etfb

I was coming down with something. I appear to have a head cold. *sniffle*

I may yet kill it with sleep, but if I feel more lousy in the morning than I do now, I will not be up for the planned road trip tomorrow. Not keen on passing this bug around.

Garage sales were good to me this morning. I got a wee electric lawn mower which I find more pleasant to use than the honking great smelly, noisy, unreliable junker that followed me when I moved here. I picked up a knife block set, too. And a nice grey turned legged table to go under the TV in the family room so that the drop side table an go into the back porch. Or maybe the grey table will go into the porch. Hrm. Just what I've had in mind, anyway.

I picked up a panel beating set for my brother in law, and a very pretty old (old, old) serving fork type thing. And a small tub of musical instruments; tambourines and bell-bracelets and rattling things. All sorts of annoying noise potential there!

Some while after arriving home, I sat down with my laptop and found the touchpad had ceased to work. So I disassembled and reassembled the computer without finding any observable cause for the problem, but lo, it works again. Then I drove to woop-woop to get a new little dog (yay!) and home again. Then I had a nap. Then it was time to feed the children and get them to put the new dog down. No she can't sleep on your bed. No! Now go wash your hands. Again. And go to bed.

Then I poked about online again, took some paracetamol and looked up some musics I want to learn.

And then... well, then it was now. I'm feeling sorta perky now that it's sensible-people bed time.

I'm sure it will pass.

So here we are in etfb 's aunt and uncle's, having just had a family barbeque and seen off the last of the visiting relatives. Despite the excitement and activity the  Boy Wonder went off to sleep relatively early but the BatPup has only just succumbed to tiredness and admitted that perhaps it would be a good idea to go to bed.

The trip down was fairly uneventful. We left around lunchtime and arrived at 5:30. The Boy Wonder was predictably grizzly and didn't go to sleep til after Gundagai. The BatPup didn't sleep but was very bored and spent a while trying to wake her brother up until we found ways of distracting her. Invisible Eye Spy and telling stories back and forth kept her entertained but eventually she just sat there whinging.

We're hoping tomorrow to leave earlier and be able to take it in stages and spend more time out of the car. But, for the first day, it went quite well. And now I should stop ignoring my kind hosts...

This entry was originally posted at my DreamWidth blog. Please comment there using OpenID, or here if you prefer.

 11am start at the XY Dim Sum Dumpling House, 1st floor Grose Street Deakin.  You can drift in and out as you wish.  Cost is about $18 plus jasmine tea.  Let me know if you will come and how many you are.

I was aware that cats knead when they are comfortable as a memory of feeding as kittens, kneading the teat to ensure milk suply. Bellamy so far hasn't kneaded at all (and having lived with braille-patterened thighs from living with Marmy-cat, I give regular thanks for it!) EXCEPT! if he is on a furry or fluffy blanket. Then, not only does he knead the blanket, he bites and sucks it. Instant baby regression brought about by fluffyness. Who'da thunk?

When you not feeling 100%, Friday can never come too soon.

I'm interested in the history of hydraulic lifts in melbourne.  Others of you might be interested in the history of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club.

Here, they come together.

The site of the last hydraulic lift in melbourne, was also the site of the MSFC club rooms in 1961.

And this paragraph could have been written about my friends when I was a teenager;

Have I mentioned this forum for Melbournian building geeks?

Here's one way to look at the history of Melbourne buildings.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/final-reminder-for-bookshops.html

A quick reminder (as I was just asked) that today is the day that the bookshop Graveyard Book party reports have to be in to Harper Collins. By 9 pm PST.

http://files.harpercollins.com/Mktg/HarperChildrens/PDF/GraveyardContest_rules.pdf are the rules and info for those who lost them.

Hi Mr. Gaiman,

I was disappointed today to read you won't be part of the judging for The Graveyard Book contests. My not-wealthy, middle-of-nowhere bookstore just sent in its entry, and something we're concerned about is the fairness of judging.

For example, independent bookstores like Powell's (I'm sure you know) easily have enough money and are in a convenient enough location to ask you to come at one time or another. Against stores like that, who were able to put more money into their parties, we stand little chance.

I don't think that it's a lost cause for us; we were very creative. I'm just nervous to know you won't be judging. Can you tell me whether you think the judges will take things like size and location of bookstores into account? It would make me sleep a little easier until the results are announced.

Tusen takk,
Allison

Well, per the rules, the judging is based on:

(i) Overall creativity of the Party, as demonstrated by the invitations, signage, decorations, activities, entertainment, and refreshments.
(ii) Customer attendance and response (i.e., enthusiasm, costumes, participation).
(iii) Ability to capture and represent the spirit of The Graveyard Book.
...specifically to reward creativity, and not the ability to outspend other shops. (That was also why the party had to actually be at the bookshop, and not at another location.)

