Thursday, December 25, 2008

I woke up before Elaine today and was impatient for her to get up so she could open her stocking. This'll probably be the last Khristmas when that happens for a long time. She's still a little hazy on the concept of opening presents, but it's amazing to see her dance with happiness when she's given a new toy she really likes. The biggest hits so far have been the pink computer from my dad and the baby doll from my mom. Though, it completely blew her mind when we put in the dvd of Dr. Horrible and started up Commentary: The Musical. She threw her hands in the air, and her mouth dropped open. She must have stood like that for almost a minute.

For myself, I'm very excited to pick out Emmett when we all get back to Seattle. His tank is blue.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

A christmas tree is a veritable buffet of new toys. Elaine has been methodically divesting my mom's tree of ornaments ever since we arrived. She's especially excited by all the ornaments that are little gold frames with pictures inside. She loves pictures of people and animals she knows.

Also, on the first day of christmas, my true love gave to me a brand new yellow toothbrush. Then, he threatened to give me eleven more brand new yellow toothbrushes.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Surreal Botany is being reviewed in Science tomorrow!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The best thing about the snow -- beside the fact that Elaine can happily tromp around in it indefinitely -- is how much brighter it makes everything. The sunlight bounces off of the snow, making the dark Seattle winter easily twice as bright.

Another thing that's great, but even greater because of something on top of it, is cookies. We made cookies tonight. A wonderful activity. But, when it comes to eating holiday cookies... Well, let's just say that I eventually transcended the actual cookies. Frosting applied directly to chocolate chips and sprinkles, skipping the whole tedious sugar-cookie part, is much tastier.

So, there you have it: snow and cookies. Both great. Sunlight bouncing off of snow, and gooey gobs of frosting holding together masses of chocolate chips? Even better.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

We built a snowman tonight. Elaine's height, carrot-nosed, and sporting red grapes for eyes. And while we worked, we sang a cheerful song about zombies, by Jonathan Coulton. Only, just as we sang, "All we want to do is eat your brains," well...

It turned out that someone did want to eat his eyes.

The Floor People were very egalitarian about it. Elaine ate the left eye; Trudy the right. Dale munched on the poor snowman's nose, and then eventually moved on to directly gnawing on the snow of his face. Yes, Dale is a dog who will eat your face. If it's made out of snow.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Every spare minute is devoted to spaceship repair. The hull is sound now. Tomorrow I may cut holes in it, so I can see the inky, black space outside.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

I made preliminary repairs to the spaceship hull today. Tomorrow I buy more duct tape.
Draft three feels like it's breezing by. Working from a marked up manuscript is much easier than forging through on my own, without a page by page critique from a skilled editor. In this case, the editor is my sister, and having her spend the last week reading my novel has been amazingly fun. There should always be someone sitting on the other side of the room, reading one of my manuscripts and laughing at the right parts.

Another fun thing this week has been singing with Elaine. She was walking around the other night chanting, "ba, ba, ba." She'd seen some bicycles and was trying to say "bike," but it got "Barbara Ann" stuck in my head. So I started singing. Fortunately, "Barbara Ann" seems to be pretty easy to sing, and having Elaine sing along is adorable.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

"Are you a dog?"
-- "Woof."
"Are you a chicken?"
-- "Bock."
"Are you a kitten?"
-- "Mow."
"Are you an owl?"
-- "Hooo."
"Well, you're all kinds of animals!"
-- "Yi-ai-ai-ai."

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Velociraptors. In hot air balloons. With flamethrowers. Hunting seagulls. Barbecue sauce at the ready.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Time for draft three! Well... Probably time for a break where I work on short stories and my other novel. Then time for draft three.