In which - Dalek!

"We should sit on the lawn. It's probably cooler," Paisley said.

"No way." Aura looked over her shoulder. "That bloody dog next door is out again. And he doesn't know to stay on his own side."

It sounded like a party next door - I don't think barbecue, since I couldn't smell anything barbecuing.

"Pardon me, ladies - has anyone seen Maddy?"

"You mean your Maddy, right?" I don't think he and my person have met yet.

"Of course. She said something about..."








"We're back!"

I don't know if it's that a Gallifreyian accent sounds British, or a British accent sounds Gallifreyian. And I seem to remember Fawn telling me about someone else who had a pet fox.

And what the heck....

"Everyone, this is the Eternal Dalek...." Maddy started, but the Doctor cut her off.

"Maddy, what are you doing? Don't bring one of those things here!"

"Doctor, stop! I'll have you know that he's my friend."

"You can't make friends with a Dalek..."

"I did with this one. If it weren't for him, we would never have gotten off of Cassinus."

"The other Daleks abandoned me. I was of no use to them," the yellow - whatever - said in a grating electronic voice.

"Really?" The Doctor looked at it - him, whatever.

"I had been captured by the Mogul. He sent me to exterminate Maddy when her TARDIS crashed on Cassinus. But she promised to rescue me instead. I had no other choice." The Dalek lowered its eyestalk a bit. "I discovered that she was my friend.


"He rescued LaMarr and got her back to the TARDIS. She was the one who knew how to evade the Mogul's defenses. I wouldn't have gotten off Cassinus without her - or him."

The Doctor's eyes went even wider. "You escaped his Time Lock Beam?"

She nodded. "LaMarr knew how it worked. It locks onto your dematerialization frequency and overrides it. But if you randomly hop between frequencies, it can't lock on, and you can escape."

"I didn't think you could do that."

"You can. You aren't supposed to, but you can."

"I'm just glad you're all right, old girl. We're the only ones left."





















"She hasn't told him?" Paisley said.

"Not yet," The Dalek replied. "I don't think she can yet. She said something about a fixed point in time."

I hope she decides to tell me, though.

















Bonus pic: Maddy and Tonio, her pet fox.

In which - an update!

Actually, a lot has been happening - which is part of the problem. I haven't had time to write anything down.

For one thing, I have neighbors now.

Jett's partner in crime, Spike, crossed the Rainbow Bridge a little over a month ago with a scent gland tumor that turned out to be one of the rare metastatic ones. We intended to get two babies to introduce to him as new friends - but the introduction didn't go well, to say the least.

Jett is doing well, though - getting lots of extra attention - and I ended up with a gerbil condo next to my house. Oh well. :-) Meet Pagey and Percy. Pagey is the one in the first pic - the sort of Siamese-spotted-whatever one - and Percy is the reddish one, which Maddy said was called "Argente."

This was all just before the last Mercury retrograde. Normally I'm kind of skeptical about astrological things like that - I'm an Aquarius, after all, and we tend to be - but yeah, this last one was rough. Among other things, Maddy ended up with a friend in the hospital (another slipped disc - which happened about the same time last year, too,) the "Check Engine" light on in the Rogue for quite literally no reason ("Other/Unknown Error,") a rather anxiously awaited (and pricey) package going astray for almost three weeks and some weird cold/flu hybrid making the rounds that she's almost recovered from, except for a cough that sounds somewhat like a tuberculin seal (her words, not mine!) On the doll front, Shel tried to change shirts one afternoon and ended up needing emergency limb reattachment surgery when his left hand came off along with it. (Maybe not having separate jointed hands like they do isn't such a bad thing after all....) However, all patients, human and doll, are home and recovering, the "Check Engine" light went off  on its own, the stray package has arrived and all seems to be normal again.

Well, normal for here, anyway....

