Reading: Fair Folk
Music: Billy Bragg
TV/Movie: Night Court, Season One
Link o' the Day: Ansible (211)

Many thanks to all those who have written both here and elsewhere regarding the engagement. We're both very excited, and both very appreciative of folks' well wishes. I imagine that over the next year there will be occasional updates regarding the plans. I 'tain't never done been hitched before, so this will be an illuminating experience with a most wonderful reward when it's over, then on to the next stage of our journey.

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Tuesday night I dropped by the Patricks Pub session again. A smaller crowd this week as there were a number of Celtic musicians in town doing a show elsewhere. the crowd that was there, however, was a good one just the same. Only one fiddle, but a couple of bodhrans and a guy with a _very_ nice mandolin who I talked shop with for a little while. The tunes were ones I was, at least, familiar with, and there were a couple that, had I brought my own mandolin, might have even been able to join in on. I'm still a long way off from session playing, however, but it's nice to see that it's a goal that is likely both enjoyable and attainable.

One nice thing about going to these sessions is that it gets me real inspired to keep practicing. I taught myself the first part to "Father kelly's Reel" the other night, and figure I'll have the second part down before the weekend. I also gave my second bodhran a good tuning job, then spent a good amount of time practicing my technique on the back of the skin (i.e., playing with a hand inside the drum to affect tone and pitch).

Not too shabby.

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So, has anyone heard the third quarter results for the WotF contest? I know some of the non-finalists have already been contacted. No a peep about my submission, however. I don't dare jinx myself by suggesting I'm a finalist. Maybe it just got lost in the mail, or (heaven forfend) I put the wrong address on the SASE. I sent a query last week, but haven't heard anything back yet.

Herm.

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I'm still plugging away at the Zorro book. because of problems with the photos and captions list, and just the plain length, it's going a little tedious. I'm hoping I can get the first draft done by the weekend. Upcoming books cover Edgar Kennedy and the scripts of Joel Rapp.

The last SFWA Bulletin is out in the mail. Next comes the Nebula issue. I'm hoping there will be no hassles with this. not only is it our most important issue, we're hoping to go to Disney and Epcot around the time of the Nebs.

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Today's link goes to February 2005's issue of Ansible (211) in which there's mention of a gentleman over in the UK who lost his job for blogging along with links to several articles from UK news sources. It's worth checking out--as a cautionary tale if nothing else.

Sad news, while ansible happily reports Jack Chalker doing well in the hospital, we now know, of course, that he passed away over the weekend. It's a damn shame. I really liked some of his work, and he was a nice guy every time I ran into him at a convention. He'll be missed.

And now we learn that Andre Norton is sick. *sigh*