mistressofmuses

I had a 9 and a half hour workday, but some dogs got to go on a field trip and run. Lol


The beaft. Why her tongue so long.


And her times for today!

She has definitely seemed to settle into some fairly consistent times, which is to say "between 10 and 11 seconds." I'm happy with it, even if I do hope she breaks 10 seconds again someday!

Alex is hoping that she can get her FCAT by the end of the year. (The top title for the event. Her big fancy ribbon from a while back is for her intermediate title!) He hopes that once she's gotten the top FastCAT title, that he can do some new events with her. Maybe Rally or Barn Hunt? Though she seems to like FastCAT so well, I wouldn't want her to stop just because she got top points, ha. Maybe then we can just do fun runs, haha.

I did get to see my mom for a bit yesterday. I had to work, but she and Taylor went on what sounds like a great hike to Castlewood Canyon. (There are tiger salamanders in the visitor center! I'm so jealous; the visitor center is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we've never gotten to go in! Salamanders and their .____. faces are the best.)

After work I went over to hang out and chat for a while. I got her copies of Through Gates of Garnet and Gold (this year's Wayward Children novella) and Platform Decay (the new Murderbot book.)

It was nice to hang out for a little while! She showed me pictures from the hike yesterday, and of some of the other birds she's seen and such recently. They had a pretty heavy branch come down on the roof during the snow, but luckily it doesn't seem to have damaged anything. Her eye surgery was super easy and minor, and it basically just looks (and feels) slightly irritated, but is barely even noticeable.

---

I bought my mom a copy of Platform Decay, which just came out. I had preordered it for myself back in March using a birthday gift card to Barnes & Noble.

I do not yet have a copy of Platform Decay.
My copy has been stuck in UPS hell for the last week. It had an "estimated delivery" of May 7th, but has had no new scans since it departed a warehouse in Missouri on the 7th. They just kept shifting the estimation up day by day, despite having no new scans.

Finally at 11pm last night it got an arrival scan at a USPS facility, though UPS wouldn't say where. (Though it got two additional arrival scans today, per UPS.)

Checking USPS instead, it tells me that the arrival last night was the most recent scan (and there weren't additional scans today), and also that that was at their regional hub in Reno, Nevada.

Why. Why did my book go from Missouri to Nevada? I'm in between those!

I want to buy books from sources other than Amazon. I use Amazon for a fair number of things, but I do try to use alternatives when I can. But man, it feels like every time I try to, I end up punished by not getting the item until a week+ after I was supposed to. I get that free two-day shipping has spoiled me and created an unrealistic expectation in general, but even accounting for that! Every time something gets misrouted, or apparently sits in a warehouse for days before being picked up, or the delivery person decides fuck it at the end of their shift and marks it undeliverable for some nonsense reason ("driveway was blocked?" well, there isn't one of those, so, I guess?)

It's not too painful for this book at the moment, because I haven't even started the Murderbot reread yet, because I haven't gotten there on the TBR yet, so it doesn't matter, beyond just the annoyance of the thing not showing up when it's supposed to. Assuming it does eventually arrive, it's fine. But I pre-ordered a few other books that I might be more eager to read immediately, and I will resent having to wait a week or two after release date to even get to start them, when I know I could have paid less money to a less moral company and gotten my much closer to instant gratification. >:/

But also, I am glad that it's coming by USPS instead of UPS, theoretically. USPS at least doesn't leave stuff in the lobby of the apartments to get immediately stolen.

---

Our katydid eggs from last year seem to be no-gos. :( It seems likely that they didn't get quite enough humidity where they were at in my mom's garage. Alas. We'll keep an eye on them for a little bit longer, but at this point it's probably unlikely.

---

Today I did go do my re-do blood work. (I think earlier I'd said this week was my dermatology appointment and the blood draw was next week, but I'd gotten them mixed up.) They only had to stab me once this time, which is nice! And this time I did know about it in advance, so I did do my fasting. We'll see if it still pings me for high cholesterol and triglycerides. I'm sort of anticipating that it will... but I'm trying! I'm trying to get the stupid exercise and eat a little better and get more fiber and not go to the corner store for snacks when I'm at work and hydrate more and I'm, ugh, taking ~vitamins~ and shit.

---

After they stole my blood, we did go on a short hike, though we turned around before too long because it was sunny with no shade and we didn't want to overdo it for Bella. (I felt fine, so maybe my endurance is improving!) Eventually I'll get pictures posted, lol.

