I made a decision some time ago to limit my exposure to mass media news, because most of it seems inclined to terrify or depress me.

The cover story of Sports Illustrated this month (I got to it via John Scalzi's blog) is about the rehabilitation of the dogs that were used in Michael Vick's dog fighting ring (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/12/22/vick.dogs/index.html). Some of it is sad and poignant, but when you consider that many people have invested a huge effort to lavish love and care upon those maltreated dogs you realise that there exists a whole world of positive, kind people. In this case the press did a good thing to highlight their deeds.

I made a decision some time ago to limit my exposure to mass media news, because most of it seems inclined to terrify or depress me.

More and more I've been doing the same, not to mention removing livejournals from my default view that seem intent on dwelling on the same. I realize that ignorance of what's going on in the world does not lead to changing the world, but on the other hand neither does going into lengthy depressions, so.

One of my Christmas presents was a book of paper airplane designs. I've made four of them this morning and they are ACE! Rowan and I are off to the park later to try them out in the great outdoors.

Despite the terrible economy, which is particularly bad in my state (we have the highest unemployment rate in the country), my significant other starts a new job on the 5th after 3 months of being unemployed and not getting unemployment because his former employer lied and screwed us over (which we're fighting, just waiting on a date with the unemployment agency).

Yay, we know we can pay rent and eat in the coming months. I was starting to wonder. :) Plus my parents found a car to buy from a coworker and resell to me since ours broke down a few weeks after the job loss. For the first time in some time, things are looking up in my house.

Four and a half day weekend. Sorry, not news but the best thing in my life at the mo'. A stable *fingers crossed* job that gives me paid holidays seems pretty darn good news to me.

Ummm. After a fire at a nearby cat-rescue facility (which burned to the ground), last I heard all the kitties are finidng homes. This after one of those people who end up with 85 cats died and her kitties all had to be found homes. And were!

Otherwise our news is dismal as well.

I just reached several awesome milestones in WoW. My mom embroidered towels for me for Christmas (and I didn't know she could embroider). The house my fiancee and I bought a month and a half ago is just right for us and is nice and cozy and fabulous.

Sorry, I don't have a very exciting life. :)

Our lost kitty was found!

The snow is melting! (Just in time for serious rain storms that are expected to cause some flooding issues, but hey, we take what we can get ...)

Both of my kids slept until 9am, and they both woke up in lovely moods and are watching Tom and Jerry and laughing. It's a good morning. :)

My boyfriend is here, he drew us a design for (and made) matching t-shirts for Christmas, my friend Chris is recovering well from his kidney transplant, my friends Lance and Carla are on the mend finally from being caught in the CA Tea Fire, and on Christmas Eve my nephew informed me that he had just done his last combat mission in Iraq. He's on his way home. :)

My stollen came out well--good crumb and baked all the way through.

I got the restraining order against a nogoodnik which lasts for 3 years.

I am on the way to keeping my sister's affairs in order--she had a major stroke on 1 September.

We took the kids to Disney's Wild Animal Kingdom and everybody had a great time! It was not too crowded, and we only had one really long line all day. The weather was perfect, warm but not too hot, so we didn't need any jackets or raincoats and we got to leave them in the car instead of carrying them all day. We saw were able to see three great shows. Two of them were somewhat serendipitous - we happened to walk by the entrance shortly before they were starting, so we just walked in. Timing was great for a lot of things. And when we went to buy souvenir t-shirts for the kids, we found out that t-shirts were 40% off. :)

Something good...something good. Oh, I've got two things.

1) I finished the rough draft of my first adult novel.

2) I've been cancer-free for more than a year.

I got a red Swingline stapler for Christmas. I cannot begin to describe the joy this gives me. :D

I got an amazon gift certificate that was almost exactly enough to buy all three of the Heart/House/Hands books (and the last 51 cents was covered by my remaining amazon balance leftover from doing mechanical turk tasks back in the day).

So good news for both of us :>

Today, it's going to be a clear day here in San Diego. I have a cup of Vietnamese Coffee and the dogs area all slumbering around the living room. O'ahu has power again so I know my mom is happy. She likes to watch cooking shows as she putters about the house.

Tam is stretched out on the back of the couch. He's delighted with the winter days because it means the sunbeams are coming in through the back and he can watch the hummingbirds as he lazes about.

I am debating going to Golden City for lunch. We have to head up to feed a friend's cats... lovely creatures... so that might be a good stopping point. Either that or Tofu House which is really a place I'd wanted to take you to. Tofu isn't the main menu. For some reason, they just have that as their name. They make the best Kal-Bi.

How are you doing? What's your plans for today?

M'friend moshui got a starred review in PW for his forthcoming novel Dragon in Chains!

And I invented birdpig pie...

My boss realized the phone hadn't rung in about a hour yesterday and sent me home at 3:00.

I slept for eight hours last night.

I picked up a copy of _Take_A_Chance_ at Lee's yesterday, and read it today. That counts, right?

I have tons of great news.

I'm now represented by the awesome Cameron McClure at the Donald Maass Literary Agency.

And, I've gotten a three book deal with Tor.

Oh my God, that's *fantastic*! Congratulations!

WOW. That is awesome! Congrats!!!

I have shiny yarns, a totally adorable daughter, a terrific husband, and I'm wrapped in a gorgeous lace shawl I made all by myselfs!

I wish I had thought to bring my camera when going for a drive today -- I was all mopey due to no snow during christmas, but as it turns out the trees were all so covered with snow and ice-needles that the forest all looked like a winter wonderland after all. *so* pretty! And then there was this really bright yellow hot-air balloon that came in for a landing in a frost-covered field right as we were driving past. SFX don't come any better :)

I was able to spend the holidays with the girlfriend and her family as well as to surprise her with an engagement ring. We still have no idea on when an actual wedding will take place as first priority is to keep working on trying to find a job out here in Iowa so that we can keep the kidlets near their grandparents...So in the meantime I've distracted her by getting her hooked on the Walker Papers and her own copy of the Negotiator Trilogy & TQB...Yay!

I'm happily ensconced in my dad's cabin at Denali, with a gorgeous tree, a warm fire in the wood stove, the sun peaking (barely but present) over the mountain tops, and keeping company with my favorite person in the world (my dad).