Live on the Gryphon Rose

. . . to all moms and grandmas! But especially to my own sweetie, jendaby. You rock!

Yesterday my son got hold of the laptop.

Apparently he turned it on. That's fine--frighteningly precocious, but fine. But he also decided to streamline the input process . . .

. . . by removing keys from the keyboard.

He didn't eat them--he doesn't usually put non-food in his mouth, thankfully--and we were able to locate them all. But laptop keyboards aren't like regular keyboards. They have little fiddly plastic bits instead of springs. And some of those are now broken or missing. I was able to reinsert some of the keys but not all of them, amd I don't know if it'll ever function properly again, esp. for real writing.

Ugh.

The moral of this story, clearly, is "just because a child hasn't messed with a particular item before, don't assume they never will."

Okay, so my realtor just called.

No, we’re not moving. This is the realtor who sold us the house.

FOUR YEARS AGO.

But she just keeps calling! And today she apparently called our home, woke jendaby up, and then figured she should call me on my cell instead. It’s 10am on a weekday. I’m at work. Why the hell are you calling me “just to say hi”?

People make me crazy sometimes.

Last night, however, did not make me crazy. Because last night was my Tuesday out and I went out to dinner with qadgop, slothshaman, xochitl42, glenn_hauman, jon_chance, and [poor, LJ-less] Peter. And then? Then we went and saw Iron Man.

OH YEAH!

It *rocked*! I know, I’m like the last person here to see it (except jendaby, who hopefully can go soon), or else I’d be exhorting you all to run out to the theater right now. It really was excellent.

Afterward slothshaman, glenn_hauman, jon_chance and I went out for dessert/belated dinner/drinks and hung out, and then all walked back to Port Authority, where slothshaman and I chatted a bit before taking our respective subways home. jendaby was still up when I got home, though barely, so we talked about our days and then she went to bed and I took out trash and recycling before checking email and weather and then conking out myself.

It was a very good night.

Maybe next time I’ll invite the realtor.

. . . the Crazy Month of May.

This month is going to be a madhouse for us—far more so than usual for this time of year. My dad and my two younger sisters are visiting, we have several birthday parties and a wedding to attend, we’re going to a baseball game, we have friends coming over, I’ve got a story and some RPG projects to write—and of course that’s in between the regular day job and the kids.

Thursday morning I brought the car in to the mechanic to have it checked over—and to finally fix the door handle, which they broke over a year ago. Then it was off to work as usual.

Friday I picked the car up after work—all tuned up but with the door more of a mess than ever thanks to their discovering they needed a second part they had to order and so leaving the door half-assembled in the meantime. Most of the game group was busy but our friend Peter came over to have dinner, hang out, and watch Juno, which was very cute.

Saturday morning we got up, packed, gathered the kids, and headed out to NJ. We visited jendaby’s grandmother for a few hours, and then headed down to Cherry Hill to see my old buddy Rob. Rob and I have been friends since we met in summer camp back when I was twelve. We hung out together a lot as kids, esp. since our parents became friends as well, and kept in touch once I left New Orleans but haven’t seen each other for years. This despite living only a few hours away—for years we’ve both said we should get together but then would get busy. So we finally made it out to see him, his wife, and their two kids. His parents live nearby and came over as well, which was great—I’ve always liked them and haven’t seen them since we got together for dinner after my parents had moved back to N.O. It turned out to be Rob’s younger son’s birthday party, so we wound up being invited to that, which was very sweet, and we hung out until around 8 before heading out to find our hotel—which was way back in the other direction, since we’d chosen one that was near our cousins up in Skillman. We didn’t get in there until around 10, got the kids in their beds, relaxed and took a bath, and then went to sleep ourselves.

Sunday we got up, packed up, checked out, and headed over to Skillman for our newest cousin’s baptism. That was interesting—very pretty church, very involved service. The kids behaved reasonably well. Afterward we headed back to Steve and Jenny’s for lunch, which was great—hanging out with them and our other cousins and aunt and uncle plus Steve and Jenny’s friends. There were plenty of kids there, so ours got to run around and play quite a bit. We headed back out around five and, despite a little Sunday traffic, got home without any real problem. Had some dinner, gave the kids a bath, and then put them to bed—they sacked out almost immediately. We stayed up for a bit, though, to watch last week’s CSI (good ep) and this week’s Dr. Who (miles better than last year’s Dalek two-part debacle by the same author but still with massive plot holes). Then finally to bed.

I’m home today—some stomach issues, which will hopefully pass soon—but tomorrow night I’m off to see Iron Man. My youngest sister’s already in town, so I’ll hopefully see her some time this week, but if not before we’re getting together Friday and over the weekend. And so the craziness continues.