Even though I'd felt fine on the hike, we were all apparently pretty wiped out? Maybe just because we got up so early for my appointment, but Alex, Bella, and I all fell asleep for several hours once we got home, haha. I was especially surprised that Bella cuddled up between us for a long nap, ha. Usually she gets up to do her own thing if we fall asleep.

---

Not feeling terribly motivated to do much of anything, ha. I have posts and comments here to catch up on, I have my reading page in my tracker to work on, I have cleaning projects at home to do... But I don't wanna. Perhaps I will rally and get something done, or perhaps I will lie to myself about feeling much more inclined to do more tomorrow, ha. I do have a headache that I can't quite shake, so maybe tonight is not the night for Being Productive.

This weekend was another FastCAT event! Alex took Bella on Friday, but since I took this weekend off for the music festival, I got to come to another set of runs today!


Bella today! Alex said it looks like her school picture or something, haha.


Her times from Friday! She got her second-best time ever! :D


Her times from today. Not her best, but that's okay.

Bella didn't seem as hyped as Alex says she usually is for her runs today, but I was still glad to get to go to one!

I released her for the first run today, with Alex waiting to catch her at the finish line. ...unfortunately, she faceplanted at the start line, haha. I don't think she slipped, so much as her head was just a little more excited to go than her legs, so she just faceplanted, and plowed her way forward for the first several paces before she got her legs back under her. I was impressed that she still kept it under 11 seconds!

The second run Alex let her go and I caught her, but she just didn't have quite as much oomph as she sometimes does.

The grass on the course was quite lush and green (despite our lack of moisture), and I think that provided just a little extra drag. She did come back with grass stains all over her paws and ankles, ha. She also could have been a little sore from her runs on Friday, followed by a long day in her kennel yesterday while we were gone. Not so sore that she was gimpy, obviously, but maybe just enough to keep her from hitting the highest gear.) She still had fun, ha.

(The festival last night was a lot of fun, but it's going to take me a while to sort through the way too many pictures I took. Other than Bella's FastCAT runs today, I spent a lot of the day sleeping and a bit of it reading; I am wiped out and sore. Feeling old!)

Have a handful of pictures from the last couple weeks!

Most of these are from my walks that I'm trying to take, though there are some random other ones mixed in.


Lilacs!


Bella, looking like a little croissant snuggling her blanket.

Nine more pictures:

More lilacs!


Interesting tree flowers.


Bee on a dandelion!


Moth disguised as bird poop on a dandelion! With bonus tiny ant that I didn't notice until later.


It made me smile that it looked like the magpie came up to get his order at the window.




I was very taken with just how intensely blue the sky was.


Purple flowers!


Little green stink bug.

Whoops, took over a week to get to posting these, haha.

Last 'weekend' we did go on a lovely walk around Pelican Pond. The water level was a bit distressingly low, but there were pelicans! It was also perfect timing for all the blooming trees. We also saw an eagle again, though it was too high up to get a picture of.


The lake through the flowers.


There are apple trees all around the pond. They're lovely and they smell amazing.

Nine more pictures:

Kind of a pleasantly soft look against the sky.


Ladybug!


Some quite vibrant flowers from the far side of the pond.


Distant on the island, over on the left you can see the pelicans. Also plenty of other water birds.


This little falcon had a lot to say! I'm guessing it's a prairie falcon, since it's not too likely for us to have a peregrine, and it's too large to be a kestrel... but definitely more falcon- than hawk-shaped.


Bella stops to smell the flowers.


Vinca along the path.

Plus two additional pictures not from the same location:


Lovely pink flowers!


And from later in the week, on one of my workday walks. Lilacs!

It was an absolutely beautiful day to go for a walk, and I'm especially glad we got to enjoy the trees while blooming, since those are already winding down.

The beaft.


Her two runs for today!

She didn't break ten seconds today, but that second run was pretty good. Between 10 and 11 seconds seems to be Her Time, for the most part. (Apparently she also maybe tripped on that second run? Alex said she suddenly veered to one side, but she kept going!)

And as always, she seemed to have a lot of fun. Apparently someone walked past as they were heading back from a run and said "Now that's an obedience dog!" because she was walking so nice, haha.

There's another event next weekend, so she'll get to run again pretty soon.

Bella got to go to another FastCAT today! (I wish I'd been there instead of dealing with a class close, but alas.)


The runner!


SHE DID SO GOOD!!

Those are her best times ever! She broke 10 seconds, which was what I've been hoping for! And the second run was barely over the 10 second mark. I'm so proud, haha. (As Alex said, this is also a little bit of vindication for the previous one down in Colorado Springs. He thought she was under 10 seconds, but the timer malfunctioned and didn't record her time, so she had to redo the run.)

