Just got my stories that came back earlier in the week ready to go out again. I love the ritual of putting together submission packages: printing the labels, squaring up and paperclipping the sheafs of manuscript hot off the laser printer, signing the cover letter with a fountain pen flourish. E-mail subs just don't compare.

So, I've got myself a nice little set of errands to run tomorrow, strung out all along Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley: first to the bank, to deposit my paycheck; then a couple of blocks south to the post office, to mail off submissions and buy more stamps; then a block further south to the public library, to return books (and probably check out a few more, as if I needed reading matter). Then I'll retrace my steps north: first to The Other Change of Hobbit, to buy the most recent issue of Locus and check out the new releases; then north again to Andronico's, to buy the makings of a nice big batch of cornbread.

Then home, to clean up the kitchen, the better to mess it up again by baking cornbread.

Sunday morning, though, is when I'll actually bake the cornbread, so it'll be nice and fresh when I take it to Mary Anne's party Sunday evening.

Somewhere in there, I really ought to get my car smog checked, but I think I'm going to leave that for some day when I can take a long lunch break from work and do it then.

Work is going well. I'm very nearly finished with this set of manuals that I've been working on. I managed, by sheer dumb luck, to fix a co-worker's computer problem, and thereby gained a somewhat exaggerated reputation as a whiz kid. I actually ate lunch with some people who were not in my department the other day. All these things are good.

Hmmm...I'm tired now. Off to bed, I think.