Green's Hill-Amy Lane's Home - News

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Go Warrior Hamster Go!

Chicken gave me a Warrior Hamster .gif and
I will treasure it ALWAYS.
So, you all may have noticed a little holiday coming up next Saturday… what is that? Hallow's Eve? Samhain? Halloween?

Okay-- let's face it. It's the time we stock chocolate in our cupboard "For the kids" that we then eat in massive quantities so that on the actual day itself we have to run for the grocery store and combat the other desperate people there like we're stocking up for the zombie apocalypse.

And it's time to make costumes for the kids.

This year the whole family is into Gravity Falls, which is GREAT because the characters are dressed in very distinctive, easy to obtain clothing.

And it sucks because there's no way I can walk into a store and go, "Hey, I'd like this in a size 14!"

But that's okay-- we've worked very hard to be able to create the perfect Mabel sweater, and tomorrow is going to be my day to totally pony up and do that.

I'm also going to make Dipper a tree hat.

Squish has already made matching sparkly witch hat headbands for herself and Waddles the (stuffed) Pig, and we have a vest and an orange shirt for Dipper. (I plan to draw a big dipper on his forehead too.)

All we need now is a tie and a Fez for Mate (who wants to be Grunkle Stan) and for Chicken's Wendy hat to come in.

Yeah, I know-- nothing really screams "Mom" in these costumes, but that's okay.  I've got my Joss Whedon shirt with the "Grr… argh!" zombie and a purple spider hat to match-- I think I'll be okay.  I just hope I can make Squish's shirt with enough sparkles. I mean, rhinestone letters for her name, and sparkly paint for the rainbow-- I can't lose, can I?  (You all know I'm kidding and that the likelihood of me getting sparkles all over the house, myself, and the dogs is high, right?)

But that's okay. I'm actually looking forward to it. I want Squish to go, "See! Mom made my Mabel shirt!"

Cause everyone nows those are the best costumes, right?

So, you know-- if you're used to getting in touch with me tomorrow afternoon and you can't… you know where I'll be.

Eyeball deep in glitter-paint and sinking fast!

And loving being a parent, because this age doesn't last for too long. (Or if it does, your grown kids can get their own damned costumes.)

Peace out!







Saturday, October 24, 2015

Everything We Learned in School Is Bullshit

Okay-- first I'll clarify the statement I made on Twitter--

The other day, when I thought the apocalypse was starting as I sat on the toilet, apparently what was really happening was that the local SWAT Team was serving an eviction notice, and issuing condemned building notices to be taped in the windows.  Apparently that day one of the idiot assholes next door was standing on the roof trying to get away. (Kids, seriously. Don't do drugs. It makes you stupid.)

Anyway-- that was exciting, and then I went to aqua, which I did today, for that matter.  And when I got back today, after picking up the kids, there was a construction crew boarding up the house.

"So," I said, walking up to the two construction guys with Geoffie in my arms.  "Uh, how bad was it?"

"We've seen worse," one of the guys said. Then he looked around.  "But there was a lot of heroin needles in there. That was pretty bad."

"Oh," I said, not surprised. "Any, uh, meth cooking?"

"Yeah--but not much, like from a while ago."

I nodded, thinking that explained why three weeks ago my eyes had been burning and the "buyer" activity had increased outside the house. That was just about the time we'd all started calling the cops.

"So the house wasn't--"

"There's some broken windows, and a lot of drug paraphernalia, but its pretty sound."

I left the boys to work while we unloaded groceries in the house, but inside I was just so, so grateful.  They were gone. The place had been boarded up. The meth-cooking squatters are gone.  And you know what else I found out?

The guy across the street, who's sort of a curmudgeon with an iron fence and dogs?  Apparently his son in law is in charge of evictions in this locale. Which explains how it happened so fast.

So we don't have to gather the family and move, and I, for one, am very very grateful.

All that being covered, I do believe I promised a little bit of Cartinski!

*  *  *


"Sheriff Stilinski!" Derek said in a panic. "Sir, did you forget what day it is?"

