Catching Up Again - First Few Weeks of September
Thursday, September 2, 2010: It was 62-degrees when I got up this morning, but the heat was on again -- it made it up to 99 by late afternoon. Really miss the A/C when it gets up into that range, I can tell you.
Had my Criminal Law class today, and I'm still loving it. We talked about Child Abduction, Elder Abuse (you have to be 65 or over to qualify under the law), and some sex-related crimes like Oral Copulation and Sodomy (the forced kind, not the consensual kind). Mr. Cashdollar always has such interesting stories to go along with the lectures that his 2-hours classes just seem to fly by to me.
Friday, September 3, 2010: It was hot in the house yesterday afternoon, so it was difficult for me to get to sleep. Didn't really shut down until around midnight... and then didn't get this morning until just before 9:00 am. That's "sleeping in" big time for me! Not a lot on my agenda today except that I have to get cracking on my on-line Algebra class, so I can catch up there, and work on my Trek story. Later, during this long weekend, I have to do a brief for my Criminal Law class, but those are pretty easy for me.
Marty has been posting some "old" photos of himself and the family on Facebook, and some of them included me in the shots. Man, I used to be thin and pert -- and now I'm round and saggy. Hah! Aging sucks!
Writing Stuff: I posted Chaper 25 of my Trek story yesterday and already got some reviews of it. I just love that some readers are so protective of little Swahn (Spock's 1st son in my stories) and like it when Sa'aat (a character I created) kicks butt. Some reviewers wrote:
DawnCandace: Again, I am in awe of your story crafting abilities. This story just keeps getting better and better. I adore Sybok and am glad that he is reunited with his brother. The dinner scene with McCoy, Sybok and Kirk all asking Spock for details of his courtship of Nyota was fabulous. I loved Nyota's reply, Sybok's declaration that he had to get himself a human wife and Christine's flirtatiousness. Christine is a riot. I am also surprised that I wanted more Sa'aat being completely bad ** in this chapter. I've gone from wanting him gone to him being one of my favorite characters. Goodness, I almost dread T'Pau's fate once Sa'aat gets his hands on her. But then, she's brought it upon herself.
JuneWilliams7: Yay for Dr Surrey! In his own small way, he helped ameliorate the Sarek-Sybok tension. I hope they do find some katrasto bring back. Sybok needs to manage his release of emotions if he's going to serve as bureaucratic leader for his peeps. Sa'aat was very smart to consider the possibility that the ship was just a ruse by T'Pau. I do wonder at how T'Pau might control use of a ship owned by Semuk's clan, considering they did not bond together and Semuk is dead. Hmm, unless T'Pau lied to them and said she is looking or meeting with Semuk? She's tricksy. And Sa'aat hasn't yet decided on marrying the two sisters... A good sign that Spock is thinking of Swahn's future, and I look forward to the scene where he finally gets to hold Swahn. Who is going to grow up big and strong and smart. NO DEATH SCENE FOR LITTLE SWAHN! Thank you for the new chapter!
Oh, and I'm keeping all of the reviews, chronologically, in a table in an MS WORD document, and right now I have over 53 pages of reviews! When this "book" is finished, I'll have to add them to the back in an appendix or something.
Funny YouTube Videos: Marty posted a totally blasphemous (and hysterically funny) video of Jesus lip-synching to the song "I Will Survive". He's first in long robes, then strips them off and bounces down the street singing, booty-bumping other people... and then he steps off a curb and is hit by a bus. The video concludes with a memorial slide. As I say, it's so shockingly blasphemous that it's funny.
Through the ZacharyQuinto.com site, I found an interactive advertisement for correction tape. The video comes up with a bear encroaching on a hunter's campsite, and then you're asked to select whether the hunter will shoot the bear or not. You're taken to another website where the hunter says he doesn't want to shoot the bear. He reaches out of the YouTube video to a sidebar advertisement for the correction tape, whites-out "shoots" in the "Hunter Shoots a Bear" heading on the video and then tells you to type in whatever you want so the video will progress. I typed in "hugs" and the hunter and the bear run at each other and hug. I typed in "feeds" and the bear puts the hunter on a spit and cooks him for dinner. I typed in "dances with" and the hunter and bear do a dance. I typed in "has sex with" and the bear puts the hunter up against a tree and then the whole screen is blocked out with a "sexually explicit material" banner. HAH! That was the most innovative advertisement I have ever seen! I eventually had to stop; it got waaaay too addictive. Hah!
