I am right happy now. I have great hair, and a gig. Still can’t believe I hadn’t much thought about Halloween!!!!!!!!! Where has my brain been????

Thank you, Fiends, for all of your help deciding this hair today. We did good.

Love and Magic Hair,
Lorraine

It is nearly ten here and I am just getting home from my long hard day at work, and so, I am telling you up front you can hardly expect me to be witty and brilliant, as I usually am…Every word a pearl, wisdom in every sentence…..Nope, none of that tonight.

I am Fodding tired.

I had planed earlier today to do a rant on my garbage people, the ones who come every week and engage in recycling Olympics (we have a really solid team here, nothing glass gets into their trucks without breaking), when I remember to take out the rubbish for them the night before. This morning the came at 4:45am. With lights, and beeps, and crashes, but when I ranted to Woodsman Hans about this and WHY did they feel the need to work those kind of hours, he explained to me, somewhat patiently, that they needed to be off the streets before the traffic got heavy.

(An explanation that might serve better in a town that HAD traffic, but I can see the point)

I did really want to say tho, since yesterdays post on the subject was somewhat whimsical, that I am really proud, and have a LOT of admiration for all of you who are doing NaMoWriMo. Really. That’s 2000 words a day for a month. (better not cut into your online time here, hee-hee!) It is am amazing thing, and make it or not, everyone who tries is going to be further along than they were, as a writer, and that is what is important. Hat’s off and kudos to you, do keep us informed!

Nothing new on Bela Mac Murphy of the Mangos. The toys were in the water dish when I got home, tonight tho, I stayed longer. I scattered the toys a bit further, and brought in two new mousies, and I went to the farthest corner of the room and talked and read. The next goal is for him to come out and eat while I am in the room.

Now, for the serious question of the evening. I have to get my darn hair done tomorrow, a wee trip to the beauty parlour that takes all day and will take longer this time, as I have been putting it off and it is a proper Mare’s Nest back there of knots. I could go rasta with very little trouble.

I have to decide things like, hey, what colour? Or Colours? What length? A Style or just hanging layers of hair? The extensions (Yup, most of this lovely stuff is not at all mine) are RED and have to stay that way. I can’t do the rainbow again as these extensions are real hair, and not faux hair.

I am kind of leaning towards purple, with the red extensions. Or perhaps DARK with the red for Halloween. I can do anything as if I hate it, well, it needs to be re-done again in six weeks anyway.

What should I do?

I will now lay here on the couch and ponder this, the Bengals seem to be of no help, and are more interested in tonight’s allotment of new mousies, but amongst you Fiends, I have hopes for a Plan.

Love and Tired and Hair,
Lorraine

Coming up soon, no idea which day it actually is, but I know it is soon, is November 1st, which marks the Start of NaNoWriMo AND the Dread Snow Parking.

NaNoWriMo is fairly simple as I understand it, just write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Easy. I’d do it myself if I wasn’t REALLY determined to learn French, and make it to my Skype sessions with Nathilie, and get to class every day. Not to forget taming this Leopard.

Dread Snow parking on the other hand…Not So Simple.

First off, it has nothing to do with actual SNOW. Doesn’t matter if there is any, or how much. November 1st to April 1st. I have a driveway, but once there IS snow, I can’t get up it.

I am pretty good with days of the week, mostly, I know which one it is, but the Date, not so easy. And to compound the problem, it isn’t what day it is today when you park, but what the date it is going to be tomorrow. Following me? Didn’t think so.

I did a quick Google to see if I couldn’t find exactly the wording, which was apparently on the Police Department website. When I went there I got a message saying my computer could not find the (insert name) police department server.

Of course. Finally found it at the library website (Am I the only one who thinks there is a lesson in this?)

Here it is, cut and pasted:

“The city imposes special restrictions to facilitate snow removal. From November 1 through April 1, between the hours of 2 a.m. and 7 a.m., motorists must park on the odd-numbered side of the street on odd-numbered calendar days, and on the even-numbered side of the street on even-numbered days. All streets in the city are subject to the odd-even calendar parking restriction. This ordinance modifies areas on city streets where parking is authorized. Areas that restrict/prohibit parking on an ongoing basis are not affected by the calendar ordinance and continue to be restricted as posted.