John stared at him from his desk for a moment, nonplused. "Tuesday?"

Derek made a sound of impatience-- which was something he rarely did.  In fact, most of the time he treated John with sort of an exquisite courtesy, as though believing his boyfriend's father wasn't just going to go batshit on him with a shotgun wasn't ever in the cards, but Derek would do everything in his repertoire to try to keep it from happening.

Impatience, from Derek, meant that something was dire.

"Derek?" he asked hesitantly. "Uh, what's wrong with Tuesday?"

Derek glowered and slid into the room, closing the door behind him. Yeah, sure, Parrish knew about the supernatural nature of Beacon Hills, but Derek had left before that happened, and he didn't trust easily.  "It's the night of the full moon, sir," he said, eyes darting as though he were trapped. "And we're in a time of peace right now, which means…"  He gestured at John to make the leap and catch up.

John stared at him in horror because he was already there. "Oh, dear lord," he muttered. "Fuck. Carter is staying in Eureka tonight--I'll try to get over there and sleep in his spare bedroom or something."  Carter was watching his children-- John wasn't going to intrude on his boyfriend's child time, but… but the full moon, during peace time. Ugh.

Derek nodded. "I knew you could see reason-- are you going to warn anybody else?"

The Sheriff looked up outside his window and watched as all of the non supernatural deputies began to shift uneasily, standing up and putting on their jackets and making to get the hell out of dodge.  All of the supernatural deputies looked up at the clock with an air of long-suffering. He knew they didn't turn furry if they didn't want to--but apparently they just made shit too intense for the everyday average guys who were fine facing bullets but apparently not so great with the full moon.

"I think they already know," he said dryly. He stood up and started to gather his jacket, his keys and his cellphone. He paused at the door. "So, uh, Stiles…" he asked delicately, and he was not reassured when Derek licked his lips, his stunning blue eyes hooded and ripe with something John did not want to think about directed at his baby boy.

"Stiles and I are gonna be fine," Derek murmured. "But you should probably find a safe place to hole up, okay?"

"Yeah," JOhn muttered, hoping he wasn't really abandoning his town to Babylon. "Sure. Back tomorrow morning."

He tore out of there like the fiends of hell were after him.

One of the first things that Carter had done was outfit his Jeep with bluetooth speakers, so he could talk to someone without looking at the phone. John hated new technology, and he wouldn't have used it if Carter hadn't rigged it to interact with his phone whenever he was in the car.  The fact was, he didn't know how to not use the phone in the car anymore, and once he'd muttered to himself, "Dammit, I need to talk to Jack!" and had found himself actually talking to Jack while he'd been out on a call.

So he was relieved when he slid behind the wheel, turned the car on and said, "I need to speak to Carter."

"I'm sorry, Carter is out on a call."

John groaned. "He needs to get this message, dammit-- like right now!"

"This unit understands, Sheriff Stilinski. But Carter isn't able to be reached--"

"Can I leave a message?" he asked, not sure what he could say.

"At the tone, leave a message.  Beeeep!"

John took a breath.  "Carter, it's the full moon. Every werewolf in Beacon Hills is in heat. I'm coming to your place--I'll sleep in the car in the front of the house if I have to, but please, don't make me watch werewolves fucking. Hang up, car."

There was no dial tone.

"Dammit, car, hang up."

Bupkiss.

"This call is over!"

"Message deleted."

John let out a little sob and decided to spend his energy getting to Eureka as fast as he could.

He passed not one, not two, but three werewolf couples, fornicating in the woods as he drove.  The last one was Scott-- he was sure it was Scott, he'd recognize that werewolf anywhere, and Scott was was viciously humping a young pup of a male werewolf as the Sheriff passed the border from Beacon Hills to Eureka.

Wow, that was uncomfortable, but John figured it made him lucky on two counts. Count one, Stiles had been going on forever about how Scott and Liam had needed to get together, and apparently the big werewolf orgy under the moon was their time.

Count two, it hadn't been Derek in human form, fornicating with John's son in public.

