How'd it get to be June already? The year's nearly half over!

But it's been a good year, so I can't complain.

It hasn't been a tremendously eventful few days since my last entry. I revised the hell out of "Dream Engine" and got it ready to send out today. I finished Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff, which is excellent. The last third isn't quite as compelling as the first two-thirds, but it's still great. Can't decide what to read next. I'll probably finish Murder of Angels, then try Trash Sex Magic.

Today I got a nice big check for my Dean Koontz essay, so Heather and I ran out and spent money! We had brunch at Mama's Royal Café, including some mimosas (to celebrate Heather's new editing gig!). Then we bought a couple of DVDs we'd been wanting (second season of The West Wing, first season of Northern Exposure), as well as a few used XBox games (they were having a buy-two-get-one-free sale!) -- the first Buffy game, Enter the Matrix (which is great fun), and one of the Hitman franchise. We've got enough entertainment to last us for a good long while, and enough games to tide us over until Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas comes out this fall. We also went grocery shopping, and loaded up on good stuff, including some gin & tonic, because it's summertime, and I love gin & tonic in the summer.

Hmm. Not much else to mention, except our household misadventures. About 3 a.m. Thursday morning we woke to the sound of jackhammers on our street, which made it difficult to sleep. And when we got up in the morning -- surprise! No water! So no coffee, no shower, etc. Pretty much sucked. My hair gets greasy fast, and after a whole day without a shower I felt unspeakably disgusting. Fortunately the water was running by the time we got home, and I showered straightaway. Now, in unrelated excitement, the landlady has hired people to paint our house. There's scaffolding everywhere, and we were awakened about 9 a.m. today to the sound of power washers spraying the wall of our bedroom. Gah. They're going to be here painting for weeks, apparently. The house needs a paintjob (actually, it needed a paintjob ten years ago), so I'm glad, but it's going to be a bit annoying around here for a while. C'est la vie.