Several friends have mentioned to me this week that they had attended Chanukah parties. These friends are all far away. No one locally is having Chanukah parties; such a small percentage of my local friends are Jewish, and most of them are involved with their families. No parties were in the offing. So yesterday, as is so often the case when I want ( Read more... )

Night before last, I had an interesting dream. (Well, interesting to me anyway.) I was in Seattle Center at the Armory (formerly the Center House) having lunch with my brother. He got up to get some ketchup and my far-away friend BK came by to say hello. We hugged, chatted and he left. My brother came back and I told him he'd missed BK. "Well, crap ( Read more... )

Right now, I'm looking for reasons to be cheerful. So here's a list:

1) I got to spend a lovely, quiet Thursday evening with ironymaiden, who was perfect company after a tough week. W had pizza for dinner, then sat by the fireplace place talking, drinking whiskey, and discussing girl things. It was a perfect visit ( Read more... )

1) Loving my swing dance class. The last session is next Tuesday, and the instructors suggest that students proceed to Jitterbug 1. I'm thinking about that. I'm thinking either that or West Coast swing because one ought to be bicoastal. No decision yet but it's coming. Also, many of the take-aways from my first class (see second-to-last paragraph) ( Read more... )

Sunday morning we rose to meet davidlevine, kateyule, Amanda and her husband Brad for breakfast at David's. It was a clearly a local joint, the place everyone goes to for brekkies, the wait staff familiar and friendly to the patrons. Breakfast was basic and hearty--eggs, more eggs, pancakes, and eggs. For me, it was exactly the way to start the day, in good company ( Read more... )

And so, last Friday morning, I was off to Mendocino county for a wedding, specifically to see my friends calendula-witch and markjferrari get married. What a fabulous weekend!

The drive north
I was met at Oakland Airport by my companion for the weekend, Jeremy B. He grabbed me at noon and, before really starting the road trip, we stopped for lunch at Taki Japanese ( Read more... )

I promised myself at the beginning of the summer that I was going to do at least three things I've never done before. Well, as it turned out, I spent most of the summer doing something I've done any number of times before--editing a book. But yesterday I finally did one thing I've never done before. Over the last year or two, I've gotten back in ( Read more... )

I'm nearly a week behind recording my trip notes, but I don't want to stint on my trip reporting mainly because there's so much I want to remember.

Breakfast
Sunday I got up early. My friend AC picked me up at the hotel for breakfast at the Egg Plantation, home of 101 omelets. The place is hugely popular locally, and though they don't take ( Read more... )

This weekend is an emotional journey and a day-to-day journey. I'm going to talk about the day-to-day journey in this entry. While I'll talk a little about the emotional journey, well, I won't write about it too deeply right now; I still have a lot to assimilate and consider. I may write about it at some point, but probably in a locked post and ( Read more... )

It's been a really interesting 36 hours.

In the space of that time I have done the following things:

I finished editing and delivered the latest Kobold Guide. Oh, did I mention? Yes, there's another Kobold Guide coming, specifically the Kobold Guide to Combat, scheduled for a Christmas release. Delighted with the line-up. Despite some challenges ( Read more... )