I asked my editor, Elise Howard, and she said,

Gosh, yes. Here's what we think is happening. We are looking at all the entries. On Monday, we'll send you the best 11, from which you will choose the Grand Prize Winner. The rest will get the first-prize package. So the short answer is that you ARE helping to choose.

The longer answer is that we will be very fair and will consider creativity, which includes work done with available resources, along with pure execution. (Don't you think? We haven't done anything yet; still waiting for more entries to come in.)

...which means that

a) I was wrong and will be the ultimate judge, from the shortlist. (Damn.)

and

b) everyone's on a level playing field.

Does that help reassure you?

PS -- Widgett's Graveyard Book Dessert competition winners have been announced over at http://www.needcoffee.com/2009/11/06/graveyard-book-dessert-challenge-winners/.

This one had NOTHING to do with me at all. But lor' the winning desserts look tasty...

Forecast for the week:

Sunday Dry. Sunny. Min 20 Max 35
Monday Dry. Sunny. Min 21 Max 35
Tuesday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 21 Max 37
Wednesday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 22 Max 37
Thursday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 22 Max 37
Friday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 20 Max 36

What the hell? It's only the first week of November! It doesn't normally hit 37 until the end of December! There's already a High Fire Risk warning, and the UV index for today is 10 (Very High).

We're in for a tough summer. Not liking this at all.

So that I remember, and anyone else can find it...

1 Bata Place off Happy Valley Rd, in Owhiro Bay (almost all the way down to the beach)
open Friday 12-4, Saturday 10-4 only
ph 383 5450 shop hours only

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1530

Woo latest comic ever. Next week should be less tardy, schedule-wise. See you then!

Many many things accomplished today, but there is always more *sigh* The house is livable (mostly) and the laundry is completely done. We've washed out the esky and collected blankets and experimented with carseat arrangements and theorised about how everything will fit and started collecting things in a pile in the garage, which is like packing. We've escorted the neighbours around the menagerie and told them how everything works and where to find all the food.

I've cooked most of the things I was going to cook, and had a glorious spread of quiche and salads tonight, which the offspring did not eat due to being too sick (the Boy Wonder) and too tired (the BatPup), as well as some dishes rudely containing items from the varied and ever-changing list of things which they Do Not Ever, Never Eat. The Boy Wonder was particularly scathing about the "red potato" (sweet potato), and the BatPup very carefully eviscerated her bacon, mushroom, capsicum and zucchini quiche to make sure that she consumed absolutely no mushroom, capsicum or zucchini. After cooking dinner, I gave up on the curry idea and just gave the neighbours all the vegetables that were left over. So there should be no nasty surprises in the fridge when we get back.

The Boy Wonder is now running a temperature and very miserable, and I am really hoping he's going to be like the BatPup earlier in her cold, when she had a temp for about 12 hours overnight on Tuesday and was fine by midday Wednesday. She still has a cough and runny nose and he has the nose and is starting the cough, but I am making sure he gets plenty of magic booby juice and lots of cuddles and with any luck he'll be fine for the trip *crosses all appendages*
This entry was originally posted at my DreamWidth blog. Please comment there using OpenID, or here if you prefer.

Well it may be a sign of the end times, or maybe I'm coming down with something, but I can't think of anything to write about. Not one thing.

Maybe I'm feeling drained from wrangling Rob related stuff half the day. Stuff keeps showing up. This one had money attached, which is nice, but (ohbloodyhell) crying on the bank staff was unexpected and embarrassing. It's been a while, though.

Or it could be the online discussion which strayed deeply into ad hominem territory. Disappointing, and of course, being me, I got all bristly in defending the person who was being unjustly maligned. Lots of editing required before my response was remotely civil. Then a followup with "furthermores". And I still didn't get to make one of my key points. Frustrating. Hmph.

I do feel proud of myself for not posting any reference ascribing the man's nastiness to it being his "time of the month", though. That can be confusing online. (edit: Dagnabbit. I just caved in to temptation and said it as a blog comment. Impulse control fail. Surprise level: 0)

But maybe that's why I'm so talked out.

Tomorrow is garage sales, and I've asked the garage sale fairy to leave me a nice stack of building materials for a group project, a shiny new fridge/freezer with delivery (and maybe the delivery guy) thrown in, a bevy of anvils, a good trio of bookcase/display units, a yacht, a pony and a villa in the South of France.

