Greetings from the cat farm

Gratuitous kitten photo

Things are going well at the Venice Chump House for Destitute Felines. Our sweet new kitten, whom we've named Jack, is settling in nicely, and our other cat, Simon, is grudgingly adapting to his new roommate. I've purchased a family-size pack of Allegra for myself. In a stroke of bad timing, my husband and I are going on a two-week vacation to Europe very soon. I hope whoever's watching them doesn't let them kill each other while we're gone.

One of my favorite things about long vacations, as I've mentioned before, is all the free time for reading. And after visiting ALA Anaheim this weekend, I've got an incredible stack of ARCs on my nightstand, including Libba Bray's The Diviners, Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass, Andrew Smith's Passenger, and Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys, among others. It feels like Christmas! Yesterday I flipped through all the books, figuring I would start reading the one that grabbed me the most. To my surprise, it was one that hadn't been on my radar, David Levithan's Every Day. I'm already halfway through it and folks, it is excellent. I can't put it down.

I've also got a copy of Leigh Bardugo's fantastic-looking Shadow and Bone that was waiting on my doorstep last weekend when I got home from my work trip, and a handful of other hardcovers that I picked up at different events over the last few months. So much good reading! Unfortunately, I don't have room in my suitcase to take physical books with me on our transcontinental road trip, so I'll have to choose from the 30+ books waiting for me on my e-reader. This is a good problem to have. 


I may not post for a little while, seeing how this week is going to be very busy with travel prep, but I'll still be checking out your blogs and babbling away on Twitter. Are you traveling this summer? Or are you avoiding the crowds and enjoying the hot months with backyard sprinklers and homemade popsicles? 

Life Gets In The Way

Well, I started out the weekend with An Agenda for getting things done. It seemed pretty reasonable, too. Then this happened:

Thursday evening, just when I was settling down with my laptop, my neighbors banged on my window to tell me that one of their dogs had just chased a tiny kitten into my parking area. It had climbed up under the hood of my car, and so I lay on the ground and coaxed it out with food. Its eyes were just about crusted shut, and it was filthy and terrified. I wrapped it in a blanket and carried it, squawking and wailing, up to our guest room.

Clearly that does not sound like the cat pictured above. One trip to the vet for flea/mite meds, antibiotics, and eye drops, about a pound of wet food, and many hours of sleep later, he's feeling pretty perky. He's very playful, and enjoys a good belly rub and snuggles. If our cat ever forgives us, we may just keep him.

What this all means is that those revisions I was planning to have done by today are still awaiting my attention. BIG SIGH. What can I say, sometimes life gets in the way. I'm heading up to the corporate mothership tomorrow for the week, so hopefully I'll have some downtime in the evenings. And maybe, just maybe, I'll finally get to some reading that I've had to put on hold. Here's hoping!