~*~

Devon's fella Rafael arrived just before all of the above started. He's a nice guy - not at all like what I was envisioning. Not I that I thought he wouldn't be nice, but - if I've got this right, he's an Unquiet Spirit like JT, also from New Orleans, who was a Vodou priest (is that the right term? I need to get a book on this.) Not sure about the circumstances that led to him being an Unqiuet Spirit, but I'm sure it's an interesting story - yeah, that kind of "interesting." He is a really nice guy, though, an seems to really know his way around the spirit/elemental realm.

And this is Paisley's friend Kilbey.

There has to be an explanation for him, and I think it has something to do with the same brown acid going around the first Woodstock festival - the stuff that was apparently not so good.

He said the missing antenna will grow back. (Apparently that isn't an eyestalk?) He also said he wished it would hurry up and do so, since it was like having one - well, unlike Kilbey, I am going to keep this G-rated.

As for the fact that he is in fact a "he" - Paisley said he's related to Mystery Snails, which actually do have genders. Most snails don't. Or do - they're both at once. Which explains how one stray pond snail in an aquarium turns into one bazillon about three days later. (I suspect the same is true for coat hangers in the closet.)




And if you need more proof that this last retrograde messed with EVERYTHING, look no further than our trusty thermometer. See that inside temperature? That was also the outside temperature, according to both the Weather Channel and the working thermometer. And no, the sensor wasn't in the sun.

And yes, it was sunny that day, too.







Bonus pic: Tempest and Kilbey.






















(Kilbey is a Doll Chateau Larry. He's named for both musician Steve Kilbey of the Church and the snarky but sweet shapeshifter who was best friends with the Lady Madrigal Baker in my Doctor Who fanfic days. Rafael is a Pukifee Pio - the only human-ish male in my BJD crew.)

In which Hitty Emmaline's grandmother isn't who you'd think.......

"Here we go - now, let me fix your scarf. Good little baby....."

"Um, Paisley?" Zephyr said. "Why do they need scarves? Don't emperor penguins come from Antarctica?"

"They're babies. They can't keep warm the way the adults can." As you can see, Paisley seems to be establishing a home for baby birds. "Now, did you eat all your krill? Good boy!"

"That was krill? I thought you were making smoothies," Zephyr said.

I wondered why my blender was soaking in the sink....

"Hey everyone!" Tempest said, coming in. "You'll never believe who's here all the way from Florida!"

"Devon?!" Zephyr exclaimed, running to hug the new deva in town. "What are you doing up here?!"

"Trying to help some of the other devas put an end to this awful weather," Devon said.

"Problem is, we don't even know exactly where it's coming from," Tempest added. "Well, we know where, but we don't know who blocked the normal atmospheric patterns or why."

That doesn't sound good.....

"And here's Emmie! How do you like it here in New York?"

"It's nice...."

"I told you it would be."

"....but I still don't know why you had to sell the farm to those pixies. It wasn't losing money."

"Sweetheart, it was time for a change. I'd done all I could working with that land. It was time for someone else to take over. And you needed a change, too. All that time with those china head dolls wasn't good for you. You're a wooden doll, sweetie. You can afford to take chances that they can't."

It took me a moment to put it all together. "Wait. Your grandmother is a deva?!" She'd mentioned her Grandmother Devon awhile back, but I'd been expecting another Hitty. Not a deva who looked younger than Emmie herself.

"I was a linden tree deva before I learned to work with storms," Devon explained. "Emmie is carved from one of the branches of a seedling of the tree I was brought into existence to tend. So in a way, it makes me her grandmother."




"Are you and Rafael still together?" Emmie seemed at a bit of a loss for what to say.

"We are, indeed. He may be joining us later this year up here. I'm going to try to talk him into it, anyway. Right now he's working with manatees,"
Devon said.






"Devon is the one who sent me to find Tempest," Zephyr added. "Her sister Gail worked with her - Tempest, I mean - to turn that tornado that those awful storm devas sent toward that town."

"I know a good deva when I meet one," Devon said with a smile. "My sister should be joining us here pretty soon, too."

Not who I would have expected, but pretty cool nonetheless.....



