the boy

De-stressing

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After a touch day, you know what makes things better? Riding a carousel with my wife and son, visiting the Pacific Place mall shopping center to watch their indoor “snow” fall–really just a bunch of bubbles, but it looked great and the boy loved it, checking out this year’s gingerbread house displays at the Sheraton (very nice!) and dinner at the boy’s new favorite restaurant. Pictures will be forthcoming.

I also discovered that Barnes & Noble has sold six of the nine copies of Child of Fire they stocked. That’s nice, too.

That said, there’s one more note to be dealt with in my book. I’ll reproduce it here in full:

[these empty lines suggest I meant to expand this scene, but after a month and a half I can’t remember what it was supposed to be. Note to self: make notes to self.]

It’s been longer than a month and a half now, but for the life of me I can’t remember what I was supposed to put there. Must have been important, huh? I’ll just delete the note and call it done. Tonight I’ll prep it and send it to my agent; I’ll polish while she reads, and thank Pikachu that this think is nearly done.

Latest state of the self report:

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I was late to the day job this morning (second day in a row) because I got sucked into the revisions of Man Bites World again. Luckily, my supervisor was late, too. We rode up on the elevator together.

Yesterday at dinner, my wife started talking about our plans for this evening–we’ll be checking out the gingerbread house displays downtown, as well as having a nice dinner and maybe ride the Westlake holiday carrousel. I’d completely forgotten about those plans. This morning, when I called her from my desk to catch up with whatever, I’d completely forgotten about them again. Note to self: don’t take the usual bus home tonight.

Anyway, Newtonmas is next week. The boy’s birthday party is this weekend. Shopping is not finished. MBW is still not finished, although I expect to have a draft I can send to my agent very, very soon. Unfortunately, I can’t work on it this Saturday because of the party.

Did I mention my trip to the dentist? I had a cavity that needed filling, and while it was the best visit I’ve had in a long, long while (a new guy took over this practice and I think he’s great) it was still a lot of added stress and pain.

I’m also criminally behind on my sleep. What this all adds up to is that I’m stressed, exhausted, forgetful, and negligent of my own needs. I can’t keep more than three things in my head at once (and the health care reform bills insist on being one of them no matter how annoying the news gets), and I spend most of my time feeling slightly sick.

So you can imagine my state of mind this morning when I received an invitation to Norwescon. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. It was Oh, hell no.

For those who don’t know, I’ve never been to a sf convention. I’ve been avoiding them partly because of cost and partly because they seem to be large social events full of people who already know each other. I don’t do well in crowds and I’m not comfortable with big groups of strangers.

Also, just yesterday I was reading Booklife by Jeff Vandermeer (btw: I’m reading Booklife and it’s interesting. More on that later) and he said it was best for authors to skip the types of promotion that make them uncomfortable.

“Perfect!” I didn’t say out loud on the bus. “I guess I don’t have to mingle with large crowds of strangers now!”

But then this email came today, and I’m currently over-fucking-whelmed with crap and you know what? I’m going to go anyway.

What the hell. It’s not until April, and considering my crazy schedule I will only be able to attend on Saturday, but the truth is that it scares me and makes me uncomfortable, and that’s reason enough to give it a go. The real downside is going to be the loss of my most productive writing day. Whatever. Once I do it, I can say I did it and never do it again.

They’re asking me to be on programming, which is a big huh? but okay. They’re also asking me to list people I don’t want to be on a panel with. I’m tempted to make up a name to two as a joke, but maybe they don’t have time for that. How am I supposed to know who to avoid?

Anyway, as grim as this post sounds, everything will be fine. I just have to buckle down a bit more and make sure I stick with sensible choices (for instance, going to bed when I’m stressed out instead of wandering my apartment like a ghost). But all this is doable and my wife has been very understanding. I just have to get through it.

Sorry this post is so long.

SETI@home and recipe contest followup

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As a followup to the previous post about a guy fired for loading SETI@home, apparently, he’d done other things as well, such as “bring home” 18 computers, download pron at work, and claim to have done work he hadn’t done.

So, it’s not the wacky story the idiotic cnet writer made it out to be.

Also, we ate the T-Day leftover empanadas from the recipe contest for dinner on Monday. Verdict: we liked it! The next time I make them, I’ll cut the salt in half for the pastry–it was a little thirst-inducing. Least favorite for everyone was the bacon and cheddar mix. The favorite was different for each, with the boy liking the gravy best, and my wife and I favoring the cranberry.

Yeah, I’ll be making them again.

Black Friday Non-Shopping and Leftover Contest Winner (Exclamation point!)

