Re: weekend.

Fair amount happened over the holiday:


Monday:

Labor Day. Spouse had to work. I woke and ate at Islands restaurant. Learned from my server why the TV show, OC, is filmed in Hermosa Beach: the unions stipulate that the producers must pay for everyone's hotel stay if the show's filmed on locations beyond 30 miles of L.A. Yow!

Bought new ink for my color printer. Found a neat device to charge (and, eventually, sync) my PDA with my laptop. Spent the rest of the day at the coffeeshop. Did foodshop for the week. After partner wrapped a package, we had dinner at Johnny Rebs.


Sunday:

Worked out at 0815. Good, hard class. Ate at Cheesecake Factory. Checked out hobby store for any interesting new supplements but nothing. Spent rest of day at coffeeshop. Spouse home a little earlier. Dinner at Japanese restaurant.

Saturday:

Drove down to San Diego to attend J.V. Jones booksigning at Mysterious Galaxy bookstore.

Real interesting woman. She and I chatted considerably before her signing. She planned to drive up to San Fran that evening to visit a friend. I reacted in horror, of course: the drive's over ten hours from San Diego and it's a holiday weekend.

Ms Jones ("J.V." stands for Julie Victoria) started her signing by discussing the cover art on the American edition of her latest book. She mentioned why there was a lag between the first and second book of her series (which will be five books total.) She told the story of how she learned to shoot a bow (with interesting reactions from one of the world's best archers.) She discussed the Brit's reaction to her accent and her origins from Liverpool.

She read a section from her latest book (including imitating the "crouchy old man" voice.) She fielded question on cultural anthropology, her writing habits, and "hurting" characters. When finished, she signed books, forgetting to sign one of mine! :)

I bought a couple of new supplements from the hobby store nearby and over a hundred dollars

worth of new stuff from Mysterious (including a pen that lights up.)

Drove to my sister's place. Parents and aunt were sleeping (and, thankfully, the dogs as well.) Jan baked some nice cakes and complained about my feet. Parents and aunt woke up and we chatted until Jocie arrived. Drove out to a Thai restaurant. I found the food quite Americanized. We then drove out to visit Heather at her new place. Over 4200 square feet! Yow! She's currently living with her beau and her brother (who, like his sister, is a looker.)

Drove home that night arriving around midnight. Spouse there from on-call rotation.