What I've Been Up To:

Highlights roughly in order:

• Spent quality time with my parents


• Helped set marks for a sail boat race


• Took a cruise of the Thimble Islands


• Helped pick monster zucchini on one of the Thimbles


• Ate blueberry coffee cake and Dad's Blueberry Pie (TM) with real Michigan blueberries


• Went sailing on a gusty day without capsizing


• Went to a restaurant with the same name as my father.


• Judged the SpaceWesterns.com senryu contest entries--winners are now available online! (Some of my favorites did not make the cut.)


• Celebrated a wedding anniversary


• Visited with old friends


• Had dinner and watched movies with new(ish) friends


• Stayed out 'til almost 1 a.m. with said friends, which is remarkable for its infrequency


• Went to see the superhero exhibit at the Met in New York


• Debated the virtues of Stark Tech vs. Wayne Tech.


• Had hot chocolate with dragonladyflame


• Wrote several "e-mails" and "interludes" from the perspective of my vampire alter-ego for the Dogs in the Vineyard game I mentioned awhile ago


• Started learning about grant writing


• Ordered and received skzbrust's new Vlad Taltos novel (which my husband promptly devoured), nalini_singh's most recent Psy-Changeling novel (because waiting for it to become available through the library was driving me nuts), and blue_succubus's Storm Born, the first in her new series.


• Typed portions of a new short story I wrote mostly on scrap paper.


• Neglected to turn anything in to Arielle for my first "hold me accountable for fiction" deadline.


• Got paid for freelance work.


• Went to the dentist.


• Spent all day at the beach with a large group of fifth to eighth graders and had an absolute ball.


• Went to B&N to replace Storm Born, as my copy arrived with water damage from the copious amount of rain we've been having.


• Went back to the beach to have a grill out with my Dogs in the Vineyard group.


• Discovered that spending time from 10 a.m. through, effectively, 7 p.m. at the beach leads to sunburn on the face.


• Had my poor vampire almost die. Again. She made it. Also again.


• Found the aloe in the med kit still packed from Greece and Turkey.

I think there's actually more (not that this isn't enough), but I'm a bit exhausted right now (probably due to the sun as much as the time), so I'm going to turn in. Tomorrow is another day with family (I hope!), Friday is a D&D game after work, and Saturday and Sunday I'll be at Mythcon in New Britain, CT (just up the road). If you're also going to be there, send a holler!

I'll try to be back on a somewhat regular blogging schedule next week.