moi?

“That’s the end?”

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That was my wife and son’s reaction when I read the final line of The Hobbit to them last night. (It was this edition, so we had to stop often to admire the artwork–although I can’t say I was fond of the way the elves were portrayed.)

As family reading time goes, this was a long one, or maybe it just seemed long because I was the only one reading it. Usually we trade chapters between the three of us, but there was no way I was going to ask my dyslexic wife to read all those dwarf names over and over. That would have been hell for her. And since my son is not enthusiastic about reading aloud at the best of times, I gladly took on the task myself.

The only problem: we were watching DVD previews of… something last week (not a good sign, eh?) and the LOTR blue ray was one of them my son was startled to hear Elijah Wood say the name “Gandalf.”

“Didn’t you know?” I said. “The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are set in the same world. They’re connected.”

“Oh. Let’s read those next.”

And my heart sank. I’m happy that he’s (finally) warming up to fantasy, but there’s no way I can ask my wife to read LOTR aloud, so all the books would be on me and me alone.

Not only that, but much of Fellowship… is freaking dire. I’m sorry; I know there are people out there who lurve the books so much they read them every year or whatever, but too much of the early travel stuff is just tedious. And Bilbo’s birthday party takes forever to get to.

I’m tempted to break the family rule and skip the books in favor of the movies.

Interview with me

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Here’s an interview with me at The Quillery, for those who like to read this sort of thing. There’s also a chance to win all three books in a giveaway.

An auspicious day

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Today is supposed to be a Pokemon league day, but the boy woke up in the middle of the night with a bad cough, and I don’t take him when he’s all coughing on people. At this point, though, he seems fine, so we’ll be heading out.

In other super-fun news, I’ve started tracking my calories with Livestrong as of today. Reading Scott Lynch’s recent post on the topic, I accepted that there’s really no more excuses for putting it off. The writers who’d taken control of their fitness/eating all seem to be quite a bit younger than me–and that will make things harder–but it’s not like I’m going to turn 30 again.

If nothing else, I expect recording everything I eat will be an opportunity to re-examine my food habits. I used to use fasts for this, but my wife hates fasting, so what the hell.

Quick note: I’m not looking for advice regarding weight and weight loss.

Another take on Conan

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Chris Sims liked Conan more than I did.

Also, over the weekend, I posted a link to what appears to be the French cover for Child of Fire. (I know it’s plural; no big)

Today I’ll be writing and taking my son swimming.

Day camp for daddies

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Per my son’s long-standing request, he is in day camp this week. It’s spendy but not too too spendy, and his best buddy is there, so we’re letting him hang out all day with other kids.

Which means that this stay-at-home parent and writer has an opportunity for some extra work time.

It’s also an opportunity to follow interesting blog posts into the comments, or to open lots of interesting articles from links on Twitter, or visiting Facebook for some unknown reason, or reading webcomics, or… The list is nearly endless. Plus I have dinner to make, laundry to fold, and composting to do.

I’ve often said the Internet is a temporal gas: it expands to fill the free time you have. Therefore I’m turning off my internet and starting work (jeez, it’s already past 11 am! I meant to post this an hour ago.)

Going offline

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I have an avalanche of emails to go through and lots of online stuff to manage, but I’m going offline for most of today to do some writing. If I owe you an email or a twitter response, I’ll try to get to it later this afternoon.

Time to take some Tylenol and go.

DATE NIGHT!

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My wife and I strolled through Ballard, visited the fish ladder at the locks (where we saw quite a few salmon–the run is still going strong), then had dinner. Pulled pork pizza with butternut squash, apples, pancetta, and garlic ftw. Thank you, Ballard Firehouse.

And Pikachu help me but my legs hurt, I’m covered with dried sweat and I can barely keep my eyes open. Bed! Tomorrow is for writing.

My mind is melded

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I’m taking a moment to log in at the library that there’s a new Mind Meld up at SF Signal. “What’s this?” you exclaim. “Harry has never linked to a Mind Meld column before! What makes this one so different?”

Well, click through, my friend. The only way you’ll find out is to click through.

(And me without my Spock ears.)

Hup!

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I just weighed my backpack with the computer and all my regular stuff inside: fifteen pounds, six ounces. Yikes. What’s more, that’s before I put that Pat Rothfuss novel in it.

I may need to rethink how I lug my crap around.

Today is our neighborhood festival

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There’s a huge slide set up around the corner and ponies are eating the grass of the baseball field. The art exhibit and other stalls are all set up, and there’s a beer garden, too. Bounce houses? didn’t see them on my way over but I can’t imagine they won’t be set up later.

I know my wife and son will be dropping by later to have their fun. I hope I can still be here to meet them.