The easiest way to remember the ordinance is to always park your vehicle for the next day, as enforcement occurs between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m.”

Last year our block finally got wise and simply parked on the side of the street with the Blue Van, as these people seemed to know what was going on, but even so, I get LOT of tickets.

Am thinking of opening an account with the city and simply asking them to bill me once a month, unless someone has a better idea.

Sending out the best to all of you doing NaNoWritMo! Keep us posted, I have nothing but admiration for you all. Just be careful where you park while writing…

Love and Snow and Words,
Lorraine

PS Had the Leopard Currently Known As Bela done anything besides eat , hide and leave toys in his dish, I would have mentioned it…..

Well, now, tonight was much more the thing! I am much happier after tonight show than I was last night. It wasn’t the best show ever, but it was a Paul and Lorraine show with OUR sort of crowd, people there for music and fun, who wanted to be a part of the show.

Amy came down again, which also made me happy, as I thought she got the short end of the stick having last nights show be her first. She brought me the coolest cat toys she had made too, I will let you know if they prove Bengal tough….

I don’t think I am sick, which is also good. I got up early today and went to tend Dog, and after we had been for a bit of a walk said in an excited voice “Guess what we are going to do now?” WHAT, says he????? “We are going back to bed and sleep for another four hours!!!!!!!!!!!” GREAT!!!! He says, how cool is that??I can lie on the floor beside the bed, yes???????

Dogs are so cool with what ever, as long as they are with you.

Rock. Right. A fine show, much fun, made lots of people happy.

In the morning I have lots of people coming over to help me get this Spooky House into some sort of shape again. EVERYTHING is going to be done. It will feel good again by evening. It was funny, Merry housekeeper (one of the people I have bribed) said “Don’t worry we have lots going on Saturday we are going to sleep IN on Sunday we won’t be there early..” Which I thought a fine plan, until she added “We’ll see you at 10:00″

Hmmmmm…Not MY idea of sleeping in….But my house will be clean and I will have a closet.

And onto the Leopard report…

Still hiding, but he is eating all his food, then putting his three toys in the food dish. Marilyn, or my F1 friends, what does this mean exactly? He is doing serious playing in his water dish, with water making into both his wet and dry food dishes, as well as the floor. Tonight I lobbed his piece of steak to him and it didn’t make it, so I reached in to re-lob, and he hissed, but made no move to me, I re-tossed and talked nicely, and left.

I think his name may be Bela. It all seems to fit. Marilyn told me pets will often take on personalities of the names and Bela Fleck is certainly one of the nicest, coolest friendly people I have ever met. And he is in a class of his own, music wise, no one can touch him there. And his latest cd is all over the place with mystery and magic, can’t stop playing it and hear something new every time I do.

And then we have Bela Lugosi, Mr Vampire, which fits with the Spooky House, and there is that great Bauhaus song (”The bats have left the bell tower” certainly fits this Kitty…) And there is something about Hungary this past year that has utterly enchanted me. I am in love with Budapest, need to get there.

So it may well be Bela.

One final thing, before I go off to bed, if you haven’t been keeping up on the comments, I know, no easy task some days, I am doing a promotion, fundraiser for Great Lakes Bengal Rescue. I call it “Any Amount, Any cd’s”

Make a donation via paypal, to donate@greatlakesbengalrescue.com and send me an e-mail telling me what cd’s you want. It really is that easy. I don’t care how much you give, none of us has much these days.. This is a group that is doing amazing work finding homes for Bengals that need them, and we need the help.

Last week, we had to close to taking in fosters as we are full and have no room, we have had to turn away 12 since then. The deal applies if you adopt a Bengal or sign up as a foster home. We need fosters in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky most, but other states as well.

Fostering is a wonderful experience and a great way to get to know Bengals, and I will tell you , there is nothing like the feeling of placing a foster in a home with a family that will love it forever.

CD’s available are, Flash Girls Maurice and I and Wild Queen, Folk Underground, Buried Things and Booty, and Lorraine a Malena, Mirror Mirror. Also Lorraine a Malena Tee shirts.