Saturday, September 4, 2010: Woke up with a frigging head-cold! Waaaah! It's in my throat and my left nostril right now. (How weird is that?) And, of course, it had to do that because I have a long weekend -- and tons of work to do... Marty spent part of the day working at Nona house, and then left around 5:00 pm to go to a friend's birthday bash. By that time, I was worn out and feeling totally icky, so I quit for the day.... No follow-up or word from Gus. Why am I NOT surprised....
Despite being sickly, I got almost all caught up on my on-line Algebra stuff. Just have to take the test and I'm done for another week... I also need to finish my Benchmark project for Criminal Law (another brief, I'm not worried about that one), and I have to do up a flyer for the paralegal club (but that's fun). I also need to "beta" (edit) a chapter for a FanFiction writer, and do some tweaking to Chapter 26 of my own Trek story because the first part needs to be more "suspenseful" than it is... Then back to Chapter 27, which is looking like it might be the "last one" of this particular novel. I have a cliff-hanger ending, though, so readers will probably be throwing things at me after it posts. Hah! Once, it's done, I want to self-publish a copy, just for me, to keep.
Dream Stuff: Had a dream about being back at the Shasta house, standing on the back deck and looking out over the Redding valley... The whole valley was UNDER WATER and the waves were lapping up against the edges of the deck... Hmmmmm....
Sunday, September 5, 2010: It was about 65 degrees outside when I got up, going up to about 92 today. Marty says by Wednesday, the temparture is supposed to drop 20 degrees! Wow. Those magnetic poles must be "wobbling" again!
Mark Jr. sent us all a photo of our sister Melissa. That's her to the left.
Still have the aggravating cold... and nothing seems to work on it except the generic Dayquil I'm taking (which makes its bearable but not gone). I got up about 7:30 with a stuffed up head and one of those tight painful coughs you get when the cold hasn't quite worked its way down into your chest yet. Waaaah! I am SUCH a baby when I'm sick... I WAS able to finish the beta work on "Diddlepie's" Trek story; she's brough her first "novel" to a close, and I'm so proud of her for seeing her project through to the end! It was about Spock going to New Vulcan for a Medal of Valor Ceremony, and almost getting killed when fanatical terrorist Vulcans, who blame him for the destruction of their homeworld, disrupt the ceremony. She weaved in a side-story about the "Cupcake" Red-shirt guy falling for a female Vulcan security operative, and animals native to the new planet that end up saving Sarek's life... Very imaginative. By the time I was done with that, Marty was up, so I made us a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, coffee and waffles covered with ripe strawberries and whipped cream. Better than Denney's, hah!
House Stuff: the guys have done a lot of work on the place; everything seems to be coming along so well. Both Scott and Todd were there today working on the laundry sink in the garage and on the bathroom. The big back yard is almost completely free of debris now. It's all looking like we'll be able to move in around October 1st.
Another nice review of my Trek story from a reader named Botsey: Dear Simplymare: Thank you so much for rewarding my eyes and mind with your last three postings. Just got around to reading Chapters 22;23;24. My word, the emotions packed into those chapters could break glass. Everyones 'emotions' came through. Even Sarek in that he encouraged Spock to bond with Nyota. Sybok's appearemce is wonderful. Nyota's accepting the baby is full of such dept of understanding. Spock's patience and sustained attachment to her was beautifully written. What can I say. You can't add to perfection. Even if the story had ended with chapter 24 everything seemed to be set in place for a happy ending, even for Sa'aat.
From Mark Jr. Again: The frustrations of Matt bucking the bureaucracy to get his home refinanced echoes the trials of EDD to get what is actually coming to you, dealing with Shasta County's labyrinth of a judicial system or just getting a drivers license. Aren't these institutions employed to help us? Evidently not. It is one road block after another hurdle, after another road block. All of them hoping you'll just give up and go away. If this were all somehow magically made to disappear how many useless people would be put in the unemployment line? Employees who don't do anything except obstruct... there's a line for your resume, obstructionist, 3 years at EDD. It used to be the people willing to act who got the opportunities. And we wonder what's wrong with the country.. Mary got some satisfaction out of pursuing the people who took the house but along the way discovers that Shasta County is only in existence for themselves and "movie" lawyers, ditto. Just for Miles and I to be allowed to rent here we had to jump through multiple hoops and were lied to, bait and switched, eventually we ended up with a nice place and we met some nice people. All this "aggravation" appears to be in place to make you quit somewhere along the way even though you are paying as you go. And we thought standing in line in Russia for a loaf of bread was bad... Mark...Dead Grandfather's Society...