Apparently a lot of people said their dogs were having a good day today. The ground was very level, and while it was a grass track, the grass was obviously dead and very short, so it was really good footing.

I'm so delighted that she did so well, and had such a great pair of runs.

This does get her the DCAT designation, which is the intermediate AKC title for FastCAT, though she'll get her fancy ribbon sometime next month when the point totals from today are officially tallied.


Looking a little more tired after all that effort.

I've been trying to take my medically prescribed walks. We've been luckily aided by our weather, which has been so bizarrely warm this season. (It's low-key terrifying, how little snow we've had.)

I didn't end up doing anything this most recent "weekend," as Alex was super sick and didn't want to go anywhere, but on the last bit of time before I returned to work we did at least a few good walks.


Bella got to meet a horse!

Bella loves horses. I tease her that she's a weird horse girl. (I was a weird horse girl.) But she's very enthusiastic every time we drive past horses. She's gotten to see them on trails before, and is always very excited. (I loved one day on a trail where we pulled her to the side to let some horses pass, where we were talking to Bella saying "Oh, do you see the horses?" and as the riders passed, one of them was saying "Oh, do you see the puppy?" Lol.) But while Cy got to be around horses pretty often, back when Alex was riding, Bella hasn't ever gotten to directly meet one.

Until now!

We saw this horse coming up the trail, and then horse and rider went through the Starbucks drive through, haha. Then they came back around and passed us on the trail. The rider said hi to us and to Bella, and Alex said hi and that Bella loves horses. The rider pulled his horse back around and asked if she wanted to say hi.

Bella was utterly starstruck, haha.


And a pair of bald eagles!

We first spotted one out on the ice of the pond, then heard a huge murder of crows throwing an absolute fit over in the trees at the far side. As we continued around, we realized there was a second eagle already in the trees over where the crows were upset.

Eventually the one on the ice flew back up to join the one in the tree, though then made another trip out onto the ice.

By the time we got back around to the tree they'd been in, that one came back, and they both sat there for quite a while! It was very cool.

I am still delighted every time we see an eagle, and especially to see two! But it also makes me happy that it no longer feels like a "once in a lifetime" sighting. While I don't think I'll ever be blase about seeing them (I mean, I get excited every time I see a chickadee, so) but I am glad that it's something that happens multiple times a year, now.

Nine more pictures:

Friday, January 30, a quick walk in a city park:


There were SO MANY geese on the pond, ha. But I liked the ones toward the front there, who were nibbling at the sort of soft, delicate ice at the edge of the pond. It was a very funny noise to hear them nibbling at it. Bella was very interested.

Sunday, February 01, a longer walk at Belmar Lake:


A pair of mallards waddling across the ice. I love the male's bright green head, but am also always amused by their bright orange feet.


This little bird's nest was very cute.


Also a big fallen wasp nest.


Excuse me! What do you think you're doing?? It is February 1st, it is too early for you, little green leaf!


More ducks! Some mallards in front on shore, and northern shovelers in the water.

Thursday, February 05, at Pelican Pond:

The two above-cut pictures are from this day as well, but a few more.


Denver in the distance, but also a sort of fun phenomenon: the angle of the sun meant that the contrail over on the right actually cast a shadow across the sky, which is pretty cool looking.


Eagle! :D


Again with the greenery! It's too soon!

It's harder to take my walks while working, but I've tried to take at least two quick walks each day. It does seem to have helped the bloating a bit. Still not all the way there, but it's improved!

In less good news, I do seem to be getting sick, probably with what Alex has. Terrible! He's been so sick for days! But I had a very slight sore throat this morning, and then around lunch time it started ramping up. Runny nose, lots of that lovely post-nasal drip that is making my throat want to die.
If it follows the same trajectory as Alex's, then I can look forward to hideously awful coughing, moderate fever, and sinus and chest congestion in my near future. (And because I had originally requested this weekend off, but my time off request was denied, I absolutely can't call out; there's no one to cover, and calling out on the same day as a denied leave request is an automatic HR write-up.) Hopefully I end up with a milder version!

Feathered serpent sticker from Featherbone. Shedding the skin of the old year and all.

Second half of the week! This week ended mostly on the note of miserable uncertainty about the entire geopolitical landscape. Trying not to let that overshadow everything... It doesn't really feel like a new year! I am trying to get into the mindset a bit, though. (At least completing last year's reading goals and now setting some new ones feels like something of a dividing line, so there's one thing that feels like closure and restarting!) I am glad I took Friday off, to give myself an extra day to try and get my life together, haha.

