it must be spring, I'm brewing iced tea.

Walking through the dark living room last night, I felt something touch my leg, like a small hand, grabbing at me.
Thankfully, I had previously noted Boomer sleeping on the floor, and so did not jump, yelp, or otherwise terrify him. Took a half-hour off my life, though.

And today, he has developed a new purr -- very tribble-sounding. Weird cat....

Meanwhile, it's been an exciting day -- another chunk of "Dreamcatcher" written, some household stuff taken care of, and a host of contracts and agreements sent off to allow me to continue living this carefree freelance lifestyle (hah). Also made various hotel and plane arrangements for the Spring/Summer convention schedule. Eeeep. How did it get to be that time, already?

Ah, the glamour, the glory, the mind- and ass-numbing tedium. At this point, I'd almost welcome the distraction of a cover conference meeting, just for the name-calling and popcorn-throwing (okay, that's a lie. We never threw popcorn. Unless it was stale. And unless it was at Ray [our art director]).

I just realized we're out of diet coke. Horrors! Maybe I should dial back from the caffeine tonight..... naaaaaah.

Talkin' Politics, without politics

Reading Is Fundamental. Basic premise: get kids reading, show them the fun in reading, and they will be able to advance in life. Government funding, and the support of, among many other people, First Lady Laura Bush.

George Bush just yanked the funding.

Paying for a war is more important than educating our kids.

Fuck that shite.

from the RiF site:

"Since we first shared the disappointing news of President Bush’s proposed elimination of funding for RIF in his fiscal year 2009 budget less than two weeks ago, more than 30,000 messages have been sent to Congress urging legislators to reinstate RIF’s funding.

This initial outpouring of support has prompted RIF’s congressional champions to capitalize on the momentum by circulating in Congress a Dear Colleague letter on behalf of RIF. The Dear Colleague letter asks members of Congress to sign-on in support of RIF’s funding. This is an important next step in the campaign to protect RIF’s FY09 funding.

We are asking Congress to appropriate $26 million to fund RIF’s book distribution program for some 4.6 million underserved children and families in fiscal year 2009. The funding is critical to support our reading motivational programs at nearly 20,000 locations nationwide.

We hope you will share this message with six or more friends who will also contact their members of Congress. Thank you in advance for your support!"

Act Now!

Congresscritters already signed up in support