Oh man, I'm missing the Cubs, but I've got to get this journal done. See what I sacrifice for y'all?

This past weekend, in between bouts of eating and drinking and swimming (ahem), we watched a Red Sox game , and it got me hooked on baseball again. The Red Sox and the Cubs, I could see it now, in the 2003 World Series. How awesome would that be? The two perennial doormats, making it big? So I watched the Sox beat the A's last night, and now the Cubs are up 4-3 in the first game of the National League championship series.

It's addictive -- baseball is so much better than football or basketball or any other sport to watch. It's deceptively simple, and almost as slow-paced as a game of chess. Just watching the pitching in last night's game was a treat. I need to hurry up and finish this entry -- the game is now 4-4 at Wrigley. Come on Cubbies! I've been a Cub fan since I was a kid, watching 'em on WGN on our newfangled, 13-station cable TV setup back in small-town Iowa.

In other news, just wanted to remind folks that I'll be doing a reading and other book-related activities this Saturday in scenic Fuquay-Varina, at the Lazy Lion Bookstore. The plan is to do some contests, have some "scary" readings by Drew Williams, Scott Nicholson, and myself, announce the winner of the short-short story contest, and even have a costume contest. Should be fun. I'm planning on reading my bug-man-gone-bad story, "My People's Bugs," slightly edited so I don't drop the f-bomb every other paragraph. Come to Fuquay and join the fun!

As for other fun stuff, I didn't get any writing done on the novel, but I did jam out a short-short for a secret project with some other writers (yet another collaboration), and I've enclosed a short excerpt from it. I really enjoyed it. Now I just have to do another cabinet for the 87 Cabinets project, and I'll be all caught up. For this week, at least...

Okay, I'm off to enjoy the Cubbies kick some Marlin ass. Later.

Now Playing:
"Everyday," Dave Matthews Band

Now Reading:
Slow Dancing Through Time, Gardner Dozois

Stories out to Publishers:
16

Today's Words:
700

Words for '03:
124,700

Today's Quote:
Yet we struggle for normalcy as the years pass and more ships come. Every day, battle or no battle, we put together pot roasts, throw meatballs and sauce into the Crock Pot®, assemble casseroles out of tuna and potato chips and creamed soups. We plate up with our children as the evening begins and stare longingly at the empty place at the head of the table.

But still our men do not return to us.

Sometimes, standing around a victory fire, one of the older wives will get to talking. She'll tell us all about the old days, before the lasers and jetpacks, back to the day when the oldsters signed the treaties to be part of the Great Pan-Galactic Star Federation. Before our sons grew up and donned their own jetpacks. They spoke of another time -- another world, really -- when women left home and child behind, just like their husbands, to do battle in what toothless old Junie calls "Corporateworld."