It’s been a reasonably good week so far:

Last Thursday jendaby and I brought the kids in for Take Your Children to Work Day. They had a blast—our daughter pretty much took charge of everyone (and immediately claimed one of the two volunteers as her own personal attendant) and our son charmed every female in the area and accidentally bullied most of the other boys (including ones twice his size). I was working, of course, but went over to see them when I could and joined them for lunch. After the activities ended jendaby took them over to MOMA, where our son slept while our daughter pronounced criticisms on several famous artists (for more on that see jendaby’s recap of the day). Then we all went out for dinner and dessert before heading home. Crazy busy, exhausting, but fun.

Friday was quiet at work, and then we hung out with xochitl42, slothshaman, and Mook—dinner and supposedly gaming but we just round up sitting around talking and laughing instead.

Saturday jendaby and xochitl42 went into Manhattan to do some shopping so I manned the parental battle stations solo for the day. The kids were fine, actually. jendaby was back in time for dinner, and afterward she and I watched In the Name of the King, which was predictably awful but amused us, particularly the Ray Liotta-Matthew Lillard “No, I can chew more scenery!” competition.

Sunday was an “at-home” day—the kids were a bit more difficult so it took both of us to keep up with them. In between we did a whole lot of laundry, cleaned up here and there, read a bit, took a nice walk in the evening, etc. And that night jendaby and I watched the latest Dr. Who ep., which was a lot of fun.

Monday I had my annual job performance review, which went as expected: “You’re performing to your usual high standards, so thank you. For next year—more of the same, please!” Always nice to know your bosses recognize that you’re doing good work. That night feiran kindly watched the kids for us so jendaby could meet me after work—we had dinner (Dallas BBQ—okay, not great) and went to a movie (Forbidden Kingdom—much fun!) and had a very nice time.

Tuesday night I headed home right after work so jendaby could go out—we’re going to be alternating Tuesdays as a “go have fun!” night (and sometimes if feiran accedes we’ll—gasp!—go out together!)—and go dancing in the city. I got the kids dinner and put them to bed, then dorked around on the computer for a while, cleaned up a bit, etc.

This coming weekend we’re off to NJ for our new cousin’s christening and to see jendaby’s grandmother, as well as to catch up with an old buddy of mine. Should be fun!

It’s been an . . . interesting week.

On Tuesday night jendaby’s and my romantic relationship with deltagrl ended. There were simply some differences—of personality, of involvement, of opinion—that could not be surmounted. We’re working to salvage our friendship, however.

On Wednesday I found out that my cousin Bob had died. Robert Hartman was a really, really great guy: smart and funny and charming and considerate, a great kidder and a huge flirt but also incredibly sharp and wonderfully supportive. He and my grandfather looked and acted a great deal alike, so it was always strange to remember that in fact it was Bob’s wife Sylvia who was my grandfather’s oldest sister’s daughter. Yes, if you’re doing the math, Bob was of the previous generation, or perhaps even the one before that—he served in World War II (on bomber planes) before returning, marrying Sylvia, and going back into the family fur business before eventually leaving that for public school teaching. He and Sylvia were the first family members jendaby got to meet, many many years ago, and they made her feel welcome right from the start. We last saw him a little over a year ago, when my dad was visiting and we all went out for dinner at our favorite diner. A few weeks later Bob and Sylvia headed down to their winter home in Florida, and a short while after that Bob had a massive stroke. He never regained consciousness. But I’ll always remember him laughing and smiling that impish little grin and clasping me on the shoulder even as he ribbed me and flirted with jendaby and charmed our children.

Thursday night deltagrl stopped by to retrieve her things and return ours. That was difficult for everyone.

Friday I went to NYComicCon after work for my book signing. That went well—we gave away copies of Tides of Darkness (Beyond the Dark Portal isn’t out for another month or two) and ran out within twenty minutes so I signed a bunch of Creative Couplings for them (they were going to give those away on Saturday) and then headed home to catch up with jendaby, xochitl42 and Mook. We hung out until around midnight or so, then I worked until 4am to finish up something I had to get in that night—not a work project but something for a volunteer position, so it was my own damn fault.

Saturday I went back to the con to wander around a bit. It was jam-packed, of course, but I still managed to make it to most of the publishers and see a lot of the rest of the floor as well. I ran into a bunch of friends, including Glenn, Bob G., infinitydog, kradical, and justcomeinalone, spoke to several editors I knew, and made a few new contacts as well. Then I headed back home.