The offer will be open at least until Xams (GREAT stocking stufers!) Any amount, any cd’s.

Donate. Then tell me. fabulouslorraine@gmail.com

I know well that there is need everywhere, and I can’t save the world, but I really want to do something for this part of it.

Love and magic,
Lorraine

Home now from the gig. It was the sort of gig that had ALL the elements in place to be a really fun night, with some really fun people. Dylan was sitting in, Big Johnny came down , with Karrin and a friend. Aleta, Gayle and Amy came down, Amy for the first time to a show…(Amy, so very glad to meet you!!! Please come back!) Paul and I were ready….Here’s a photo from Gayles phone..

It’s good to dream.

I told my table of Fiends at one point I was going to go home and do a post calling it “My Weird-ass Crowd.”

The first set went long, really long, like two hours. Never caught fire, tho it had moments. I love it when Dylan is there, he adds so much. And I love it when friends are there too. Not sure why it didn’t work, wasn’t the kind of crowd where we do best. Drunken wedding people didn’t help.

I tried to keep the good things together, played some great things, and had some fun, but started playing a game I like to call “Cough Up A Lung” about halfway thru that first set, no idea where that came from, but have a bad feeling I am about to become very ill.

We did play some great things, the U2 always melts me, Johnny sat in for a few songs, always wonderful, Bob Seger’s Turn the Page rocked my world (No, I have no idea why we sometimes do that) but I am just left with a feeling of, well, I wanted it to be MORE.

Thanks to the Fiends for being there! And to Johnny and Karrin and Friend, you came in and the world went beautiful, sorry I had to take off.

Here’s me at the end of the long hard night….

And now for the Leopard Report..

Nothing much has changed, but today I bought him a Mousie I could fill with catnip and a Mousie on the end of a string, with stick. When I got him tonight , both of them, with the string pom pom were ALL in the empty food dish. Is this a good sing? He is gathering his toys I give him?

Love and tierd,
Lorraine

I am going to get a jump on the weekend here, and also give those of you in Minneapolis a heads up about the fun. Tomorrow promises to be rather hectic and by the time I get home, my brain will be mush. (That would be Today, for those of you Fiends reading this with morning coffee and tea. As in Thursday.)

Boss is nipping off to the UK for that part of the Graveyard Tour, (and we will want some inside scoop, as it were from anyone who gets to one of the events.) Boss nipping off means a fair amount of Assistanting, so instead of coming home and posting something like : “Boss Gone Brain Mush Leopard Hiding” I thought we could, one hopes anyway, be interesting tonight.

Paul and I are playing at Charlie’s in Stillwater, MN on Friday and Saturday, 7:30 to 11:30. On Friday night, and maybe Saturday, we will have Dylan Hatch sitting in with us, which always makes for a really, really good show. Dylan is am amazing drummer, and an even more amazing singer, adding harmonies on the fly.

I generally hate people who can add amazing harmonies on the fly because I cannot do it myself, but in this case I am making an exception, even if he is another guy. (A women can work with ONE guy on stage just fine, but when you add more than one, they, I don’t know, LINK or something and trouble comes of it.)

They are worth it tho. Trust me. These guys anyway.

I also hear some Fiends are getting together and coming down, tho I don’t recall which night. Any other lurking Fiends out there,you would be very welcome at this party as well!

Here is some wonderful news that was accompanied by a detailed report of the Jungle Loves first week, complete with pictures…I think I will let them tell the story, they are obviously SO happy.

Happy, aren’t we?

And now for the Leopard Report:

He ate his steak today, and put his toy that I play with in front of him in his empty food dish. He was under his blanket on the ottoman again, and I lifted it, and did not get a feeling we were having a nice game of peek-a-boo, which was re-enforced by the low growl. I gently lobbed a bit of steak at him, and covered him back up, cleaned the boxes and talked a bit and left.

Thanks for all the name ideas, we will figure it out. Or he will tell us.

Time. Lots of time.

