The Average Blogger

Catching Up

Another three and a half months have gone by. Must be time to update the blog. 

I don't now what it is that gets me in and out of the habit of posting. I think it is a combination of having too much to do at work, not feeling that I have much to say that is worth reading, and being mildly disgusted by people who seem to think they do have things worth reading (that often aren't).  I don't want to be That Person; someone who thinks she is imparting life wisdom but really is just generating eye rolls and raucous laughter. (I don't think I'm in much danger of this, actually. I don't have any life wisdom, and I'm either paranoid or snarky enough to be the first among eye-rollers and guffaw-ers. But still.)

So, here's what's what, in the interest of the Young Prince's Future Biography:

He began a new school in January. It's a "separate day school" that appears to focus more on teaching kids to be civilized human beings and less on academics.  This is turning out to be a good thing, in many ways. He's allowed to make mistakes without being kicked out for weeks on end. There seems to be a better understanding about intent; he's no longer being sent home because he inadvertently traumatized some crybaby who happened to be walking by when he cracked an ill-advised joke about Doctor Strangelove. I am sad that he's not in band, but that's really about it.  I'm worried he's losing academic cred because this place doesn't have honors classes, but the more I read about college campuses and safe spaces these days and the delicate flowers that they are turning out, the less excited I am about him ending up at any of them, either. He'll probably end up expelled for writing a paper saying free speech is extinct in classrooms. But when push comes to shove with Putin, I'll throw in with my kid over the one who can't hear the word "missile" without having a heart attack -- any day, twice on Sunday.

In February, we stayed indoors and worked a lot. Not Your Average Blogger finished his second book and I edited it. 

In March, we went to the Festival of the Book and had a lovely time. I had a great birthday and got lots of very cool books for a new project I'm thinking about, plus a crazy generous gift from my parents that will literally get buried on our property as we invest in a new septic tank.  

When we got back from that, I got a publisher for my book, and it will be out this summer. So now I'm gearing up for all manner of promotional opportunities, and the stuff I'll need to do it.  Rah!  I don't know if that will involve more updates here, but it will definitely involve more posts at the other blog, so be on the lookout for that! 

This past week, we went to New York to see an exceptional young lady perform at Carnegie Hall with her high school symphony (in a stunningly good performance). I am acquainted with said young lady because I went to high school with her mom, and she and I got to hang out the day before at the 9/11 memorial, plus adjoining pub, along with her sister. The YP was happy because he got to see a couple spots used in scenes of movies he likes, NYAB was happy because the food was fantastic. It was a nice trip, and an amazing performance, and the Essex House provided sumptuous digs (and delivered a valuable lesson to the YP in the practice of Not Touching the Minibar).  On Thursday, NYAB and I went to Opening Day and had a great time (even though the YP opted to stay home—or maybe because of that; I think we all actually had more fun doing what we wanted to do). 

Nothing much of note coming up, though. More work. Hoping for some book events. Maybe some local history tours. And a work retreat in California at the end of June.  So, see you around sometime, maybe.  

 

 

It's the Same F'ing Book, Every F'ing Week...

Family, house, work, blah blah blah. Kid's good. Husband's great. House is almost back up to par, after I take the power washer to it this weekend. The job is making me nuts, but it beats unemployment by a country mile. 

But this post is about my current preoccupation. I am afraid I am terribly boring right now, because all day, every day, it's just getting other obligations out of the way so I can think about my book. I am getting antsy to get my manuscript to the agent.  I am hoping that I get files back from both beta readers early Monday so I can send it to the agent that night—especially since I will be spending Tuesday in Gettysburg with a kerjillion sixth-graders (which will make for a much more interesting blogpost than this one, I imagine). 

I still have a few references to check and one more phone call to one more last-ditch hope for a photo. 

But I did make a few contacts last week and made a series of amusing discoveries.

1: I got in touch with the great-granddaughter of one of the protagonists. She's a lovely woman, turning 80 this year, and she likes to talk (and email), although some of the time she wanders a bit and doesn't make as much sense as I'd like. As I told a friend today, we have this in common, so I get along just fine with her.  

2: I also contacted the descendants of one of the attorneys I write about, and in my search for contact info was tickled to find an engagement notice indicating that the some-number-of-greats-grandson is engaged to marry a woman who shares the name of one of the protagonists' wives. I haven't yet tracked down how directly they are related, if at all.