Or something like that. I like that it is so unpredictable. I might go out with a wish list like the one above and come home with a low, posh ladies chair for my bedroom, three bolts of white linen fabric and some ....I dunno....reversible teaspoons.

Anyway. Nothing to write about. Just sayin'.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/note-to-self-nights-are-for-sleeping.html

Still trying to get back onto a diurnal schedule. (And, I should add, failing.)
And, of course, although I posted it before, it bears repeating that you can watch the film that Steven-Charles Jaffe made of the "Dark and Silly Night" comic Gahan and I did for art spiegelman and Francoise Mouly's Little Lit at the New Yorker site, or here:



And if I'd been here for Hallowe'en I would have posted it here then. Which reminds me, The Graveyard Book party season is over. Over thirty independent bookshops had Graveyard Book parties (The ABA's Bookselling This Week reports on thirteen of the parties -- and the shops -- at http://news.bookweb.org/7149.html.) The very best one of all will get me in their shop doing a signing in December and, looking at these thirteen, I am very glad I am not any kind of a judge for the awards.

My only hope is that the shop that wins will be somewhere warm. But most of the places on the party map will be just as cold by December as my house. (Vague and only climate-based relief that HarperCollins said No to Alaska in the rules mingles with vague and selfish disappointment that they also said No to Hawaii.)

It looks like the CBS Sunday Morning profile on me is going out this Sunday, the 8th, 9:00-10:30 AM, ET. According to this website:

Correspondent Serena Altschul visits author Neil Gaiman -- the tender-hearted master of the macabre -- whose books, including Coraline and The Graveyard Book have topped best-seller lists for 25 years.

.. which left me wanting to go "I am NOT a tender-hearted master of the macabre, I am in fact VERY SCARY INDEED," but I suspect I would convince nobody.

Thrilled to see that Odd and the Frost Giants was listed as one of Amazon.com's Best Books of 2009. While I was in China The Graveyard Book was listed as one of the ALA's teens top ten for 2009 as well, an award voted on by over 11,000 teens. (And I made it onto the list with lots of other good people.)

Also, Fragile Things was awarded the French 2010 Les Grands Prix de l’Imaginaire Award for translated short fiction. My thanks to the judges, but mostly to the translator, who in this case is the incredibly talented Michel Pagel. If I ever look good, do well, sell books or am popular in a foreign country, it's because of the translators, and they never get enough thanks or acclaim. And I think I'll post the cover here, because I never have.

You're welcome. I think this link has everything for sale in the auction: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/scrawldog/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571985,00.html?test=latestnews

An amateur treasure hunter finds a trove of Iron Age jewelry on his first time out with his metal detector! Amazing!

I think I have tonsillitis again...

High Fever and an black abcess slightly smaller than a 5c piece on my right tonsil....

Doc time I think....

 I don't know how I ended up on itunes searching but it brought back a flood of memories. Back in the day, when I was still starry eyed with the SCA, getting ready for an event was an event in itself. Packing armor, shields , swords (both live steel and rattan)  the tents, pavilion , break down table, director's chairs etc. It depended what vehicle I had at the time, the truck and van were easy, the car was a little more tricky. Then it was finishing that last bit of new garb and swearing that you would never do it again. Then the drive and getting away from the 20th century, the long hours drive sometimes. NOW here is where itunes comes in, all of the drive was filled with music meant to put you in the mood. Lot's of celtic stuff, SCA filk, and my two Never-Leave-Home-Without-Them, Meg Davis's Captain Jack and the Mermaid and Celtic Stone cassettes .
So, I was feeling nostalgic  and having lost those tape long ago, decided to see if they are still around. Happy to say they are still around and now have been downloaded and placed on CDs. I can remember pulling up the Troll with the tapes still blaring, then it was usually off to set up camp in the dark (again something I swore never again) then into garb and grab my horn, then off to the camp fires. Waking up with the dew heavy on the grass and tent, coffee first at the tavern. Ok, so I am kind of excited about coming back.

time for pain meds

I may resume normal posting patterns, as we now have functioning home internet. Yay to time wasting and communication at home :)
Next thing to do is to poke at SkypeIn, so we have a home phone number since we have managed to get away without a home phone line.

And at some point there will be poking at setting up the wireless router so two people can use the net at once... Being able to bask on the back deck in the sun and surf would be good, though decadent.

But before then I have to stop basking in a warm room (not quite in the sunlight) but it is a gorgeous day out, and head into work for the afternoon.

But I will have net to poke at while Z is off at the candy shop over the weekend:)

Kiddo, how were the fireworks?