Snippets

Last night our dinner table conversation was a discussion of exactly how Darth Vader eats. Howard was a proponent of the “food block inserted through chest plate” option while Gleek was a vehement supporter of the “opening face plate” party. The discussion broke down when Gleek declared that Darth Vader’s real name was bubbles and Howard said “Wait, did we just take a left turn into Gleekland?” No firm conclusions were reached except that the word “bubbles” is made out of giggles.

Kiki has been reading books about kidnapped and/or raped girls lately. She’s read Hidden in Plain Sight: The Story of Elizabeth Smart and The Lovely Bones. As I understand it, both of the books are ultimately optimistic and the really hard stuff in them is touched only very lightly. Now all she need to read is Not Without My Daughter in order to have a perfect trifecta of books that I am completely unable to read as a mother. They hit too close to my fears and would hurt too much.

Gleek has decided that combing the cat should be her daily household chore. Both the cat and I think this is a marvelous choice.

It turns out that 24 hours is a long time after the opening of the GenCon hotel block. I completely forgot to register on Tuesday at noon, and by late Wednesday Howard’s preferred hotel was full. We found another close by, but it still had me a bit panicked last night. I don’t know why GenCon is always surrounded with a cloud of terror for me, but I am perpetually afraid that I will make some mistake which irrevocably ruins the event for us.

Speaking of conventions, Howard’s April has changed from empty to full. He’ll be attending both Ad Astra in Toronto Canada and Penguicon in Michigan. Penguicon is especially notable because Howard will be there with Brandon, Dan, and Jordo of the Writing Excuses crew. They are going to have a great time.

XDM X-Treme Dungeon Mastery is now available in e-book versions via both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. That was last week’s project.

I meet with our tax accountant today. Hopefully he will not have very much homework for me.

Patch has been reading through our family photo books at bedtime because he “wants to look into his past.” Last night he reproached me for a pair of photos I took of him as a baby. In the photos he’d grabbed an open yogurt container and accidentally dumped yogurt on his feet. Instead of instantly helping him clean up, I took two pictures of yogurt covered baby. 7 year old Patch thought this was nigh villainous of me. I hugged him and assured him that I helped him clean up the moment I put down the camera.

Last night Kiki and I had a long and rambling talk about boys, relationships, life plans, and a host of other things. During the course of the conversation we determined that she is completely normal, which was something of a relief for her to learn. Apparently that “all teenagers think they are weird” thing is not a myth. Also the “teenagers never listen to their parents” thing is a myth, at least for Kiki. I hope that she and I continue to have many conversations about many things through the years.

After being sick over the weekend, Link is read to pick up his health and fitness schedule again. I’m pleased to see that the time off did not break his motivation.

LTUE begins one week from today. I need to clear away some space in my brain so that I can contemplate the topics of the four panels I will be on. Not much preparation is needed for most of them. I just need to dust off my thoughts so that they’re a ready resource. The one for which I do need to prepare is the session on financial management. I’m the moderator and I want to make that hour as packed with information as I possibly can.

I’m at about 50% on my project revision. I’d hoped to have it done by now, but since I am continuing to make progress instead of stalling completely, I plan to just keep going. Eventually I’ll work my way to the end.

And now it is time to head out on my errands for the day.