3: In a complete fluke of a Google search, I found a piece William Styron wrote about his family tree, and it seems one of my other protagonists numbers among his ancestors. Styron died in 2006, but I am now plotting how to get in touch with (and what I will say to) his daughter, who is also a writer.

 So, there you have it. What I did all week. 

Second Gear, I Lean Right

Except for the facts that I own a Toyota and I don't like motorcycles, the rest of this Beach Boys lyric fits fairly well. Things are moving along, and I certainly do not keep left. 

So, although it doesn't seem like much happened, I feel as if a wave is coming in that I'll be able to ride for a while.  The yard is in good shape and I'm working up the energy to do a lot of spray-washing and waterproofing and bleeblah, perhaps this weekend. I really need to take a day off work and clean my house. It is scandalous, as a result of staying up til 4 and 5 a.m. and spending all my time working on the book.

But!  The payoff of those late hours is that I have officially completed my first round of revisions and placed my manuscript in the hands of a capable editor friend and a noted local history buff. I have every confidence that these two people will save me from myself. 

The rest of the weekend was lovely, as well. On Friday, I set my nose to the microfiche grindstone at the library and found two final puzzle pieces on my narrative that I had been seeking for months, then had lunch with NeighborGirl.  On Saturday, my boys graciously came along with me for a tour of the Brentsville jail—and I think even the Young Prince was a little impressed with the tour and the vibe. I really do hope that I can work this so that publication of the book and the jail opening come close to coinciding.  We went to the Nationals game on Sunday and even the YP got interested in the game, although he also read his book for a couple innings.  Monday was yard work and naps. 

The other big thing I did this weekend is I bought an "electronic foot file," which is basically a big dremel to sand down heel calluses.  I go barefoot as much as I am able, though I wear shoes all winter, and every spring my feet are ... Not Attractive, let's say.  And I have tried everything—creams, pumice stones, those callus razors—and nothing was ever particularly effective, so I figured this might be good money after bad, but I am a slave to consumerism. I didn't even wait to get home, I fired it up in Not Your Average Blogger's car. This led to much dismay on his part, as the thing was actually quite effective and soon his front dash was coated in a layer of powder-fine foot-dust (a material that you really don't want to think very much about, trust me). After an hour of steady work on my part (and piles and piles of said dust, it is a VERY messy process), my heels are the nicest they have been since I was a teen-ager. Even NYAB commented on them, and he is not particularly verbal regarding most of my self-improvement projects. So, yes, I endorse this one, wholeheartedly.

And now I face another week of work, though I hope to spend some of my off-hours putting a dent in non-paid work that will beautify the other spots of my life. I imagine a fair amount of this will be put off in favor of harassing the YP as he practices piano, however. I'm sure he will be delighted if he reads this. 

Back Burner

First, I blogged on Saturdays.  Then Sundays. Then Mondays. This week I skipped right over Tuesday and am blogging a half-week behind schedule. 

This is what happens when one is rarely home, and too caught up in Other Things. 

So, last week was generally uneventful, which is not a bad thing. Not Your Average Blogger made it home from Tucson without incident and we had 3 nice days of going to work and getting things done before leaving Friday night for Charlottesville, where he had a gig talking at the Virginia Festival of the Book. We got down there in plenty of time, watched a little TV and bedded down at the Omni.

The Omni has very nice soap.  And the room service food, while typically overpriced, is atypically excellent. 

We all got up Saturday for his 10 a.m. lecture, despite the Young Prince being tired and NYAB having a stabbing headache.  We drugged him up, noshed on granola bars and headed for the UVA bookstore, winding through a quaint downtown and a pretty college campus. 

NYAB was sharing the spotlight with Paul Escott, who was promoting his new book, Lincoln's Dilemma. (I haven't read it. NYAB has; he says it's good.) Escott is a history professor at Wake Forest University, and a very kind man. While they got themselves set up, the YP and I prowled the bookstore and found several things we didn't buy, including Doctor Who mugs, fake mustaches, Kate Spade traveling mugs, and hand sanitizer with slightly off-color labels. Then we headed back upstairs for the talk. 

It was interesting to watch the different speaking styles.  NYAB went first. He got up, spoke up, made a few jokes, and got a few nods. Very direct, very bullet-pointy, very informative, very dynamic. Then he sat down and Escott talked.

