Nika is such a flirt! This morning she and I walked Patrick to the bus stop. A woman was already standing in the bus shelter, so we politely took up position a little way away and started the usual routine of courteous ignoring between strangers. Not Nika, though! She batted her eyelashes at the woman. She wiggled imploringly. She wagged hopefully. She grinned. She let out little whimpers of wanting. We pretended not to be aware of it, while carefully holding her back on the leash. Finally, the woman laughed and said, "You know, your dog has been making eyes at me for the past minute or so. Is it okay if I pet her?"

Nika was in bliss. Any day she can entice strangers into petting her is a Very Good Day, in her estimation.

Yesterday was not such a good day in anybody's estimation, because I spent the morning frantically rewriting my latest fellowship application (no time for fiction writing--gaarh!), and then wrote today's conference paper from 2pm to 10pm, when I finally, finally finished a draft. And yeah, it's really Just A Draft. (Camille, of course you recognize that phrase? :) ) I'm not sure how well the beginning of the paper matches the end. I'm not entirely convinced by the argument I made. But it's Finished, and for a department study day, that's all that matters. I'm leaving in about 40 minutes. Sadly, I just found a big muddy smudge on my nice trousers (a remnant of drying Nika off after the walk through the rain, I think), so I need to change clothes, but apart from that, I think I'm basically ready. Oh, am I looking forward to it being over and winter break beginning...

I only managed to write a few lines of Music of the Stars this morning, but at least that's enough to make me feel that Progress Continues To Be Made, which is the important thing. Yesterday our copy of the Clarion West newsletter arrived, with the announcement of our wedding (yay!) and a wedding photo that turned out really well in black-and-white. It made me happy even in mid-Paper Panic!