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And the winner is…

(drumroll)
Continue reading

The most boring Turkey Day report ever

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You know what’s interesting? Conflict, crisis, disaster, and unhappiness. That’s why this will be an incredibly boring post.

Everything I made turned out. My wife and son made an apple pie that was a little too wet, but it still tasted wonderful and the boy ate almost a third of it that day. The stuffing could have been more moist, but that’s my personal preference for clumpability; it certainly wasn’t dry by any standards. Our oven has been a little wonky lately, but the turkey was very nice and juicy. Even the last minute decision to make dinner rolls after all turned out beautifully.

My wife and I had Alton Brown’s sweet potato pie, which is fantastic for breakfast the next day, and made me feel like a Yankee. I’m going to have a lunch break in a few minutes, and a turkey/cranberry sandwich (on yesterday’s roll) is waiting.

It was a simpler year, with simpler recipes and a smaller spread. Even though we brought out the large plates (we usually eat our meals on small lunch plates to discourage binges) I took moderate helpings and left the table feeling full but not mistreated. And the giblet gravy was fantastic.

I even managed to do a little writing, play a board game with the family, and take a nice walk around the neighborhood to admire some of the fancier houses up the hill. I wish we could have more days just like it.

Today I’m at the day job, and things are very quiet. I guess everyone’s buying Lego Rock Band or whatever instead of refilling their meds. It’ll be nice to sit down with my lap top and get more writing done.

If you missed the Black Friday Leftover contest in my previous post, check it out.

Black Friday Non-Shopping and Leftover Contest!

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I’m scheduling this post for early Black Friday morning, when I’m going to be sound asleep. (At least, I hope I will be.) So I’m writing this just after eating a sizable but not gluttonous Thanksgiving dinner.

So! Have a friend who likes urban fantasy? Want to have a gift sent to them at no cost to you? You’re in luck: the prize for this contest is a signed, inscribed, giftwrapped copy of Child of Fire, which I will mail to your friend/family member/loved one/mortal enemy anywhere on the planet Earth.

I’ll inscribe it any way you like (within reason), and the gift wrap will be nice but non-denominational. I’ll also include a nice but non-denominational card, too, with “Do not open before [date you choose]!” written on the envelope. And don’t worry, my wife will do the actual wrapping; that ensures the package will not only look nice, but it won’t be sloppily cocooned in scotch tape.

This lets you cross someone off your gift list without spending a cent! How do you win the prize? Well, we have the remains of a 20 lb. turkey in our fridge, and we’re looking for recipes for the leftovers. Suggest something. You can give the recipe in detail, describe it in a general way, or just drop a link to something you like. On Sunday morning, my wife, son and I will look at all of the suggestions on my main blog, LJ, and Facebook, and together we’ll choose a recipe to try. If we choose yours, you win!

Helpful tips for folks thinking of entering: soups, sandwiches and pot pies will have to be really unique or special, since we make a lot of them already. Cheese will be a tough sell (we’re open-minded, but cheese and turkey?), and any sort of hot sauce or spicy pepper will get an immediate veto by the child. And, if we find two recipes that look great, we may have two winners.

At any rate, we’ll make the winner’s recipe and I’ll blog how it turned out.

You didn’t want to go shopping on Black Friday anyway, did you?

Turkey Day preparation

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The turkey is in the brine as of 6 am this morning, along with plenty of ice. The pork roast has been ground and mixed with spices for the sausage stuffing. The cranberry sauce is finished (with extra sugar this year to appeal to the boy–but not too much extra). I probably should have made the sweet potato pie last night, but the fridge had an awful lot of turkey in there and I was worried about the space. At least the dough for the crust is ready.

I’ll do today’s writing at lunch, then tonight I’ll make the pie and the stuffing. That leaves very little for tomorrow: taters, glazed onions, and whatever else I’m forgetting. My wife isn’t keen on dinner rolls, mainly because they take a lot of time, but we have the stand mixer now, and jeez, they make great sandwiches, so maybe I’ll toss those in the oven.

I have a lot of things to be thankful for this year, and maybe tomorrow I’ll make a full accounting. Today I’m just grateful that I seem to have stopped checking my Amazon.com sales ranking every 45 minutes.

My seven year old son made this

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DomoNation.com: duplicator by ding ding

Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com. It’s free and fun!

This is why people buy cars

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Yesterday after taking my son on our usual swimming trip, we bought ourselves bus transfers and headed out to a few local bookstores to sign copies of Child of Fire.

Details and narrative behind the cut, along with a little talk about public transportation. Continue reading

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Does anyone know of a web hosting/social networking site designed to let kids set up their own site? I happen to know a little person who does not want to use a folder on my personal site.