Love and Music,
Lorraine

How about, for the merest of moments, I at least start a post with something other than our (yes, “our” you are all in this with me!) as yet un-named Leopard? Won’t last long, but we can give it a go…

There is a new book coming out in a week or so on my Boss, called “Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman” . It is a lovely book, a huge book in fact. When our copies came. I asked Boss “Who knew there was so much to say about you????” But I mention it because there is an entire chapter about me! Who knew? And my essay “A Day In The Life Of A Personal Assistant” is in there, with an interview.

This would mark the first time something I wrote has been published in a proper book! (Thank you, she says, taking bow) I have had things in papers, and magazines and online but this is my first BOOK.

And I am honoured to be in such company. A little celebration is in order, Val, if you would, raise a glass for me tonight.

For myself, I have an entire box of Mango Truffles. Which sounds like fun, but I have already had four over the course of the day, and am not at all certain any more would be a good idea. I know my limits, with chocolate anyway.

They were sent with a request for a favor (which I joke about, and am grateful for, but is truly not needed, always happy to help) and I have no idea who you are or what I promised you, but , these are great. Whatever it is, you can have it.

(Thanks, Erin!!!)

The Dog started Advanced off leash class tonight, and amazingly, did quite well. He has come so far in the 18 months he has been with us. I am proud of him. And of me, I knew NOTHING about Dogs when we started. Our first night in class, Cabal had to go to his own room, as we simply could not control him, way back when.

Ok, The Leopard Report. (I am so getting my own show: Fabulous Lorraine and the Leopard Report..Learn the deep jungle secrets of taming and loving these rare exotic creatures!)

Ok, so we are not ready to sign exactly yet. Not much to say today, he hid and came out and ate while I was gone. I did play a bit with a pom-pom on a string this morning, and when I got home, it was in his empty dish, I dangled it some more, but he didn’t look at me,or if he did, I couldn’t really see him under the ottoman. I gave him more steak and left him alone.

Marilyn has done a lovely post about him over at her new Blog, so nip over and get a professionals opinion on our guy, who may or may not be named Magic or Merlin.Or Dan.

Love and Nice Things,
Lorraine

I have made a wonderful new friend in the past week, and she is such an amazing women that I thought perhaps she deserved her own post. I also wanted to share the Great Ficas Climbing Adventure, so we will do both. (As I type I can hear another Ficas Adventure about to begin, I have GOT to get these guys a tree of their own!)

I have been working with Marilyn Kreiger, from Thecatcoach.com , she is one of the countries leading cat behaveiour experts, and I have been reading her articles in Cat Fancy, and Cat Channel.com for years without knowing it was her. She is also involved in Bengal Rescue and an expert on early generation cats. She has been helping my with The Little Ghost his past week, giving advice and just listening to me talk about him. She is, by the way, a font of information, I have Stories for you!

Marilyn has her own F1, Asia, and sent me some pictures last night as we talked.

There is something about the early generation cats that is very powerful. Marilyn says once you have one in your life, you can never go back. I realize we have gone a little cat crazy on this blog since I got Little Ghost, and I can’t see it stoping anytime soon, (tho there will be some music talk this weekend, that I can promise you! I am feeling the need for some ROCK!!) (She says, slipping into Rock Fod Mode)

Not only is this blog gone Bengal Mad, but Marilyn has just, as in a few days ago, started her own Blog. She only has two posts up, and as she said “I have one comment so far, and that was from my friend!” (I told her it does take time.) She is going to be talking about my Little Ghost, and what we are doing with him, and his progress in making it back to a loving cat, among other Cat Topics. So now there will be TWO sources for Little Ghost progress reports. She has been following things here, so please join me in welcoming her as a Fellow Fiend!

I love having Bengals in my Spooky House. I love everything about them. I love doing rescue work, and I loved saving the Jungle Loves, and look forward to my next fosters. But there is something about this poor scared Leopard that has grabbed my heart like nothing else ever has. In many ways, I think saving him might well be the most important thing I have ever done.

And that is Something.

And I will save him, you know. With the help of Marilyn, and my other new F1 friends (who may well get their own post in due time, there are some amazing people out there, and everyone has been SO good to me!) helping me work thru this. Not to mention a Host of Fiends who are never far away!

Love and Magic,
Lorraine