When I got up this morning, there was an e-mail in my inbox from the editor of Paradox pointing me to a review of issue one of Paradox. It has some very flattering comments on my story, "Grail Knight," although the reviewer seems to be a tad confused about how to spell my surname. (Never mind, he's not the first and he surely won't be the last. I've thought about changing my middle name to "There ain't no 'C' and there's only one 'E' in", but I really prefer 'Anne'.)

Anyway, that review made my morning. The reviewer really got what I was trying to do with the story - and probably gave me more credit for succeeding than I deserved.

Spent the rest of the morning puttering around and reading the New York Times. Then I met up with my good pal Steve, who was in town this weekend. Steve and I met the first week of our freshman year of college, and quickly forged a friendship based on a common love of chemistry, guitars, science fiction, and late night expeditions for french fries. We both came out to Berkeley to attend grad school in chemistry, shared an apartment for a year, and generally kept each other sane through the first year of grad school. He finished his doctorate about a year and a half ago or so, and moved out to Chicago to work for Abbott labs. We still keep in touch, though.

Steve and his friends Chip and Sue Ann and I descended upon Amoeba Records on Telegraph Ave. for some serious CD shopping. We picked over the clearance bins, mostly. I got 6 CD's for $20.30, and didn't pay more than $5.95 for any individual disc. Much as I love the iTunes music store, sometimes Amoeba Records can't be beat.

Then we had lunch, and all got caught up on each other's lives. It was good.

Then Steve and Sue Ann had to take off, and I went to Cafe Strada and had a mediocre latte, and chatted with Daniel on my cell phone, playing story doctor to the story he's working on. (The boy's workin' hard! They haven't even met their first instructor yet, and he's outlined his first story. I think he's a little worried about keeping up the pace. It'd be odd if he weren't - I think most of my class was intimidated by the idea of cranking out a story a week, and we all did fine.)

I did a little writing, and a little reading, and eventually wandered over to Cody's books, and browsed the magazine section, and ogled the large stack of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that they had prominently displayed. I didn't buy one. I enjoyed the other four in varying degrees, but not enough to shell out $30 for the hardcover Right Now.

Saw two or three people on the street carrying the book, though, so I gather it's selling well.

Had a good noodle soup with shitake mushrooms at a new place on Telegraph called Slurp. Came home.

I'm feeling a touch dehydrated and headachy. Probably didn't drink enough water for all the running around Telegraph Ave. I did all day. Think I'll go pour myself a tall cool glass of something and curl up with a good book.