It is time to Give Something Back to the universe. We're doing the 3-day, of course, but now we've signed up for something extra. We're going to raise orphaned ducklings.

I'm completely serious. I spoke to the contact woman at Wildlife Rescue today. The ducklings will live in the extra bathroom, or out on the patio with a kiddie pool. The only hard part is that they have to stay wild ducklings, so playing with them or picking them up or leading them in a Great Duckling Parade is not allowed. Drat.

Before we get our first batch, we need a special county permit. Thus, she's coming this weekend to inspect our house and make sure it is fit for wild animals.

RRRAAARRRRRRRR!

...And I just got the results back from the labwork I submitted for the trainer certification... I passed all ten labs! This is HUGE. This is ENORMOUS. Here's the song:

I passed all ten labs...
I passed all ten labs!
I passed alllll tennnn labbbbs...
I PASSED all TEN LABS!

(All that's left is to take the certification exam and pass that too. Hmm. I didn't quite pass the practice exam I took a few weeks ago -- okay, I failed it -- but I'll worry about that later. Right now Tony is home and we're heading out for sushi.)

The party was great. Tons of people and tons of books to sign, which was terrifying at first but got (slightly) easier as the afternoon went on. I didn't get more than three bites of food but I hear it was delicious. And the ducks and pirate ship were major hits.

(By the way: thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has been buying books! Amazon already had to restock TWICE.)

Book launch party is tomorrow. I'm nervous as hell.

Tony and I went shopping and bought the last of the party supplies -- a pirate ship (we'll assemble it tonight), a swimming toy shark for the fountain ("So lifelike you'll think it's real!") a gay pride rubber duck, and a punk duck (the box says 'Duck you!' and 'Get ducked!'.) I also have a bag of mini tiki candles and mini rubber frogs. So you see this is going to be a not-very-formal affair.

Still, I'm nervous.

I'm supposed to be On Vacation now that my labwork is mailed in, taking a few days off from all the studying and stress and all that. It's not working. I'm all jumpy. Plus, the book has been in the bookstores for over a week now and I still haven't gone to see it. I have this strange aversion/terror/shyness attack when I even think about driving over there. Strange.

On a better note, we got our first 3-Day donation today! THANK YOU, Boardwalk Auto, for being our very first sponsors for 2004!

Happy again. Got the Jeep. It's big but it's purty. I tied red balloons all over it in the garage, tied another balloon to Tony's key, and left a bottle of his favorite root beer in the cupholder. Won't he be surprised when he gets home tonight!

No longer poor and happy. Now poor and stomach-churning, dizzy-making, lie-in-bed-with-a-towel-over-my-face stressed out. All that money! And what if we hate the new car? What if we decide it's ugly? What if it's too wide for our garage? What if we miss the old car? And all that money!

Everyone goes through this, right? Buyer's Remorse. Yuck.

I sent in my labwork today! Ten labs, and I have to score at least 8 out of 10 points on each one in order to qualify to take the personal trainer certification exam. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I hope I pass all ten on the first try, of course, but we won't know for two weeks.

To celebrate, I went and bought a car! Tony is at E3 in Los Angeles, and I wanted to surprise him by having the Jeep waiting when he got home. The one we ordered from the factory wasn't going to arrive until mid-June, so I negotiated to get a *better* one for *less* money (yay me) and it will be delivered tomorrow.

So now we're poor but happy. On my way to play computer games until at least 4am.

So today is Bookstore day. I haven't seen it myself yet, but today is the offical day that the book appears on bookstore shelves. Tony and I plan to verify this when he gets home tonight.

It's also Online Bookstore day. Finally 'Shipping Now' at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, walmart.com, booksamillion.com.

All very cool. Now it's time to finish the next book.

Amazon.com Sales Rank: 29,995

...a big improvement over 1.5 millionth!

In all the excitement, I forgot to mention the other exciting thing: we officially signed up for this year's Breast Cancer 3-Day! Once again, 60 miles in 3 days, from San Jose to San Francisco. And once again, we need to raise a minimum of $4000 by October.

Wow.

It's a huge committment that we don't really have time for, but making the time makes it all the more valuable, in a way. And our training is already underway -- 12 miles last Sunday, no blisters, and hardly a whimper from my bad shin.

<--- Tony posted the new cover!!

I GOT MY BOOK!

Yes, I had to buy it online. But I got it, it's here, and I'm thrilled. The cover is NOT the version that is currently posted on Amazon (and on the left side of this site) ... that one was apparently a temporary graphic. This is a relief, because several people have now confessed that they secretly didn't like that old cover and just couldn't say so, because they thought I was stuck with it.

(You'd think someone would have shown me the final cover ages ago, wouldn't you? But no. Ain't publishing grand?)

But never mind all that, the new cover is great, the interior color is great, and it was a Huge Moment to actually tear open the package and hold the thing in my hands for the very first time.