My radio interview is tomorrow morning. I'm not quite petrified, but it's getting close. The producer gave me a quick call this morning and I got spooked. I was like:

"DUH ummm errr um DUH errr."

...in response to just about everything she said. Hopefully that is all out of my system now and I will manage to be witty and intelligent tomorrow. Or at least lucid.

Taxes taxes taxes taxes taxes. Finally done, but this was the hardest year in a long time. Why? Mostly because we donated our old car to the Ecumenical Hunger Program this year, unsuspecting of the fact that the government apparently hates people who donate cars. Lots of extra documentation and paperwork and threats of audits just for daring to mention a donated car in the tax forms.

On a happier note, I've been asked to give a 25-minute interview (gasp) on a radio program at the end of this week (gasp) answering questions about the Bath Gourmet. Will I sound like a nitwit? A clown? Time will tell.

Splash. The downside to living on the water is that when it rains (and rains and rains and rains) the water sometimes creeps up over the patio and licks at the sliding glass door at the back of the house.

But not today. Today the water is coming up on the front of the house, which turns out to be considerably more inconvenient. The UPS guy is going to be pretty unthrilled about wading through a four-inch-deep lake just to get to our front door.

(He'd better do it anyway, though. I need my Amazon.com fix!)

Dumped. That's me. New Agent has given me the boot.

I'll clarify. Recently, SuperAgent left her agency to move on to greener pastures. More power to her. So the climbing book was handed over to someone else... New Agent. So a few weeks pass, and now it turns out that she thinks the writing is fine BUT has too many clients and is not an exercise person. Result: El Dumpo.

That's okay. Silver linings, fresh starts, and all that.

Happy Year of the Rooster!

Quick question: if this is now the year of the rooster, why is the Post Office sending out fliers pushing its commemorative Chinese New Year stamps featuring... a frog?

The Mini Bath Gourmet is out! Take a peek on Amazon.

Happy happy happy!

Much buzzing around lately. Last night was our very first Quiet Night at Home since we returned from Disneyland. We've been having fun going out with family and friends, but at a steep price: Gabe has been sick for days and days, and the vet suggests that it's stress related. Our homebody cat apparently needs us to go back to being homebodies also. We're going to quiet things down and take it slow for a while... unless Tony hears from work that has to fly to Chicago tonight.

(In which case I guess I'll take it slow while he continues buzzing, at least for another few days.)

We're home! We decided to celebrate Tony's birthday in the Happiest Place on Earth. We spent five days there -- rode a zillion rides, explored California Adventure for the first time, saw parades, saw shows, ate everything in sight, rode a zillion more rides, barely collapsed into our hotel (the Grand Californian) every night to do it again the next day.

There's a quote from Walt Disney that he intended the park to be equally for adults as for kids (yay!) and also that it should be a place that "reminds you that life is wonderful, after all."

Cool guy.