Happy Halloween!

So, it turns out that not every publisher's nibble on a book turns into a bite. That's okay. We're enjoying the roller-coaster ride.

Tony brought home a perfect white pumpkin last night (we like the white kind) and tonight we're heading to Palo Alto to watch the mobs of trick-or-treaters. If we stay home we get a few; if we go there we get a few hundred. The only problem will be keeping our greedy fingers away from the mountains of candy we're supposed to be handing out.

I'm working feverishly on the last handful of illustrations, wishing we'd bought a graphics tablet along with those new systems. Each illustration is drawn in pencil, inked, scanned, then cleaned up in Paint Shop Pro to remove all the eraser marks. There must be a better way but I don't know it yet. Tony provides encouragement and inspiration ("do you know how to draw a cow?") and brings me strawberry applesauce.

(He's been getting fan emails lately, for everything from Shadowrun to Multiplayer Battletech. He pretends to be cool about it but I know he's pleased as punch.)

Just to prove that luck doesn't go all in one direction -- I had an emergency root canal today. The tooth had been hurting for a while, but last night it started hurting and by morning I was beside myself and ready for anything. Even a root canal. They gave me lots of nitrous, so the prodedure was okay, but now my mouth is throbbing so much even the Vicodin doesn't give much relief. Not enough, anyway.

So we missed the headlamp-only climbing party at the gym, and the first few innings of the World Series. Now the drugs are working a little better and I'm turning human again.

Go Giants!

Another nibble on the book.

And another.

Tony had a day of victories yesterday, particularly with the CSI: Crime Scene Investigations product. He came home triumphant, telling me all the good things that happened with licensing, art, etc. It was all so cool I made him tell me twice. Then I told him twice more about my book nibbles and we headed off to the climbing gym to celebrate.

Halloween baskets have appeared at the top of the climbing routes. If you make it to the top, you can grab a treat! This sounds like a small thing but it is not. It's a very BIG deal. We each did a fairly energetic course (for us) three times in a row without stopping, which was a first for me. It is amazing how much better you can climb when there is chocolate waiting at the top.

Another nibble on the book.

I keep getting to call Tony at work to say, "Are you sitting down?"
And then he gets to say, "Oh wow, again?"

It's a very satisfying conversation. Plus, if he doesn't have to work super-late tonight, we get to celebrate again. (He's been having a crazy week, though, so celebration will probably be rather low-key. That's okay -- it's Survivor night.)

The Sims Online beta is finally here! Between that and the World Series, it's time to hibernate for a while.

Happy anniversary to us!

We took a long weekend and drove to Lake Tahoe. Many good meals, some quality hammock time and two LONG hikes up in the mountains. First a portion of the Tahoe Rim trail, as an initial test of how we would handle the altitude, and then a very steep and icy trek up Mount Rose to 10000 feet. No problems anywhere. We ate handfuls of almond M&Ms and smooched a lot.

Now we're home and having a blast setting up the new systems. They're twins, except that we each chose one indulgence: Tony got a DVD+RW drive, and I got a gig of memory. So we're both REALLY happy taking them for their test drives.

Got a nibble today on the Milk & Honey book.

Already. Just five days after sending them out. Not posting any details -- it would be bad luck -- but we did order a mountain of sushi to celebrate.

Positive karmic thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Our new uber-systems are here. Four days earlier than Dell's official delivery date! Trouble is, we believed them, and therefore our old systems are not ready for the transfer. I already called Tony and begged him to catch an early train. We'll probably be up till the wee hours... for the next few nights. So probably no more updates here until our office is right-side-up again.

GO GIANTS!
GIANTS TO THE WORLD SERIES!

Do you know why there is going to be an all-California World Series this year?
Because WE have the best teams in baseball!
We're good
They're bad
We won
They lost
La la la la la la la la la

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! (Fun Tidbit Of The Day: Thanksgiving, which is traditionally a harvest festival, comes a month earlier in Canada than in the US because it's colder there, and they therefore have an earlier harvest.)

Climbed again on Sunday. Tony hit a new milestone, making it to the top of our highest-rated wall yet! I'm just a half-step behind. I spent most of the morning attacking the same route again and again, each time falling off at exactly the same point. Got frustrated. Exhausted. Tried it one last time, found a deep-hidden reservoir of strength, and made it higher. Then came home.

Go Giants!!! One more game to the World Series!

Climbed all morning. I'm mastering the overhangs; Tony made it to the top of the 65-foot wall for the first time ever. Then lots of time in the weight room. It's hours later and we're both still feeling sweaty and studly and I'm wearing my new skinny-pants for the first time.

Now we're on our way out on a date. Woo-woo!

Well, they let Tony back into the US, but he left his luggage in Vancouver. Oops.

My Milk & Honey book was sent to FOUR publishers today. We're eating Canadian chocolate to celebrate. Wish me luck...

Go Giants! Been watching them kick the Cardinals every night this week.

Tony is having adventures in Canada. A taxi driver/scumbag tried to swipe his Visa about ten times in a row, resulting in the card being turned off and me having to have a LONG conversation with cc security department. He also was a passenger in a car that got a speeding ticket. You know how they stop speeding cars in Vancouver? A cop runs out onto the road -- on foot -- and puts up his hand for you to stop. And people do. Wouldn't work around here, nope.

Still depressed about the stupid pulmonologist. Moping around and listening to the 'Hallelujah' song from the Shrek soundtrack twenty thousand times in a row. (BTW -- my sweet friend Heather sent me that soundtrack -- it's awesome!)

Tony is in Vancouver for the rest of the week. He forgot to bring his passport, so we had some excitement early this morning as he talked the gate agent into letting him on the plane. He succeeded (wow) and now we're just hoping they let him back into the US on Friday.

Meanwhile, I went to a pulmonary doctor to discuss extra precautions for asthma at altitude -- our Kilimanjaro climb. Disaster. He treated me like some gasping goldfish who shouldn't even CONSIDER climbing Kili, or any other mountain. In his world, I'd be spending my life quietly in a bubble, I think. It was depressing. And annoying. His one decent suggestion: maybe we should try some trial runs with altitude (and freezing temperatures) before bringing my lungs somewhere quite so drastic. Aargh.

Not remotely interested in people who try to tell me what I can't do.

Climbed both days this weekend. A course I struggled with yesterday was easy today... I didn't even lose any skin. Tony was the real hero, though. He tackled our highest-rated course ever, and made it within two grips of the top. By Tuesday, he'll have mastered it. (We're learning to pull ourselves over overhangs. It's tougher than it looks -- and it looks TOUGH.)

We're about to order new systems from Dell. It's painful to spend the money, but we promised ourselves years ago that when we buy systems, we'd buy the best we could, so they'd last longer. But is 2.8GHz really THAT much faster than 2.66 or 2.54?

Tony flew to Austin this morning to meet with a developer. He'll be back tomorrow night, but only for a few days before he's off again, this time to Vancouver.

I sent off two vastly-improved proposals -- about sixty pages each -- to my agent this afternoon, so now I'm on vacation until next week. If anything is more complicated than video games, fitness magazines or running the bathtub, I don't wanna hear about it till then.

(Side note: the first of my three black toenails from the 3-Day fell off today. Yuk. The new nail underneath is revolting -- discolored and warped and tissue-thin, with a horizontal gash through the middle. I can't wait to show Tony.)