Sunday I was going over to two friends’ apartment—luckily for me only a few blocks away—to game with them and a few others. That was starting at 2:30. At 2 jendaby and I discovered the laundry room was full of water. We traced the problem back to the toilet but plunging didn’t help any so we simply bailed it out, sopped everything up, and left it alone for a while. I went to the game and hung out there until around 10, when I headed home. My youngest sister and her newly minted fiancé—who were coming up for the funeral and were staying the night with us—got in maybe twenty minutes after I did and we hung out a little bit before all going to sleep.

Monday was Bob’s funeral. The service was nice, though the kids decided to act up a bit and we had to take them out before the end. Then we all formed a funeral procession and drove out to the cemetery, somewhere in Suffolk. After the graveside service we headed back to Sylvia’s apartment in Fresh Meadows and stayed there for a while before going home. That night I realized that my allergies were too severe and too constant to just be allergies—I had apparently caught a cold. jendaby convinced me to take some cold medicine and I went to sleep.

Yesterday my cold was worse instead of better, but I suffered through it and went to work anyway. On the way home I picked up an auger—also known as a drain snake—and last night after the kids were in bed and after I’d taken a nap I went down and used it to unstop the toilet. Yay! We also did the use trash/recycling/changing the cat litter, though jendaby kindly helped with them because the cold was kicking my butt. Then I went upstairs, took more cold medicine, and went back to sleep.

I’m feeling a little better today—still crappy, still plugged-up, but managing. Hopefully it’ll pass soon. Tomorrow is Take Your Children to Work Day here, and we’re bringing both of the kids in for it, which should be fun but could be utter chaos.

And that’s about all the news here for now.

Wow, it’s already Thursday and I haven’t posted my I-Con report yet! So, without further ado:

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Expect an update on I-Con soon, but before I forget:

I will be signing at the New York Comic Con next Friday (April 18) at 6pm at the Pocket Books booth. If you're around, stop by and say hi!

One year ago today our good friend David Honigsberg died. Jendaby has an excellent post about it, which sums up much of what I would say.

I can only add that David was my counselor, my partner in crime, my almost writing partner (we had several projects we were about to start but none that we actually got to sit down and write fully), my spiritual advisor, and often my conscience or at least my self-control. But most of all he was my friend. And I know that, if he was right, he's only taken the next step on his spiritual journey. But I miss my friend.

I can only take comfort in the fact that my memories of him remain strong and wonderful. The Rock-and-Roll Rabbi has passed on but his music and his inspiration live on. Keep rockin’, wherever you are, my friend. Just keep rockin’.

Before I forget, I have my schedule for I-Con now, in case any of you are attending and want to find me:

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LunaCon was very nice and very friendly—it helps that we knew a lot of the other program participants already, so it was very comfortable. For those who want more detail, read on:

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I'm just sayin'.

I keep forgetting to post about this, but I’m a guest at LunaCon again this coming weekend. jendaby, deltagrl and I are all going up, and yes, we’re bringing the kids. Whee! We should be getting in some time Saturday morning and we’re staying the night there, which should make life easier—last year I drove up and drove back Saturday, which was a little tiring.

For those attending, or just curious, here is my schedule:

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Last night, as those in the area already know, was seriously f*cking cold.

So of course . . .

jendaby and I decided to relax and watch some Black Books after the kids were finally asleep. On the way down to the basement she clicked on the heater. On the way back up she checked it, because the house felt a bit cool.

No heat.

So, being a wonder-worker, my lovely wife went down and fiddled with the furnace. I’m good at some mechanical things, she’s good at others—we make a good team. She understands the furnace. To me it’s all a mystery except that there’s flames and gas and stuff.

An hour or so later, she called me to come downstairs. No luck with the furnace. The pilot light wouldn’t stay on—it’d light but went out as soon as she let go the starter button.

Great. It’s past midnight. It’s freezing cold. And we have no heat.

jendaby thought it was the thermocouple, which we had already had replaced once three years ago. She was pretty sure she could replace it herself if we got a new one. Home Depot carries them.

Home Depot closes at eleven. It doesn’t open again until five.

We then spent the next hour and a half or so digging out every blanket we have, piling them on the kids’ beds and our own, dragging the dehumidifier up from the basement and putting it in the kids’ room—it puts off a fair bit of heat—and then bundling up under the covers. We got to bed around two.

I get up a little after six. Dragged on clothes, got in the car, drove to Home Depot, bought a new thermocouple for ten bucks—it’s amazing how quiet that place is at 6:30 in the morning on a weekday!—and drove back home. My lovely wife then got up, went downstairs, and installed it (with a little help from me, just because the plumbers had screwed the old one in really tightly). And Voila! Heat! Yay!

