secret weekend day

That's what it feels like when there's a three day weekend. The Saturday becomes an invisible, secret day that you don't have to pay for. You still get a whole two day weekend after it's over.

So, today we had a nice secret day. Following a very nice sushi dinner featuring pleasant company and pleasant conversation.

George had a vet appointment this morning and behaved with his usual sweetness, despite not liking the whole business. As always, it cost way more than expected. Nothing major (thanks be), but he has to go in for a dental procedure that will cost another chunk of change in a couple of weeks, assuming (as I am) that his blood work-up comes back just fine. Tomorrow he goes to get sparkly clean, which is a desperately needed thing because he has fleas from his weeks on the farm where the fleas live and a smell that does not match his pleasant disposition. The bath will be much appreciated by those who share George's humble home.

And then we did mountains of laundry and grocery shopped and came home and cleaned house and I took a nap while Christopher diligently caught up on his email. We had the Thai Jungle Yummilicious Curry Noodle Dish with Heat and Sweetness for dinner. Yummalumma-yum.

I finished "Fitcher's Brides by Greg Frost, which is a wonderful, engrossing read. So, read it already. It's spooky and brave and remarkable in many lovely ways. The prose is nicely turned and tuned and it's a very tightly structured and plotted book. The care of the writer really shines through in the final product. Plus, Bluebeard retellings that get it rock. (I will say that certain elements in the book will be richer if you read Terri's introduction, but you weren't going to skip that anyway: right?)

I think I'm going to try and read all the novel candidates for the World Fantasy Award this year. "Facts of Life" by Graham Joyce is next up.

In unrelated news, but wonderful nontheless, Small Beer Press has announced their fall chapbooks, one of which is by the inimitable and brilliant and damn fine culin-artist Christopher Rowe. It will be full of wonderful stories, of course, and will debut at World Fantasy (along with the new issue of Say... -- TOC to be announced right soon).

And that is that. Tomorrow is not a secret day, but I feel it'll be a good one. And I might actually begin to catch up on that email I owe you, and you and you. Night.