Not going to post about the debates, sorry. I trust you all to use your own best judgement about politics. And one thing I know for sure - whoever wins, we'll get the government we deserve.

Also, a much bigger deal is how the Cubs - again - managed to fall apart just when they needed to shine. Heartbreakers.

Books: Another dream makes it into my notebook. This one was less wacky and more scary, so I'm not going to share it here - you'll just have to buy the book. I think it's going into a comic script. Speaking of comics - I'm impressed with Ultimate FF. Way to take a cheesy title and make it fun and funny.

Thanks to Sarah for taking me out of the doghouse on her site and thanks to Ariel for putting in a good word for me. What was that you said about having publishing connections? I'm freelancing now, you know...

Books: Yeah yeah, the chapter.... Actually, these last couple of weeks I've made exercise my top priority. The theory is that if I can stop being an invalid I'll have more energy and time for things like writing books. The only way to disprove the theory is to give it a try.

Yummy new starwars game for my PS2 - after killing rebels for a few hours I think I'll sleep better than I have in days. As it turns out, being a storm trooper has its perks, but camouflage isn't one of them. Fortunately, death is only but so bad in that game.

I won some, I lost some. Mostly I was just figuring out what all the buttons do.

Of course, the real entertainment was when I went in to the game store to get what I needed for my console to be happy with the new game - I ticked off the list of gadgets to the overly-helpful geek who came rushing out to be of assistance, and he said, "I assume you need all this stuff for Final Fantasy?"

Um... no. The look on his face was pretty funny when I told him it was for a twitch shooter game.

My next stop was at the comics store - I try to fit all the uncomfortable shopping into one day. Fortunately I didn't have to have much of a conversation with the comicstoreguy because he was already helping another customer - whose hip girlfriend was sitting in a chair sulking furiously, glaring at the door, hoping no one would come in who could recognize her.

Anyway, I went and pawed through their paltry selection, picked out a few (Ultimate Fantastic Four is actually pretty good, it surprised me) I was interested in (Fables!) and paid for my loot. At which point the gentleman made an effort to show that he remembered me from my previous visits to the store and that it had been a while since I was in.

Who needs adoring fans when you have geek cashiers?

Books: The goal is to finish out the chapter today. Wish me luck. My writing club readers tell me I have to explain death in 500 words or less.

So I had this dream last night. Someone had entrusted me with their prized pet rodent - a mouse, a gerbil, I don't really remember. Partly because I didn't see a lot of it during the dream because it soon escaped and was somewhere in my house, giving me brief glimpses as I rushed to try to catch it.

The situation was beginning to be desperate as the china dolls sent ambassadors to the king, expressing their grave concern that such a dangerous fugitive was still on the loose. The king was putting more and more pressure on me to catch him. At last I succeeded, but it was even more difficult to keep him in a box or cage. Especially with the china dolls looking over my shoulder in disaproval.

Have I mentioned I'm a little nuts? Anyway, I woke up - came to the conclusion that it was all a dream because china dolls don't usually have that much attitude - and stumbled to the kitchen to get some breakfast.

There I found one of my mousetraps had caught another victim. In fact, I think it's one I've caught before. He must have a terrible addiction to peanutbutter. Now, I'm sure you're wondering how I could catch this mouse multiple times. Well, this little guy is not only an addict, he's really really fast. Somewhere along the line he's lost his tail (I don't think that was my fault), I'm sure it's because he was quick enough that's all the predator was able to get a hold on. I know he's fast because he's able to eat all the peanutbutter off the spring on the trap and get his head almost all the way out before it snaps shut. What's supposed to come down and snap his neck cleanly and humanely, ends up catching him by the nose. Not so humane.

Since I hate killing things, the last time I found him like that I scooped him up in a bucket and took him outside and let him go. I couldn't kill him with my own hands. Of course, my father said that was a mistake because this mouse would just find whatever hole he came in the first time and would be right back inside. Apparently my father was right.

Poor little mouse. Too bad I still didn't have the nerve for a mercy killiing this time. Once again I just took him outside and let him go. He'll probably be back, but I sure hope the next time his extensive injuries have made him a little slower.

Books: Now you know where some of my ideas for stories come from.

I slacked off on the blogging these last three weeks for the following four reasons:

1) The one person who links to me still has me listed as "On Hiatus" so what's the point of putting up anything new?

2) I went on a couple of trips and wanted to provide pictures to go with the stories but I haven't gotten around to doing those yet. One procrastination after another.

3) My health backtracked a little. My acupuncturist tells me that my shen is unbalanced. I'll get back to you when I know what that means. (Aparently it has something to do with my kidney energy...)

4) I've been fighting a war of atrition with some fieldmice who are moving in out of the cold into my kitchen. So far I've trapped seven. I hate killing things. I really really really do. Even mice and insects. If I could just explain to them that this is my house and they can't live here and eat my food and couldn't they please go back out to the field and build themselves a nest like their ancestors did... well, then we'd all be happy, wouldn't we?

Books: Went to my writing group last night. It's quite a diverse set of material. There was one historical romance novel, one children's story about camping, and one article about alcahol addiction in teens. Then there was my contribution of the first chapter of a sci-fi novel. I'm getting... shall we say... the reaction from a broad audience.

Where has the week gone? I can't believe this is Thursday evening. I'm not ready - I have this whole list of things to do before Saturday morning and if tomorrow goes like the rest of the week, that's like, in five minutes.

Of course, you know you're a serious gamer when one of the things on your todo list is "pay for house" and you mean a virtual one on a fictional planet.

Books: Nothing to see here, move along.

I have a charming new neighbor. He's young and athletic and really adorable. He was out chewing on my unmowed lawn the other evening, so I grabbed my camera. They're not the greatest pictures, but at least I'll have something to remember him by when he grows out of the adorable stage.

For his sitting fee I left the dregs of my popcorn out for him.

You can see the pictures here on my pictures page.

Books: All my writing time recently has been taken up with this article. Today I was talking to a guy who said he's sure that in the not-too-distant future they'll be able to do CT scans without making the patient hold their breath. That may not sound like a big deal unless you've had a CT scan or two. Just five years ago, that would have been science fiction.