Matt has been trying to refinance his home since April, and has been getting the run-around. The EDD and Shasta County are references to what I had been going through. Obstruction of Justice is supposed to be a CRIME... and yet those who participated in it in my case are, for the moment, running free.
Matt Writes: So far, from my little view of the slice of the judicial system, its the same way. Massive bureaucracy and built in delays (however, I do have to hand it to them: they go out of their way multiple times to try and get parties to drop or settle out of court, admonishing "a bad settlement is better than a good trial"). We had a small victory, of sorts: though the pornographer who sued us is appealing the unanimous verdict in our favor, we sued his boss at the time because he helped the pornographer sue Rhonda. The boss' attorney has tried to get our complaint thrown out, but last Friday, the judge rejected their request. We start depositions in October, aiming toward a court date in May (delays, delays, delays).
Part of the reason why the legal system is so slow is that it's clogged up with frivoless and unfounded lawsuits. I can't tell you how many times, while I was at the hearings for my case, when I heard the DA's deputies tell the judge, "We would like to dismiss this case in the interest of justice", which is legalese for "Sorry, Your Honor, but we don't actually have a case against this guy and just spent the last year screwing with you." We need to go back to the system that says, if you sue that's fine, but if you LOSE, or your case is thrown out because it's frivolous, you PAY everyone's attorney's fees and all of the court costs.
Monday, September 6, 2010: The country is celebrating Labor Day today, although it was actually on the 1st... I still have my cold and it's pretty bad today; coughing up a lot of scary-looking alien slime and mucous. Eew... and I have a really bad headache, do doubt caused by the crap in my sinuses. I need stronger drugs.... I got my list of "mentees" from the college today, so I'll be e-mailing them to let them know who I am and how they can get a hold of me. I'll also give them information about the Paralegal CLub and the tutoring available on Fridays... Finished the two "Potato/Chili Bar" flyers I needed to make for the Paralegal Club and sent off the drafts... Now, I just have to finish my brief for my Criminal Law class and I'll be done for the day...
The Beller case (which is the case the brief is about) is actually kind of interesting. Beller was a guy caught driving his victims' care after he robbed and assaulted them with a gun, and was convicted of robbery and assault, but when he appealed, he complained that the judge hadn't allowed in "evidence" from his cronies that might have exonerated him. He wanted to admit into evidence two n cronies were the criminals, and that Beller wasn't even at the house (which wasn't what the FULL statements said). The court said everyone has a right to mount a defense, but no one has the right to mislead the jury. Kewl case.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010: I'm still feeling horrid. The cold has moved into my chestthroat and chest and I'm coughing up some thick yellow phlegm -- and had this weird "coppery" taste in my mouth from it. Must be blood in there somewhere. The cough sound hacky and croupy, so maybe it'll work itself out of me... I had a Criminal Law class today, but didn't feel up to going to school, so I sent my brief to the instructor via e-mail, so it wouldn't be late. I then worked on my Trek story and napped throughout most of the rest of the day.
I found a weird charge for $79 from Amazon.com on my checking account today when I checked it on-line. They're trying to charge me for a "Prime" shipping service I never signed up for! I "spoke" to an on-line BofA rep and was told they would have to wait until the charge actually posts to my account (it's "pending" now, but still screwing up my balance) before they can do anything to it. So, I went on-line to Amazon and told them I wanted it cancelled immediately. We'll see if they actually do that. If they don't, I'm going to have "words" with them. Sometimes automation is great -- and sometimes it totally fricks you up. If I hadn't been keeping an eye on my bank account, I would have missed that charge completely... This is also "food stamps" day for me, so I checked my balance through the telephone and it's right. Yay. We can eat! I took went out briefly in the early afternoon to get a few groceries, and baked a chicken and made some mac-and-cheese for supper. That was the extent of my "exertion" for the day. (Oh, I complained to Amazon, and they took the charge off the next day -- no explanations, no apologies. I wonder how many other people got robbed?)
Legal Stuff: I got a call back from Gus today. He says he's going to e-mail me the specifics of what he'd like to prceed with, but he says we may still have plenty of time to file action against the bad guys. He said the statute of limitations looks like it's "four years" on conspiracy complaints (which we certainly have here), and so we have until 2012 to file something. He thinks the best bet will be to file a civil RICO claim, and he's going to send me information on that. I'll wait until I see what he sends me before making any kind of a decision... (He said he'd send it off to me later today today; how much you wanna bet he doesn't?)
