Words Written: DFL: edits; AETW: notes

Where did the weekend go? Oh yes, spent a good portion of it with a sinus headache. Interestingly, my upper back was bothering me, too—perhaps another chiro adjustment is in order.

I also seem to have a weird cold. Last weekend, I had the usual symptoms, but went through them quickly, and felt better by Sunday night. But throughout the week I’ve had major congestion at different times. I can’t sleep when I can’t breathe, so I knew I was getting addicted to nasal spray, and promised myself I’d wean myself off it this weekend. Haven’t taken it since Thursday night. Now my throat’s been vaguely sore, on and off. Just don’t get it.

Saturday was mostly lost in the headachy haze. I had a long-overdue hair appointment. I napped, and overslept, and Ken was in the garage and didn’t realize what time it was, either, so we had to run around frantically and then dive into the car to go to Ojai. Got to Kelvin/Debbie/Ismay’s, and we all piled into one car to go into Ojai proper. First order of business was seafood, and it was yummy. Ken and I split a ceviche starter (mmmm, ceviche), and I had a pasta alfredo made from bleu cheese. It was more subtle than I expected, but quite tasty. When I asked for the seafood version (as opposed to the chicken version), I was thinking shrimp and scallops, but it also had clams, mussels, and two kinds of fish (salmon and something else). And mushrooms. Bleah. But overall, very good.

Kingdom of Heaven was better than I expected, although I wasn’t really sure what to expect. One review I read said it took too long to get to the battle, and I don’t really find battle scenes interesting, so that was fine with me. I was particularly impressed that it didn’t turn into a “Christians good, Muslims bad” treatise. Good stuff. Recommended.

On the way home, we caught part of the repeat of Wednesday’s Rockline (which I’d completely missed) with Styx, with lots of snippets from their new album (in stores Tuesday!) Big Bang Theory. Cover tunes, partly because of their success with “I Am the Walrus.” I’d been commenting to Ken that I needed to put together a playlist of songs to go with DFL, which is romantic erotica, and let me tell you, Larry’s version of “I Don’t Need No Doctor” is definitely going on there. Hubba hubba.

Today, I was headachy and a little mopey and draggy in the morning, but I did small things like defrost and cut up chicken to marinate for supper, and a few dishes, and feeding myself. Watched a lot of TV and worked on a new blackwork project. Then I…

• mailed five stories and done the attendant database update
• handled a wee bit of e-mail
• updated anthology list

Not quite as much as I was going for. But the headache had finally gone away by the time I finished all that, and I toddled downstairs and made another cup of tea and went to work. I edited Chapter 1 of DFL a little, before deciding that I’d done enough and could progress on with the story. There is a severe lack of transitions in the beginning, and a variety of notes to myself, but I’ll deal with all that later. I’m having too much fun exploring the story and characters.

I think I’m going with Sybaritic for Callista’s design firm’s name, but Sybarism is a close second. Congratulations to Jessica, with major thanks to Keilyn for the suggestion of messing with the word, and a huge shout out to everyone who entered the contest. It was great hearing from all of you!

Then I read through some of the AETW crits whilst iChatting with Phaedra. I was sorely in need of connecting with the other half of my brain—I don’t think we’ve talked (other than a couple of quick e-mails) since I started the job and have been away from home most days.

Then Ken came home from visiting his family for Mother’s Day and his mom’s birthday (this involved trains and grilled salmon), and we made Buffalo chicken salad, and curled up to watch TV. Now we’re catching up on a bit of computer work before crawling in to bed at a decent hour.

My mom went to our cabin (which has no phone) for the weekend, and my headache didn’t subside early enough for me to call my sister, alas. And I’ll have to focus in on Phae’s novella this week, since I didn’t think trying to read/crit it with a headache was a good idea. Ken scrubbed the fridge in the garage but we didn’t get to a grocery store, which is okay, because most of the food is stuff I need to pick out for myself anyway. Right now he’s looking at leaving Tuesday afternoon. Sigh. I’m just grasping on to this time with him now.

So that was the weekend. It flew by, but it was a good weekend. Quality time with my beloved, and a fair amount of writing-related work.

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Currently Reading: Metallic Love, Tanith Lee

Lately Listened To: Living in Oblivion (80s pop compilation)

Recently Watched: “Charmed”, “Enterprise”, “Lost”, “Joan of Arcadia”