Words Written: (Saturday) “Valentine”: 670; (Sunday) Animal Attractions: 500

Damnable headache.

I woke up at 5 a.m. or so yesterday, took drugs, stumbled back to bed. Slept far later than planned. Still had headache. Had headache all day, in fact, although it started to subside at Meg & Matt’s after a glass of wine. So between that and a long discussion about bookcases and finally getting out to run errands, I didn’t actually start writing until nearly 11 p.m. (On a Saturday. That I was going to devote primarily to writing.)

But it wasn’t a total loss, because I did finish the story, which needs a real title (suggestions welcome—again, it’s for a Valentine-themed romantic lesbian erotica anthology).

We did buy more bookshelves. Awhile back we picked up some at CostPlus, which we set up in the office in this house, but I thought we needed more, and there was much back-and-forth discussion because they’re not ideal (they’re open on the sides, for one thing, although because history/travel/SCA/NF books will go on them, large ones can be put on the ends), but we have them and in the end we agreed that buying more, as opposed to trying to sell these and buy different ones, was the best plan. We had seen the same ones at Bed Bath & Beyond (CostPlus no longer carries them), and learned that indeed, they were still at BB&B, at half the price we found online at The Container Store. (The Container Store is an extremely sexy store, but so very stupidly overpriced. It’s a great place to go for ideas…and then to run very fast away from and buy the items for half the price elsewhere.)

One of the shelves is cracked, so we’re going to check all of them (we bought four sets, and have already decided to buy two more—we’ll be lining a whole wall with them) and exchange what we need to. Ken needs to put a retaining bar along the wall (that’s to bolt the bookshelves to the wall, for those of you who don’t live in earthquake country), and then we can unpack lots more books. Which would be a Very Good Thing for many reasons, not the least of which being that boxes and boxes of books are piled in the sewing room where Ed & Marian will be sleeping come Wednesday.

While Ken was buying the shelves, I popped into Borders with a list of books to buy, but only found three things I needed: Metallic Love by Tanith Lee, a sequel to The Silver Metal Lover, which is my favorite book; Sword & Sorceress XXI, which has stories by Jenn and Heather Rose Jones (Mistress Tangwystl in the SCA), and also a bunch of people I don’t actually know; and the July issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, which has a story by my friend Annie Reed (no website, but there’s some info about her here).

On our way to the Valley, we also stopped at Target, which I didn’t realize is under some construction, so I didn’t find everything on my list. The headache didn’t help, nor did the fact that I don’t much like shopping anyway.

Then we went to Darling Meglet’s (she remains very pregnant), and she made garlic chicken for supper (mmmm) and we provided dark chocolate fondue and strawberries for dessert, and we met their lovely friend Allison, and Matt gave me an article about Arts & Crafts homes that he saved for me.

And they told us they’re moving to Boston.

[sniff] They’ve been wanting to move east for a long time, so it wasn’t so much of a surprise, but it’s certainly a sad thing for us. Meg said, “But you come out to Boston a lot to visit Teresa,” and I had to point out that now she and Teresa would be getting into chick fights over who loves me more and who gets time with me. (All I can say is, somebody make sure there’s video…)

After dinner we came home and I got some writing done before I fell over in a wibbly heap of fatigue.

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I’m not sure if the neighbors have acquired a small yappy-type dog, but I truly hope that for everyone’s sanity, it’s a friend’s dog that’s visiting while the neighbors have a trashy yard sale. Because the dog is between the two houses, and the sound echoes and carries, and it’s been an hour or so and we’re already prepared to do something drastic. Being an animal lover, my plan is to either (a) put tranquilizers in a piece of meat and feed it to the dog, or (b) find the dog’s owner and hurt him/her.

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Ack! Ken’s dad and wife are in the area and want to stop by! I didn’t plan for this! We have to go to Costco, and Morgana & Brian are coming over in the evening. Crap. At least we’ll get a free lunch out of it, but now I have to get dressed and see if I can get any work done in half an hour.

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Long day. Edited much of the novel collab chapters, but late. Headache started again this evening but seems like I’ve beaten it back for now. Very tired. No ability for complete sentences. Love you all, must have lunch, but must sleep first.

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Currently Reading: The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown

Lately Listened To: small yappy-type dog

Recently Watched: “Buffy”, final episode plus extras