Oh the busy I’ve been!

Howdy, y’all!

I do believe that’s the first time I ever let an entire month slip by un-noted. Oops. It was a good month, if busy. Let’s see… I turned 40, my book came out, we had an awesome book-release party at KidsBooks, I went to San Diego Comic-Con and was on MTV, I went to Toronto (which I know I’m supposed to despise, as a Vancouverite, but in fact I quite liked it), I got notes back on the sequel (but struggled to find time to work), and went to St. Louis to see the in-laws. That latter, technically, was part of August, but who’s counting?

B is well and enjoying summer. He had DCD camp and physics camp the first three weeks of July, which helped when I was out of town. He continues with karate and guitar, seeming generally to prefer the former to the latter (although I think the problem with guitar is the whole “practicing” aspect of things; he likes his teacher fine and he likes noodling around on his own).

S has been working up a killer Jackson E&M class for fall (grad students beware!), enjoying my book success — I think he Googles me more than I do — and doing a super job with the new routine of flying solo when I am out of town. We’re working up to the big one in September, although his parents are coming up to help with that also, because S will be in Japan part of the time! It’s nice that B is now big enough to get his own breakfast and walk himself to school; that makes it easier for everyone.

Ms. Hound was badly bitten by another dog at the end of June, while we were on vacation, but she has recovered admirably. She’s a fast healer, if you can keep her away from her stitches. That’s hard to do; you never saw such an escape-the-cone artist, or such a lightning-fast opportunist when your back is turned. We haven’t noticed much in the way of bad psychological effects, although she does spook if another dog approaches her from behind.

I should take more pictures of the pitcher plant. My evil plan to stick a hunk of banana in there and let the fruit flies become a perpetual breeding-and-feeding system worked brilliantly, although rotten banana seems only to get stinkier over time. You’d think it would run out of stink eventually, but it doesn’t seem to.

Just like I keep thinking I’ll get less busy eventually. There must be some way to make that happen?

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