Oof. I spent two and a half hours cleaning, flat-out, this morning, after doing about an hour and a half last night. I am totally wiped out. Unfortunately, there's still a lot more to do...and even at that, I'm still totally avoiding the Death Corner in the living room, where about a hundred or so books live, stacked into untidy piles on the floor, because we don't have any shelf space for them. It may be time to think about getting a new bookcase...

I'd been planning to forget about cleaning this month (re: thesis, catch-up, etc), but this weekend our shower Went Bad, the washing-machine broke, and (most tragically of all, for me) even my latte machine stopped working. Obviously, the house has been disintegrating (and may possibly even be cursed)...and if we're ever going to be able to allow other people inside to fix things without deep humiliation, cleaning has to be done. Damn it.

I have friends who've told me (and of course I believe them) that they actually enjoy cleaning. I wish I did...

Oh well. It's been a good couple of reading days. I loved Jenn Reese's Ox, on Strange Horizons this week, and Heather Shaw's Sick Days, at The Fortean Bureau, was hilarious. And yesterday, after hearing recommendations from a whole lot of fabulous writers at WisCon, I finally hunted down the "straight" historical author Dorothy Dunnett and bought Niccolo Rising, the first in her series The House of Niccolo. It's fantastic! She was fantastic. I can't believe it's taken me until now to discover her books. Niccolo Rising is smart, witty, solidly historical, and exuberantly fun.

"I am not going. I don't need to go. They are Flemish pudding-makers."
"Say that again," said Felix. He took his hat off.
John and Anselm, on either side, changed position discreetly so that either could get hold of his dagger arm.

Anybody who likes the kind of books written by Ellen Kushner, K.J. Parker, or Judith Tarr, go now to the library closest to you!

Meanwhile, I'm off for more cleaning.