Well, "Frontier House" is over. The experts decided that the young newlywed couple would have been prepared for winter. The others, not so much. Those two did have the benefit of youth. That really came through. When you spend your whole summer haying and digging post holes, it helps not to be pushing 60.

One other family failed because they worked real hard, but on the wrong things. I was shocked when I saw how little they had in terms of firewood. Pretty obvious they had no real concept of what it takes to keep a fire going day in, day out for six months.

The other family... well, the experts said they would have had enough supplies to make it through the winter - assuming they didn't kill each other in the confined space. Their relationships were falling apart. From the way the father of the family talked, if he'd really been on a homestead in Montana, I think he would have gone mountain man. He loved his daughter, so he would have showed up on their doorstep every four months or so with a fresh kill, but after he got them set up with a house and a fence he would have gone off into the wilds exploring and being a mountain man. As it is, his wife and he are separated and they're trying to figure out what to do about their marriage.

In other news, have I mentioned that Ella Fitzgerald has the perfect voice? She is the epitome of female vocal perfection. Any song she sung was gold. Must buy more.

Books: My writing partner scared me this evening. He said something that sounded to me like it undermined the entire concept of what we're working on. After the first draft of the novel is complete - it's too late for major paradigm shifts. Small ones, I can handle. Universe shifting... that scares me. Turns out I was just tired and hungry. He wasn't really saying what I thought he was saying. I think. We're on the same page now, anyway.