Dude, it was pretty much John Stilinski's lucky day right there, anybody would say that oh yes they would.

but that didn't stop John from speeding through Eureka, taking the turnoff to his boyfriend's house with enough speed to slide the back end right into a tree.  It didn't even phase him-- he got control of the Jeep and continued to race down the road until he saw the glimmer of the forcefield that would keep him out until Carter got home.

Well, John understood that Carter's teenage son was there, babysitting the daughter Jack had helped raise and the one he'd spawned but hadn't.  John was all for keeping them safe-- and he'd never even met them.

He came to a halt and cut the motor, sighing with relief.  Then it hit him.

God, he was hungry. And wide awake. And he had nothing to do until Carter decided to come home.

Goddammit. He was about to become the world's most bored man. He functioned on four hours of sleep for Christ's sake-- what was he supposed to do, just sitting outside, in woods where no werewolves fucked? It was just so… so peaceful, out here, and so quiet… and so… so un-werewolf-infested and…

*  *  *

Jack saw him, sleeping in the front of his Jeep as Carter pulled up.  He looked rumpled and tired and dear.  Carter's car had tried to tell him he'd had a car, but Carter had been neck deep in mad scientists trying to turn the town's water supply into grape jelly, so he hadn't been able to answer.

Now he figured that had probably been a pretty important phone call.  He parked his own car and hopped out, tapping on John's window.  John startled awake, looking disoriented and hostile fora moment, and then he rolled down his window.  "Sorry," he mumbled. "I fell asleep."

"I gathered," Carter cracked, grinning. God, he looked delicious, eyes opening and closing as he tried to orient himself, square jaw a little slack from sleep.  "So, what's the deal?"

"It's the full moon," John mumbled, frowning. "It was horrible--"

"Casualties?" Jack asked, suddenly afraid. He hadn't heard that the full moon caused more deaths, but that was because until he and John hooked up, nobody from either town talked to each other!

"No!" John protested. "Sex! It was all over the damned town! Werewolves humping everywhere! And they howl, and they don't care where they're shoving their things… and they knot. It's not a myth-- they knot even human, and all the humans apparently love it because they're all screaming, 'My God, do that more!'"  John shuddered and sank into his seat.  "So," he finished. "You know. I'd rather sleep in front of your house than go back to that."

Carter adjusted himself and stared at his boyfriend with big eyes.  "I'd, uh, rather take you inside, introduce you to the family, and see if Sarah couldn't activate the sound proof walls."

John stared at him, lean mouth slightly parted, and Carter took the opportunity to stick his head in the window and plunder. Ah, sleep and grumpy Sheriff. Carter loved that.

Carter pulled back from the kiss and smiled, thinking that his own night had just looked up considerably. "So," he said, feeling smug and self-satisfied, "how about we go inside and I feed you, and we introduce you to the kids, and then put them to bed."

John squinted at him, apparently two sentences back. "Sound proof walls?"

Carter grinned lasciviously. "Sheriff Stilinski, I really don't know what knotting is. HOw about sometime this evening, you tell me, okay?"

Oh! Carter could tell by the flush that washed his cheeks that he'd caught up with him now.

"Fine," John m uttered. "I'll tell you what it means-- but I won't demonstrate!"


Jack threw his head back and laughed. It was going to be a very good night!




Thursday, October 22, 2015

The Perils of Bureaucracy and the Wisdom of Apocalypse Boy



So, like many of my fellow authors, I submitted to the RITA's today--
the hardest part is preparing myself for the fact that there are so many wonderful authors that my previous nomination was probably a fluke. That's okay-- I have so much love and respect for my fellows, that I think if anyone I know is nominated next time out, I'll be pretty damned thrilled for them too. One year could be a fluke, one author could be an accident, but this genre has so much to offer-- I look forward to seeing it grow.

All that being said, a lot of us had a moment of "Tech hard! Grok make computer go! Go, Grok, go! Go, computer, go!" while we were filling out the forms.

Which is what prompted me to write the Tweet that inspired the meme that you see before you!

