The check is here! Woohoo! My grandpa suggested taking a digital photo of the check before I cash it, which is a fine idea. Amazing to be given a pile of money for something that was so much fun to write. :)

No big celebration tonight, though. Tony is taking the late train and has promised to pick up some McD's on his way home. I'm already in sweats and nearly falling asleep despite the laptop on my belly and the cat plucking at my bare feet.

Recovering slowly, thanks to piles of vitamins, medicines, magazines. Tony is still fairly healthy, mostly because he has no time to be sick.

SuperAgent just received my very first book payment. I intend to kiss it, waltz with it, and then put it toward a trip on one of those new cruise ships with ice skating rinks and top-of-the-ship climbing walls. (It will be a while before we can actually go, due to scheduling problems, but it's something to look forward to!)

The Cold From Hell. That's what I have. My nose is chapped. Everything feels yuk. And now Tony is getting it, also.

Thank goodness for TiVo.

Tried to get Giants playoff tickets online this morning -- no chance, no way. Oh well.

We have a busy weekend planned. Tony has a high school reunion on Saturday night, which means lots of friendship renewing for him and lots of wardrobe planning for me. Then climbing on Sunday, of course, and a street fair, and maybe a matinee of Winged Migrations if we find the time. Not too likely, especially considering that we have even more new video games that we're dying to check out together.

STILL no book update. I'm getting ready to throw a huge tantrum any week now...

We're getting the yen to redecorate. It probably has something to do with watching Queer Eye For the Straight Guy every week. Whatever the reason, we've started eyeing our furniture and speculating about all the changes we could make. We started with a batch of new dishes, finally getting rid of our 10+ year old set. Now we're talking about rugs, lighting, kitchen counters.

Driving to the city tonight for the Giants game. Go Giants!!

Lots of climbing. Lots of video games. A visit to the brand-new Ikea just a few miles away from home. And some very unpleasant Female Troubles, which you really don't want to hear about so I'm staying mum.

We went to the launch party last night for Beyond Good & Evil, an upcoming Ubisoft game. Drove me insane, of course, because you could LOOK at the game (very nice) but not take it home, because it won't release for another month or so. Very frustrating.

Made my think of my own upcoming launch. It's been about five weeks since I submitted the manuscript, which really is nothing in Book Time, but it's long enough to feel as if the whole 'sold the book' thing was a strange dream I had over the summer. I'm ready to hear back from the publishing folk. No more vacation required. Now now now now now.

Blogger has been down for an age, hence no posts here!

Not much to tell, anyway. We were recruited to be route evaluators at the gym, which is fun and leads to some very heavy-duty climbing, but other than that we've mostly been lying around and playing .hack on the Playstation II. I still have not heard back from the publisher, which is both relaxing and stressful at once, so I'm wavering between the two states. And Tony just found out that he's going back to London in three weeks, this time to meet with a developer. I want to go too, but he says it will be a 'business-y' trip and I would be bored and frustrated. He's probably right.

(On the other hand, when he's gone travelling it's pretty boring and frustrating around here, so maybe I might as well be experiencing those things in London. Hmm.)

So, Tony did a great job with his speech! Doubly impressive considering this was the very first time he's talked at a conference.

We spent the rest of our time roaming around London. We became masters of the underground (subway) and explored everything. Our favorite walk was a few miles through Soho, ending up at Piccadilly Square, for those of you who are familiar with it. We also rode the Eye and visited all the required museums, of course, as well as a Dali exhibit, the London Dungeon and a few shows at the Imax. People there were extraordinarily nice to us when they heard our American accents, which was nice and rather different from the other places we've traveled to.

The only dark spot was the first hotel we checked into, which was very pretty and European but the room was the size of a jail cell. It also had no air conditioning, no clock, no shampoo, and a TV the size of a hardback book. We tried to stick with it, but then the phone line wouldn't work with the computer (massive interference) and the light above the bed would not turn off, so we checked out and moved to the Crown Plaza, which was sheer heaven.