30 July 2002

Well, yesterday didn't go quite as planned. Jenn had a hard time finding the restaurant and a really horrible day. (Don't follow that link if you don't want to read about bad things happening to kittens. The short version is: her foster kitten Sheridan got very sick and died.) I'm really sad for her, and I know that there's really nothing good to say when someone's pet dies. Jenn is coming over late this morning, so maybe we'll get to do something fun and distracting.

(I don't think I've said how much I respect her for serving as a foster-mom for kittens. I really do. I think it takes an amazing amount of heart to love animals enough to want to take care of them and enough to let them go to loving families so that you can help more of them.)

Robert did make it over, but I had forgotten that he doesn't eat vegetables. I managed not to wail, "But that's where all the good stuff is!" and made Everybody's Chicken (or Yourchuck's Chicken or Chicken of A Thousand Breaths) instead of the chili I'd planned on. And all was well there and with the cake as well. (This is why I totally don't believe people who claim that fat is where the flavor goes in food. Because most vegetables are very flavorful and have no or low fat.) We got to hang out and talk and have fun, and he left in time for me to get more work done, which was good, too. Oh, and we used the lovely wine glasses Mary Anne gave me last year. I always like their blueness, but there are three of them, so usually we don't get to share them with company. This time Timprov was asleep for supper, though, so we did.

I got a bunch of presents yesterday! So that was another good thing. I attempted to thank Zak for Luria's The Man with a Shattered World, but his e-mail is still broken, and I don't have Sharon's e-mail on hand. So -- thanks, Zak and Sharon! I will read about brain injuries and think of you. I also got books and the complete symphonies of Sibelius from Mark's folks (work music!), a gift card from my godfathers (books!), and a Norwegian joke book from Robert. I love birthday presents.

(Speaking of which, The Eyre Affair is alternating between charming me -- Mycroft's gadgets are fabulous -- and making me roll my eyes until they about fall out of my head. The character of Jack Schitt appeared in the bit I read yesterday. He had been previously unknown to the main character. Sigh.)

Hmm...so I did take some of the newspapers out yesterday, but not all of them. Time got away from me, I'm afraid, and there are lots of newspapers. It's on the agenda for today. Taking out newspapers, hanging out with Jenn, going to tea with Mark, working on the book (!), reading The Eyre Affair. Lots o' plans. Lots o' plans for the rest of the week, too. Some of them on the order of taking out the newspapers (woo hoo hoo hoo) and some much more exciting.

Yesterday and the day before, I got e-mails telling me stories of mine were on the short list for a couple of magazines, one of them a new semipro and one a pro-payer that's been around awhile. (The pro is considering a story that isn't mine but ours, a collab of Timprov's and mine.) That's a nice feeling, better than nothing, although it doesn't mean a sale yet. Seems like a lot of things don't mean a sale yet. I am feigning patience the best I can, but I would really like to know right now on a number of things. The story I revised for Stan Schmidt, for example. Reprogramming has been at Baen since January, but I expected that, and I expect it to be there longer -- they claim their response times are 9 months, and almost nobody ever responds in shorter intervals than they state. So...look at me being such a good kid, patient and all of that. Look. Really.

If I look patient enough, then I will be rewarded. I'm almost sure of it.