A meme I'm going to treasure for a very long time! Thanks, Kristin!

And in other news--

Zoomboy (seen here in his @midnight costume as Apocalypse Boy, complete with camera induced psycho eyes and the furry minion at his feet) has apparently had a whole lot of free time on the computer.

ZB: Mom, Christopher Columbus was a truly horrible person.

Me: Yes, he was.

ZB: He exploited the natives and enslaved them and mutilated them and sold the girls into prostitution.

Me: You're right-- he was a really awful human being. I'm impressed-- you learned this in school?

ZB: No-- The Oatmeal. 

Me: Where all good liberal boys go to learn their history-- I understand.

And seriously-- while I am depressed that kids are continually taught that Columbus was a hero (he was an asshole) it's nice that there are little bits of actual history floating around.

And now, if you will excuse me, I need to contemplate the traffic ticket and the failure to appear charge tacked to the end of it (I was at GRL), and figure out if I will get my royalty checks soon enough to pay that bad boy before I get my license suspended.

And then I'll be repeatedly banging my head against the desk-- wasn't I just here?

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Honey, I'm home...



Okay-- so, today is my first REAL day home-- real as in I sort of accept that I'm alive in the world and I must drive things, be a player in my own life.

It apparently also means that life gets weird.

But I'll get to that later.

First off, the following:

*  We're watching Back to the Future in honor of Back to the Future day. Big T and I both cracked up when Marty was late-- seriously, the genius of that scene is that to some of us? EVERY DAY is the day the clocks lost time and we were late.

*  The following thing happened that I thought was amazingly cool--
   
    When we were driving down to San Diego, Kim Fielding was nice enough to listen to Loreena McKennet's "The Highwayman" while I narrated. (It's hard to hear what's going on if you're not listening for it.)  Since we were both big fans of the "tragedy songs" of the sixties-- "Last Kiss", "Leader of the Pack", "Tell Laura I Love Her"-- you get the picture-- I thought she'd enjoy it, and she did.  Anyway, she got home, and her daughter was reading that poem in school the day after we got back, so Kim told her daughter about the song, and now her daughter's teacher is playing the song for the class.  I actually did this with a Frank McCourt section that mentioned the song, back in the day when I was teaching, and I cannot tell you how tickled I am that this tradition is continuing. Makes me happy enough to sing… Tell Laura, I looooooovee her! Tell Laura I neeeeeed her…..

*  Okay-- and to the potty thing.  See, I took a nap before my aqua class (which I can do now that the class has gotten moved back. Yay!)  Anyway, when I woke up from the nap, I… well, you know. Potty. Yes. That.

So there I am… uh, indisposed… when the dogs start going bananas. Seriously apeshit. "Auuooooooooohhhhh!!!!"  Howling and barking and such… and, well.

Potty.

But the bathroom has a window. So, I reached out and opened the window and peered through.

And saw six SWAT guys creeping in on the house with the drug dealers. One of them was JUST holstering his gun as I opened the window, and they were all straightening from their crouches as though determining the threat had passed.

I wasn't taking any chances. As soon as I wiped I was jumping in my swimsuit and heading for class.

I would far rather the world come crashing down on my head when I'm in the pool than when I'm on the potty. 

I'm just saying!

Oh-- and the funniest part? Was hearing the guys break up the shooting party on the front porch of the condemned house. "Okay then… see ya, I guess."  "Yeah--talk to you later. Call me tonight?"  "Course. See you at the station! Bye!"

Oh!  And thanks so much to Kristin Caldwell Peto on FB, who keeps making my memes for me.  She's got a delightful sense of humor, and I'm so grateful she shares!


Things to Remember on a Road Trip

* Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole.

* Posting Twitter updates whenever somebody says something absurd actually makes things go faster.

*  The person who sits in back usually is okay zoning out and wishing for teleportation to be invented.

* The person who drives through LA traffic is allowed to have the LEAST amount of driving time after that to make up for the trauma.

*  Diet rules don't exist on the road.

* Nosh is to be shared.

