Baked goods, bads, and morally ambiguouses.

I like to make sandcastles. I flatter myself that I'm good at it: I can make sand arches, high towers (depending on the sand), and some very strange things. sigerson and I once built many of the wonders of the world in sand, as well as some other monuments. (The Coliseum was the coolest, I think.)

That said, I know I'm no master. Especially when faced with The World Championships of Sand Sculpture (courtesy cincodemaygirl). The gallery is full of beautiful, funny, impermanent sculptures, and the amount of detail puts my crude towers to shame.

The "sea serpent and boy with shovel" is my favorite. Although the nonplussed Viking on Page 2 is also quite nice.

( Other news: )

Minor things from the past week.

- I may be able to do some actual work next week! Whee! It's not that I mind the training, it's that I would much rather be doing work, especially when there's a lot of work going on around me. I hate not being useful. I feel much more worthy when I can actually try to be useful. (This explains my hostess instincts as well; I try to prove myself by taking on responsibility. This can backfire.)

- There are certain circumstances that can only be eased by the application of velvet pants. Such as coming home to an apartment that reeks of varnish (renovations downstairs) and a rejection slip.

- I've scrawled over half of the novel and intend to scrawl over the rest this weekend. It's coming along. Mornings are usually for short stories at the moment: "Pre-Apocalypse Sale on Cheese" is about half finished and the figured bass story has been scrapped, rethought, and re-outlined.

- Fantasy Magazine is out, with my story in it. However, I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet.

- And my reaction (not a review) to George R. R. Martin's A Feast for Crows: ( Not spoilery unless you use a very broad definition of spoilers. )

If you've tried to reach me recently (or if you know people who have -- I'm looking at you, sal_sal), then you know just how disconnected I've been. Our phone service is still down, and DSL might -- might -- be up next week. Maybe. The saga of How Verizon Sucks is something you should hear from thomascantor, who's been dealing with them with much more grace than I would have had.

One major downside is that because of the disconnect, and because we don't watch much tv, I've only had a blurry idea of how horrible it's been in New Orleans. I think I'll try to give blood, though I may get turned away because of my time in England (yes, I ate beef over there during the BSE trouble, and I don't think they have a test for that yet). Like many others, I want to help, have little money to spare, and don't know how else to help. And I can't think of anything to say that doesn't sound glib and lame in the face of this horror.

In other, much less important news: ( Small things that have happened to me )
I'll be up in Maine this weekend, being a total geek. With any luck, I'll have scrawled on three chapters' worth of work and be able to plow through some more when I get back.

I'm back. Yes, even though most of you didn't know I was gone, I am back. I took this week off from work and headed up to New Hampshire with thomascantor. No internet, a phone but no answering machine, no TV, and only the radio to tell us of the outside world. (Of course, when NPR is the station of choice, that still keeps us pretty up to date.)

Some of the things I did:
- Climbed two mountains (running into unexpected friends on top of one and getting over some of my fear of heights on the other).
- Dozed off on the beach.
- Discovered that if you have a white mark from wearing a watch, that white mark can get a sunburn all its own.
- Found the first dead mouse of the season!
- Wrote out a chapter-by-chapter account of what the next big revision will be, including preliminary outlines for new chapters and lists of changes to existing ones.
- Wrote preliminary outlines for two short stories (one involving figured bass and deals with the devil, the other involving despotism and soccer riots).
- Ate thomascantor's pancakes. He makes good pancakes.
- Read lots of mystery novels, which seem to end up at the cabin just from the beach reading effect (people bring them up to the cabin, read them on the beach, and then leave them there for someone else to read). I managed to guess the killer in at least two of them, though both were Agatha Christies.

The one annoying thing: after I called the place that had suggested an interview and told them I was free Thursday but out of communication until today, they sent an email saying they'd like to meet me Tuesday. Of course I get this email today. Gyaaaaaarrrr. Wonder how badly I've screwed this up.

But nevertheless, I'm glad that I was out of reach. For once I didn't feel guilty about sitting and doing nothing in particular. I needed this.

And now I've got a day or two to write before Readercon and thomascantor has time to get ready for Montreal. All is well.