NYAB told me later he envied the ebb and flow and polish of Escott's style—and there was something to envy in that; it was a very smooth and professional presentation.  But I found him to be one of that class of speakers who seem to approach larger audiences as one might a strange dog, with slow, deliberate movements and soft-spoken reassurances.  Perhaps it is a thing among college professors, to be careful because they never know what's going to set off a lecture hall of loonies? Sitting in the audience, I  experienced a few twinges of delayed guilt remembering how, as an obnoxious co-ed, I declared certain professors "boring," although that wasn't quite what I meant and I knew it even at the time. The phrase I really wanted something closer to "soporific," although even that is too unkind. I knew my professors were very smart, and that we were studying fascinating things, but there was so little animation in the lectures that I'd often have to fight drowsiness. This wasn't quite to that degree, partly because I'm old now and more patient. Escott's talk was interesting, but a little hard to hear, and was so mildly delivered that it was a little harder to discern what stirred him to write a whole book (one among several) about what he was discussing.

And the funnier thing is, if he conforms to the type in my experience,he is probably quite animated and engaging in one-on-one conversation. But I had the YP in tow, so I can't verify that. 

Poor NYAB was not any better after his lecture, or after lunch, so we went back to the hotel, where he spent the rest of the day nursing his headache while the YP and I went swimming, sniped at each other, watched videos and played games.  NYAB and I did take a stroll through the hotel lobby to see what other authors were there, but only saw one thing remotely worth buying, and we didn't even get that. It was also a little lonely to be surrounded by piles and piles of books and scads of authors and be confronted with the fact that if we were on a giant balance scale measuring political leanings, the whole hotel would slam down resoundingly on the left-wing side. I wonder why that is the case.

Next day NYAB was better, so we took a tour of Monticello before heading home. The YP, who has come to  dread walking tours, history stuff, and being with his parents, was actually quite engaged for this one and had a good time. 

We got home from this lovely weekend to discover that the dog had somehow sprained her tail and the whole lower floor was muddied up, including rooms we had said were off-limits for the animals while we were gone. Our usual dog sitter, who used to be NeighborGirl but isn't our neighbor anymore, was unavailable so we had a new dog sitter, part of a service. I'd met the owner, written down all kinds of instructions, left some cleaning stuff in case one of the monsters peed, etc. And I'd gotten two very cheerful emails studded with exclamation points about how well things were going, so this was a bit of a shock, as were the two notes saying that the dog had escaped and roamed the neighborhood—twice. 

So, one $200 visit to the vet later, I sent a note to the service that basically said, "Hey, I know stuff happens, but, um, WTF?" It turns out that when the dog came home from one of her sprints around the block, she came to the front door, where the dog sitter let her in, and then ran amok before she could be corralled in the back part of the house. So I'm not entirely sure when the dog's tail got bent—it might have been while chasing deer through people's back yards, or it might have been that she charged through one of the sets of double doors that are usually latched and caught her tail in them. I am pleased to report that the dog sitter waived the fee and offered to pay the vet bill. (I accepted the former, declined the latter.)  But I am certainly going to be leery of anyone other than ExNeighborGirl watching the dog from now on.  Sigh. 

This Friday, the YP and I leave for our next great adventure: We are going to Illinois to see my family, while NYAB stays home and works. I am sort of tired just thinking about all the driving ahead of us, but at least the squabbling over the music will keep us awake! I don't know what it will mean for blogging, either. Probably another half-week behind. Maybe at that rate I'll get back to blogging on Saturdays, as originally intended!

Flying Solo

So, on Tuesday, Not Your Average Blogger bailed on the Young Prince and myself for a trip to the Tucson Festival of Books (on the University of Arizona campus, where he spent a happy freshman year), so he could talk on a panel and promote his book.  It sounds like he had a lovely time; he stayed with his brother and had a nice family visit; apparently the festival was terribly crowded and he saw people walking around with his book who weren't at his panel, and he met plenty of smart and fun people at the event. So, yay. 

I am happy to report that the news was very nearly as good on the home front.  The YP and I both tacitly subscribed to the "go along to get along" plan; I tried not to shriek and he tried to hurry up.  Mornings were fairly pleasant. I gave him freedom to dork around during my absence in the afternoons, but once I got home it was time to saddle up and work hard. I proved I'm not a total Tiger Mom, since we had a late night on Thursday and when I woke up Friday I decided we would take a mental health day: sleep in, stay home, do a little old-time homeschooling in terms of math and writing.  It was, in fact, rather pleasant.  We made each other laugh a lot more than we made each other crazy. I think that's the definition of success. 