*  Quoting Quick Change with the line "I saw a sign, Phyllis!" is even funnier when you're lost on Rosecrans Blvd., looking for a sign to I-5, with somebody actually named Phyllis! (True story!)

*  The best thing about the ubiquity of McDonalds and Starbucks is that you can always use the bathroom and get consistent refreshment. And if you survive the road trip after that, it's perfectly acceptable to not step foot in either establishment for months afterwards.

*  That being said, you can also pee at a Jack-in-the-Box.

*  It is okay for the passenger to inflict one song--and one song only--upon the other occupants of the car with the admonition of "You must love this song or all of my life is a LIE!"

*  All stops along the way are potty stops. This means if someone is dropping you off, be prepared to clear a way to the potty.

*  If you've used your friends bathroom at the end of a road trip, it's always nice to stop and chat a while, even if you're itching to get home ;-)

*  Even true things like, "I have a dead cat in Galt!" sound really frickin' hilarious at the end of the trip!

*  Driver is allowed to swear loudly and colorfully at traffic.  It will be everybody's turn to drive, after all…

*  If someone points out a song on the iPod rotation that ends up having a special significance to someone else after the trip, that's because the trip alone was good karma.

*  There is a Chevron somewhere on the Grapevine that pumps air into your gas tank and deceives it into thinking it's full, thus charging you $60 for a full tank of gas. No, I don't remember which one-- we only figured it out right before we got to Rosecrans Blvd. of the badly marked I-5 signs.

*  You know it was a long trip when the potty humor comes out.

*  You know it was a really long trip when anyone filling their gas tank looks like The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove.

*  You know it was a good choice to go with friends when you remember more about the good company than you do about being locked in a box for a 12 hour trip.

*  You are just as grateful for you road-trip companions the day after the trip as you were when you were giggling your way through 300 miles of valley farmland.

Kim Fielding and Chris Koehler, you guys were awesomesauce, and I had a really good time. 


Sunday, October 18, 2015

FanFic Sunday?-- Interlude

Okay folks-- has been a LOOOONGGG GRL, but I enjoyed myself very much. Had dinner tonight with Ethan Day, and spent the afternoon visiting with Chicken, surviving San Diego traffic, and visiting her cat. Huzzah!

But I miss writing and I miss home and since my eyelids are drooping, I'm going to pitch a little John/Jack interlude about home.

*  *  *

John Stilinski's first day back at home was pretty forgettable-- mostly because he was so drugged he forgot most of it.  The next day, Stiles and Derek were around to help while Carter went and cleared out his inbox and made sure Jo could handle everything for the moment.

John awoke that night, still recovering from the humiliation of his potential son-in-law helping him to the bathroom--because there was a once-strange man rattling around his room.

"God you're loud," John mumbled. "It's a good thing Eureka's perps are all marshmallows, or you'd be dead."

Carter snorted. "Yeah, well, it's a good thing all your perps are werecreatures--with the gas you've passed since I've walked in here, you could kill them all dead."

Stilinski scowled. "Fucking pain meds. They knot up my insides like nothing else. Nungh."

Carter came to his bedside and touched his cheek carefully. "Here--let me go text Fargo that we need something easier on your stomach, and it'll be here in the morning."

"Wait--no! I don't want any special…"

But Carter was slipping into the hall with his phone, leaving John in the dark.

The better to fall asleep, right?

He woke up again, and Carter was lying next to him, one careful hand under Carter's blond sad, the other one lying gently on John's waist.

"This is nice," John mumbled. "How long's it last."

"Most nights," Carter mumbled back, kissing his neck.  "I only stay at Sarah the house when I'm watching the kids."

John grunted and allowed his touch, letting the gruff healing steal through him. "Too bad this house couldn't be Sarah. Derek and Stiles keep telling me they're cleaning shit downstairs, but it sounds like a fucking construction zone."

Carter made a noncomittal noise, and John fell back asleep.

The next morning the underground vacuum tube that Carter had ordered installed began to work. The first item shuttled between Eureka and Beacon Hills was John's non-binding pain meds.

