Good heavens. I just realized that I wrote 1520 words today. But I only wrote while I was on the subway. I use my palm pilot and usually just get a few lines in using graffiti, but took the train to Brooklyn today. Since I knew I’d be on a long time, I unpacked the folding keyboard and held it on my lap. 1500 words… maybe I should visit Brooklyn more often.

I’ve just come back from a trip to buy groceries. Now, it’s a faster process than in Iceland, because I can read all of the labels and signs. The checkout, on the other hand, is surprisingly similar to my Icelandic experience.

I can’t understand what the clerks are saying to me.

I find myself responding by rote, based on what part of the transaction we are at. It is astonishing. Some of this comes from people who are speaking English as a second language. I don’t begrudge them the incomprehensibility of their speech. I’ve been there myself and understand. But the majority of them are native speakers who mumble. Would it really kill them to open their mouth when speaking? I know they can speak loudly; I’ve heard them on their cellphones. I just want to be able to understand what they are saying when I check out.

I was looking for something else and stumbled across the Twins Days festival, in which thousands of twins descend on this one town in Ohio. In the photo gallery, was this photo of triplets. I just loved the guys’ shirts.

To save you from having to click on it to make it larger, the shirts say, “Ladies, there’s plenty of me to go around.” I don’t know them at all, but that’s just brilliant.

I thought you might be curious to know how it ended up…

Neil says:

The three covers in the poll were presented in chronological order and represent a sampling of our favorites. During the 24 hour period prior to the poll, there was a lot of discussion about color, framing, fonts, and such. I have to admit to being a bit of a troublemaker. As reflected in the poll, there was a lot of support for cover #1. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get past the portal-effect the framing had on the art I had selected, so we pressed onward.

REALMS is now available for preorder at the Wyrm Publishing website and should be listed at Amazon and (hopefully) other bookstores within the next few weeks.

In appreciation for all the input I received, for the next week, I’m running a special 30% off promotion on preorders for this book.

I realized late last night that we moved a month ago. Rob is celebrating by being in Oregon at IPNC. I spent the day hanging out with Livia Llewellyn, who has got to be one of the coolest people I know. It was so nice to spend time with someone who totally gets the theater/writing world parallels.

She’d had a rough day on Friday so I offered her cake and wine tasting. We went to the Hungarian Pastry Shop, up the street from my place for pastries. Oh my. Heavens. When you come visit, I’ll take you there too.

After indulging, we strolled over to Martin Brother’s Wines and Spirits, which has wine tastings every Friday and Saturday evening from 5:30-7:30. We tried a Chateau de Pourcieux Rose and the Wombat Shiraz. I picked up a bottle of the Rose, and Livia took home a bottle of the Shiraz.

All in all, it was a really great day. The only thing that would have improved it, is if Rob were home.

Friday, I made a wing mechanism for Irina Kruzhilina, the costume designer for Mabou Mines production of Song for New York. She needed it to extend upward and unfurl like a fan. Here’s a quick video showing what I was up to.

I’m doing the cover design for Realms, the anthology of Clarkesworld Magazine. There is a poll to see which of the three versions people respond to most. Please hop over to the Wyrm Publishing webpage and cast your vote.

Which one do you most want to read?

Cover 1	Cover 2	Cover 3

Frank Wu pointed out this webpage that will tell you what your real age is, as opposed to your biological age.

Apparently, I’m only 16 and will live to 97. Gee! Does that mean I get to have a sweet sixteen party and get my driver’s license?

Today I made a wing, proofread, designed an anthology cover, wrote, edited and did laundry. Details on some of those activities when I am not aching with the need for sleep.

I picked up our set of bookshelves today. Compared to the kitchen cart, this was a piece of cake. It was only a three-story walkup and a eleven block stroll with the shelves on a hand truck. Every man I passed offered to help me. The shelves weren’t heavy, but they were very awkward. I was tempted to say, “Yes, if you will just push it a block to give me a breather,” but I knew I was going to need to save my karma for when I got back to our building.

There are three short steps up into the building. At the apartment where I picked up the shelves, they helped me get it down. Here, I was going to be on my own. I passed one of my neighbors as she was on her way to church. She turned around and followed me back to the building so she could hold the doors for me. Another neighbor, Manny, arrived at right that moment and helped me get it all the way up into the apartment.

Whew. Now. Note the gap between the shelf and the doorframe. Remember when I said that our floors sloped and that it was hard to make pictures look straight? This is why. I did level the shelf after taking the photo, but it took a one-inch block of wood under the left side to do it. Crazy.

