Update/downdate

Was on the road more than expected today; besides the mail run it
turned out that we needed an extra cat carrier since in a quick test
no two of our four cats could be trusted to be in the same cat carrier together.

Oh, I think Mozart and Scrabble might be able to do it -- except that Mozart
is so big these days that we don't have a single box that would be comfortable
for the long ride to the vet. When we moved here the nearest vet was our old vet --
across a number of large bridges... and just two or three blocks from where we
used to live, which is why we used him when we lived in Waterville. Now there are
several closer vets, but "our vet" has known so many of our cats that we'd have a hard
time going elsewhere. Sigh. In any case, if we're physically in shape, we've got
a "kennel rate" appointment for all 4 tomorrow.

and ... So I went to Animal House and got a carrier, and after that's where
I also bought 24 cans of Patia's own sort of cat food... I added to that a run to two different credit unions and a stop at the food store all the way across town where I bought staples like milk and quick dinners to make our evening easier.

The rush to get With Stars Underfoot out to folks has hit a partial road-block --
we've run out of a couple of the chapbooks many people were ordering to go with
it. We thought we had enough, but we didn't count on the odd chapbook or two with upside down
pages or missing pages. So there are about 10 unfilled orders, which we'll fill as quickly as
we can, but not tonight.

Meanwhile, we're waiting with 'bated breath (not just because of the colds, mind you) to
get word on the first sighting of a trade paper version of Balance of Trade. We hear they're
shipping directly from the printer to the new distributor, and that once the distributor has them
they'll be fast-tracked to stores. So, please, if you see Balance of Trade in trade paper
(and not one of the ARCs) -- please yell with details.

No chess tonight -- one misdirected sneeze and I could put the top five or six boards of the Waterville chess team out on sick-leave at once.

My turn for the cold

The With Stars Underfoot packing is somewhat slower than I'd anticipated, in part because of Rolanni's cold, which is slowly seeping out of her and into me, and in part because the number of available secondary choices has complicated the actual pick-to-pack. Several orders have had 14 different items....

In any case, I think all of the single item North American pre-orders are on their way; in addition to a few extra large-order US and Canadian shipments today's scheduled packing includes orders to Norway, Germany, Sweden, UK, AK, and some military addresses. We continue to get a few new orders, but they go onto the bottom of the pile and will get processed later this week.

Today's run to the Post Office may be complicated by low local energy level, with Rolanni a victim of a low-sleep night and my snuffle-and-sneeze act coming center stage. Sigh. I'm behind on story stuff, and on getting back to personal email, on making a couple of SRM Publisher Ltd decisions, and etc. May skip chess tonight, or go early and leave early.

Haven't been doing much surfing, though this did come to my attention:

http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/textbookdisclaimers/ for you textbook disclaimer fans.

As noted elsewhere I got us out of the house Saturday, running the roads after the Saturday chapbook mailrun, pointing the car toward the new bridge across the Kennenbec River in Augusta and then, with momentum in tire, down to Rockland with Rolanni pointing the way. Took in a new-to-us Italian restaurant (a theme with me, as it were) and then on a lark visited an open house for a house just barely overlooking the bay. Looks like there'd be room for a webcam to poke it's nose out and supply regular updates on ocean-action, but the house itself was considerably too small in the office-space department. Now if the basement had been a stand-up basement....

On the other hand, he says, we're kinda looking at the coast and a walkable neighborhood for an eventual move, and it is always good to smell the sea air.

Was treated to the Baltimore Ravens running with the big dogs for the first half of yesterday's game as I packed books in the basement. Was amused to hear the announcer call the Baltimore team "the Colts" on several plays -- but he's an older announcer and some habits are hard to break. The second half of the game wasn't near as much fun, though I do wonder af the number of face-masking penalties called against the Patriots.

Have to feed the cat and get my coffee and take stock. Might make a late run to the PO and skip chess. And gee, I really hate to miss all the special after Thanksgiving shopping. I do need to get some more egg nog, pumpkin pie, and mince pie in house, though.