By the usual popular demand, here's the latest batch of River pictures, including photos of River vs. The Devouring Mamatas and of River with his dual eye patches. His follow-up appointment yesterday went fine, the patches were removed, and after a rather groggy and cranky day, he was pretty much his old self again by evening -- laughing, babbling, and enjoying his new Rainforest Jumperoo toy (his "brave boy" present).

I totally forgot to link to Barth Anderson's The Magician and the Fool, his Tarot novel, which was released on the same day (from the same publisher!) as my Poison Sleep. I can't wait to read it!

Not a lot going on -- or, rather, there's a lot going on, but not much of it is interesting. So, um, don't expect this to be interesting...

I'm gearing up for the last month of writing on the fourth Marla book, and hope to make some good progress on it this weekend. (It's the first weekend in a month where we haven't had plans, or visitors, or the need to clean out our old apartment, or whatever, so I should have some time to hunker down and type.)

We're eating way too often at the Merritt Bakery, which is two blocks from our apartment and has amazing chili cheeseburgers, good sandwiches, good fries, etc. The problem is, when we go in there, it's hard to resist buying a slice of cake, or an eclair, or whatever... and it's not like our dinner choices are all that healthy; putting dessert on top of it is just overkill.

Though, bizarrely, on my walk yesterday I realized my pants were really loose, and upon getting home and weighing myself discovered that I've somehow lost ten pounds in the past six weeks. I'm mystified -- I've been eating pretty horribly, because we've been so busy that food is frequently an afterthought. Maybe the stress is working as a diet plan...

I finished reading Duma Key, which was good, but depressing. Now I'm reading more Peter Wimsey mysteries (currently Unnatural Death).

So, basically: kid is good, food is delicious, I like books, the end.