Tonight our tiny, 8 oz queen kitten backed our huge, 18 pound tom cat into a corner. She's my hero. Noses were touched, his tail was batted at, a bit of hissing. We make progress!

She's so good. She purrs when we come home, or when we come in the room, or when we pick her up. She purrs when I feed her, or scoop her litter, or pour water in her bowl. She plays so hard, pouncing and attacking her favorite feathers-attached-to-belled-ball toy, somersaulting around, using Tim as a ramp to launch herself at it again and again. And yet when I go to bed she only attacks my toes while I read, then snuggles down and sleeps while I do for most of the night. I actually got a good night of sleep in last night (the night before she spent the 3 AM hour sleeping on my ponytail, making it hard to get comfy)! Once she befriends the big cats, I think she's going to be a joy to the whole household.

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I had a dentist appointment this morning and since Tim had to drop me off early (so he could get to work), I brought my laptop. Got some revisions done on "Immolation" in the waiting room and on BART (until I got motion sick, sigh). I took a lunch and got more work done in a nearby cafe, and again on my afternoon break and on the BART ride home. There may be something to this dragging around a laptop, even if it kills my shoulders to lug it. I think I'll do it the rest of the week, since my goal is to get it done by Thursday night so I can participate in the slush bomb at F&SF this Friday. Working at home this week is not happening, as we have adorable kitteness and adult cat interactions to monitor.

Speaking of writing things, I sold a reprint of "Mountain, Man" to Escape Pod! I am so very pleased; I love having my stories podcast there. Not only does it give me a lot more readers (er, listeners), but it's just hella cool hearing someone else read/ interpret my story. Yay!

Ooh, and speaking of other people and writing, we got Greg's chapbook back from the printer last week, and it's just lovely! You can preorder it here. You know you want one! I mean, c'mon, it has a squid on!

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Lots of old friends have come through town lately. Last month we had a wonderful visit when Barth Anderson came into town. We heard him read at Borderlands, then hung out in a couple of bars. We finally found an air-conditioned bar (this was during that heat wave) and had a lot of fun talking. I wish we saw him and Lisa more often!

An old, old friend, Ryan, was in town briefly, and we managed to find time for lunch. I gave him the tour of Blowfish (always a hoot) and we had a really good lunch. I went to college with Ryan, and he's married to one of the loveliest women I know, Colleen, who was also a college roomie of mine. I knew they were good people, but after an hour and a half chatting with Ryan (about equal parts reminiscing and catching up), I remembered just how *much* I liked them both. It made me miss the hell out of Colleen. Tim keeps pushing me to move someplace cheaper someday, and remembering that I have such good friends still in Indiana (and there are more than just Ryan and Colleen there) made me think I might just be able to brave the winters again. Maybe.

We also had Scott and Lynne come up and stay with us for a weekend and stay in Holly's apartment while she was out of town. We had a lovely time, walking to the farmer's market, cooking, eating, playing video games, etc. It was nice to get to play host for once -- we don't have good guest quarters, so usually we end up going to Santa Cruz (also, SC is a vacation destination while Oakland... is not), so it was nice of Holly to loan us the use of her apartment for the occasion. Scott and Lynne need to live closer to us. I supopse it is also acceptable if they live in Maui for awhile and let us come visit them often there, but only for awhile :-)

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We're eating better -- mostly smoothies, veggies, couscous, whole grains and broiled chicken -- but we still need to work out more. My new favorite TV shows are So You Think You Can Dance (by far and away my favorite TV show of the year) and WorkOut, because they inspire me to move. I lift weights and do sit-ups during the latter, sitting on my balance ball. The former gets me moving more all the time -- dancing around the warehouse at work, practising my battements, pirouettes and contemporary full-body contortioins. I'm lucky I have a quirky reputation that lets me get away with this (though honestly I usually do it when no one is looking). It helps.

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Bedtime! Chat at you later!