Snow-covered trash day

It’s really hard coming up with random adjectives for the weekly (good kind of) trash day. I just want you to know that. But it did snow here again last night. I don’t know if this is New York’s snowiest winter on record, but it sure does feel like it.

In personal news (let’s face it, it’s all personal news), I got to talk to Patty this week, in an entirely non-emergency situation. She’s doing great, and we’ll get to speak again this weekend. I’m not sure she entirely believes me about the snow, though — the winters she’s been here have been mild (the last bad one she was in Oman) and my capacity for dramatic narrative has never been low.

Last night Kali and I had one of the longest, and probably most hilariously inane, conversations we’ve ever had. I had to, for no discernible reason, know something about the sexual history of our main character, Arkady (whom I’ve written about in passing before, weirdly, in the context of DADT) before the start of the novel. She and I disagreed on a relatively minor point, but I needed to know, I needed us to be in agreement, and I needed to be convinced. 86 emails later, it’s finally okay, and I now know something that will probably never, ever even be mentioned in the book. Art: it’s not about efficiency.

And, on the subject of art, a friend of mine is making fantastical space terrariums with live plants. She says there are more coming soon. Explore the stars… in a jar!

Meanwhile, someone I’ve never met wrote something super sweet about Dogboy & Justine on their LJ today. This is why crowd funding matters for all participants (by the way, at least one of the projects I talked about supporting last week has achieved its funding goal!). I was particularly tickled that she framed her plans in regard to James Marsters. Because of the wonders of the alphabet, when we’ve both done the guest thing at the same con, we’ve tended to wind up right next to each other in the program book. That is, if my buddy Marrus doesn’t get between us. The whole thing always amuses me immeasurably.

And, speaking of cons, if you’ve been poking around at my relatively bare (I’m in scheduling limbo!) appearances page, you know that I’m participating in a book-launch event for Whedonistas at GallifreyOne next month. One of the authors who is supposed to be joining us, Teresa Jusino, is asking for help in getting there, as her original plans didn’t anticipate financial troubles before the trip. This is Teresa’s first easy-to-find hard-copy publication, so this is a pretty big deal for her. Check out her post and her stuff if you get a chance.

Speaking of hard copies, the first installment of Hold Something came, and I was the lucky winner of the bonus item this time. Weirdly, I knew it would be me when I saw Christian’s post, but we have a thing. Not a thing thing, but an affinity thing. Just… it’s a thing! Anyway, I won’t get reading time until this weekend, but it’s gorgeously produced, and I already know that Christian tells stories I want to hear.

On an entirely different note, my former roommate (and one of the people instrumental in getting Patty and I together so swiftly what with her exciting declaration of moving to China) has launched a blog called InsomniBake. She can’t sleep and so documents attempts to make a variety of treats often under weird and unideal conditions. Recipes, midnight musings, successes and failures. Apparently the blog’s pretty hot right now… you know, buzz and all that, but to tell the truth, I’ve not yet found the time to check it out myself, so I’m tasking you all with it to assuage my guilt.

Tonight, some web work and Sherlock analysis and then early to bed, as I’ve got to go to Costco before a script meeting tomorrow.

Finally, a late addition: Apparently, there’s a hawk in the main reading room of the Library of Congress and its somewhat peculiar presence is being blogged. Look, I care. Now you can too.