General Tips Through Life

*  I woke up early with Mate the day he went back to work.  We watched part of a movie, he kissed me goodbye, I fell asleep on my new chair again.  When I woke up again, Zoomboy was standing over me-- he was wearing his underwear and his bright green squid hat.

He said, "Protect me from the mayonnaise!  Beware the mayonnaise!"

I have no idea what it means, but he seemed really impassioned, and he felt enough about it that he wore his squid hat around the neighborhood, so I thought I'd pass that tip on to all of you.  Beware of the mayo.  Apparently squids are our last defense!

*  We get this trail mix through Safeway called "Good Apple Morning".  My tip from me to you is to only open this trail mix when you are around five or more other people.  If you are alone, you will eat the entire bag by yourself.  I am not shitting around or playing here.  This bag-o-satan contains things like candied pecans and yoghurt raisins and it's insidious I tell you, insidious.  

*  Squish broke my heart today by asking why I wasn't the mom who chased them around and played freeze tag with them.  I remembered that I used to, before my feet sort of went bad, and then, by the time I'd figured out all the tricks that would let me walk better, they'd gotten to the point where they could outrun me.

That was depressing.  I think I'll go eat lots of veggies and lose twenty pounds to get over the pain!

*  Just as an observation?  Having an animal that is so happy to see you that he spontaneously wets himself is both richly rewarding and a constant pain in the water bill.  Sayin'.  The next time I buy a comforter set, I swear it won't be dog piss yellow.

*  My kids have discovered (wait for it!) Garfield.  Now, some of you may scoff, but remember 30 years ago when all the intellectuals were just over and done with that animal?  Well, sayin'-- that fuzzy orange nightmare still cracks me the hell up.

*  Have I mentioned Colour-Lovers?  It's this sort of amazing website where you get to go in and design palettes and color in designs or even create your own designs!  Anyway, when I get bored with my Twitter background, I go to Colour-Lovers  and fix up my background.  This time, I took Squish with me and had HER design the background-- she did a damned good job of it, too.  Seriously.  Kid has a good eye!

*  I finished Ethan Gold on Monday and signed my contract today-- WOOT!  DSP being the rock-awesome group of people that they are will try to help me have the story out by GRL so I'll have paperbacks to sign.  I love that!

*  I started Dance Moves which is sort of a random, cute and fluffy.  Ethan Gold was dragon ridden, don't doubt it, but cute and fluffy?  God, no.  Every conversation was a delicate choice to see how each character would react.  I wanted nothing trite--I pray that's how it looks on the outside too.  Anyway, Dance Moves is a trope-tastic delight, and I'm writing it to make the people I love smile.  Of course I'll submit it (I'm sort of a pro, right?) but seriously-- if someone picks it up after Ethan Gold, they'll be wondering who swapped out my brain.

*  Speaking of light and fluffy-- Left on St.-Truth-be-Well is out for pre-sale, and I'm excited about that. This one was also dragon ridden, but that dragon had plenty of inspiration.  Before this story comes out, I'm going to divulge the whole story of how these characters came to be, and how this story came to be written.  I love the story about the story almost as much as the story itself!  But in the meantime, by all means pre-buy-- it is NOT an angst fest, and Jessie Potts at the U.S.A. Today blog is liking it very much!

*  Oh... and did I mention I'm going to Atlanta on Wednesday?  I don't get in until late Wednesday night, and I'm not attending any signings.  In fact, I'm pretty much hanging out with the DSP and Harmony Ink people (and, for a delirious day or two with Mary my Mary and no one else shall have her!) and trying not to look too dorky-- and, of course, helping to network if I can.  But if you were going to RWA , by all means look me up!  I'll be happy to see a friendly face.

*  Oh yeah-- and this guy-- because sometimes, if you're lucky, you can be Batman!