I got in last night around 11:00 and Rob came out to the airport to greet me. I have missed him terribly. Coming home was so strange because the season turned while I was away, a fact particularly emphasized by spending the last week in snowy Grand Haven. Here cherry trees are in bloom and the apple trees in our courtyard show signs of following suit. There are daffodils by the path up to the apartment.

In the apartment itself, Rob had two beakers of irises waiting for me. These are the flowers that we had at our wedding so very sweet. The cats were indifferent and needy in the way that only cats can pull off. Rob had also baked some of his famous chocolate tart cherry bran muffins. So tasty. And what had he baked them in?

This.

I’m sitting in the airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan waiting for my flight home. I’ve been on the road for a month and last night Rob said the sweetest words to me. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I’ve been gone longer than this before, but we usually know that I’ll be gone for months and you can prep for that, emotionally. This time, we thought it would be a week and a half. We do manage to talk almost every night, but a month is still a long time.

So the fact that I will see Rob, tonight, makes me a very, very happy girl.

I hope your day was relaxing and pleasant.  Rob and I dealt with some apartment stuff but largely had a quiet day.

I made black-eyed peas and collards, with Grandma’s pear relish. Rob made ozoni soup so we had a very traditional meal, albeit from two different traditions.

Also, I just have to point out that it’s 2010, which is such a science-fictional year. It is also the year that my novel will come out, which seems like dream-land.

I spent the day teaching puppetry up in Fremont at James Leitch Elementary. One of the interesting things about schools is that they all have different name structures for the teachers. In some I’m Mary, usually Miss Mary, and sometimes Mrs. Kowal.

I always use the married version of the honorific when I’m filling out forms but it’s exceedingly rare to actually have someone call me “Mrs. Kowal.”  It feels a little like I’m pretending to be a grownup.

All of this is percolating around in my head because Rob and I are celebrating our eighth anniversary this week. November 17th, 2009 we got married in Chattanooga, TN. I am as deeply in love with my husband as I was on our wedding day.

To celebrate eight years of being Mrs. Kowal, I’m disconnecting from the outside world.  No phone, no internet.  Just Mr. Kowal and me.

Rob and I spent yesterday bumming around San Fransisco, interspersed with me doing drawings for a potential gig and prepping for the Nebula Nomination period to open at SFWA. The sweet boy has been endlessly patient with me.

In the evening we joined the SF in SF group at Henry’s Hunan for dinner. It was like KGB in reverse in that Chinese food preceded the meal. Seeing Cheryl Morgan, Jeff Vandermeer, Jacob Weisman and the rest of the gang was a lot of fun.

Then I was off to Writers with Drinks in the Mission. Oh, my goodness. What. Fun. Charlie Jane Anders absolutely rocks as a hostess and M.C. I very much enjoyed hearing the other readers. In fact, they were so good that I got nervous about my fiction and offered the audience a choice. 1 story, 2 very short stories, or 1 very short story and a puppetry demo.

They chose option 3, so after I finished reading “Death Comes but Twice,” I pulled off my boot and used it as a puppet to demo the 4 principles of puppetry. So, you may imagine my delight when Chris Hsiang, gave me this dollar bill as I walked off the stage.

Rob and I had a relaxed day in SF and are now in San Jose where I will be teaching for the next couple of days.

We spent a good chunk of yesterday and today emptying out our storage locker here in Portland and ferrying things down to McMinnville where a friend has a ginormous locker that he’s letting us put things in. Free!

It was really bizarre looking through the locker as we’d forgotten what a lot of the contents were.  Rob said that it was like going through a deceased aunt’s house because all the things in there seem like they belong to another life.  Creepy.

I found my box of juvenilia, which I did not bring back to the apartment, tempting though it was.  At some point next summer, we’ll go down and sort through things but at the moment it was just too overwhelming.

I’m up waiting for Rob to come home although there’s a chance that he won’t be home until tomorrow.

Confused? He was driving back tonight from California, after driving there yesterday to drop off grapes.  He thought he’d make it back by 12:30ish tonight but also thought he might stop and sleep instead. So, I’m waiting up to see if he calls to tell me he’s pulled over for the night.

Meanwhile, to pass the time, I’ve completed a short story, made a peach and apple cobbler, and made vanilla ice cream.  I believe the first two are successful. The third is a little… crunchy.  If I think of it as snow cream then it’s fine.  Note: lowfat milk doesn’t cut it for icecream.

On the other hand, the cobbler really wanted it and… this will tell you a lot about me. I was too lazy to walk back to the store to buy ice cream.  It’s okay. I see the crazy there.

