Reading: The Fellowship of the Ring
Music: Tom Wait's "Swordfish Trombone"
TV/Movie: Guys & Dolls
Link o' the Day: MidAmerican Fan Photo Archive

So I'm taking a whizz at work--in the men's room if you must know, and after I flush, I close the lid.

The women out there don't see much wrong with the above statement, although they'd prefer I not soil their eyes with the word "whizz". The men are all going: !!???!!??

I know. I was taken by surprise too. Apparently this is what happens when you start living with a woman. Now it's not what you think. This isn't the old "put the toilet seat down, you rat-bastard" sort of thing that many couples apparently go through. Pretty Maggie, despite similarly not having as much experience living with the opposite gender, hasn't made an issue of the seat position. She's great.

But we do have a cat. A kitten, to be more precise. A curious kitten to be absolutely precise. The sort of kitten who gets curious about stuff and who, as a result, tips and falls into the toilet when not supervised.

So now I have gotten into the habit of shutting the lid to the toilet at home. This habit has now creeped into my worklife.

What's next?

And speaking of the cat, it's taken to ripping up and chewing my bedroom wallpaper. What's up with that?

* * *
We come ever closer to Torcon. About a week away. I can't wait. The amount of work I have piled up for me for beforehand is a bit staggering, but I can get a lot done this week if I concentrate. I have some stories to work on. Some typesetting projects--some already paid for. I'm about halfway done with the first draft of the SFWA Bulletin--there's a very interesting article on writer's block in it by Leslie What. Gregory Feeley talks at length about postmodernism in the Harry Potter books. There are some spoilers in there, so I had to lay out the article with one eye shut. One of the weird secrets of typesetting is that we don't necessarily have to read what we set. That's the editor's job. We make sure all the trees are lined up nice and straight and leave it to someone else to make sure the forest is in order.

* * *
My answering machine had a message yesterday from Jane Kean. I think that makes her the most famous person to call my machine. I received a nice letter from William Nolan once, and personal praise passed to me from Jean Porter, now I'm getting phonecalls from old Hollywood celebs. Tres cool.

* * *
Pretty Maggie picked up an 80s trivia game. It's a fun game, and quicker to play than Trivial Pursuit. I still suck at all sports questions, but I did pretty well elsewhere. Its biggest peril is that the music questions summon up these awful tunes from your past and you can't get them out of your head!!!

Still, it's fun.

* * *
Today's link is another faanish one. It's MidAmerican Fan Photo Archive maintained by upcoming future Torcon roomie, Keith Stokes. It's a great site for those who like convention photos--to see what all they missed, and to put faces with names usually only read about. Whenever I do a convention gallery, I always make sure it's linked here as well. While Fanac.org has some great old photos, the MidAmerican site has all the latest.

Cheers!