Now I am at work. I was only as few minutes late, amazingly enough. And the short sleep has not yet hit me, though I know it will, probably after lunch. But at least my wife and kids are snug at home, and I will be able to return to a warm house tonight. My wife rocks.

Right, it’s been a bit since the last update. Here’s what’s been happening:

* jendaby, deltagrl, and I celebrated our six-month anniversary yesterday. Whee!

* jendaby and I went out for dinner and a movie for the first time since last October 2006 (we’ve been out to dinner since then but not with a movie), thanks to deltagrl. We saw Jumper, which was fun—not a brilliant film but entertaining and I liked the effects. Shame about the romantic lead’s heroin habit, though—and about Hayden Christenson’s lack of acting ability. Oh well.

* Saw Cloverfield. I enjoyed it—not overwhelmingly so, but I thought it was fun, and a clever way to approach that particular genre.

* Talking to a few people about a few things, still. Some irons go cold, others get added to the fire, still others get reworked and put back in again. And around we go . . .

* Moved our son into our daughter’s room this weekend. Yes, she’s still in there as well. She’s been complaining about nightmares lately and wanted company, he’s been fussing at night and loves being in her room, we wanted to actually get some sleep—it’s a win all around. So far it’s working fairly well. And it’s actually the first time we’ve had a kid-free room in four years, since by the time our daughter moved into her own room jendaby was heavily pregnant with our son. It’s weird getting used to the quiet in there.

* My guest info went up on the ShoreLeave page, so now that’s official, too.

* Turned in an RPG project for Talisman Studios. Much fun, and just the first of many. Oh yes, and they put up a press release about my joining them—you can read it here.

* Found out that Thrilling Tales Quarterly #1 is now out. It includes my first Gunshade story, “Rapid Fire.” You can find out more about the magazine—and order it— here.

This weekend jendaby and deltagrl are off to the wilds of Massachusetts, leaving me to take care of the whirling dervishes. I’m happy they get to go but dreading minding both kids on my own for two-and-a-half days. Oh well. I’ll manage.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. If I forget anything important I’ll either edit the post or put up an addendum. You should now wait with bated breath. :)

lucien_soulban recently had a post about poor sentences and messed-up phrasing. Today I’m working on correcting a manuscript and I run across this line:

“Since the horses were still accessing each other”

Mind you, this is a YA book about a preteen girl and her horse. “Accessing”? A bit . . . hardcore for such a young audience, isn’t it?

I showed it to the PE, who promptly changed that to “assessing.” I’m still chuckling about it.

So I get home from work tonight, only to discover that my son has removed his diaper and smeared its contents liberally over both himself and his crib. Sadly, this is not a new occurrence—he’s learning to use the toilet now, and has fully (even eagerly) grasped the concept of “when you need to go or have just gone, divest yourself of pants and undergarments.” Whee.

jendaby was heading out to a movie with deltagrl, so I got the little man and his crib cleaned up. Unpleasant, annoying, but nothing we haven’t done before. While I’m changing him his sister comes upstairs—she was watching something on TV down in the basement—to see me. But when she touches me I recoil because her hands are horribly sticky, completely covered in something I don’t immediately recognize. I send her to wash her hands and don’t think anything else of it.

A little later, I’ve got both kids sitting down to dinner. I ask them if they had cups already today, and learn that said cups are in the basement. So I go downstairs. I find the cups all right, sitting on the table next to the television—and right in front of the television is a pickle jar. Empty. Very empty. And completely sticky.

At once my horrified brain recognizes the stickiness. Then I see the sheen on the television screen—and the bits of toilet paper stuck to it where a preschooler desperately tried to clean it up. I march back upstairs with the empty pickle jar and demand to know what happened.

“I brought it downstairs because I wanted a pickle,” my little girl tells me nonchalantly.

“And why is the television all sticky?” I ask.

“Because I spilled it,” is the honest reply.

After both kids have food and something to drink I go back downstairs, armed with paper towels. But as I’m wiping off the screen I realize that the entertainment center all around the television has that same sheen—only wetter. So does the subwoofer next to the entertainment center, and the floor all around both, and the wood panels behind it. I’m just glad those panels are there—they’re shielding the powerstrip, and I shudder to think what could have happened if that had been doused with pickle brine.

I can’t deal with this yet. In part because I’m not sure it’s safe to do while I’m the only adult here. I’m going to have to take the TV down off the entertainment center, set it on its back on the floor so I can clean it properly, clean up the entertainment center itself, move the subwoofer out and clean not only it but the floor around it, and wipe down those panels. And then see if it spread any further. There was a lot of brine in that jar.