Saturday saw a little more friction. We had to get up and go to the last session of his bowling league, and he didn't do as well as he could have. We had a couple spats about heedlessness on his part and overreaction on mine. But they didn't last long and smoothed over quickly.  And Sunday was another good day; we got up and did  all kinds of work outside, picking up bazillions of sticks and cleaning up the back yard, then taking a nice drive to Fredericksburg where we ate at Steak and Shake (twice!), I did about 30 minutes of library research, and then we went and visited a couple sites related to the life of the dad of one of my book characters.  When we got home, we both worked more on writing, watched the Walking Dead, and called it a night. 

There was some flurry of emotion over the fact that next weekend is the end-of-bowling-league party and the YP is going to miss it because of another book event (one that we are all going to.)  I am not so fond of single-parenting that I want to do it in perpetuity, especially since the weekends after that will be spent with just me and him driving to and from Illinois for spring break.  (Man, that kid is going to miss a lot of piano lessons.) Plus, I've already signed up a dog sitter. So, yeah. He'll just have to bowl again next year. When his dad is home to take him, and I can sleep late! 

Soaking It In

I've been lapping up a lot of pop culture this week. TV, music, theater, books. 

SiriusXM was doing a free preview through Presidents Day.  I am intrigued. I liked it a lot. I'm not sure I liked it $120-a-year-a-lot, but I'm definitely thinking about it.  The problem is I can see where I'd spend the entire rest of my life listening to the same music I listened to my senior year of high school, rather than actually broadening my horizons. On the other hand, I heard a lot of songs that I hadn't listened to SINCE high school, so that was kind of nice. 

Saturday was Valentine's Day.  Not Your Average Blogger got The Third Man and chocolate. The Young Prince got some Doctor Who toys and some jellybeans.  I got 4-for-1 movies with Heart and Souls, The Matchmaker, Kissing a Fool and Playing for Keeps, plus a box of M&Ms. Then we all three of us went to see Chicago at the National Theater. It was really good. This was the first time I've seen a performance where Roxie blew Velma out of the water—and it's odd, upon thinking about it, given that the whole play follows Roxie's story arc more so than Velma's.  Billy Flynn was played by John O'Hurley (Peterman from Seinfeld,) and he was great.  All in all it was a fantastic show, and except for the terrific snowstorm we walked around in getting to the theater, it was a great Valentine's Day.

Sunday night we watched the whole SNL special. The musical acts were awful.  The Californians was too long. There were a couple other lags.  But coordinating 40 years and that many people into 3 and a half hours was really impressive. I think maybe my favorite bit was the video commemorating the better instances where actors broke character, esp. the bunch in a row of Fallon and Sanz.  

Since Sunday was eaten up with the special, that meant Monday (Presidents Day, a holiday for NYAB and the YP, but not for me) was Downton/Dead/Saul fixes. 2 out of 3 weren't bad.  I spent more time making fun of Walking Dead than enjoying it. Maybe it'll pick up next week.

On the book front: I finished Karen Abbot, and enjoyed it immensely. I also did a little research for my own book and found a memoir by a guy who was in the same company as my murderer, and was happy to see it was on file in our library reference section. I went in Sunday and scanned the book; there were some good bits I can appropriate. 

Today was a snow day.  I had some banked hours, so I spent the day cleaning the house and then we took the snowblower out for its maiden voyage. MONEY WELL SPENT.  Omigod, we blew the whole driveway clean in 15 minutes and I didn't come in and drop dead at the end.  I don't know why we waited this long to get one, I really don't.  So that means two good things came out of this bathroom remodel.  Huzzah! 

The YP's school has already declared tomorrow a snow day as well, but I am pretty sure all our offices will be open. I'm not sure what the plan of attack is.  I know the kid has some writing to do, though. And some reading! 

What a Week

It's been interesting.  A lot of people in my life dealing with issues that aren't my place to discuss. A lot of work things going on that I can't share in public because it's bad form. A lot of stuff in the news that makes me angry and exasperated but there's no point in blathering about because it's not like my opinion would change anyone's mind. A lot of frustration and aggravation and agita. But you know what? Who wants to read about that? Boo hoo, blah blah.  

Let's look on the bright side. I have a lot of people in my life. I have a job. I live in a country where I'm allowed to have opinions. I obviously care about them all or they wouldn't be frustrating and aggravating. I am blessed. 

