Morning all.

So I spent the last two weeks in Tucson, AZ. We did stuff appropriate for a senior citizen and a two-year-old. (This means that there were less adventures than usual, and we all know how I love my adventures. Well, I love my adventures. My husband isn't quite up to my adventuring speed.) Grandma and Avadore had a good time. This involves botanical gardens and zoos and other such things.

We ate fab sushi and calamari at Takamatsu for Randi's birthday. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Grandma didn't like it so much, but Avadore thought it was just pretty darn sneefty.

We also ate some marvelous Greek food at Athens on 4th. I wish I could remember the names of some of the dishes. I should have written them down. The cheese covered in Brandy that's lit on fire and then doused in fresh lemon juice while the server yells, "Opa! Opa!" (I believe) is utterly magical.

For lunch, I would suggest the vegetarian sandwich at The Barrio and the lasagne at Caruso's just pretty much rocks.

I bought about thirty pounds of books, and the husband bought games and books and graphic novels and movies. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, this weekend we'll be watching Strange Days and Moulin Rouge.

In other news, have you all checked out www.steveswebpage.com? No? Go look and then buy Steve Burns' Songs for Dustmites. It's fabulous.

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So I've been working on a new short story as well as tweaking the last one. Let's talk about the new one, though.

In all honesty, the concept is only about a month old. While in Tucson, I was looking at a book on Native American symbolism and found a bunch of stuff that fits into my story. I'm just trying to find the way to keep myself from writing a research paper instead of a short story. It's difficult; I spent most of my life learning how to write professional research papers, not fiction. I get hung up on accuracies and being complete in my research when, in the end, it's the story and the characters that matter more than the research and facts that underlie the story.

Well, I imagine it's something I'll learn with practice.