I looked up a little bit about civil RICO complaints, and found this: The federal RICO statute provides a civil cause of action to any person injured by reason of enumerated statutory violations, and holds out the promise of treble damages and attorneys' fees for successful claimants. Based on the United States Supreme Court''s expansive interpretations of the federal RICO statute, and equally broad interpretations of mail and wire fraud. statutes, civil plaintiffs in commercial litigation frequently include RICO claims in "garden variety" common law fraud and business disputes. In addition to increasing the defendant's exposure, RICO claims are particularly vexatious because, in essence, the plaintiff is accusing the defendant of criminal conduct. (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. § 1961 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983) Most civil RICO claims are filed under 1962(c), which makes it unlawful to "conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct" of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity. The four primary elements of this subsection, as set out by the Supreme Court, are "(1) conduct (2) of an enterprise (3) through a pattern (4) of racketeering activity." fn1280 .
Should be interesting.
For the State Bar: Dena Horton, my Public Defender in Shasta County, sent me the full names of all of the DDA's who touched my case there. I'm letting Carolyn and Diana off the hook, and will not file complaints against them with the State Bar because they tried to stop the case from going forward, but I am going to file complaints on Hemker (Bar # 241233, Redding, 2005) the guy who set up the charges and turned them over to Benito for his approval; Johnson (261171, Redding, 2008) who moved the case forward, and Joseph-Goteiner (255313, SF, 2008) the mega beeotch who handled most of the motion hearing stuff. There was no excuse for their allowing the charges to be brought or for extending the case out as long as they did. Dena says Hemker is an "animal advocate", but I don't know how he could "advocate" for Animal Control killing my cats for no good reason, and allowing my dogs to get mauled to death in the shelter. Ridiculous. The other two that I'm not going to file complaints about were Damonte (Bar # 262247, Redding, 2009) and Ortiz (265055, Redding, 2009). In my complaints about Johnson and Goteiner I made mention of the fact that Damonte and Ortiz TRIED to uphold the standards of the State Bar, but Johnson and Goteiner certainly didn't. the ball is now in the State Bar's court...(all puns intended).
Wednesday, September 8, 2010: It's supposed to be 75-degrees and overcast today. Wow, my kind of weather! I'm still feeling a little run down and stuffy, but the medication seems to be finally kicking the cold's rear end, so hopefully the cold will be gone by the end of the week... I got up about 6:30, to the, eh-hem, "lovely" smell of whatever the neighbor was smoking outside. Pew!
It was a full day with school and an after-school meeting, and I pretty much wore myself out, but it was good. Had my Word 2007 class first thing, and was able to catch up on all of my homework already (it's not due until the 13th), so that was neat. In my Family Law class, we had contest; the class was split in half and then pitted against one another to answer quiz questions. My side of the room won, mostly because I was able to get us three bonus points; go me! On the last question, the other side of the room was getting frustrated because they could get the phrase right; they had the concept but not the term. Finally, they threw their hands up and said, "Just give the point to Marty, she knows the answer." And I did, hah! ("Automatic presumption of joint custody".)
Job Stuff: I stayed after school, then, to attend a lecture by a guest speaker named Heather Kocina, the owner and CEO of Search Pro Staffing, a job-placement company that's been around for about 12-15 years. Heather said their company just got a $5-million, 10-year contract with SMUD, so they're not going anywhere. She was a very personalable person, and because the group in the room was small she was able to give us each some one-on-one time; even reviewed my resume a little bit. She said, if we want to e-mail her our resumes and tell her what we're looking for, she'll send us lists of businesses looking for workers (even if the businesses aren't those she usually does placement for), which I thought was extraordinarily generous of her. I'm going to spruce up my resume a bit and resubmit it to her today or tomorrow. Sounded good! Maybe she can get me an "in" with the ACLU or some other legal firm/ victim advocate place.
