Been really really busy.

April 29 - May 1: Travelled to Chicago for the SFWA Nebula Awards weekend. Toured Argonne National Lab and Fermiab, where I saw the particle accelerators, talked to the physicists. Had a good time with my writer's group and the assembled pro writers. Met Anne McCaffrey and her family. Made a new friend, Laurel Winter. Saw old friends. Toured the Art Institute of Chicago and the Adler Planetarium. Ate good food. Drank good wine. Walked a lot. Got inspired.

May 6-10: Travelled to Virigina for my baby sister's college graduation and assorted dysfunctional family fun. Words were exchanged. Projectiles were launched. And a relatively good time was had by all, at least by our family standards.

Then I drove south along the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway to Boone NC for a solo mini-vacation in the peace and quiet of a cell-phone deadzone. Spent a couple hours at Cheap Joe's Art Supply Outlet. Nice people. Pretty colors. Cool stuff. Bought paint and brushes and a souvenier coffee mug. Google their website. They're good peoples.

On my way back to the airport in Charlotte NC, I visited the Carolina Raptor Center and saw the lovely but damaged winged carnivores. Most were foundlings and/or disabled birds, but they still had dignity and grace. Google their website. Again, good peoples. (I never new a barn owl could hiss....)

Then the trouble started... AirTrain held me hostage in the Hell That Is Atlanta overnight. Gross incompetence at every turn. Lies. Always lies. Never fly AirTran. Never ever. EVER. For more venom on this, see my LiveJournal (astein142).

Today, I finally arrived home at midday -- 12 hours late, exhausted, frustrated, starving, and in pain from strange beds and saggy baggy airline seats -- to find chaos at work and a broken hot water pipe at home.

Oh, what fun! Too much fun for any one person. Really.

Now, I need time to use my pretty new paints and fancy new brushes, and get art ready for two shows to be held on Memorial Day weekend.

Wish me luck!