General catching up type of stuff
I haven't posted anything other than reviews for a few days, so here's the basic catch-up:
I arrived in Orlando on Saturday. Spent Saturday night and most of Sunday with my friend Nina and her kids in Clearwater. Ate fried alligator bits for the first time. A little rubbery, but good. Drove back to Orlando to check into my hotel on Sunday evening. Watched Once Upon A Time. The class was a good group, although I got ribbed a lot for not being Regan, who has done this swing for the past several years. Monday night I watched Castle. All three nights I did some reading over dinner.
Wednesday I spent most of the day driving from Orlando to Mobile, AL. A 7.5 hour trip, although with the time change I forgot I'd be experiencing I arrived in Mobile with the clock saying I'd only been on the road for 6 hours. I felt the need to be surrounded by the music of friends throughout the drive, so the playlist included The Dalliance, Casey Stratton, Phil Putnam, Christina Lenway, Hollywood Ending, Burnham, Matt Johnson, Gabe Price, Almost Hero, The After Party, Anson Li, Kicking Daisies, and Sister Gin.
Wednesday night, I completed the edits/revisions to "Chasing Satellites" that Bryan Thomas Schmidt had suggested I make after I initially submitted the story to him for consideration for his BEYOND THE SUN anthology of space colony stories. This is the antho I pushed hard for the Kickstarter for. Final decision on acceptance is still to come, but the story has a much better shot with the revisions made. Keep your fingers crossed.
Today started off somewhat rocky with the class here in Mobile. Several people somehow ended up at the wrong hotel. Several others were not happy with the meeting room seating arrangements (despite the fact that it's exactly up to our company's standards). Then we discovered the coffee had gone cold because the banquet staff hadn't lit the burners under the urns. I did get the group laughing with me by mid-morning, but man was it a rough start. (I resisted responding to the person who said "You're not Regan" with some snark about sex-change operations. I figured that might be too far.)
At the end of lunch I got a text and phone call from my bank, warning me of a possible fraudulent charge on my debit card. So that started my afternoon off rocky. This time, it wasn't a false alarm -- someone really did swipe my debit card number and billing address/phone info from somewhere and attempt to buy a $750 laptop online from a store in Edison, NJ. My bank has closed my debit card and is issuing a new one. Since I'm on the road for work, all expenses go on my corporate card, so I'm not worried about not being able to pay for stuff before I get home and get the card. What's funny is that I also got a phone call from the store in Edison, telling me that they couldn't process my order because the card had been declined by my bank ... so by calling them back, I also have the email address and physical mailing address the person used to attempt the purchase. When I get back to NJ Saturday, I'll be looking into pressing charges, if the police can find the person.
Came back to the room exhausted. Forced myself to go out for dinner, but am realizing as the night goes on that I'm not feeling quite right. I do think a cold of some kind is coming on. Yuck.
I arrived in Orlando on Saturday. Spent Saturday night and most of Sunday with my friend Nina and her kids in Clearwater. Ate fried alligator bits for the first time. A little rubbery, but good. Drove back to Orlando to check into my hotel on Sunday evening. Watched Once Upon A Time. The class was a good group, although I got ribbed a lot for not being Regan, who has done this swing for the past several years. Monday night I watched Castle. All three nights I did some reading over dinner.
Wednesday I spent most of the day driving from Orlando to Mobile, AL. A 7.5 hour trip, although with the time change I forgot I'd be experiencing I arrived in Mobile with the clock saying I'd only been on the road for 6 hours. I felt the need to be surrounded by the music of friends throughout the drive, so the playlist included The Dalliance, Casey Stratton, Phil Putnam, Christina Lenway, Hollywood Ending, Burnham, Matt Johnson, Gabe Price, Almost Hero, The After Party, Anson Li, Kicking Daisies, and Sister Gin.
Wednesday night, I completed the edits/revisions to "Chasing Satellites" that Bryan Thomas Schmidt had suggested I make after I initially submitted the story to him for consideration for his BEYOND THE SUN anthology of space colony stories. This is the antho I pushed hard for the Kickstarter for. Final decision on acceptance is still to come, but the story has a much better shot with the revisions made. Keep your fingers crossed.
Today started off somewhat rocky with the class here in Mobile. Several people somehow ended up at the wrong hotel. Several others were not happy with the meeting room seating arrangements (despite the fact that it's exactly up to our company's standards). Then we discovered the coffee had gone cold because the banquet staff hadn't lit the burners under the urns. I did get the group laughing with me by mid-morning, but man was it a rough start. (I resisted responding to the person who said "You're not Regan" with some snark about sex-change operations. I figured that might be too far.)
At the end of lunch I got a text and phone call from my bank, warning me of a possible fraudulent charge on my debit card. So that started my afternoon off rocky. This time, it wasn't a false alarm -- someone really did swipe my debit card number and billing address/phone info from somewhere and attempt to buy a $750 laptop online from a store in Edison, NJ. My bank has closed my debit card and is issuing a new one. Since I'm on the road for work, all expenses go on my corporate card, so I'm not worried about not being able to pay for stuff before I get home and get the card. What's funny is that I also got a phone call from the store in Edison, telling me that they couldn't process my order because the card had been declined by my bank ... so by calling them back, I also have the email address and physical mailing address the person used to attempt the purchase. When I get back to NJ Saturday, I'll be looking into pressing charges, if the police can find the person.
Came back to the room exhausted. Forced myself to go out for dinner, but am realizing as the night goes on that I'm not feeling quite right. I do think a cold of some kind is coming on. Yuck.