Thank you thank you thank you to Matt & Beth for the bed and Maiden for the ride and Deb for the food...my cup runneth over, too.

Damn, I'm all kindsa jealous of all the goings-on right here in town (too much overtime at work and Emmett-having [he's incredibly bright and verbal, but he's still probably a year or so from being ready for Serenity] and Faire-going on Saturday). I'll be around for the Saturday night shindig, but probably nothing else.

I mean, shoot. At least when these things happen in Seattle or Minneapolis or Cleveland, I get to shrug and say, "Well, duh, no way could I make that," but now... Phoo. A mere stone's throw. Pfah upon the lot of you, I say.

Except on Saturday night, when I shan't say much due to extravagant and prodigal hugging.

Lee - San Mateo is right off the bridge and parking is likely easier, so that would be my preference.

Okay, let's do that, unless someone has an objection. If you give me a call Friday afternoon when you are free we can plan further.

Yay, JZ! I wasn't sure if you were going to make it for Saturday or not and now I'm bouncy all over again. Very good news.

JZ, do you want to come have dinner with us Sunday night, as well? Angelino in Sausalito - a lot of our visitors were Kinkaid WIP readers and the restaurant is featured prominently in the second book, a fact which the staff at the restaurant know and appreciate.

Uhm, possibly. Dunno. Sunday afternoon we're scheduled for an attempt at getting-the-Zmayhem-family-strands-to-bond-and-blend which will involve a passel of kids and the encouragement of much young-boy roughhousing and baseball playing. By eveningtime, we may all be dead from the bonding. I'd like to say a tentative yes for me, but with the option of no-ing out if it turns out that I'm too fried to move and Hec's too fried to function solo (I'm pretty sure right now, without even checking, that Emmett would be bored and cranky at the idea of a night out with a bunch of grown-ups).

Tangentially, I finally finished R&RNF and have some nitpicky little line-edity type notes (which you may not be interested in at all -- I tend to think of them as nitpicky in the monkey-grooming, smoothing and tidying and prettifying sense, but I know that's frequently not what you're looking for), mostly about dropped connector words here and there, and one medical question, and lots of WOW. DAMN. HOW SOON CAN I GET IT IN HARDCOVER?

WOW. DAMN. HOW SOON CAN I GET IT IN HARDCOVER?

Heh. You do know there's a second book, yes.....?

Nitpicky at this stage? Is fine. It's only during the WIP period that I find them counterproductive; if the big picture isn't together by the time I've sent this or any book off to my agent, I shouldn't be writing books.

So as it's coming together, typos or missed words are useful but not the focus. Nitpicky for the sake of nitpicky ("shouldn't you specify what density of coal in that description?") = Deb/crossbow. But at this stage? Everything becomes useful.

I'll tentative you for Angelino, then, and you can see how you feel come Sunday. And let me know if you'd like WMGGW, which picks up just a couple of weeks after first one ends.

I succesfully resisted the Nieman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue outlets.

(that would be me quoting Gunga Din in the background)

10/29/05. IJS.

When it comes to Last Call and Off Fifth?

I am Borg-food. Resistance is totally futile.

t does pee-pee dance

IS IT FRIDAY??????????