So seagrit put up this picture, and it reminded me of the events immediately preceding it.

Amber (the elder of the two niecelets, age 4) had just opened her fairy wings from Uncle Mark and Auntie Mrissa. She was squealing and jumping up and down, and I said, "Do you want to put them on?"

And she stopped dead and stared at me with round eyes and said, " ( Read more... )

As many of you know, I'm an only child; when I refer to my brother, I'm talking about the one I went out and got for myself in my late teens, not one who was parentally provided. And he is a very fine brother and all one could ask for in a brother...and does not affect my only child brain processes in the slightest. He is very much loved, but as ( Read more... )

1. My godfather is well and truly married, and I alone have returned to tell the tale. Where by "I alone" I mean "everybody who went." Also there's not much tale to tell, since it went smoothly. And it turns out that there are e.e. cummings poems that are clean and yet related to people coming together romantically! Who knew? Apparently my new ( Read more... )

markgritter and I are about to decamp for five days in sunny Southern California, which, if you know how much I adore Minnesota in October and how little I think of sunny Southern California, will strike you as something which must come with a pretty powerful motivating force. And it does: my godfather Dave (the younger of my two godfathers and the one I ( Read more... )

When I put things on the calendar, I will often just shorthand with one of the people involved, sometimes the one with whom I did the scheduling but sometimes the one who is most keenly interested in the activity. So even if the whole family is going, it will say, "Gma El Loro," for example, if we are to have lunch with Grandma at the Mexican ( Read more... )

To those who might have been hoping to see me in New York in early October, I must tell you I will not be there. The family wedding I would have been attending has been postponed. Though I am not in close contact with either of the principals, I am given to understand that this is a question of logistics and practicality rather than of affection ( Read more... )

I have long suspected that I am The Worrier in a Noel Streatfeild children's novel, and yesterday confirms it. Fourth Street was like having a long run with a good part in something in those books, surrounded by sparkly people doing sparkly things. Then yesterday the con was over, and I came down with a bump: had to put alecaustin on a plane, got called ( Read more... )

I feel like saying, "My in-laws have gone home, and I am beyond tired," risks sounding like, "Oh, gloom and despair, the wretched in-laws have gone home and left me a wreck." When in fact they were not wretched at all, they were very fine in-laws, and I'm glad they could come so that markgritter and his mom could share their birthdays (and Matt, Dave, and ( Read more... )

1. markgritter's work is going to be in crunch time for the rest of the spring and summer. This affects him more than it affects me, of course, but it does affect me (and timprov). What with one thing and another, we are about half a beat behind here. Sometimes a beat and a half. In addition to markgritter's work, we are looking forward to bits of out of town company this ( Read more... )

( What I did on my Easter vacation, with side notes about the various States of the Genre, Mark's grandpa, and other topics of interest )