8 January 2002

This morning I went and voted in the Preditors and Editors Poll. I would encourage you to do likewise. I won't tell you who to vote for -- I'll just note that there's more than one familiar face on the list, and if you like certain writers, editors, poets, and artists better than certain other ones, go vote for them.

Hey! I'm getting all my mail! Well, I'm theoretically getting all my mail. I haven't gotten the stories for next week's crit group meeting. But I've gotten mail from Saturday that was addressed to my @gritter.dsg.stanford.edu address. And we have DSL now, so that address is under Mark's control every step of the way. When we had cable modem, we had to go through Stanford with it: Stanford to our AT&T @ Home accounts to Mark's computer. Now we skip the first two. Yay.

After Timprov and I got back from acquiring various and sundry good things, I started writing a new picture book text. Out of Apples. It's about the dangers of baking with daddies who are magicians. I'll probably finish it today -- won't take too long -- and send it out. Why not? They're fun to do, little kids' books. I still wish I had a "chapter book" idea, but I'm knee-deep in grown-up book right now, hoping to be neck-deep fairly soon, so I can wait on that one.

We still know of no good Italian places in our area. Ack! Mark and I tried another one last night, a new one over on Mowry. Meh. Not worth going. (On the up side, it inspired me and I'm going to make a risotto, mostly to remind myself of how they ought to taste.) At this point, we're going to be stuck driving to Walnut Creek or Palo Alto (about equidistant) for good Italian. This can't be right. Surely there's something closer. Anybody? Anybody? Hmm. Well, how about in Berkeley or Oakland, then, nearish to a BART station? We're going to try going out for tapas again next time Amber is free. We really do listen to suggestions. We're all open-minded and stuff. Really.

So. The agenda for the day includes going up to hang out with David and have the Great Book Exchange (borrowing! lending! returning borrowed books! and giving him a Christmas present! if my backpack will hold all of that), finishing Out of Apples, and working on the Not The Moose Book. Figuring out what the real reason for the renegade louhi group's split was. I figure, in any rebellion, you've got the deep, serious reason that was the initial goal or motivation in the rebellion, but soon at least one flashier idea gets attached to it. Sometimes the flashy one takes over. I know the flashy one. I'm trying to figure out the quieter initial reason. It'll be good. I love this book.