Mmm, breath like icky

[dragonlady7]

Where my mouse should be, there's a dog instead.
When I go to use the mouse, she licks my hand.
I would mind this less if she didn't have absolutely terrible breath.

Last night she decided to play a game. "I will sit on your lap," she said, "although I am not a lap dog, and try to lick your face."
"Ok," I said. "Here, I'll pet your neck and say kind things to you."
"How about I lick your face?"
"Ack. No. Please. Your breath. Ugh. I just exfoliated. No. Here, I'll hold your ears over your eyes and make you make a Shar-Pei face."
"Yay!! I'm going to lick your face."
"Ack! How did you reach me? Ok, ok, fine. I'm going to sit up really straight and pet your back now."
"OK. Supernatural tongue of distance licking, go!"
"Aaaahhhh! How did you do that?"

Dave's conclusion was that I should stop using pork-flavored facial moisturizer.

I stealthily crept upstairs last night while the dog was asleep on the couch, and she never noticed where I'd gone. Unfortunately, that means that when she had to poo (I swear, I let her out at 11 to poop, and she got me up at 7 to poop, and how can a dog poop so much?) in the middle of the night, she did so on the floor. But she gets points for effort; she pooped on the floor right in front of the door, and apparently nowhere else.
I guess she's a little dog and can only hold so much poop, you know?

What gets me is that, although she is less than half the size of any dog my family has ever owned, she produces just as much poop, and in the same size piles.
She's a beagle, with the bowels of a German Shepherd. I don't know.

Well, enough about poop. It's nearly twenty to eight in the morning, and I am going to use this time to get something constructive done.

Like writing. Anglachel, whose handle I only just figured out (OK, OK, I am not as dorky as I should be, and did not recognize the name of Gurthang before it was renamed. I am sorry, I am not worthy of being a Tolkiengeek. I just looked it up. Where was I?) has given me permission to use some of the events of her story Hands of the King-- namely, a summer war against Harad and Rhun that takes place during the spring and summer of the year 2975 and involves Thorongil, Gondorians, and the Rohirrim.

I am writing a story called Protector of Horses (working title) that deals with Eomund, the father of Eomer of Rohan. (And Eowyn.) Eomund was the chief Marshal of the Mark under Theoden until he was killed in 3002; he was an important person and must have been a great warrior.
But Tolkien specifies, in Unfinished Tales I think, that Theoden was active in Rohan's military but never saw much beyond parade service, as things were largely peaceful in Rohan during his reign.
How did Eomund win recognition as a warrior?

We do know that Gondor was continually fighting battles with Harad, Umbar, and Easterlings, and increasingly Morgul-forces as time went on. (After 2953, the Enemy was openly returned to Mordor.)
We also know that two of Thengel's great uncles, Folcred and Fastred, were killed when the Rohirrim sent a force to aid Gondor in repelling an attack. The heir to the throne of Rohan and his twin brother both fell in battle in Gondor, and were buried by the river. A younger son, Fengel, who turned out to be incompetent, took the throne, and his son Thengel hated him so much he went to live in Gondor until Fengel died in 2953 and his marshals came to beg him to come back.

It seems not unreasonable, then, that those among the Rohirrim renowned for battle prowess should gain it in serving in Gondor's wars. In 2975, Thengel is still king. Eomund is quite a young man, but it seems to me as though he would be involved in a war of this sort. It also seems to me that to collaborate with someone expert in Gondorian history would make this much easier than making up a campaign of my own involving Gondor, because honestly, until I looked just now, I didn't know where Umbar was. Yes. So.

Anglachel has given me permission to use her events, kindly (thanking me for asking, because most don't. She has some renown as a fanfic writer, and many of her stories' features have been widely emulated without giving her any credit), and has also been kind enough to send me a timeline and some notes. It's quite exciting to... it's not really collaborating, but it's sharing ideas and resources, which is nice... with someone whose work I respcect so much. I won't get into my feelings on fanfiction in general because I just don't feel up to explaining just now and all my attempts thusfar have sounded snarky.

At any rate, the story will turn out much better than it would have if I'd made something up, because she's covered all kinds of details I wouldn't have thought of. I've been trying to return the favor; she doesn't generally write Rohirrim and so her knowledge of their intricacies is a little less detailed, but still.

Maybe this will help me not suck so much when I try to write. I've gotten bogged down and stayed bogged for a couple of weeks now, and it's getting way old.

In entirely other news, when I snuck upstairs to go to Dave's bed, he actually snuggled me. He never does that. It was very cute. This morning when I left to let the dog out, he came downstairs because he heard the garbage truck down the street and was horrified that we hadn't put the trash out.
But I had, including the bundled piles of branches from where we'd reduced the bushes his mom had left lying in the lawn to neat bundles, using a hand saw and our own particular technique. (Dave would saw, in a manly fashion, until the saw got stuck, whereupon I would take the branch and break it in half to free the saw.)
So he told me I was "the best", and went back up to sleep. He's so cute.

Comments

[qowf.livejournal.com]

YAY for you writing!

Let me know if you want beta. I'm so up for it.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Really? Sweet!
I still owe you a once-over of PoD. I will, one of these days. Let me know when it's at a good point for that. :)

[qowf.livejournal.com]

Whenever. God knows there's enough of it now. I'm trying to redo my entire website, re: SO MUCH JUNK, and that includes adding all the LOTR and the Angel stuff. So, maybe before I add it?

Whenever. We've got 6 chapters now. Aiee.