I realized I never got around to posting about my vacation last week

I'll have to go in to more detail later but had to post this story.

I went out with Sandi on Wednesday, just as we planned and we hit the outlet mall to baby shop for girl clothes for Leah. That was a lot of fun and I spent a lot of money, but everything I got WAS on sale or on clearance. Sandi had a ball picking out outfits too.

You all remember me mentioning a few months ago how I fell in love with that half Siamese cat at the pet store and wanted to bring him home. But I missed out because someone adopted him while I was out of town. Well ever since then I've been itching to get another cat, even though I know I don't need another one. Well as I was leaving Sandi's last week I told her I was going to stop at the Humane Society and look at the cats.

I knew the Humane Society was open till 5 or 6 but wasn't sure which. I got there at 5:15 and they were open till 6 so in I went. And guess what I found... FOUR half Siamese cats! One adult and three kittens, all are males. NO I didn't take them all home. I had intended if I got another cat to get an adult so I didn't have to worry about training and shots and all. So I was asking about the adult that was half Siamese. He wasn't as beautiful as the one a few months ago was but he was a pretty cat. But, he doesn't get along with other cats so that left him out. So I went to look at the kittens since I LOVE Siamese. And these three look to be almost purebred, if they aren't pure bred. Well I brought one home. He's beautiful and is even prettier then the one a few months ago was. All three were flame points, which means their ears feet and tail will be a reddish color, rather then the usual seal color (dark brown). They all had blue eyes but since they weren't sure they were pure breds it is still too early to determine if they'll keep the blue eyes or not. But the one I picked, his were brighter blue then the others so I think he'll keep the blue. They weren't the grey blue most kittens have. They were BLUE blue.

He's 8 weeks old and his name was Louie (hewey Dewie and Louie they were named) but I changed it to give him an Egyptian name, in keeping witht hetheme I have going on my others. His name is Amun. I picked that because in Egyptian mythology, Amun was the father of all gods and since MY Amun decided from the second he got home that he was in charge, I thought it appropriate.

Aker ran and hid as soon as Amun came out of the box and Sheba was curious but not curious enough to get too close. If he got too close she hissed at him. but she'll come around I think. I'm betting she'll mother him like she did Aker and Khonsu when they came home. Since then, they've all decided to get along somewhat, though they are far from buds just yet. But I've even caught Aker and Sheba each grooming him at different times and Aker occasionlly deigns to play with him.

My vet is actually one of the vets the Humane Society works with for the vaccinations and spaying/neutering (apparently it's a TX state law that ALL pets acquired from an animal shelter must be fixed. Though I would have that done no matter what.) Amun's 9 weeks old right now, or thereabouts and has had his first round of shots. He's been micro chipped and the neutering is covered in the adoption fee. He had fleas, which is to be expected coming from a shelter. I also got a free wellness physical to make sure he's healthy and I can take him to my vet for that. it's a good thing I did! He has an upper respiratory infection, a parasite I htink the doc called coccidia, which has caused his belly to be all distended and it gives him diarrhea. He also had a terrible case of ear mites (The whole inside of his ears was black. Yuck!) So at present he's on two different kinds of meds to clear all that up.

So I know I shouldn't have done it as the last thing I need is another cat, and a kitten at that but I couldn't resist. And I didn't want to lose out like I did on the last one. So he came home. But he's a real sweetheart and is not happy unless he's harassing the other two or at my side.

This is exciting...

As every week, I had to hit the book store to see the latest releases. Moon's Web by C T Adams and Cathy Clamp is out now (and with a different cover then was originally designed too) and since I loved the book when i got my review copy several months ago, I had to buy it. I open it to the front inside page where there's usually an excerpt. It opens to the title page so I turned another page and there are two pages of review snippets, one page for Moon's Web and one for Hunter's Moon, which was their first book in this series. An lo and behold but what do I find? That I'm quoted! My name isn't listed, but the website is named, so that's cool.

The snippet they used is:
For Moon's Web:
Ms. Clamp and Ms. Adams pull no punches with this story. Readers will love the world created in this series, and especially enjoy the complex society made up of shape shifters of every kind imaginable."

It's so cool to see my words in print like that. There was the quote in the RT Book Club magazine a couple months ago, and now this one. And there was the one from a review I did a couple years ago where I'm quoted on the cover. I'm quoted all over the net, but to see it in print in a book is WAY more exciting.

Well gee whiz...

I joined a critique group in yahoo for posting book reviews for critiques and comments. I just joined a few days ago and was welcomed nicely and the one review I have posted so far I had four different people look at and comment on. And I was reminded about five times by different people to not take critiques personally as the purpose is to help improve what we write and people can take or leave suggested changes. Keep in mind I was reminded about this many times before I ever posted any reviews of my own.

I looked over all the comments made on mine, took no offense to any of the comments as all of them were valid and after I posted my review I caught a bunch of mistakes I don't normally make anyhow, so I knew I'd have comments on those at least. I read through all the comments and took the ones I liked and tossed the ones I didn't. I was also told upon joining that everyone participates or is expected to participate, meaning everyone should at least edit someone else's review once in a while and I had no problems with that. Well several reviews came through and I picked two at random to critique.

I ran through them just like I do the ones for reviewers for LR and had comments here and there, mainly grammar or spelling, or suggesting ways to combine a couple sentences in to one. The only thing I mentioned in them that I thought MAYBE was questionable but decided to post anyhow, saying it was "only a personal preference of mine, and not necessary to change but..."

Well I got a message today, not even a private one, but sent to the list that I took some offense to.

It was a "maybe no one told you but..." And I was informed I was making unnecessary changes (um, they were all suggestions that as I was told, people can take or leave), trying to force MY voice on to them and altering the voice of the reviewers. Well, I for one try very hard NOT to change anyone's voice or style, but try to help improve what they wrote by suggestions. In fact I'm very insistent with the editors at LR that they also be careful to not make changes to a specific person's writing style or voice. And here I'm accused of doing what I work very hard NOT to do? And I was told that grammar rules are flexible. oh and apparently I write like a robot. I was told that the style I was trying to "force" on others is devoid of emotion and robotic. Yes that is exactly what they said. Apparently I'm unemotional in my writing because I prefer to not write reviews and say "I liked this" or "you'll like that." Yes the method I use, that everyone at LR uses is more impersonal because we say "this reviewer thought" or "readers will love" but that's a more professional sounding technique which we utilize at the site and actually a lot of magazines and such and other websites use as well.

I thought we were supposed to make suggestions to help improve others' reviews. If this particular person who e-mailed me thought I was being nasty, then she should have e-mailed me privately, not sent it to the list. This person said she's "reviewed my critiques and listened to feedback" and then went in to all of the above. What feedback? About my comments? There hasn't been any! There have only been like two messages since I posted the two reviews I was commenting on and they were totally unrelated to my messages. They were other people's comments on reviews posted.

I haven't even replied to the message that was sent to me through the group cuz it made me so mad. I'm debating whether or not to even bother replying to it.