It only took a month, and faxing and mailing various proofs of insurance, and having my insurance company contact the DMV and say "No, really, he totally has insurance," but I think my DMV troubles are over. At least, the harried lady on the phone this morning told me I'm cool. I'm not throwing out their number until my new registration sticker actually arrives, though...

I've been reading Poison Sleep for a last line-edit, and you know what? I like this book. It's a bit less non-stop cracking adventure than Blood Engines, but I also think it has more emotional weight, so that's a fair trade off. Plus: Assassins. Magical mold. Pollution golems. Chimeras. A throne made of (fake) human skulls. And a guy named Ted. What more could you want? I've got about a third of the novel left to line edit, so that's my job for today. I expect to be all done by the end of the night though. And then, the rest of July is free, which means I can maybe write a short story? I'm not revising Dead Reign until I get comments and meet with my writing group about it at the end of the month, and I'm not ready to start Grift Sense yet, so, yes, short fiction may ensue.

Check out the trailer for The Jane Austen Book Club. Whoo! A movie version of my second-favorite Karen Joy Fowler novel! It looks like it'll be fun.

Our youngest cat Freybug is turning into quite the escape artist. She somehow popped out the screen in the bathroom window and jumped into the backyard. Now, we're on the top floor, so that's about a twelve foot drop. We came home, found the screen gone, found Freybug gone, and looked out the window expecting to see a twisted gray body on the concrete below. Nope. We opened the back door and she was sitting on the stoop just waiting to come inside, and there's not a scratch on her. She's not even limping. That is one acrobatic cat. I think she's trying to prove to us that she'd be a good indoor-outdoor cat, but our house is in the V formed by two streets frequented by recklessly driving high school students, so we're not about to start letting any of our cats out willy-nilly. (As I was writing this, she almost escaped again! The bedroom door didn't latch properly, and there are open windows in there. I went into the bedroom, didn't see Freybug, cursed, and went out the back door -- just in time to see her head pop out of the bedroom window. I yelled and scared the crap out of her, so she scurried back inside, and I rushed back in and scooped her up. Man. We have to be ever vigilant with her. I guess it's good practice for having a kid.)

Summer has fled these past two days. Yesterday was overcast and windy. Today looks like it's shaping up to be the same, but I'm holding out hope for sunshine during my lunchtime walk. Hope y'all have a nice one.