Goals for the week:

• I did read more of Manhunt
• I posted my 2026 intentions
• I posted my 2025 books
• I did not yet post my 2026 reading plans
• I did set up my 2026 reading page
• I did set up my tracking grids for January
• I did not patch the seat in the truck

Tracked habits:

• Work - 1/3 - we were closed on NYD, and I took the 2nd off
• Household Maintenance - 2/3
• Physical Activity - 1/3
• Wrote 500/1000+ Words - 0/3
• Non-fiction Writing - 2/3 - both over 1000 words
• Meta Work - 2/3
• Personal Writing - 3/3
• Other Creative Things - 2/3
• Reading - 3/3 - I read more of Manhunt; Alex and I read some of The Sun Dog
• Attention to Media - 3/3 - Thursday we watched three episodes of Stranger Things, and later some reviews; Friday there was storm chasing and reviews in the background; Saturday we watched some paranormal videos, the reviews later, and then news coverage after getting a late-night alert.
• Video Games - 0/3
• Social Interaction - 2/3

Total words written: 3022 on plans and reflections

And after Bella's invisible ears in the previous post:

Here's a picture of her that Alex took on New Year's Eve, complete with ears!

For the last couple years, I've shared my favorite pictures taken for the year. Here are my top fifteen for 2025!

As usual, it's pretty clear what my favorite subject matter is, haha.

January 07, at home:


Cy and Bella cuddling.

It was a little rare for them to cuddle together for long, and getting a picture of them doing so seemed to be even harder. I miss him so much, still.

Thirteen more pictures, chronological through the year:

June 03, at the Denver Botanic Gardens:


Rainwater in the center of a poppy.

We'd set up a plan to go to the Botanic Gardens for my mom's birthday, and when the day came, it was chilly and rained. Initially we were a bit disappointed, but it turned out to be absolutely perfect. The clouds made for perfect photo lighting, and it had been such a soft rain, the raindrops clinging to everything were beautiful. (There were a couple pictures of roses covered in beads of rain that I almost picked instead, but I just really liked this one.)

July 06, at Roxborough State Park:


A bumblebee on a bee balm flower.

These bumblebees were ENORMOUS.

July 08, at Hudson Gardens:


A bullfrog.

This bullfrog was huge and so very chill about us taking his picture.

July 14, at Lair o' the Bear Open Space Park:


It's Bella!

This is one of my favorite pictures that I've taken of Bella. She just has such soft eyes, ha.


A pygmy nuthatch.

From that same hike, a surprisingly cooperative little bird!

July 21, at Castlewood Canyon State Park:


A hummingbird nest.

I was so beyond charmed to see this tiny nest! The lichens and seed fluff and spiderwebs making up the construction is just so perfect.

July 29, at Centennial Cone Open Space Park:


A view from pretty way up.

This park is pretty way up in the mountains. We hadn't been before (and of course ended up going on the day that the *one* tiny thunderstorm that spawned over the mountains picked this exact spot, haha.)


A lizard!

I loved this guy's very vibrant markings! On a sunnier day, I'm sure they actually help him blend in extremely well with darker plant shadows.

August 26, Greenbelt:


Bumblebee!

Much, much smaller than the giant bumblebee from before. I do love their little orange belt.

September 02, Castlewood Canyon State Park:


A fawn!

I was delighted that this fawn still had some spots!

September 08, Alexx & Michael's Pond:


Pelicans!

Alex and I went up to this random neighborhood park to catch sight of an avian oddity: a wood stork! (Perfectly common in some places, but not in Colorado!) We did spot the stork, which was very cool, but the pelicans were also stars of the day, haha. There were SO MANY!

October 14, Greenbelt:


Fall colors.

We were graced with an extremely beautiful fall, and the colors were gorgeous! The gold against the intensely blue sky was especially striking.

November 04, Red Rocks:


It's Bella!

Bella loves rock climbing, and I was very pleased with this picture of her so dramatically backlit!

November 11, the north plains:


The Northern Lights!

We had another chance to go see auroras this year (having seen them for the first time last year.) They were spectacular! It was amazing to see them, and while they were not as intense to the naked eye as it was on camera, the color was visible. It was so, so cool to get to go up and see them, and I'm so glad we did.

-

Obviously I take a lot of pictures of flowers and bees and birds and my dog, haha.