Note: Devon is a tan Pukifee Ante from the FairyLand Halloween event. She was ordered directly from FL, We're still waiting on three other tan Pukifees ordered through DDE.

She's named after a pilot we saw on "Hurricane Hunters" whose first flight was through Hurricane Rafael (the one just before the infamous Sandy.) I do wish I could remember her last name, because she was totally awesome.

In which - Happy Birthday, Tom Baker! (The fourth Doctor (Who,) that is!)

"Uh, Doctor...." The Lady Madrigal Baker, better known as Maddy, looked around in bewilderment. Although really, given the steering on the Doctor's Type-40 TARDIS, she should have expected something like this. "This isn't Bellemar."

"So it isn't." Even the Doctor had to admit that he's been expecting sun, sand and beaches, not buildings....

Starring Paisley as the character my person's screen-and-nickname comes from, the Lady Madrigal Baker, and the fourth Doctor as himself...

Happy birthday, Tom Baker! Here's to many more!

In which - random photos!

So we're doing A Doll A Day on Flickr. Check out some of the photos.

The theme here was "Bright." But click on the photo and check out the cute little feathered photobomber outside.

Someone is threatening to file a formal protest with the ASPCA over getting her cage "Change"-d.

And this is why you shouldn't get "in between" a guinea pig and her food bowl.

Paisley: "Will you wait until I put the food in your bowl before you trample everyone to get to it?"

(No Hittys were harmed in the making of this photo.)

"New" year, new dress and that awesome new CD. And why is it so hard to find pink rocketship print fabric? Can't a girl be a space geek? Just sayin'.....

"Black and White." Not like there was much else in the way of color to begin with. One, it's January, and two, Scaramouche's wardrobe is almost as monochromatic as Maddys.....

"Dark." At least Aura didn't have to spend forty-five minutes sitting on a glass macaw for this one....

And last one for today - "Close Up." What can I say? Scaramouche is almost as much of a rock star as I am. Heck, she's almost as much of a rock star as John Ashton is.....

















Here's the link if you're interested: A Doll a Day 2015

In which - just some random photos

In a straw maze. Did I mention that my hair seems to be a magnet for straw?













Rats!

Actually, this guy only looked scary. Rats are, in fact, pretty cool.

"There's a ship......the Black Freighter....."

If you haven't Nina Simone singing "Pirate Jenny" then go check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7awW5nrDHk

The Pumpkin Queen.

Just a seriously cute sparrow, presumably not named Jack.

Why taking photos under the gerbil cage is a bad idea.

On the other hand, Spike should kick for the NFL.

A deva and her spider.















"That's not a carrot, mate. THIS is a carrot!"

The paring knife is as long as Aura is tall, so yeah, that's a whole lotta carrot.

Daisy with the perfect Christmas tree, courtesy of Norm's Dollhouse. Yes, that is the dollhouse from downstairs. It's upstairs now and in the process of being renovated. More on this to come...

And finally - Happy Halloween, everyone!

In which - some autumn pics.

We drive by Fahnstock State Park all the time, but haven't really ever had time to stop there.

So we decided to make a point of driving over there today.

Hmmmm......

Looks like this is the way to the great views....

Okay, turned out it really wasn't. It was the way to the picnic shelter, which was reserved.

Maybe the other way?

Uh - make that the OTHER other way. This pic doesn't capture the sheer steepness of the trail. Yes, it is a trail, but I think rappelling gear would be essential.

 Here we go. Much more like it.

 This is the picnic area by the lake.

Not too bad.

 Autumn would not be a bad season, really....

If it went right back into spring, that is.

Okay, okay, we can have one month of winter. ONE. Uno. That's it. Winter does have a way of wearing out a welcome pretty quickly.

 Then we could have a whole lot more of this.

I did suggest it to the devas. Paisley said she'd talk to Aura about it, but not to get my hopes up. I think she might have been humoring me. Oh well....

Daisy in some new threads from Spampy Stuff.

Scaramouche....














I do have some pics from our drive over to Cold Spring yesterday, but I'll save them for another entry.