confusion

Got back very late Sunday night, was too swamped yesterday to do much blathering, sorry. Lots of fun in Michigan! Visited my in-laws, saw "As Good As It Gets" (really enjoyed it). My sister-in-law's name is Debbie Ridpath, which makes things fun when we're introducing each other to other people. :-) Anyway,
Allison's Confusion report will have all the details about the con. Lots of fun, renewing old acquaintances, meeting new ones. Our concert with Ookla The Mok was way fun, and the audience seemed to be enjoying themselves as well. :-) I'll post some pics when they're developed. The open filks and jams were great, and as a result none of us got much sleep over the weekend...it was well worth it, though. Came home to a couple thousand biz-related emails, eek. Guess I hired Rand just in time. :-)

Inkspot's first banner advertiser is up!

home again

Got home late last night. At the Calgary airport, I ran into my old high school music teacher while we were returning our rented car! I saw her walking by me on the Budget Rent-A-Car lot, looking a bit hassled, so wasn't sure if I should approach her or not. I decided (on Jeff's prompting) to go ahead anyway: "Um...excuse me, did you ever teach music at Bramalea Secondary School?" and was relieved to find out that she remembered me. :-) She said she was sorry to hear about my brother (who also used to be a student of hers), asked what I was doing now, was introduced to Jeff.

This morning, discovered that the scadding maintenance
work has moved to the front of our building, just outside my office window. The noise is horrendous; I've resorted to wearing earplugs. Picked up 2200 emails from my business account since I sent Inklings out on Friday; I suspect many of these are bounced issues (I've been collecting them for the past hour).

I'll be spending most of today sorting through the chaos that has accumulated over the past couple of weeks as well as unpacking. Also, trying not to go insane from the drilling noise outside my window!

In an effort to save time, I'm resorting to ordering groceries online this week (from http://www.foodforyou.net). I notice they've made a few changes since I tried them last time, including a delivery time preference (which was my major complaint).

The picture above was taken by Jeff on a digital camera yesterday morning at my Favourite Reading Spot in Kananaskis. I read most of STEIN ON WRITING (by Sol Stein) there, as well as part of Stephen King's DESPERATION.

short blather

Batya! Glad to see you over on blatherchat!! And thanks to those who posted Worldcon reports...sounds like it was a ton of fun. Sorry for not posting the Contata report yet; Allison sent it to me but I haven't had a chance to HTMLize it yet and might not be able to for a few days (volunteers welcome :)).

Tonight Craig's coming over and we're going to be doing some webstuff. He still hasn't forgiven me for posting the URL to his stale website on my blatherings a while back and is determined to spiff it up.

I've given up on the Food For You online grocery service...in spite of promising a certain delivery time window, they were unable to come through again.

mush

Did some babysitting yesterday. Sara was waiting for me on the front porch...Ruth said Sara was so excited about my visit (I haven't been over for two weeks) that she insisted on waiting outside for me after coming home from daycamp. I'm glad I showed up 20 minutes early! When she saw me, she came barrelling down the front walk at me with a huge grin on her face. Annie (who was peering out the front screen door) immediately began pounding on the door and bellowing to be let out. Both of them always like showing me things when they first see me. This time, Sara gave me a piece of white paper and some rocks and told me that it was a craft I could do, arranging the rocks on a pattern on the paper (which I did immediately, of course, right there on the front lawn in the sun). Annie held out a toy dog to me and happily yelled, "DAH!" which I interpreted as meaning, "Look! I have a toy dog!". I admired the dog, and that seemed to please her because she wrapped her arms around my legs and called me "Mama". :-)

Hyped by the SCBWI conference and encouraged by my mss critique, I've started heavily revising the manuscript for my first book. I've set a deadline for myself for the end of September. After that, I hope to finish my other book and send it off; wish me luck!

OFFICEMUSIC: Nightnoise - "A Different Shore"

contata

Online now at
http://www.inkspot.com/blatherings/reports/contata98report.html. Sorry I didn't have time to scan more pics, might add some later.