School Stuff: One sort of crappy thing... my Paralegal Club meetings and my Mentor meetings are now scheduled for the SAME TIME on the SAME DAYS. Well, that sucks! I e-mailed the Mentor group leader and explained the conflict to her; I don't know what, if anything, can be done about it, but it seems ridiculous that they'd schedule ANY kind of school-group meetings at the same times. I can't be in two places at once, so know I don't know what to do. I'm the Paralegal Club "Historian" and I don't want to give that up... but I don't want to miss Mentor meetings either. *Sigh*
Thursday, September 9, 2010 : I'm feeling better today. Still stuffy and coughy, but not so exhausted. It's cool and overcast this morning; so nice to have "November rain" in September! I love this kind of weather... Slept well last night in the comfortable nighttime temperatures... Just saw a gorgeous white and orange cat walk along the top of the brick wall between the neighbor's house and ours, and jump up onto the neighbor's roof. What a beautiful kitty! Like ice cream and orange serbert... I miss my cats -- Baby-Edna, Coltrane, Kitritch, Elwood, Splotch-Kitty, Vesper, Prom, T'Pring, Yoda, and all the rest... (but not their litter boxes!) See all those beautiful faces on the next page? I miss them all soooo much.
These were some of my cats (over the years):
Edna; I rescued her and her brother Coltrane from a house in Redding. They were semi-feral when I got them and turned out to be such neat cats!
Elwood: I rescued him as a kitten from an apartment complex parking lot after I was told that teenagers were running over the mama cat and her kittens. Only Elwood and one of his brothers survived the attack.
Vesper: BEST. CAT. EVER. I rescued her from Haven Humane Spciety in Redding.
T'Pring came to me from the Los Banos shelter. She had been abused (someone stomped on her head & crushed her jaw, so she drooled all the time.) The little one is Yoda. He was thrown out of the driver's seat window of a fast-moving car on the highway. Super-cute cat.
This is Prom. She came to me from the Los Banos shelter, too. She wasn't supposed to come to me, but her caretaker in the shelter heard I was taking in some cats, and she snuck Prom into the transport vehicle so she could get out of the shelter. Prom was a super-elegant, quiet cat. so sweet...
Jocelyn: I rescued her and her 2 kittens from a ranch near Redding. The cats were living in a field there. I found homes for the kittens, and like Jocelyn so much, I kept her. She was a "talkative" cat who would carry on conversations with you. She ended up with FIP, an incurable cat disease, and went quietly in her sleep.
Splotch-Kitty: She was one of Prom's kittens before I got Prom fixed; just a gorgeous cat.
This is Ingrid, one of the last cats I took in. When he came to me she was semi-feral, emaciated and had "blown" her coat. This is how she looked after only 3 months with me. Her coat came in soooo nicely, and although she was never a "huggy" cat, she would let me pick her up and pet her.
I had Criminal Law class today and we talked about sifferent kinds of theft. Did you know thta if you steal a car, even it it's a heap worth about $200, you'll still get arrested for grand theft? Grand theft in California also includes stealing $100+ in produce and domesticated fowl (chickens) from farms, and stealing ANYTHING (even a pocket protector) off of someone's person. Kewl!
Friday, September 10, 2010: It's clear and cool this morning; going up to a high of 87-degrees. I can handle that, thank you! I still have a croupy cough, but still tried to get some things done today. I took Sergeant Margie out for a walk in the morning, and then rested for a bit before taking my EDD check to the bank, and getting a bunch of groceries. Once home, I unpacked all the groceries, and had to rest again. With all the congestion in my chest, it's hard to breathe sometimes, and I couldn't keep my energy level up for anything. I watch a little more TV and then set a fire in the grille. Made Marty and I grilled ribs, a little tritip steak, and some brauts, baked beans and watermelon ("Black Pearl") as an early supper, then was in bed again by about 7:00 PM. No strength to do much more...
Saturday, September 11, 2010: It's the 9th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Remembering it always makes me cry... Vin Deseil, the actor, wrote the following on his FacBook page: Crystal Anderson: -wrote- Vin, today being what it is, I just have to ask: Where were you/what were you doing when the towers fell? VD: I had just landed in LA from a New York flight 24 hours earlier... my friends were trying to get me to stay an extra day and leave to LA on the morning of 9 /11 instead of flying on the 10th... P.s. One race, One world... One love...
Good lord.
