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Hugos 2011 - Short Stories
This summer, Aaron and I are going to Reno with Kim for the World Science Fiction Convention aka WorldCon. This means that I get to vote for the Hugos, so I'm making it a mission to actually read everything that was nominated. These are my notes.
Best Short Story
- "Amaryllis" by Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed, June 2010): Dystopic world in which ( Read more... )
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The Saga of Aaron's Insurance
Aaron quit his at Frye last June and picked up a much better paying contract job at Intel, losing his health insurance in the process on July 1st. At the time, we weren't overly concerned about it. He's young and healthy and a non-smoker and has never had any serious health concerns. After pricing out private health insurance plans, we figured his ( Read more... ) -
Small victories
Today victory comes in small packages. Felix just ate three spoonfuls of baby food. That is my victory of the moment. Last night, he stretched out to his full length, his hind end hanging out of the kitty carrier, which is where he prefers to sleep these days. That was also a victory. The evening before, we let him go outside, and he took us for a ( Read more... ) -
Floors!
The floors in the nursery and hallway downstairs are finally sanded and finished. We used an eco-friendly oil-based finish called "Osmo," which is supposedly easy to maintain and spot repair. Pictures under the cut.
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Insulation!
We installed insulation in the ceiling of our dormer bedroom upstairs yesterday. (The first time I encountered insulation was when i was a kid and my dad was expanding the house. Pink fluffy stuff with pictures of the pink panther. This is screaming "cool toy" for kids. My dad did not agree.) The space between each stud was different, as was the ( Read more... ) -
So much for wanting gov't out of health care
The Oklahoma Legislature has just mandated that any woman getting an abortion receive an ultrasound (vaginal if it's an early pregnancy) and receive a detailed description of the fetus. There are no exceptions for rape or incest victims. Good thing conversatives hate, hate, hate the idea of the government getting involved with health care decisions ( Read more... ) -
Fermat
Last weekend was the hardest one I've had in a long time. Our younger cat, Fermat (and, by younger, I mean a little over 11 years old), had been a bit reclusive lately and wasn't eating as much as normal. Friday morning, I scheduled an appointment with the vet for the afternoon. When I got into the bright lights of the vet's examination room, his ( Read more... ) -
Neverending Painting Project
I am getting sick of painting our downstairs bedroom. The walls are mostly done and just need a few touchups, but the molding and doors are turning out to be somewhat of a project of my own creation. It's a small bedroom, but it somehow manages to have three doors (two exits and a closet), and two windows, and craftman bungalow molding for all the ( Read more... )