Marilee J. Layman

06:03 pm: Asimov's July 2012

Williams brings up The Secret Sharer and implies that she'd like to make an anthology of those, and Silverberg talks about the future.

I like:

1. "Alive and Well, A Long Way From Anywhere" by Allen M. Steele - this is a novelette set in his Near Space area where the rich famous disappeared person hires someone to be his voice.

2. "Kill Switch" by Benjamin Crowell - far in the future, where babies are modded, two early mod folks want to have one that's better than they were, but it's really expensive to mod for music because it uses so much of your brain.

3. "Long Night on Redrock" by Felicity Shoulders - the galaxy is at war and the children of a post-military couple are being abducted to please mean offworlders. The family lives on a planet where there is an area that gives dreams and nightmares and as the abductor with the children, followed by the parents, head across Area 103, there's a lot of information about the mother's history. I really liked the setup and about the first half of the story, but the rest is way too long. I think we could have found out what happened to the mother in war without making it run on like that.

The cover, by Tomislav Tikulin, is for this story. Pretty much nothing is actually a picture of what happens, but it all relates to the story. Something that caught my eye was that behind the family were soldiers who were all the same soldier, just re-sized and/or flipped. I wonder if he did that thinking it was part of the story, or just because it was easy.

Something that has happened recently is that Erwin S. Strauss no longer has the convention list far enough in the future. My issue arrived 10 days after the beginning of his list. He always puts more/new events in the closest month, and if I'd wanted to go to about seven cons in the list, I wouldn't have had time.

Tags: books

05:38 pm: Asimov's June 2012

Williams talked about whether we can actually write beings that seem alien, Silverberg brings up rereading PKD, and Kelly gives us the news on the Encyclopedic.

I liked these:

1. "Waiting at the Altar" by Jack McDevitt - this is a Hutchins prequel and she learns surprising things.

2. "The Flowering Ape" by Alan DeNiro - a far future where different young people are still hazed.

3. "The Widdershins Clock" by Kali Wallace - the protagonist's grandmother disappears and leaves her a very strange clock.

4. "Free Range" by Bruce McAllister - you'd never guess the things large black telepathic chickens can do.

I also really liked Jane Yolen's poem, "Objectifying Faerie."

Tags: book

02:08 am: Asimov's April/May 2012

I want to get the issues to bookgroup on Saturday, so I'm going to try to get all three in by tomorrow night.

This is a double issue with an unusual cover (by J.K. Potter) to go with The Last Judgment by James Patrick Kelly, I had to keep looking back and forth. It was a really good novella in a future Earth where aliens have killed all the men (too dangerous) and arrange babies the way they want. Some of the aliens disagree.

Williams' article is about SF on tech. Not her idea, but a lot of people emailed and said they liked it.

The other really good story was by Carol Emshwiller -- Riding Red Ted and Breathing Fire -- where somewhere else, spiffy soldiers are flying really dangerous fairy/horse-like beings. Our protagonist is going to pick something up, but things don't quite turn out the anticipated way.

01:48 am: Very Strange Extended Weekend

I had an appointment Friday with the rheumatologist and she gave me a shot of cortisol in my left shoulder because I could barely move that arm. She told me not to lift anything heavy for three days (which is why I didn't go get groceries today), but I started having problems moving it at 2.5 days. She noticed I'd had trouble finding words twice and I told her I was just getting stupid, and she said, no, I had fibromyalgia. I'd had that diagnosed at least a decade ago, but I didn't believe it. My friends who had it were very fuzzy. Hmmmm. Stupid vs. Fuzzy. I suppose she's right. I do hurt in all the right places.

When I stopped to get mail on the way in after the appointment, I opened my little box and there was a kevlar envelope that held meds (all the envelopes are the same), but when I pulled it out, I could hear the pills bouncing in the envelope instead of in the bottles (two for one order). I opened part of the top of the envelope when I got home and both of the push-and-turn tops were in little bits. I put tape over where I cut it and put it on the foyer table.

Saturday and Sunday were all too much sleeping -- for any 12 hours, I'd be awake two. I managed to stay awake Sunday night until I might as well take the envelope to the local pharmacy, which I did, and she couldn't figure out what happened, either. She did give me a new set, plus she called the mail-order pharmacy so they knew what happened. I'd never thought of the mail-order pharmacy doing the mailing -- I thought it was another section out there in Reston.