I’m sure I’ll laugh about this someday. I suspect many of you are laughing already. That’s fine—that’s one of the reasons I’m posting it. The other two are venting—and so that, when she’s a teenager and later an adult, you can all remind my daughter about this. Repeatedly. I figure it’s the only revenge I’m going to get.

But only because I love learning about my friends!

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It’s been two weeks since my last post, and I’m waiting for Design to locate one of their own files (a rush project, natch), so—time for an update.

Let’s see, what’s gone on in the past two weeks?

We had our annual Wassail! party, which was a lot of fun. We had ten guests this year, the largest group ever, and a ton of food (and of course Wassail—for those unfamiliar with it, that’s a spiced hot apple cider drink, usually alcoholic though we let people spike their own). I ran the game, which involved characters from all over (several different worlds/settings, some original and some pulled from movies, comics, books, or TV shows) being abducted by interdimensional slavers and eventually sold as prey in a Hunt which, if they survived, would grant them freedom and riches. It was a bit less focused than usual because of the sheer number of players but I think everyone had a good time.

Last weekend we went out to Mt. Holly, NJ—I had a work project there (more about that some other day, if things work out) and at the last minute discovered that jendaby and the kids could come with me. It’s less than two hours away so we drove down ourselves (instead of riding in a fifteen-passenger van with some of the others, which would have been fine for me but not so good for/with the kids) on Friday night. We were staying at a Best Western and thought we had a suite but discovered that wasn’t true—instead we had a queen bed and no couch. The hotel provided a cot for our daughter and a crib for our son, though, so that was fine. And we did have a Jacuzzi, which was cool. Oddly enough, when we got into the room it had no lights—every single bulb was burned out. Weird. And the TV had no cable. They fixed that, fortunately, since this was the weekend our son decided he actually liked television. Saturday was the Fire & Ice Festival—chili cook-off and ice carving—which was fun. I was working most of the day, but jendaby got to spend time with our cousin and one of our uncles, so that was cool. Sunday I worked in the morning, then we checked out, went out for lunch (if you ever get the chance to eat at the Vincentown Diner, do so!), and visited jendaby’s grandmother before heading home. It was a fun trip, very educational for me, and could lead to some really good things down the road.

In other news, work sucks. I am currently hating my job. There’s more work than I can handle and of course they won’t hire anyone to help but then they complain about the work not getting done on time. Gee, why would that be? Bleah.

On the plus side, I’ve been confirmed as a guest at I-Con again this year. We’re all going (including deltagrl—yay!) and should have a nice weekend. I’m also a guest at ShoreLeave in July, but no author guest page up yet, so expect a link at a later date.

Freelance work is picking up a bit—I’ve got six projects to do between now and the start of May. Yipes! None of them huge, fortunately, but I’m going to be fairly busy for a while.

Tonight jendaby, deltagrl, and I are going out to a fancy restaurant because it’s Restaurant Week! Whee!

I think that’s it for the moment. More some other time.

. . . and little to say.

It’s been quiet the past two weeks. Well, as quiet as it gets for us, anyway.

The kids are good—a handful, both of them, getting into everything and pushing boundaries and so forth, but still cute and often sweet and still pretty well-behaved, all things considered.

jendaby and deltagrl and I are good. jendaby’s been rocking on her etsy store, doing all kinds of cool craftwork, and deltagrl’s got all manner of cool projects awhirl.

Work’s busy but not insane, which is fine. I need to write a project that’s due next month, and to finally sit down and put finishing touches on another one. I’m talking to people about various other possibilities for the year, some in familiar fields and some in new ones.

One thing that’s been a lot of fun this past week has been over at my buddy aaronace’s LJ. He’s been putting up a different original image each day, and inviting people to write flash fiction to accompany them. I’ve done four or five so far, and it’s been a blast—nice and short, very immediate, no quandaries, no licensing issues, no outlines, just short fun fiction.

We had a nice quiet New Year’s—dinner with qadgop and skoobwoman and then home to chill and watch the ball drop. Last weekend we had dinner with them again, and then the next day had lunch with my youngest sister and her boyfriend—I tried not to do too much of the “protective big brother” thing. This coming weekend we have Wassail!, our all-day gaming party. I’m running, and so far I have ten players. Whee! Should be a good time, though—drinks, food, gaming, and good friends.

I may be taking a weekend trip out to New Jersey later this month. More on that some other time, perhaps.

And tonight jendaby and I get to go out on a date! Yay! deltagrl is graciously minding the munchkins so the wife and I can have some quiet time out together. Sweet!