The happy news is that the Young Prince turned 12. He had a pretty laid-back but I think enjoyable birthday, with gifts he liked and a trip to Steak and Shake for dinner.  And the weather today was amazing—60 degrees!—so we went to the dog park, where the dog was an absolute unsocialized monster, but the YP had an absolute ball playing with the other dogs. That was nice to watch. 

It's weird to watch him. Some days he's amazing and grown up and a joy to behold. I am sure he will grow up to be King of Everything. Some days he's infuriating and foolish and his bad choices leave me gobsmacked. I am sure he will grow up lucky to keep a job as fry cook. I suppose that is the definition of being 12. I am fascinated to see what he turns into. Keeping my fingers crossed, but fascinated. 

In other news, we did a lot of TV this week. Finally wrapped up 30 Rock. Started House of Cards. And I'm really enjoying Sunday night TV.  Tonight, especially, I will be up way too late watching Downton Abbey Better Call the Walking Dead. And loving every minute of it. 

I'm also reading Karen Abbot, which is really enjoyable. I didn't get to read as much as I'd hoped this week, but that just means there's something to look forward to next week, right? 

 

Nothing New Under the Sun

The Young Prince has been nagging me to write a blog post, but I have nothing to say.

His schooling is going quite well. He finished The Yearling this week, and next week embarks on writing what could be the most depressing essay ever: comparing that to Old Yeller.  Fortunately, the weather seems to be thinking about starting to warm up, so perhaps we won't all feel like slitting our wrists at the end of the endeavour. 

That resolution I made for the new year to work less? Not working out.  I fell off the wagon, had it back up over me and then roll forward a few times. I'm hoping to leverage my just-completed 80-hour week into some time off next week, especially now that the time change has happened and there are a few more hours of daylight on the tail end.

 Other than that, I'm counting down to April 4 (opening day) and our spring vacation six days after that—we are going to put a bazillion miles on my car driving to Mesquite and then driving around out west. 

Don't ask me about my book. 80-hour work weeks tend to stall out other efforts.  Not Your Average Blogger, on the other hand, is knee-deep into the next one. La la la. Maybe I should send the boys on  vacation without me and stay home and write. 

Mmmm, nah. 

Did You Miss Me?

Well, that "post every Saturday" plan clearly didn't work out very well once things started happening on Saturdays, now did it? 

So what do I need to recap?  

Not Your Average Blogger's book is off to the publisher. My effort is motoring along. The Young Prince has embarked on a sequel to his James Bond effort of last year.

Everyone likes their job. Even the YP appears to be doing very well in school.  His interim report card was all A's, including conduct. I can't tell you how much this thrills me.

We went through a government shutdown; a few people I know were personally affected but mostly it was a lot of sound and fury. 

My dad came to visit as part of his East Coast lecture tour; we saw him give his spiel in DC and he was quite good. Much livelier and more interesting than a lot of the presentations I sit through for my job, I'll tell you that.  And of course it was nice to see him in a non-professional capacity as well. I had lucked into some comp time and let the kid take off school, so we all had a nice Friday together.  

The Red Sox beat the Cardinals in the World Series.  As I told NYAB, maybe this means my Illini-Cards fan dad can throw some hate his way and lay off me and USC for a bit.   

We threw a Halloween party and for reasons I'm unclear on, only one kid came. I think evite is not good when you use it based off a classroom list of email addresses, compounded by the fact that it was a rather late decision to hae a party. Overall, I think we need to stop having Halloween parties until the kid is old enough to reliably invite his friends and they are old enough to reliably show up.

 In other Halloween news, the YP has discovered he like horror movies.  We have run through Poltergeist, The Shining, The Exorcist, Halloween II (because Halloween has People Doing It) and Night of the Living Dead.  He informed me this afternoon that tonight he wants to watch Nightmare on Elm Street. Alrighty then. The good news is he has Monday and Tuesday off school, so any nightmare-related insomnia will be mitigated by then, I hope.

The other gory news I have to share is I had a wisdom tooth removed.  It was an interesting experience; last month I went to this oral surgeon who kept me waiting for 45 minutes in his front area, then another 30 minutes in the chair, then came in and talked about my tooth for five minutes before trying to sell me a "cancer preventative" chemical peel for another ten. At that point I was horribly late for my next appointment and shut him down with a plea for one ordeal at a time.  Then I spent a week dithering about whether to be knocked out or just get novocaine.  NYAB shared countless stories from the Crimean War book he was reading about people getting shot in the face until he shamed me into staying awake and saving the money. 