I stopped for breakfast at Bob Evans and then came home, managing to stay up until 1pm. I went right to sleep except some time after that, I got a very odd phone call. It said Unknown, and I don't usually answer those, but I did and somebody who said he was Robert Evans, Bob Evans, said he needed to talk to me soon. Then he asked if he woke me up and that he knew my meds made me sleep. He asked me to call him back, I told him I didn't have his phone number, and he told me 821-446-2282. I did a brief search for that when I got online, but didn't find anything. I suppose he wanted me to know I told too much stuff online.

I went back to sleep and woke up at 7pm with both cats tucked in to me. It's kind of strange, but Junie always feels smaller when I don't see her. I'm up to 14 newspapers now, and am working hard on those, plus I have 32 shows/movies on the DVR. It's time to pay some bills, so I'll do that next.

Tags: 14 newpapers, breakfast, broken med bottle tops, cat news, cortisol shot, fibromyalgia, pay bills, rheumatology, sleep, weird phone call

07:15 pm: Yikes! Longer!

I'm even not on every third day right now. I think all my hands hurt, but I see the rheumatologist next Friday. I have little posts to write about the books & magazines I've read, too.

The dog upstairs is being very noisy and I may have to talk to Animal Control.

I have Peapod delivering groceries and such in the next couple of hours and tomorrow, the new recliner is coming. The store backs up to Route 28 and I'm about two blocks from it, just about 40 miles south. I have actually gotten the cat fur out of the living room, kitchen, foyer, and hallway. I'd planned to get the dining room before the recliner came, but I can't do it.

Loki has really started playing with balls and now Junie is mad. She'll reach out to smack him if he gets too close, and Junie has been leaving the bed after I go to sleep.

I think I'll have to mark a calendar to make sure I'm back more often.

Tags: cats, new recliner, online timing, pain, peapod, writing

01:33 am: Haven't Even Been Online Every Day

I don't think it has to do with the falling, but I'm having a lot of trouble walking, not to mention pain in all my joints. The thumbs hurt so much I can't even use them to pick up the paper. I've been getting things together so I can go to bookgroup tomorrow and I hope to post.

Tags: pain, thumbs can't work

02:26 am: Longer than I Thought

I should really count days, but I've only been online every other day most of the time now. I'm down to 11 papers (from 30) and I'm skimming the inside as well as reading the fronts now, so I hope to be back in order in a week or so.

I was on my way to the grocery today and all of a sudden, there was a burning smell. I noticed that there was a little smoke coming out of the fan switch (I had it at 2 of 3), so I turned that off and moved the Normal A/C to Vent. I turned around and headed almost home. I went into the shop and explained what happened and one of the guys had a good idea what it was. He'd been just finishing some ice cream, so he brought me home and took the van back before he got back to work. They'll let me know tomorrow (Wednesday), but I now have a lot of things shoved toward the end of the week, and I have to move a gyn appointment.

A Quinnipiac poll (too few people, I think) that was checking out Virginian approval ratings, found that almost all the approval of the horrible conservative laws have dropped dramatically. At least that's's good!

Tags: 11 papers, van at shop, van burning somewhere, virginians don't like conservative laws.

02:20 am: Ack! Computer Crash! And Me Crash, too.

Earlier this week, the computer wouldn't stop. I looked all over for something that might work, other than unplugging, and when I didn't find anything else, unplugged. It didn't want to start; it put a cursor up left, but nothing reasonable worked there. Finally Thursday I managed to get the Restore to come up before the cursor and spent most of last night working on that. LJ wasn't working -- I could get to a specific post, but everywhere else gave me 404. I figured I'd work on that today. So I booted up the computer, got a nasty comment and after I killed it, I carefully clicked on the Next button and it worked! So did other buttons! I don't know if there was an LJ problem or coming back up made it work again, but I'm glad for that.

This morning, I fell coming out of the shower. Did I grab the safety bar when I started to slip? Nooooo, I put my weight on the towel bar. It broke and I fell with my butt in the shower and my feet outside. It took me a bit to get my butt over the edge (I finally remembered that pushing on the seat would work better than the wet shower floor), but then I managed to slide towels to get to the bed. I got up on both knees, put my left foot up and pushed so my right knee got up on the bed. I pulled and pulled and pulled and got all of me up dangerously close to that side, and had my left hand under me. I carefully pulled it out and then moved so I was laying across the bed, just like I do to dry off. I lay there for a while, getting my breath back, then got more towels and got things put back, except the towel bar. I've broken that before and I know where to get it and how to put it back up. This is a good bit my fault -- I've left the bathroom rug off the floor until I get to the point where the cleaner comes, and clearly I'm going to have to put it back down tonight. By the time I got up from the nap, I found most of the bruises and painful joints on the right, plus most fingers. I don't think I need to see a doctor.