All the books fit. I am happy.

Last evening Jenny and her fiance, Chris, came for dinner. Well, really, they came to drop off Zoe, their cat, as a trial run for when we take her during their honeymoon. Dinner was just taking advantage of them being here.

I was, to be honest, anticipating some fireworks. When I got Marlowe as a kitten, Maggie hated him so much that if I petted Marlowe and then tried to touch her without washing my hands, she would hiss at me. I’m not making that up. She tolerates him now, more so after the cross-country drive than before.

And Marlowe has never seen another cat, except ones outside the window. His only other experience with other animals have been with dogs that we’ve dogsat. (Boy, that word looks wrong.) Oh, and the mice. Anyway, I had no idea how he would react.

Zoe came right out of her carrier and went up to Marlowe to sniff his nose. He was totally freaked. He had no idea what to do. He only knows this one other cat who beat him up as a kitten–in fact, it’s only in the last year or two that he’s realized that he’s bigger than she is and that she’s old. So, despite the fact that he looks like a giant hulk next to Zoe (also a black cat) he was afraid of her.

Maggie stretched, walked up to Zoe. They sniffed. Then Maggie went to take a nap on the futon. She was so not interested. I think she was just pleased that I hadn’t brought home another dog.

We spent most of dinner watching the cats watch each other. The best moment came after dinner. I wanted to show Jenny and Chris the thing that Marlowe does with the basket. I didn’t think he’d do it, because there was so much strangeness. Man, he saw the basket and beelined across the room to sink his face into it. He immediately sank into his “I’m invisible” posture and seemed so much more at ease.

Zoe. Zoe clearly thought he was insane.

She crept out from under the bookcase where she had been hiding and stretched out to sniff the basket. Marlowe made one “meep” and she levitated backwards, kindof like, “My god! There really is a cat in that thing!”

After that everyone settled into a good routine of ignoring each other. I saw her this morning when I put her food down, but she’s hiding now. I think she’s in my closet, but I’m not going to fish her out. Jenny and Chris come back to pick her up tonight.

Today is my parents’ anniversary. They are fine people with whom I think I would be friends, even if I wasn’t their progeny. They met in dancing school, and have continued to demonstrate what good partners a married couple should be.

I hope today is wonderful.

Really. Is there anything else to say about this?

Remember me showing you that article about my nephew’s friend? We just got word that he’s had a successful lung transplant. He’s still not out of the woods, but at least he’s got a path to get there now.

I had promised the folks who helped us move in that I would cook them dinner. Last night we had the first of our guests, Jodi and Sam. This is the first time I’ve entertained in the apartment so I wasn’t sure how it would go. I was also a little frazzled from the cart adventure. On top of this, we were getting ready for Rob’s trip out of town, so he had packing to do.

After some thought, I decided to go all out and serve the meal in courses, so I could really test our set-up. The kitchen cart, by the way, is worth all thirty blocks in the rain. It makes the space so much more workable. Up to this point, I’d been frustrated because the prep area is at the other end of the kitchen from the stove with the refrigerator between, so I couldn’t keep an eye on anything cooking. This is much better.

We started with negronis, which I think Rob wanted to make, in part, because he will be around copious amounts of wine at IPNC this weekend. I had some good olives and two local cheeses, blue and cave-aged cheddar. Sam has a list of food allergies which is fairly impressive and totally fuels my desire to have a challenge when cooking. No gluten, tomato, potato, peppers or eggplant. It’s normally fine but I could not find any gluten free bread. It was very aggravating. I found a source today, of course.

The rest of the menu:

The only real failure was the garlic spears. I love these sauteed in olive oil; they remind me of garlic flavored asparagus. Wonderful. However, these were spectacularly woody. I mean. Really. Spectacular. We could not cut them with a knife. Chewing was possible, but only with heroic efforts. The flavor was still good, but only at a great cost.

We still have work do on the apartment. Jodi and Sam were very gracious about the fact that our futon is still on the floor. (The frame comes next week) For all that, the evening felt very comfortable. It also soothes me considerably to be able to entertain. It’s part of my nesting impulse. I enjoy cooking. I like having people over.

I spent so long on tour, that I think I don’t really believe a place is mine unless I can invite people over. For the past several months, while things were in boxes, I stopped feeling like the house in Portland was mine. It became a tour location. Know what I mean? So I now finally feel like I live here.

Of course, in a complete paradox, I now also feel homesick because Rob got on plane to go back to Portland for ten days. le sigh.

Here’s the last of the dining room photos, just because.