And as it turned out, it was no big deal.  The guy shot me up, ripped it out, and I was done in 15 minutes. 24 hours of vicodin later, I'm feeling fine, although I figure on keeping to the mashed potato and ice cream diet for a while yet. And the jury's still out on the chemical peel. 

In closing, two photos. The first is the record of this year's Halloween costume: 

And the second just because it cracked me up:

I don't know if they planned to drink it all or had to import doughnuts, but it amused me. 

 

So here's hoping November brings lots of entertaining events and empty Saturday mornings for me to share them with you! 

Backtracking, Part 1

So, a little while back, I went on vacation.  Two glorious weeks away from work that were packed with other events—so much so that I'm going to bust them up into two posts, and you'll hear about the Young Prince's 15 minutes of geek fame next week. 

The first week of vacation was great. It started leisurely, with me picking up my ribbons from the fair and being surprised to learn there were cash prizes attached! (I won a whopping $5 -- $3 for the jelly and $2 for the lemon bars.) I did laundry. I did yard work. The YP and I watched some movies.  On Wednesday, I got up sort of early to get the car serviced and was treated to the waiting room vision of a woman across from me kicking off her shoes and propping her bare feet up on the seat next to her, about 2 feet from another woman, who gave one sort of WTF? look and then ignored her.  I think I would have moved.  

Around 6 that night we headed out for Illinois, and drove all night. Somewhere around West Virginia we realized we'd forgotten our tickets. It didn't end up mattering; we were able to print them out again, but the OMIGOD moment was equal parts funny and irritating. We arrived about 7 a.m., and Not Your Average Blogger went to bed in our usual barn office digs while the YP and I futzed around until it was apparent my mom was up in the main house and then we went and visited with my parents.  

Around lunchtime, NYAB and I ran an errand to WalMart and while we were there, he got an email from his agent that she had a buyer for his book -- so he sold his book at WalMart.  (Well, I thought it was funny. It didn't turn out to be true -- another publisher offered a better deal.) And there was much rejoicing. It'll be out next fall and you'll hear more about it when it's closer to being relevant to people besides us.  

We had dinner with my parents and grandparents that night, and had many long and enjoyable chats with the old folks while the kid monopolized my dad's time. 

That Friday, NYAB and I took off for Kansas City. We had a lovely evening, although I wouldn't recommend Hereford House to people looking for a big fancy night out. On Saturday, we took a tour of Independence, Mo., and saw Truman's house, the Trails museum and the train depot museum.  We also popped in to the Mormon Visitor Center, where we were assiduously courted by two earnest young women. NYAB did a good job of ignoring, deflecting, and keeping on the history track, but the woman who attached herself to me was not so easily deterred. She asked about my relationship with God ("Well, I wouldn't call it a first-name basis thing. I figure I'm the cockroach to his human,") and telling me all about Joseph Smith and his pillars of light ("Like Albert Speer?!" -- I didn't give voice to that thought,) and living a good life (Well, that's hard to argue with.)  When we were walking back out to the car, NYAB had the good sense to look sheepish and agree that he owed me. I settled for a milkshake at the soda shoppe where Truman had his first job.

When we'd exhausted all that Independence had to offer, we went back to the hotel, where I was surprised with anniversary roses that were apparently supposed to have shown up at dinner the night before. They were lovely. Then we changed into Nats gear and sauntered across the overpass to the ballpark, where we had a great night in our front-row seats and the Nats won.  (And apparently we got on TV -- a friend said so on Facebook and added, "You looked great, but I certainly was surprised to see you there!")

Next day we drove back to Illinois, had another visit with my grandparents, then dinner with my parents, and then we hied our way to Indianapolis, where we stopped for the night, and drove the rest of the way home Monday. It was probably one of the more whirlwhind trips we've made to the Midwest, and it didn't feel long enough, but I reckon they'd had enough of us, so it was all for the best. 

The kid and I were home Tuesday and Wednesday -- just long enough to do laundry, mow the yard, go to the doctor, and buy a low-maintenance costume for him -- and then the two of us set out for Atlanta and DragonCon.  Look for details of horrific traffic and hilarious encounters in next week's post.