My review of Ian Creasey’s audio fiction is online at sffaudio.com.

There are points in my day when I want a treat, a small snack or a little bit of delight. Ian Creasey has a collection of audio bon-bons on his website which brought a smile to my face.

I spoke with Buck, the fellow who will be building the Arabian Nights set over at McCarter today. I redid some drawings today, nothing major, just to make things clearer. I have to send a whole bunch of drawings out there by Monday.

Well, the two things aren’t related, but I feel like they are. I had my third PT session today. Some of the exercises I’m doing at home seemed to be making things worse, and I had tried backing off, but we decided to cut them for the moment. So I have some gentler ones to do. I spend an hour and a half there, being prodded and repositioned. Today I leaned on walls doing isometric exercises to try to build strength with out placing stress on the arm. I also got ultrasound therapy–yep. Last time they tried to heal me with electricity, this time they tried shooting sound into my arm.

What’s next, wind?

But, you haven’t heard the best of it yet. When I got home, the postman came with a box from Hawaii. Somehow my angel of mercy knew that I needed something sweet and sent a box of cookies. This is Rob’s mom, for those who are puzzled. And cleverly, she put the cookies in two equal bags. One for Rob and one for me to hide. I love my husband, but he has the most amazing sweet tooth and his mom’s cookies are really good.

That’s right folks. I had my doctor’s appointment today and I’ve been approved to return to light duty at work on Monday. I can’t lift more than ten pounds, so I’m not sure what I’ll be doing, but I’m excited to stop sitting around.

I saw Portland Underneath the Lintel by Glenn Berger, with Eve and absolutely loved it. (Thank you Lance, for the tickets!) The Librarian discovers a book in the return slot that is 113 years overdue. In his efforts to find the offender, he becomes convinced that he is on the trail of the Wandering Jew.

This was really compelling and Time Winters did a marvelous job as the Librarian. One hour and fifteen minutes alone on stage and he held my attention for every minute.

In addition to the play, Eve introduced me to Pix, a fantastic patisserie on Division. Oh heaven. We had a Chocolate Ganache tart with Pear and Rosemary. So delightful. Can you tell that I liked the place?

Now really, when someone tells you that they are going to put an electrode on you and use electricity to shoot medicine into your body, doesn’t that sound like you’ve wandered into a SF book? And yet, that’s what they did to me today. Apparently, Iontophoresis is very effective at dealing with inflamed joints and such. So after doing physical therapy which involved such high-tech gadgets as giant rubber bands and foam pool toys, they attached electrodes to my arm and handed me the control. It wasn’t as shiny as I like my SF gadgets, but I guess not all the toys in the future will be over-designed the way they appear in the media.

We came back from the winery last night and slept in this morning. It was truly lovely. About the only thing that is frustrating me is that I can’t roll onto my left side, because of my shoulder. I know this verges on too-much-information, but–[Censored by thoughts of my mother]

Bethel Heights has a cellar club and invite them to a harvest party every year. This year they tried something different, and actually had a meal instead of just taking them through the winery. It seemed as if the event went off very well. I helped out some, but had to keep my left hand in my pocket to remind myself not to pick things up.

It looks like Rob will get to come home tonight. Cross your fingers for me.

To celebrate my pro-writing sale I decided that I was justified in starting a writing website. So I registered a domain name maryrobinettekowal.com I’ve been pasting entries in for the past week, keeping close to the same journal in two places. Eventually, I’ll probably move over completely to the other website, but for now you can check both.

The entries, at the moment, are not exactly the same but they are pretty darn close. I’m a little more concious of having strangers read my words on the new site. I need to see if it makes it too impersonal for my friends and family before I give this one up. I mean, really, the main reason I’m keeping an online journal is just so that it’s easier to keep track of me.

Rob came home last night to drop off some Frameworks wine, so I took advantage of the opportunity to ride down to Bethel Heights with him. I’m working on Waiting for Rain. while he is busily crushing grapes. It’s great because my main character in Waiting for Rain is a winemaker. Even though I’ve been around harvest before, I’m getting all sorts of new ideas for the story. Very exciting.

Rob just fell into a vat of Pinot Noir and was purple from the waist down. Oh, he’s hopping mad because he’s been doing this for ten years and never fallen in before. Other folks have so it’s not that uncommon and I guess it’s his turn this harvest. It’s nice of him to try to make me feel better about falling, by sacrificing his record this way.

My physical therapist is wonderful. She’s very gentle and listens to what I’m saying–which should be part of the job, but I had a bad experience a couple of years ago. We’ve got some very simple exercises to bring my range of movement back but the amazing thing is that none of them hurt. In fact, pain is a sign that I’m doing them wrong. My shoulder seems to only hurt if I engage its muscles, but if some other force manipulates it then it’s fine. So I’m, in effect, puppeteering my own arm through a variety of different positions.

I go back for another bout on Tuesday and then a doctor’s evaluation on Wednesday.

My dad found a webcam that aims at the dock of the Portland Spirit.

My review of the audio recording of Wild Magic is up at SFFAudio.

My review of the audio version of Wild Magic is online at sffaudio.com