Mumble Herder

1. There used to be a plant in my cubicle. This morning it is gone, and everything is harsh and not-green. WHERE IS MY PLANT?!?

2. I have finally started writing the next novel. I have decided that my characters need to take a trip to the Ax-Man. This may be because I have been thinking about taking a trip to the Ax-Man for a while myself. FOR RESEARCH. This is probably jocelina's fault.

3. Tonight is the Writer's Night Out/Yeti's Birthday Party, 7:30 at Merlin's Rest, 3601 Lake Street. Last time there was unexpected loud music, so if you get there and you don't see us and there's a wailing guitar, we've moved down Lake to the Dunn Bros beside the Marshall Street bridge.

4. May Freya forgive me, but I have been Twittering again. Same name there as here.

5. It is the time of the season when I am contractually obligated to state that I hate the Yankees. Which I have now done. Thank you for your time.

Things I have not posted about on account of being busy and scatterbrained:

Yes, that is me in the latest issue of Writer's Digest. Jordan Rosenfeld interviewed me for the "First Impressions" column, which features first-time novelists. I sure make it sound easy. And, thanks to the lies of photography, I look good doing it.

Comics: Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction are leaving Immortal Iron Fist. Wah! For serious, their run has been incredible; retro-pulp updated for the modern day, with the glorious feel of grainy, badly-dubbed kung fu flicks. This, combined with John Rogers leaving the sadly underselling Blue Beetle (Seriously, do people not want their superhero comics to be good?), is going to cut down my comics reading considerably.

DVDs: I gave up on The L Word, finally, because I can't stand Mia Kirschner or her character or the way that the writers apparently view writing on that show. So. Grating. Like, Baltar-and-Six grating. (Them being the reason I can't watch BSG.) I started on Weeds, which is pretty great so far. Also started on Season 1 of the new Doctor Who, which is . . . cute? I can appreciate that it's all about the fun, and they're aiming at kids, but man is the plotting preposterous. Yes, Rose is wonderful, and the show is funny ("Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North"), but I'm not sure I'm going to last with it. I finally saw "Network," and I'm sorry I waited so long. Genius. Also saw "A Streetcar Named Desire." (Yes, I have many gaps.) Brando was amazing, as usual, but it took a long time for Vivien Leigh's performance to work for me. There's a particular definition of "feminine" in Streetcar that I find extremely off-putting in fiction as well as in life. Which may actually be part of the point of the play, and may be why it works in the end. Obviously I haven't decided.

Books: Am reading Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women In Revolutionary France, by Lucy Moore. This was recommended to me by stephanieburgis, and man am I grateful. Really evocative, and sad, and inspiring. Also reading Lost White Tribes: The End of Privilege and the Last Colonials in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe by Riccardo Orizio, which sounds a lot more awesome than it is. It's more a travelogue than anything, neither historical nor anthropological in focus; a disappointingly shallow look at a potentially rich subject.

Baseball: Bit of a rocky start for the Twins, not unexpectedly. Liriano's shaky, and the offense is unreliable; but Hernandez is a rock, and Bonser seems to have matured nicely. Not to mention that Carlos Gomez is as much fun to watch as Torii ever was. Dropping two to the Tigers = not cool, but it's early yet. (If you catch me saying that in August, I give you permission to smack me upside the head.)

I think I've figured out why my pens sometimes explode on planes. If I'm using the pen when we take off, this never happens. If I uncap the pen to write something while we are at 30,000 feet, I almost always end up with ink all over my hands, my manuscript, my flotation device. (Does that sound dirty to anyone else?) It's the cabin pressure, stupid. Probably I could switch to some other sort of pen and solve the problem (I use a Pilot Precise Rolling Ball, Fine Point and I hope that news will make your day complete), but I have no plans to do so.

A good weekend. Walked the dogs with my brother on Thursday morning, saw the deer who've been hanging out behind my parents' house, mashed and mixed the potatoes and then loudly took credit for them. (Mom doesn't mind. Really.) Dinner--I don't remember what we talked about, really, but it was good food and my uncle's girlfriend and her sister were there, which I think was good for all of us. Talked to the Lexington posse despite bad reception. Had lunch Friday at Haddayr's, where Arie and Éiden demonstrated a new game called "Fall down!" which was just about what you would expect, and Haddayr was patient while Jan and I talked comics. Rode the light rail for the first time, down to the fancy new Minneapolis library where I was able to hang with Haddayr, Alan, Kristin, and Lena. Saw "For Your Consideration" (dark, but good) and the "Baseball as America" exhibit at the History Center with my folks. Talked a lot about the book and all the stuff happening with that until I started to feel very boring, but what the hell; I'll never have another first novel, and I'm going to stay excited about it. Ate well, as did the dogs, who scored a tupperware container of leftover lefse while everyone was gone on Saturday afternoon. Movies (re-)watched on decadent expanded basic cable: "Love, Actually" and "Bring It On." I make no apologies.

I ended up taking yesterday off, and last night finished up Chapter Twelve, which is crappy. I know it's crappy, but it's just going to have to be crappy for the time being. Before it can get better I'll need to a) visit some actual salt mines (hopefully during my European visit with Mr. Moles) and b) figure out exactly what I'm foreshadowing. If there's one thing I've figured out about writing, at least the way that I do it, it's that sometimes I just need to get something on the page. It doesn't have to be perfect; in fact it never will be. But it can be made better later, once I've figured out what the hell I'm doing. (This is what I tell myself.)

Things to see: Sex Advice from a D&D Player. A DISTURBING promo for the Philips Bodygroom. Eddie Campbell has a blog! (Via Comics Worth Reading.) Rupert Gee bothers people; a classic Letterman bit. (Dude. Last night Kate Winslet and Tom Waits were on Dave. Greatest talk show lineup EVER. Best lines, unattributed: "Cameron Diaz can eat me under the table." "They basically have a choice between throwing up or getting hit by a car.") And finally, for feminists of all genders: a big heaping helping of What. The. Fuck. Roger Miller is scratching his head in his grave, still.

1. As promised, the cover to the Jane Austen omnibus that I'm reading. Created for the Prissy Aunt Book Club.

2. The Twins in the playoffs. Wow, that didn't take long, did it? Ouch. I think, if it hadn't been for the epic struggle of the season, with the Bang of the first-place payoff coming right at the end, the sweep might not have been such a stunner. It doesn't take a thing away from the season they had, though. And let's not lose sight of what's really important; the fucking Yankees have been eliminated. Go Detroit!

Am home feeling icky today, but luckily there is baseball on. This will either cheer me up or send me spiralling into a deep depression. Will keep y'all updated.

Speaking of things that are on, I humbly request that EVERYONE watch "Veronica Mars" tonight. You'll like her. She solves crimes! While making many witty remarks. She's a kid (now a college kid) and all the kids she knows are a little messed up. So is V., when you get right down to it, but she hides it better. And if you are thinking DAVE I HAVEN'T SEEN THE FIRST TWO SEASONS OF THIS SHOW AND I DON'T WANT TO BE OVERWHELMED WITH CONTINUITY, then I am here to tell you that I have seen the first episode once already and Rob Thomas is being very gentle with you new viewers. He's not going to hand out a book-length previously and tell you to study it quick before the opening credits are over. NO PREVIOUSLIES, in fact. You'll pick up the stuff you need to know. So please, please, watch, and tell your friends and parents and pets to watch.

Ugh. My head is hurting and the A's are ahead. This bodes ill.