The second thing was a drawing from Jack's daughter that she'd done for her childcare worker.

The third thing was a missive from Allison asking if the system worked well enough for Jack to get off her back and come back to work.

John answered that one with a hand-made thank you note.  And a promise to Stiles and Derek to never, ever, ever ship any of Beacon Hills's freaky assed trouble to their sweet marshmallow neighbors in Eureka.

Thank you

Thank you for reading,
Thank you for caring,
Thank you for coming to talk
And for sharing.

Thank you for loving
And laughing
And traveling
And packing
And flying/riding/train-ing/trying
To come to new places
And joyfully crying.

Thank you for meeting me,
For greeting me,
For hugging me
And GETTING me.

For looking through my eyes a bit
And--like me--never getting over it.

Thank you for loving
My heartbroken boys
And sobbing their heartbreak
Embracing their joys.

Thank you for cheering
For underdog teams
And the kid who's least likely
To see beautiful dreams.

Write for you? Yes!
Sign for you? 'Course.
Hug you? Oh please?
You forgave me for the horse!
YOu forgave me for the tears!
You forgave me for the pain!
You finished the books and you read them again!

So thank you, my readers,
My fans and cheerleaders,
Thank you for loving the books that I love,
The ones that I read and the ones that I write
I love you, I love playing with you,
I'm sad to bid you goodnight--
Sadder still that tomorrow
I'll bid an adieu
And one last, heartfelt, Goddess blessed
Thanks ever so much, I'm so humbled and honored,
So grateful and joyful
gesture of gratitude
To each and every
One
Of
You.

Night GRL 2015--
Thank you :-)

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Go Chicken, Go!

* Chicken started volunteering at GRL. At this point, everybody I have met knows the following things about my daughter:  

A.  She's stunningly beautiful.

B. She's old enough to be here.

C. She would love to talk books.

D. She's as bad at paperwork as I am.

E. Mom couldn't be happier or prouder that she's here.

* If I listed all the awesome people I met today, my brain would explode.

*  That being said, Kaje Harper, Jaime Samms, and K-Lee Klein put on a lovely panel, as did Rhys Ford, Charley Cochet and Lisa Henry.  I love hearing other writers talk about the thing that drives them. Tis an awesome moment.

*  For dinner we got to watch pretty women dance hula, and an amazing man juggle fire. Yeah, he caught fire too, but he put it out pretty quickly.

*  I had a bunch of LOVELY people at my table for dinner-- and they seemed happy to see me, so that made things much more awesome!

*  I got inside and called my family because I'd missed out on calling them two nights running. Tonight's #hashtagwars theme on @midnight was #CrapperBooks. My family needed me to call so I could tweet Harry Potty and the Half-Clogged Bench , Game of Thrones, and If you give a pea a pee.  It was almost like I was at home!

*  Almost like I was at home-- the fact that I called out "Assholes!" sharply over the phone and they paused, as though knowing they sucked.  Ah, I miss my dogs.

*  The Grapevine flooded over today-- and I'm SO relieved that it looks like it will be done raining by tomorrow so we might get home on Monday! Because cars were getting swallowed up by mud, and it was scary!

*  And on that note, I'm going to bail, cause I've got sleepiness I need to take care of.


Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Getting Lost

Well, I made it to the airport in time to pick up Mary Calmes and Jaime Samms…

But it took us an hour to get back.

I don't know… something about the freeways here, and the way this featureless road winds between mountains we're moving too fast to examine… I can't really put my finger on why San Diego is so hard for me to parse in terms of places.  I mean, directions aren't my strong point, and they probably never will be, but I've figured out parts of Burlingame by now, and I've been there a couple of times, each time a year apart. AFter all the time I've spent in San Diego there's got to be SOME reason I can't spot the landmarks.

But besides that, I'm having a wonderful time.

Saw Chicken tonight when we went out to dinner, and she's… beautiful, confident, and, hopefully, happy. She's taking her 17 lb. cat to the vet tomorrow because Valkyrie takes the sport of vomiting very seriously and Chicken is afraid she's harmed herself.