Did I mention I finished a short story?

Edited to add: 12:45. He is home safely. Night all!

Aside from the fact that Rob keeps having to drive to California to deal with winery things, I think we are settling into Portland nicely.

Through the magic of Skype, I spent two days reading the rest of Glamour in Glass to the folks back in the Puppet Kitchen. I’d gotten into the habit of reading stories to them when I was finished and they had been listening to me read the novel as I worked my way through it. This makes me happy that 3000 miles will not keep me from using them as a sounding board for fiction. It makes me feel like I’m still sort of there.

The rest of the week was spent trying to tempt Laurel Amberdine and her husband to move to Portland. Now, other people might regard having houseguests a week after moving in to an apartment as a crazy idea, but having company actually helps me feel more grounded. I think it’s a nesting thing.

That helps significantly since I’ll spend the rest of this week being a wine widow, while Rob is off on another trip to California. Thank heavens I’ve got some short fiction to work on. Might be time to call the Puppet Kitchen again…

Rob had to drive down to Sacramento yesterday to pick up so FYB’s for City Winery and is on his way back up. We’ve realized that I can take the train down to Eugene to meet him.  Then we can stay at a Bed and Breakfast and then spend tomorrow out in Oregon wine country as he makes deliveries.  This does not sound like way to spend the day.  So I and my computer are hopping Amtrak south at about 2:00 today.

This will let Chris and Laurel, who are staying with us, have the apartment to themselves for the evening. I’m pleasantly surprised by how well the apartment is working for having house guests.

Because our friends rock, we were able to unload everything from the truck and get it into the apartment today.  A hearty thank you to David, Kate, Aimee, Michael, Dave, Don, Yan, Eve, David, Ben, Rebecca, Taylor, Whitney, Bob, and Evan.

After everyone had gone, Rob carried me across the threshold.  In a fireman’s carry, to be sure, but romantic in his own way. We never did that when we got married since I already owned the house when we met.

I managed to get most of the kitchen unpacked, which makes me feel a little better. It also gives me a clearer sense of what we’ll need in order to make it a workable space.  Actually, the layout, compact as it is, will probably be the most efficient kitchen I’ve worked in. It’s just going to be a matter of deciding where things go.

I believe we saw seven or eight apartments today. Only one of which were we both excited about.  Of course, someone else is in line for it.  Two of them would work as fall-back apartments. The rest were no goes.  Workable, if we had to get something and get it now, but not otherwise.

If we drop the “must have a gas stove” requirement, the field widens. We’re giving ourselves a little longer with the current criteria.

My feet are tired.

It’s also been interesting what things each of us sees in the apartments.  I respond to views. Rob responds to ceiling height. He notices how many outlets are in each room. I notice how the windows open.

Did I mention my feet?

When we got home, -e-’s friend G– was here with her son. G– it turns out is a fantastic baker and had turned up with homemade bread, quiche and a loaf of banana bread.  -e- made a salad.  We contributed cheeses carefully aged in a vintage ice chest and agitated in a large truck for ten days.

I wonder if Rob will rub my feet?

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July. Rob and I celebrated by going for a walk in Riverside Park. The weather was nearly perfect. We chose not to fight the crowds to see the fireworks and now, at 1:20 am we are still able to listen to them as various neighbors continue to blow things up.

No, no. Don’t mind us. We were awake anyway.

• 05:25 At the hospital with Rob for his left hand surgery. We got up at 4:20 am. Ugh. #
• 06:00 They’ve taken him back now for surgery, which they said starts at 7:30. I should see him “in 2 hours.” #
• 06:42 Very clever. I forgot to plug my computer in last night and the battery is now dead. Planned on writing. Glad I brought a book. #
• 08:12 Rob is out of surgery. It’ll be a bit before they let me see him. #
• 09:06 Very tired of waiting, now. The volunteer was snippy when I asked if I could go up. #
• 09:14 Return of the Giant Block of Foam! #
• 09:25 Wow. The surgery after Rob’s was removing an extra thumb. #
• 10:18 We’ve just had breakfast at the same place we did last time. I wonder if they remember us and the GBoF. #
• 17:27 Thanks everyone for the kind thoughts about Rob and the surgery. He’s doing well. Hardest thing so far was peeling the electrodes off. Ow! #

Rob is out of surgery and well. We and the GBoF are going out for breakfast.

They tell me that Rob is out of surgery, but I haven\’t been let up to see him yet. First they put him in the recovery ward while he\’s groggy. I really wanted to see him like that but, alas, not allowed.