Some random things:

Public appearances: This Saturday I'm doing a reading/signing at 1 p.m. at Borderlands for Blood Engines. Do please come! Then, a few hours later, I'm returning to Borderlands to take part in phase 2 of LitCrawl (the 7:00 - 7:45 p.m. slot). I will read for ten minutes! As will Austin Grossman and Scott Sigler and Marcus Ewert! Should be a literarytastic day.

Food: I can eat solid food again. Last night I ate pizza! This is doing wonders for my mood. I want to make chili, but Heather is unwilling to endure the spicy in her delicate condition, and I'm unwilling to make non-spicy chili (I mean, what's the point?), so I am in an agony of indecision. I need to make some soups and stuff that we can freeze and easily reheat after the baby's born, when we'll be too zombified to cook anything.

Books: I read Charles Stross's novel Glasshouse and really enjoyed it. Not as much as Halting State, which is my favorite of his books, but a lot. Not sure what I'm reading next.

TV: Rome is a really good show (we're watching season 2). We like Dexter too. Heroes last night was better than it was last week, though I'm still awaiting the appearance of Kristin Bell. Of the new shows Heather and I have tried, we gave up on Journeyman after about twenty minutes of the first episode; we'll follow Bryan Fuller anywhere, so we'll keep watching Pushing Daisies even though we thought the first episode was only so-so; we think Chuck is a lot of fun; Gossip Girl is reasonably tasty melodrama; Reaper had some funny moments, and I like Ray Wise as the devil, but otherwise... This seems to be the year of slacker/loser heroes.

Movies: How is The Darjeeling Limited not playing anywhere in the East Bay?!

Writing: I am thinking a lot about Grift Sense. A lot.

Baby prep: We're making progress. Most of the baby-related stuff is put together and somewhat organized, and we've laid in a goodly amount of supplies. We still need to get Heather a rocker/glider, but otherwise, we've got the major stuff we need. Tomorrow I'll attempt to install the car seat. Wish me godspeed.

Flytrap: One last proofread away from being done, and I expect to take it to the printer tomorrow.

Life in General: Busy but good.

Andy Duncan listed a bunch of his favorite first sentences/paragraphs, including ones from Shirley Jackson, Kelly Link, Margo Lanagan, Ray Bradbury, Jeffrey Ford, Harlan Ellison -- and the opening from my story "Hart & Boot". That's some good company!

Yesterday I had one of my infrequent "I hate the internet" days, when I look about me and feel nought but rage. I had to restrain myself from wading into various discussions and comment threads, wielding a mighty acid-dripping clue stick, not because of any real attachment to the matters under discussion, but just because I felt ornery. (I try to keep out of slapfights generally, because they cause me anxiety and distract me from more productive pursuits; I get a little pleasure out of them, I admit, but not enough to offset the drawbacks.) Still, I did not wholly sequester myself, so if I splattered anyone with bile, my apologies. I considered completely leaving the internet 4EVER, but then I got over it. Just one of those temporary unaccountable brain-chemistry things. Sometimes I want to go live in a cabin in the woods with no TV or internet or phone, nothing but a gross of notebooks and pens and a few hundred shelf feet of books. (And maybe my well-stocked iPod, because I'm not a Luddite, I just occasionally crave isolation from the wider world.) Yesterday was one of those days. Today is more like a normal day, when the internet is just, you know, a thing, with good and bad and mostly indifferent bits all commingled.