Some days it don't pay to get outta bed...

Got to work this morning. One week before we go to press, so it's going to be a busy week. We've got Hugo Awards ceremony photo spreads, plus a forthcoming books listing, plus all the usual writing and whatnot to do. Big issue. Not the biggest ever or anything, but big.

My work computer is dead. Dead, dead, dead. A giant paperweight. Well, it boots up, and shows the desktop, but that's it. Nothing responds. Can't open programs. Ctrl-alt-delete has no effect. Can't do a thing. Nada. We do all the usual little troubleshooty things. No good. So we take it in to our computer guy, who says the hard drive is kaput. Possibly also some virus/worm/trojan issues, but the hard drive is physically grinding and whining and making a lot of noise, so that's definitely a problem. Got to get a new hard drive. So we're just hoping they can recover the files from the old hard drive and put them on the new hard drive. If not, there's a lot of work I've got to reproduce. Some things are backed up, but not everything. I'll lose a day at least, easy, having to re-do things. Not to mention the time I'm definitely going to lose by having to reinstall all the programs. Even under a best-case scenario. Sigh. We find out tomorrow whether they were able to recover the files from the hard drive. Pray for me.

So I spent the day at another person's computer (which I commandeered) getting some writing done. That computer is on its last legs, too, though, and I couldn't even get it to print reliably, networking was wonky, yuck. Still, I managed to get some work done. The day went fast.

I came home, and I wanted to spend a little time playing World of Warcraft, because nothing helps me unwind like slayin' satyrs... and the Realm server I play on was down. So I can't play. Oh, I could start a new character on another server, I suppose. Thpt.

But some good things happened. I had a cherry soda. And I'm actually not as stressed as the above makes me sound. I'm kinda philosophical about it all. (Well, about the work-related parts, anyway. The Warcraft thing is just annoying.)

On the bright side, I got ideas for two short stories over the weekend. Which is good, since I need to write stories for two different editors who asked me for stuff. Hoping to get at least one drafted this week. Wouldn't be upset if I got both drafted, but we'll see. One of the stories will probably run at least 6 or 7,000 words, the other might be shorter, 3 or 4,000. (It better be shorter, since the word limit for that market is 4K max.) Hard to say. Both are Southern, and both have young protagonists, but they're really very different in other ways. One is tentatively called "Boy Wonders", the other is "Jubilee."

This weekend Heather and I went into Chinatown to look for wedding rings. Found some we liked, but nobody had the kind we liked in our sizes, so, armed with the practical knowledge of what we liked, we turned to our friend the Internet, and ordered rings. Whoo! We also booked our honeymoon. Maui and the big island, here we come. Waterfalls and volcanoes and booze and sunshine. Mmm. Should be the best Halloween ever. Have fun in freezing-ass Madison at World Fantasy, y'all. I'll raise a mai tai in your honor.

The weekend was pretty good. The back yard is a total war zone, though, piles of rubble, big holes, beams and concrete chunks everywhere. The foundation is being ripped out and repaired. I'm honestly unsure about what's holding up the house right now. The construction seems to have seriously freaked out the ants, because they poured into the kitchen this weekend. We beat them back with poison traps.

Ah, the Realm is back up. Off to slay monsters. More later.