Okay, that was just an inexcusable lack of posting.
I hardly know where to start, so this is going to be a real hodgepodge of information.
I got married! You can check out pictures over here. They aren’t sorted yet or anything of that nature, and they don’t include the professionally done ones either, but there are still some really wonderful ones, uploaded directly to flickr by whoever brought a camera to the party.
The Wedding was, essentially, perfect. I teared up as she came up the aisle, and we basically had a fantastic day. Great friends, great food, great music, great dancing, and just an all around fantastic day.
Kaylee was so solemn and serious and proud as she walked down the aisle with her little ball of flowers while everyone watched. I wonder if she’ll remember it when she’s older. I remember a few high-emotion things from when I was two or three — I hope she does. She was pretty wiped out by the time the wedding came around (thanks to late rehearsal dinners and a long day sight-seeing with my family in the city), but she was great.
I got to get my family out to New York and show them the city I’ve come to love as a second home. That was really special. Seeing Virg and T was most excellent as well — I just don’t see people enough.
I met my agent for lunch and we talked about geeky tech stuff, the Kindle I’d secretly ordered for Kate, and plans for Hidden Things. (Currently out for consideration with about a half-dozen publishers whose names liberally coat my bookshelves at home.)
I asked her if, knowing a potential publisher would (probably) have a whole new set of revisions for me, it would make any sense to sort of hold off getting into another writing project, since it would only be interrupted.
Her answer: “Write. Always go forward and write the next thing. Don’t kill your momentum.” Advice that rings with the easy-quotability of truthiness. I took it to heart.
New tiny-writing project here, inspired by the Othar Tryggvassen twitter. More I will not divulge, but it should be fun for both reader(s) and writer alike.
Is this thing on? Seriously, are the comments working? What options among all those comment options aren’t? The old site’s comment traffic didn’t always vibrate the walls with kinetic energy (note to self: secure the water main in the house before it shakes the drywall loose), but what was once a grade-school water fountain has dwindled to a drip that wouldn’t keep a hamster alive. I’m a narcissist, people: validate me.
I’m still trying to figure out how I want to set up and use this site. I’m half-tempted to just put all my game-related material here as well, but once I do that, then there’s all the requisite links I’d need to provide over to random-average.com, and that breaks the kind of zen simplicity I’m aiming for here.
Oh, right: new job. All of you wishing me well on the job hunt, thanks very much. While I was flying out to New York to get married, I got a call and a job offer. I’m the new training coordinator (read: manager) for a big-and-still-growing company in Denver who really believes in good training for their people, but doesn’t quite know how to go about it, except “get someone in here who does know”. There are worse plans.
Their employee retention rate and length of employment is about five times higher than the national average, and I don’t think it’s an accident — I’m pleased to spend my days with these folks.
And… is that it? That’s it for now. Far more frequent posting coming up. First up: toddler vocabulary and how it compares to Shakespeare.
April Fools Day…
When the signal-to-noise ratio on the internet, unbelievably, gets worse.
Dear Internets: If you’re going to fill yourself up with pointless crap, make it funnier.
Truth in advertising
Me: Shall we go to our friends’ home and join in the sacrifice of brightly painted, boiled chicken embryos in celebration of the reanimation of the Christian god-king?
Kate: *dirty look*
Me: What?
Kate: …
Me: Nothing I said was actually wrong.
Kate: I *know*.
A brief aside on usage within the English language.
Specifically, this: there are a few words that should never, under any circumstances, be linked together in a coherent sentence.
“Toddler” and “beauty pageant.”
“Jalapeño” and “chowder.”
“Collectible card game” and “investment.”
“Quick” and “corporate response time.”
… just to name a few off the top of my head.
The local cafeteria has taken this St. Patrick’s Day as an opportunity to teach me another must-not.
“Corned beef” and “panini.”
Ireland and Italy are geographically separated for a reason, people, and at least one of those reasons is culinary in nature.
It was a relatively quiet weekend at Casa Testerman — our date night consisted of some we-time together on Lord of the Rings Online, which is something I didn’t even realize I’d missed (quite alot); Saturday consisted mostly of some game-time over at the Consortium (much delayed, and fun); Sunday was some very satisfying house-cleaning, getting to know a few folks online, and the start of some new fiction exercises for myself.
This week, I’m wrapping up a course-design project that is both production-piece and application for more work. It’s coming together fairly well — I think it’s stronger than anything I’ve done lately, but then again I probably *should* think that. Wedding plans continue to compress into the remaining time available. (Less than a month!)
Recently read: Neil Gaiman’s 1602, Joe Straczynski’s Lost Souls, some more of Alan Moore’s Lost Girls, and some short fiction by Robert Howard. Also, we’ve been watching the first season of Bones; not the best of all television, but by far and away the most entertaining ‘crime scene expertise’ show I’ve watched. I’m nearly vibrating with my desire to unleash MI:5 on Kate, but we’re waiting until the long visit to New York for the wedding is done and we’re all back at home.
The Clock, she is ticking down…
March, which came in as a lion and will probably go out like a frenzied events coordinator, is upon us here at Casa Testerman. To say there’s quite a lot going on leaves a bit too much to the imagination of the reader; I should shoulder some of the burden.
Start with the Democratic Primaries, then add to that a few little wrinkles. Perhaps the two main candidates are getting married. Bill is out of town for two weeks and won’t be available to help with any scheduling. One candidate is starting up a new business, and the other is lining up a job in case the whole election thing falls through. Oh, and it’s time to start looking at preschools. And there’s a book revision going on (again), and two editing jobs.
There’s quite a lot going on.
Yesterday was our second anniversary, which is both amazing and kind of sad. Amazing for all the obvious reasons; sad because it will be the last time we really celebrate it as our ‘main’ anniversary; we’ll be (happily) replacing that date with our wedding, which is all to the good, but I can’t help but feel as though I’m abandoning a good friend who helped me through a rough time.
The gifts for our flower girl and ring bearers arrived yesterday, and are great. I’m a bit more tickled by the groomsmen gifts, but they aren’t here yet — as far as gift-giving goes, I’ll have to settle for finally getting Dave his birthday gift only two months late, as a kind of babysitting thank-you, I suppose. Part of the gift is FROM OUTER SPACE, which makes me happy.
Current Sexual Teachings of Religious Groups
- With the exception of masturbation, each of the elements were condemned by at least one faith group.
- With two exceptions (teen and extra-marital sex) each of the factors were “morally acceptable in most cases” by at least one faith group.
- The only factor over which most faith groups agreed was their near universal condemnation of extra-marital sex.
- With such massive differences of opinion, conflicts between faith groups over sexual matters will probably continue long into the future.
Overall? I feel like I should visit a buddhist temple some time.
A review of Star Wars
… from a three year old.
I’m quite excited to ‘try out Star Wars with Kaylee, now.
Friday fanboy… a day early
Thank you, De. Frou Frou, plus Firefly is truly a delicious taste treat.