Peaches!

I just picked the last ones this morning; we had a bumper crop this year on our first peach tree (we have three, the other two are not old enough yet I suspect). Due to favorable weather and the finally totally organic yard/garden (it takes a while for the soil to detox after baing chemical for a long time), our Peachy gave us beautiful, bountiful and yummy peaches, enough to share around with the neighbors, even! She is a Loring peach tree, with smallish, but amazingly sweet fruit. Here is how it looked last week at its peak. Isn't she beautiful?

Back and Reunited with Luggage

Well, back in ol'Texas. Flew in Sunday, got in as thunderstorms swept through the metroplex, promptly got stranded on tarmac for a while, got out of airplane, was informed airport locked down again due to lightning, waited for luggage for 40 minutes, airport opened up for about 10 minutes, enough to load SOME of the suitcases, but, of course, mine was NOT ONE OF THEM. Stormed out of airport with tense husband justifiably angry on my stubbornness in not realizing the fact that AA will NOT magically produce my suitcase from a hat and refusing to go and ask WHEN they would do so anyway...my low blood sugar due to lack of nutrition since noon (flight landed around 530) had something to do with my lack of springing to action, (she said sheepishly)...
Said luggage was retrieved by saintly husband after his class yesterday, so my rumpled jackets and creased pants are hanging now in hopes of a better future. The books are out and waiting to be read too. AND looks like we have some session proposals in for next year's conference as well--this stuff is addicting. For two years now I swear this was the last congress for which I 'try to herd cats' ie. organize and chair sessions, but somehow I always end up suckered in.

Now back to ordinary life. In other news, the peach tree is LADEN with peaches! I need to take a picture today, it is really pretty, and they are just about ripe too. Yay!

Mug Shots

Greetings from the little coffee shop of Valley One at Western Michigan University! I am siting here with a cappucino and an Italian cherry soda trying to convince The Husband's spiffy laptop I have on loan to actually type all the characters I tap on the keyboard. The battle is still raging.
The coffee is good, the soda is sweet, the wireless is steady, and the sofa is rather soft. I already made my rounds at the book fair this morning and came away with three books (well, two, actually, as the third is a display copy I need to go back this afternoon and grab it).
I am struggling with a particular scene in my story that was inevitable but nevertheless difficult; I have no problems working on medieval battle scenes, but the combination of modern weapons(the story is set in our time, but the characters are not exactly ordinary...), hand to hand and old weapons can be intimidating to this 140-lbs lady here...:-) I am getting through, though: the good thing about the nature of my heroine is that the fight scenes do not last long.
Churning onward, then...I have a session in the afternoon to attend at 330, after I pick up my book, then dinner and possibly an evening entertainment before starting packing, as I leave tomorrow after our morning roundtable.

Kalamazoo Report This Far

Well, it is Friday evening, I am wireless and alone in the student lounge in Britton Hall--for some reason people seem to think the only place you can get wireless service is the lobby, or else they jut did not realize this lounge exists, every time I come in here it is totally empty...Anyhow, reception is less patchy in the evening than in the morning. Had some good sessions yesterday, some not so good ones today. Already bought books, woe me! I will make another round tomorrow morning, so if anyone has some special requests, leave it in the comments (certain people living in houses net to me come to mind...) :-)
Campus is as usual, very pretty in the spring, and yes there are swans on the pond, and there are ducklings too, in Valley II where they moved the meals this year. Really cure fluffballs, too, running all over the middle courtyard, about a dozen of them (or maybe less, they were just everywhere when I looked).
More later; I will take it easy tomorrow, concentrating on the books and one afternoon session; then the infamous Pseudo-Society lecture Saturday evening. My second session we co-organized with my pal Amy is Sunday morning at 0830. Yippee. Maybe two people will show up. UNtil then, I'll try to enjoy myself.

Michigan

Sitting at Grand Rapids airport, waiting for my ride to arrive on her plane from Boston. We are heading to Kalamazoo, to the yearly medieval conference-pilgrimage, and even though one of my sessions as an organizer totally fell thorugh, I still have a presentation Thursday and a roundtable on Sunday. Between those two, I will probably look at books a lot, sit by the little lake, watch the swans and, courtesy of The Husband's wireless laptop, connect to the 'Net and post and email; and work on my story in a quiet lonely setting. Almost like a retreat, ormini-vacation. Okay, people usually do not take vacations in Kalamazoo, Michigan, especially not stuck on a university campus for four days, but hey, there are worse parts of th universe being stuck at. So, at the moment, I am enjoying free wireless here at gerald Forn Int'l Airport, then, hopefully, there will be some food in my future when my pal Amy arrives.
More later, when I can get the WMU lab folks to set up my wireless access from campus tomorrow morning.

Toe Woes-Part Deux

Well, blimey. My long silence on this blog? It is because, yet again,. the blasted (literally) big toe on my right foot stroke again...rendering me painful and hopping all over the place since last Thursday. This time my doc decided just to get the entire toenail off...if this thing keeps hurting like it does, I call him and ask to just chop the toe off and be done with it. The painkiller he gave me this time (mmmm,drugs) was A-OK through the weekend, then I think I got used to it or something because I had a really bad reaction to it Tuesday s o now I am just taking the usual Ibuprofen which only goes so far.

Argh. And yes, of course it is my driving foot, which, let mne tell you, is SO much fun. Especially since I cannot put a band-aid on this one, it sticks in it, as I found out Saturday (ask me about screaming LOUD). So I have NewSkin covering it, which does the job, but is NOT looking pretty. I cannot wear anyting but open-toed sandals, and some specific ones at that that do not touch the toe at all, and as the foot is swollen, it takes a while to put it on and off, too.

Meh. I am not very entertaining these days. At least we had an adventure evening last night when the thunderstorms blew through and we lost power. I had candles all over the place-it was rather pretty.

SO healing thoughts are very much appreciated. Back when I have something positive to say.