I spent most of the morning working on my on-line Algebra class. We're on the last Module, and the teacher asked how our feelings of math had changed through taking the class. I had to be honest and wrote: I'm sorry to say that my attitude towards mathematics hasn't improved based on this course (well, not "this course" in particular, but ANY advanced math course at this point in my life.) I have no doubt that the instructor is well-educated and a very valuable teacher... However, I've been around 55 years and, quite frankly, I have NEVER had to use most of the skills presented in this course in my lifetime. Basic math (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, and some work with variables) may pop up every day, but not algebraic problems with exponents, or quotients, or scientific notations. So... while I tried to apply myself to this class, there was always the nagging notion at the back of my brain that although the information might be" interesting", it was ultimately "useless" to me, so I sometimes "resented" having to take this class ... and that resentment was reflected in my grades, I'm sure. (I usualy get straight "A's" in all of my coursework; not so with this class.) I understand the notion of wanting students to learn "logic"... but math isn't the only pathway to learning logic. In the paralegal coursework, for example, I would have benefited a LOT more with a class in legal logic (having to discover all of the elements of a crime and then figuring out if the case presented met those elements), than from a math class. So... sorry... But, with all due respect to the instructor, this class was excruciatingly painful to me, I honestly felt it was a waste of my grant money and my time, and I can't wait until it's over.
I hated being forced to take the course, and I hate that the course affects my overall GPA when it has nothing whatsoever to do with my course of study. This class should be eliminated, and real "logic" classes taught in its place.
Sunday, September 12, 2010: I got up "late" this morning, around 8:00 am, and sort of eased into the day. I spent most of my time finishing up chapter 27 of my Trek story. I got a few reviews of the last chapter after it posted late yesterday, and they were all very uplifting and supportive, as they most usually are. Some of them read as follows:
AtanaM: I have been waiting for this particular chapter with some anxiety as well you know. I have just one word for you. BRAVO! VERY honest, VERY human, VERY realistic, and VERY well done! I bought every word and held my breath through the entire ending scene. I was left feeling that there can be peace and a kind of cohesion now. Everyone may not be comfortable with the situation or happy about it...but they all understand their places and are willing to abide by them. And that...trust me is more than half the battle won. Again, well done! This was a difficult thing to take on and depict and you did so admirably!
Junewilliams7: Spuhura's meeting with the woman was much more peaceful than I feared. Like Uhura, I was ready to take a fighting stance, and ready to demand the babies go into Spock or Sarek's protective custody because of possible danger to the babies and fear of their being rejected as quarter-humans. And then this tricksy author practically broke my heart with the women's confessions of admiration for Spock. Even bristly T'Liik who doesn't have many babies left in her and had to choose very carefully; finally she gets the daughter she has always wanted. How can I and Uhura resent these ladies now? Sigh... Perhaps Uncle Sybok and Grandfather Sarek can visit. Spock's "words of warning" to the women certainly calmed things down and confirmed to the women that he really is a prince, and I hope he feels better about himself now. T'Edri and Serran look promising, a sign of normalcy after this Ektevan insanity. Plus with Serran as stepdad to Spock's biological son, I feel more comfortable with that baby's future. Thank you for the new chapter, and THANK YOU FOR NOT KILLING SWAHN! (I'm still watching, you know...)
Yancy: Ok, I've run out of superlatives for the quality of your work. Suffice to say, this chapter is as brilliantly written as the previous ones. You did a fantastic job writing the meeting with the plak-tau women. I appreciate the realism of the emotions shown. The dynamics in that room had me stressed out. :-) I felt a lot of trepidation as I waited for it. Nyota wasn't about to give those women an inch, and I agree with Christine, she's been amazing as she navigates through this nightmare. I also appreciate Spock letting those women know, in no uncertain terms, the place she occupies in his life. She deserves no less. I'm really looking forward to reading about the developing relationship between Spock, Nyota and Swahn. Romulans...very interesting. Thanks.
DawnCandace: Thank you for another wonderful chapter. I really loved Sybok in this. His emotional bad-assery is making him a strong competitor with Sa'aat in my affections. His teasing of Tasmeen was priceless and his willingness to comfort his father was very touching. I really liked the scene with the plak-tau women. Nyota handled herself very well and Spock's display of support and demand for respect of his wife to be was great. I also liked their revelation of their deep admiration for Spock and how Nyota was appreciative of it. It is nice to see that Spock is so well regarded by some of his people. Also, I am very happy that you have not killed off Sawhn. I am with Nyota-that little bugger is a fighter.
Gerriy: This is an amazing chapter! The best one that I have read so far in this story. It was great on so many different levels. I was crying with Nyota by the end. You put so much thought and work into each chapter it is unbelievable. I can't wait for the next installment. Excellent work.
It's heartening, as a writer, to know that your readers "feel" for the characters and the situations you put them into... and I love it that no one wants the baby to die. Awwww!
TODAY:... Still no word back from Gus. Idiot. I'm documenting everything he DOESN'T do and am forwarding it to the State Bar. (They're still investigating him.)