Now that I actually tweet, my blog entries don't seem to hang together very well. I keep thinking in terms of short bursts of information.

1. I've been working diligently on Worldcon programming for the writing track. Lots to do, lots to do. Deadline looms. I also have to get the web page up for the workshop.

2. I heard a barred owl this morning at 6am. This is nice because I haven't heard one recently. It was farther away than normal.

3. Dick Deadeye, a hen that is part of the original group that included Walkabout, is not doing well. Deadeye was attacked by a hawk that first summer and one eye was damaged. One pupil is fixed. But she's been a tough old bird all along. She and Gimpy are the only two originals left. Egg production is about 8 eggs a day, average. With 14 hens. So our population is aging. And some of those eggs show signs of stress. I prefer not to sell those.

4. I received my contributor's copy of the May issue of Esli magazine. Oh wow. Was that ever cool. Trying to find one's name in Cyrillic. Good thing I can look for "Oz" which comes out like "O3." Just imagine that 3 a bit smaller. Online http://esli.ru/jrn/archive/20090428154430archive.html there is a synopsis. Since the synopsis says Gale is "ungrateful" to her creator, I find the Russian interpretation of the story interesting from a writer's perspective. Maybe that explains the Finnish attitude, which translated as "so what?" You can run a translator over it to see how it translates into English. Two different translations with google and yahoo.

5. marshall_payne embarrassed me yet again by celebrating my birthday. I'm touched, but thoroughly mortified. Not because I'm a year older. No. I can't say I mind that, though the body isn't what it used to be. It's because I'm not comfortable when someone fusses over me.

6. I had to cancel going to Wiscon for financial reasons. This meant I could go to klingonguy's book launch for his first novel, Buffalito Destiny, at Balticon. Very nice. Lots of attention, lots of books sold with Laura Ann Gilman as his cashier. Val, unfortunately, was sick and stayed home.

7. Other Balticon news: The Dude did his own shopping at Larry Smith's bookstore. Lots of money spent. Miss E went shopping at "Undiscovered Treasures," her favorite stall in the dealer's room. She was pleased by the presence of a Wegman's, where we picked up Asian buffet bar for my birthday dinner. We met scottedelman in the hall as we went to get day badges and firmed up our lunch plans. Miss E was suddenly a toddler again, hiding in Mommy's skirts. I had hoped she'd outgrown that. But she was fine at lunch, except for the part where the grownups go "blah, blah, blah" all the time. Later that night she asked me if the man we met in the hall was the same man we went to lunch with. Apparently, she was shy enough that she never took a good look at him that first meeting. I had a nice time hanging out with Karen Wester Newton (and spouse), David Louis Edelman, Scott Edelman and Tom Doyle in the con suite after tomdoyle's reading.

8. Miss E pronounced the Embassy Suites as a suitable hotel for her needs. Which is good, because that's where we have rooms in Montreal.

Frog Out