I was supposed to babysit for the kids down the street today, but woke up feeling a little crummy so I canceled. They'd spent the week after Christmas puking, so they really didn't want to take any chances anyway. (No puking for me this time; just feels like the beginning of a mild cold. 'Tis the season, I guess.) Made a little headway toward getting our routine started again; Garrett wrote a paragraph about Chasmosaurus and then we played a shopping game. Kate said she wanted to write some words on her chalkboard, but then I made the mistake of asking her if she could use a lower-case a, which sent her off into weeping fits because her line was longer than mine.

Oh, these perfectionistic genes.

Anyway, it's one of those rainy winter days I am more than happy to spend inside with a candle glowing cozily in the kitchen (fragrance: sugar cookie). It looks as if we will be on the ice/rain boundary of this latest midwestern winter storm; we always seem to be either too far south or too far north.

But! I get to use my new pasta pot to make dinner tonight, and there is nothing better than breaking in a shiny, new kitchen gadget. Especially when it comes with a colander insert and steamer that allows you to cook pasta *and* steam veggies at the same time, in the same pot!

Easily pleased, I am.

Also very pleased to hear that Ben Rosenbaum is on the Nebula ballott this year. Nancy introduced me to Ben at Wiscon this year, where he spent some time making my kids giggle at dinner. A very nice guy is Ben, and a wonderful writer to boot. I'll be crossing my fingers for him.

As far as my own writing goes, I put my foot in the stirrup this afternoon. Decided to not completely rewrite the prologue, and added a dog to chapter 1. Now I'm pondering whether or not to make my protagonist epileptic.

Ah, the life of a writer...