I think that cat is too mean to kill, myself. But Chicken loves her desperately, and I"m just enjoying watching her and her cat.

We set up our swag on the swag tables tonight-- which is exciting because everybody has so much fun stuff! Mr. Andrew Grey was sweet enough to let me use his table, since he didn't have anything up there, and at first I was going to say no… then it turned out I had enough stuff to put up there, and I was like, "Uh… that's embarrassing. I'm a swag pig!"

I put on my presentation about setting this morning-- and I was proud. I think I used the slides just enough, and for the right reasons, and but I didn't rely on them.  However people kept asking me, "Oh, how was that?"

I was like, "I don't know-- there wasn't a test at the end!"

I think people were engaged and walked away with something important, and this makes me happy-- if I don't post my materials for the presentation by next week, somebody poke me and let me know. I've gotten some lovely positive feedback on the character materials I have there from the last time I do this--and, yanno, since there IS no test at the end, I think the feedback will have to do!

And mostly it's been a lovely full day--I've received an amazing scarf from Ms. Rhae, and a gift for Zoomboy, as well as a plot bunny from Lissa Kassey for Squish.

The sexed-out stuffed turtle I got from Ms. Brandi Godbehere is all mine ;-)

And with that, I'm going to go clean up and go to bed. I think I was trying to recover from the drive yesterday all day today, and tomorrow is going to be bigger!

Night all!


Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Moments from packing...

Tomorrow I leave for San Diego, but, Goddess bless it, not alone, and I am thrilled! I am swinging through Davis to get the awesome and snarky Mr. Chris Koehler, and then we're heading for Turlock to get the lovely and outrageously fun Ms. Kim Fielding. Together, we shall road trip it down to San Diego, just us, our luggage, and swag. (It has occurred to me that I have more than my share of swag and luggage. My shame is great.)

Anyway-- I bring you the following bits from a very busy day:



Squish: Mom, do you think reality inhibits creativity?

Mom: Why are you naked in the bedroom while I'm packing?


*  *  *

Mate: So, what did you need from the All-Shit store when I come back from my meeting?

Me: Azo. Any kind you can find.

Mate: You're going on a trip to San Diego tomorrow?

Me: Yup.

Mate: That could be the saddest thing I've ever heard.

*  *  *

Chicken: No, I'm not fired. I just smoked us all out of the restaurant--but they said I'm not fired!

Me: 0.0

*  *  *

Big T: Sure I'll cook dinner. You want ground beef and shredded potatoes and vegetables, right?

Me:  Right.

A few minutes later…

Big T: So… squash. Does squash count as a vegetable.

Me:  Unless it's butternut.

T:  Okay.

A few minutes later…

T: What constitutes a butternut squash.

Me:  The squash in the fridge was a butternut squash.

T:  I think I won't put that in the dinner pot.

Me:  Good idea.

(btw-- he did a really good job with everything else. Very tasty!)

*  *  *

Zoomboy, watching @midnight with Chris Hardwick:  Mom, what's a dildo?

Mate: We're just not talking about that tonight.

ZB: Cool.

A few minutes later:

ZB: So, better debate questions?

Me:  Yup, that's the hashtag war.

ZB: Why are dogs.

Me: Perfect.

*  *  *

Me:  "Yes, this Amy Lane."

Kinko's/FedEX:  "Yes, Ms. Lane, we have your banner and your copies?"

Me:  Oh holy CRAP I totally forgot about that.

Kinko's: Well, we'll hold it for another three months.

Me:  But I need it THIS WEEK.

Kinko's: Oh. So, tomorrow or--

Me:  Tonight. I'm leaving RIGHT NOW.

*  *  *

And wish us luck and safe driving, and hope the little dogs are okay with out me.

And the humans.

Oh!

And this: http://happyeverafter.usatoday.com/2015/10/13/paranormal-authors-cats-calmes-lane-maree-arvin-langlais/

It's about time the cats got their own article!  Thanks BookTaster!