I don't understand putting conditions on a relationship like that. If a guy is all allergic, then stay at his house, you know? I stayed at the BF's place 99% of the time up until we moved in together because of his allergy to my down comforter. It would have been the same if he had been allergic to my cats. We would have worked around it until I discovered how important he was going to be to me. if you really like the person, lots of circumstantial things can be worked out over time.

FWIW, this is how things developed between JZ and I. She spent every night at my house. There was no way I could sleep at her place with two cats. We had no expectations when we started. It grew and grew until we had to make some choices.

Susan, can I suggest an alternative getting-published trophy? For the Bubblegum book, our publisher took the finished proof to a specialist book binder and had two hard-bound copies of the book made for Kim and I. Since I expect your first book will probably be a paperback original, you might want to save your money and have a gorgeous leatherbound volume with marbled endpapers made.

Cool! But I'll settle for a mailing of my reviews to all those people who told me I have "no skills".

That's a good idea, Hec. Another one I thought of while I was in the shower was that if I end up displeased with my cover art, I can hire someone to design me the cover I wish I had, and have that framed and mounted on my wall.

I can hire someone to design me the cover I wish I had, and have that framed and mounted on my wall.

One of the cool things about Harlan Ellison's house is that he has the original art for all his book covers on the walls.

Is it warm or cold in Utah now?

Is it warm or cold in Utah now?

Warm. Quite warm. Which means the several feet of snow that fell in the mountains over the weekend is packing its bags for a trip down the mountains. We haven't even started spring runoff yet, and there are already mudslides and flood alerts across the state from the very wet spring.

It could hit 90 over the weekend. There was snow in my yard last week.

Should we hit bureau, to choose a thread name?

By the way, if anyone's interested in a ski-golf vacation, Snowbird Ski Resort will by open until Memorial Day.

Yay! I finished my paper! It's crap, but I finished it! Also my debate notes, so I now have everything I need to finish the crap class! Oh, except a one-minute presentation on my paper, but I have this nifty metaphor worked out which should take up most of a minute.

Mind you, the paper doesn't really fit the assignment she gave, but the assignment was fragmentary and difficult to understand anyway.

Just one problem: I have no idea about her rubric for this class. Will the crappiness and off-topicness of this paper affect my grade? Or will the fact that I've completed all the assignments and participated in class pretty much have me set? Does it matter that she doesn't like me?

Why yes, I am all about me. Why do you ask me?

We didn't know DH was allergic to cats when we adopted one, who had two kittens which we kept, and one moved in on us in preference to the neglectful neighbors who he'd formerly belonged to. Attrition took all but the orignial momcat, and she was with us 16 years.

Two months after she died, his chronic mild respiratory symptoms cleared up, another month or two and his nonspecific and sporadic mild rash cleared up, and he stopped taking OTC antihistamines. He felt so much better I didn't have the heart to ask to have another cat.

Eight years later, he was the one who spotted the injured feral who needed rescuing. We vacuum and swiffer the house (not as often as we should, actually), and brush, comb, and wipe down the cat with a damp cloth at least once and usually more daily. It keeps the allergens to a manageable minimum. Everybody's happy.