Fictiony Goodness and Holiday Chaos

Well I had some fictiony fun the past couple days. I went back over to Martha Wells website to have a look at which issues of Black Gate Magazine I would need to get from back order to get ahold of her short stories featuring Ilias and Gilead...and, behold!, several of them are up on the website for free now! I guess good things do come to those who wait. There was a short story about Kade Carrion too, one of my favorite heroines of all time...though it wasn't exactly a happy tale.

For those of you who don't know, Martha Wells is one of my favorite authors. I've liked or loved everything she's ever written.Element of Fire I read in the free online version because it was out of print (and my attempt to buy a used copy never arrived, much to my dismay). I hate reading lengthy things on computer screens and there are only a few other books I've read that way, but I reread Element of Fire over and over. I finally got my hands on a paper copy (actually Amanda got the paper copy) and it was fun to read it as an actual book. Her heroines tend to be rye, nobody's fools, and look at the world kind of sideways.

Anyway, it was a little tricky trying to read fiction that was tied to a computer with the baby trying to pull down the keyboard, pull apart the computer, steal the mouse or crawl off in search of choking hazards, but she did give me a few good stretches of contentedly playing with her new wooden blocks.

I'm a little jealous of her wooden blocks actually. She has the coolest wooden blocks ever. They came from ThinkGeak.com and feature little pictures with the letter that goes with the scene. T is for Tentacles. H is for Henchmen. D is for Dirigible. And so on. There are some truly fantastic ones though. I think our favorite is K is for Potassium! (Come on, think back to chemistry class...). U is for Underground Lair is also great but you've got to see the visual to get the full effect.

Things are a little extra frantic around here with all the holiday planning. Nearly everyone is clearing out at one time or another though I think we'll all be back for New Year.

I went to see the Nutcracker for the first time this year. It was quite an epic journey, all they way to Folsom via San Fransisco but Tim, a friend of mine, was dancing in it and it was the first time I'd seen him dance. It was very fun. Shiny in the literal as well as figurative sense. And Tim was great (Snow Prince and Russian for those for whom that means anything) especially considering he was filling in at the last minute and had only a couple days to learn his choreography. I would never have guessed he hadn't been rehearsing for months like the rest of them. It went off flawlessly.

Anyway, I got a quick visit with my Grandma and Dad before heading back and crashing in San Fransisco before going the rest of the way home in the morning. It was great to see both the friends and some family that I don't get to see nearly often enough. Sacramento and, even more so, San Fransisco don't seem very far away on the map, especially considering all those years I've spent in Scotland or Georgia (the state, not the country. Yes, people sometimes ask. Ok, usually not Americans, but some people.), yet somehow on a day to day basis it seems a nearly insurmountable distance. Well, maybe now that Ron has his license it will be a bit more surmountable. Though I'm not sure I would inflict SF roads on him just yet.

Anyway, we finally have our holiday plans all worked out and bus tickets bought. If you're one of those wondering where we'll be, give me a call or email. We're going to be going to Reno first, then Sac, then back to Los Gatos (no, for the record, since there seems to be a lot of misconception on the topic, I do not live in Santa Cruz any more. Los Gatos is closer to San Jose though Santa Cruz is still only half an hour away.).