Then I took the trash and recycling out, got money from the ATM, carted a large package into the post office with stuff to send to Minicon, and decided to have dinner at Lin's China Bistro. I brought more than half home. I took the middle pain med -- real pain med, but not narcotic -- and went to bed for four hours and then ate the rest of the dinner. I took that pain med again at midnight because I can let it and the narcotics cross at small amounts.

I'm doing well at just reading the comics and a couple other things in each day's paper. I started at 30 papers and am now down to 22. I plan to get to 14 and start reading them completely, and see if the pile starts growing again.

We had a little girl who kept leaving her bike on the sidewalk and wasn't there when I was until a week or so ago -- I told her how I can't walk on grass or step down the curb and she apologized. I've seen her on her bike in the parking lot every other day or so and she waves and I wave back.

The next big thing I need to do is gather boxes and take most to the city's cardboard recycling tank, and find room for the rest in the workroom. That will give more room in the living room so I can clean there and the kitchen and down to the guest bath and call the plumbers. The tub in that bath is clogged -- I have a spiral drain thingie, but I can't get the plug out of the tub. The kitchen faucet is dripping -- probably needs a new gasket, since the faucet is 21 years old -- and I don't pay for water, but I'd still rather not have it dripping.

Tags: bike on sidewalk, computer crash, decreasing paper pile, dinner, errands, me crash, more big things to do., pain med, sleep

06:51 pm: Lots of Things

I worked things out with the Amazon teller and they sent me refunds for the books I didn't exactly order and that definitely weren't in my library. I didn't spend the money from the inside of the credit union because I got sick, probably norovirus, and didn't go out until Wednesday the 7th. When I was about three blocks from Kaiser, the water gauge started looking dangerous. I went and had labs, but then headed home and dropped the van off at the shop. They found a radiator that would work on the 1987 Astro and that they could get before I needed to leave on Friday. I picked it up, did some errands, and then saw the nephrologist. We pretty much went with "stable" again. On the way home, I went to the ATM and it said I had the wrong PIN again. I knew I didn't because I'd written it down and tucked it in the van. The inside of the credit union was already closed and I was really tired so I stayed home the weekend and called Customer Service again (first time was 15 minutes, this time 26 minutes) and after I was passed to a super assistant, she knew the answer and fixed it. When the guy moved the data from the old card to the new one, he didn't move the PIN, too. I went out to get money for some errands and it finally worked! This would never have happened with the original credit union. It would have been nice if they had a better credit union buy them.

My area is in the BK Delivers area and although the minimum is $10 plus $2 for delivery, I thought I'd see how it was. They said delivery would take 40-45 minutes, but it was an hour. I had about half hot things and half cold things, and they carried them in the same pizza-type bag. So the hamburger & mozzarella strips were cool and the apple slices and Hershey's pie were warm. I think that's the end of the experiment.

I had to cut more mats on Loki, but he's been pretty good about it. Junie dropped a ball into their water bowl so I squeezed it into the sink and put it behind the microwave to dry. Then I got them more water.

The Tidal Basin cherry trees are expected to start blooming on Sunday, which is sooner than usual, but that's probably because of our non-winter winter. If summer becomes a very strong summer, I'll have to stay in more than usual.

I'm now 24 newspapers behind and it's not because I don't want to read, it's because I have to sleep a lot. I'm already just skimming almost all of them, but I'm not catching up. I've decided that if I get to 30 newspapers, I'll read the comics and keep only two weeks worth of the full newspapers.

My upstairs neighbor got a giant rottweiler, weighing more than she does, and she isn't treating it as a pet, she's treating it as a guard. I told her twice that she should do crate training, and when she didn't, I asked our management guy to send a letter. She still hasn't done crate training, but the dog is much quieter. I'm a little worried it will hurt her.

I'll try to post sooner next time.

Tags: amazon books, amazon library, behind on newspapers, bk delivers, cats, cherries blooming, credit union, nephrologist, upstairs neighbor's rottweiler

05:18 am: "How to Keep Bribed Voters Honest"

This is a letter to the editor in the WashPost. Read it all the way through and you'll be laughing by the end.

Tags: bribed voters laugh