Reading: "Winterfair Gifts" by Lois McMaster Bujold
Music: Gerry O'Connor
TV/Movie: SOLD OUT: A Threevening With Kevin Smith
Link o' the Day: Webcomics.com

We have two cats. Lovely creatures, honest. Why would I lie?

And now that I'm doing the whole work-from-home thing, we've fallen into a fairly predictable schedule. I get up around 5am, Phineas runs to the kitchen for food. Nemo goes into the bathroom to watch me go through the morning routine. I run out to Dunkin' Donuts and when I get back, Phineas is back in bed and Nemo joins me on his roost near my desk to watch me eat and work, occasionally getting in my way for bouts of attention. When Pretty Maggie leaves for work around 8:30, the cats switch. Nemo goes off to sleep someplace and Phineas joins me as I work. I usually take break around 11 or noon. That's when both cats pretty much disappear until Pretty Maggie comes home.

Fairly peaceful and nicely predicable.

This afternoon, while waiting for the delivery truck to arrive with our new furnace, I decided it was a good time to change the strings on my banjo.

Bang! Both cats appear out of nowhere, intent on playing and chasing after every loose end of banjo string there be. And because the ends are often pretty sharp, I can't let these dang idiot animals start chewing on them (which they will) and am then fighting a three-way battle between the banjo, Nemo and Phineas.

It all turned out well, but Nemo did almost drag away the old A string before I bundled them all up into an old soda bottle. Still..where did they come from? Where do they go when I take my midday break? How did they know I'd pick that time to change them string?

Uncanny.

And then the furnace arrived and it took four of us to haul that sucker up the front steps. And it's going to be hell getting it down to the basement tomorrow.

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All new projects starting up for the month of November. Actually, I got a good head start on a lot of it. The text for the Lewis Stadlen book is done. I just need to get the photo placements and make up the cover. The newest Mel Simons book has all the photos ready, I'm just waiting on the text. In the wings is the Hardcastle & McCormick book, of which the photos are already prepped. All 300-some of them.

So yeah, good start.

I've got a couple of days before some missing pieces arrive, so in the meantime I can finish up the December issue of the medical magazine and line up the cover for the next SFWA Bulletin. What's more, I can get a couple of writing projects done. I have a couple of dozen poems that need to go out, and an essay to finish, and a couple of other things in the works. So we'll see what we can't get done.

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Coming up within the next day or two...new thoughts on Indiana Jones 4. Be afraid. Be worried. Be sharp.

Today's link goes to Webcomics.com, a self-described virtual watercooler for webcomic creators. It's not a bad site for fans of the medium as well. It's a creation of the folks from halfpixel.com, one of whom being Scott Kurtz, the creator of one of my favorite webcomics PVP Online. The site is in its infancy, but it looks like it'll be a good 'un once it finds it feet.

Cheers!