No surprise, vacation was just what I needed. It seemed pretty short, which it always does, and the drive wasn’t bad. The ride home, as always, was the worst as we hit rush hour Columbus traffic. Thankfully, I was driving during this part, so Kenzie could relax a little.

Played a lot of poker, actually. Miriam, Chris’ lady, is a big Texas Hold ‘em fan, and it was nice to actually learn to play it in a non-stressful environment with people that really know what they’re doing and are patient teachers. Kenzie, it turns out, is very good at it. I’m maybe okay, but I’d like to find a way to play more down here. We’ll see how that goes.

Saw Shrek & Pirates. It’s funny, it was the first time seeing a movie from either of those franchises in the theater. Shrek was pretty funny, and Pirates was alright, although the first half was impenetrable. So many I’m doing this but I really mean to do this and all of this other jazz. I didn’t think they’d be able to top rolling wheel fight from the second one, but they did and it was great fun, albeit the very definition of “fantasy violence.” I kept waiting for the Road Runner to show up.

The cats survived without us, and in fact managed to hold off doing serious damage to each other until we got home. Our first morning home I was in the kitchen and I noticed some red on the chair near their food. And then up on the wall. And the water was pink. And there was red by the window near the sofa. It was very weird because all three cars looked and acted fine, but this was blood. Yesterday we finally discovered that Fiver had a cut on her nose, which doesn’t look all that bad but must’ve bled like crazy. Maybe someday there’ll be peace in the middle east.

Jumped right back into the thick of things at work, but now I’m actually able to handle things, which is always a plus. It’s time to get back into the game when it comes to writing and querying. I did fail to mention that right before we left I got my first personalized rejection letter from an agent who had requested a partial. They rejected it on the basis that they felt the book was Young adult, which it isn’t, but they had nice things to say about my writing and I’m not going to argue. Someone who doesn’t know me told me my writing is good. It’s worth it. So back into the thick of it.

Our web-show idea keeps getting pushed back because the camera we’re going to use keeps breaking, so here we are having ideas and no way to film them. Everyone is excited, which I think is good. Better than folks shrugging their shoulder and going “Yeah, I guess I’ll do it.”

These are good times, and we should all be at Defcon One with excitement.

PS Google Street Maps is *fascinating.* I spent maybe a half hour last night scrolling through the streets of NYC.