Day in the Life of an Idiot

I just want to say a quick "hello" before going back to being head down over the keyboard. I'm trying to finish a fist draft of PRECINCT 13 this week so I can get it to beta readers and off to the publisher before we get into the "omg, so OVERDUE" part of the deadline missage.

I'm at a coffee shop this morning, however, because I have to head back up the hill to collect Shawn. She's got a doctor's appointment to get a vitamin B12 shot. This is suppose to be part of the cure for theright-side numbness that she had that sent us to the hospital all those months ago. Our big plan is, if the medicine doesn't make her sick, to have a lunch date afterwards.

We had a busy/not-busy weekend. We didn't have a lot on officially, but we did a lot of yardwork and we got the boxes of Halloween decorations out of the attic and STARTED putting those out/up. Halloween is one of our favorites, and I like to get creative. We built a garbage bag, leaf-stuffed spider for the front yard, and we started a scarecrow "victim" for her web. We're waiting to put up all the cobwebs until we get a new front door.

We've had a broken screen door for years. Part of the reason we haven't replaced it until now is that part of the issue is the when the spring broke, it took out part of the frame. I'm only SO handy and re-building door frames is out of my pay grade. But, we're going to see if Shawn's brother has the skill set. If nothing else, we're going to purchase the new door. We have a handyman on-call if we end up needing to pay someone.

Mason is taking swimming lessons again. He loves swimming, so it's a pleasant way to spend an hour or so on Saturday morning. I've been usuing the time to plot the novel and/or write to my pen pals (though I forgot to address the envelope this morning!)

That's about all the news fit to print. I had a great time on Friday going to the Occupy Minnesota demonstration at the "people's plaza" (formerly the government plaza) with Eleanor. We mostly did what Minnesotans do best -- stood around drinking coffee and chatting amiably. There was a little reading of declarations, but, generally, it was nice to be part of the movement in whatever small way I could. Because a nice woman gave me a sign that her daughter had made (the organize little fish eating the big one), a lot of people took pictures of my sign and I got interviewed by someone doing a "project" who wanted to know why I was there and what I hoped to get out of it. I said that what I'd like to see is more attention given to the middle class's' struggle by the media and politicians, and later Eleanor told me she was glad I answered that because she would have said, "REVOLUTION!"

I've also been enjoying the picture that's been going around Facebook of "Octopi Wall Street" because the day that Eleanor and I were there it was Cephlapod Appreciation Day.

High-Brow: I was invited to participate in a conversation about gender bias in the SF/F publishing industry and what to do about it. The conversation is archived here: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/006846.html. Please check it out and join in the conversation (there are a lot more interesting and articulate people than me participating.)

Low-Brow: Also, check out the very silly YouTube video promoting the mega-author signing my alter-ego had last night in Woodbury: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HXdiKexw7Jo. The signing, btw, was actually a great deal of fun, not because I signed a lot of books but because it's always so cool to hang out with other awesome romance authors (and collect industry gossip.)

In other news, I'm quite sunburned. Mason and I spent the day at the beach yesterday (from about 11:30 am to 3:00 pm). Yes, I DID remember sunscreen. The funny part is you can see where I hit my shoulders with the spray (there are dotted lines), and the rest of my skin is beet red. Mason, however, is unscathed, luckily, and desperate to go back to the water. Lake Josephine in Roseville is our favorite. It used to be a kind of white trash beach (complete with over-weight bikini clad chain smokers sunbathing in half submerged in lawn chairs in the water,) but they've since done a lot of revamping (a new beach house, life guards, smoking ban, etc.) and its more family friendly. I should note that we were quite fond of the beach in its trashier days as well, but it is a lot cleaner in terms of actual garbage now and I do appreciate that.

Then it was off to the signing which was fun. There are a number of Tate signings coming up that I've neglected to put on any calandar (including the official one at home), so part of told is going to have to be organizing my life a little better.

Good luck with that.

The only issue are the piranah. Okay, so obviously these aren't real piranah, but there are fish there that love to nibble on me. They don't seem to bite anyone else -- Mason can be sitting in the water right next to me, and the fish will circle me and bit at my under arms or legs. I thought I might just be kind of tasty, but I really think it's my swim suit. I noticed yesterday that I have flashing sliver threads in the suit that probably look exactly like bait.