- The holidays are really here! In between all the hubbub and visiting
and preparation I don't feel so bad that I didn't get much done, but
you know me--I'm always irritated at myself for not accomplishing more,
especially when I know I wasted time when I shouldn't have.
- Baby
Ash turned one year old on Saturday! My sister Patricia and her husband
Yusuke had come into town the night before and they were staying with
my mom. So I went over there for his birthday and got to hang out with
them, and sister Lindsay came too. I baked Ash's birthday cake--a banana
cake--and he really seemed to enjoy it. At one point he picked the
whole thing up and tried to nom it! He also got his presents, and
performed a Japanese first-birthday tradition called issho mochi
where he had to crawl with a load of mochi on his back as a sort of
early display of overcoming adversity (and he didn't like it much!), and
he got to choose an item from a lineup of representative objects so the
adults could all speculate about what it might mean for his future
career. He was so cute and I just wanted to eat him up. Also, my mom
made spaghetti and we had a great visit!
- On Sunday I did
laundry, made a video (which was hard because my neighbors were being
SO loud that they kept ruining the video and I'd have to redo it over
and over), decorated my apartment for Solstice, and got on Skype with
Victor, Tia, and Faith so we could open our presents together.
- On
Monday I had to work and it was very busy. I met my family after work
and just hung out at Mom's to eat leftovers. And play with the baby of
course. It was a nice quiet evening.
- On Tuesday it was again a busy day at work. I met my family again
but just for a Sweet Tomatoes dinner, where Ash got to eat ice cream
and pieces of pasta and salad bits. He is sort of saying his first word
(we're not sure if it counts)--he picks up a phone (or other object, or
just a pretend phone) and says "hello" into it. It's so adorable my head
explodes. Oh, and we also did Hanukkah candles at my house--it was the
last night and my sister wanted Ash to see. :)
- Wednesday
was Jeaux Day and Christmas Eve. We decided to just make pizza at my
place so we wouldn't have to worry about finding an open restaurant, and
that we did. We made and ate the pizza, watched the finale of Legend of Korra (!!!!!!), and also watched the musical Bye Bye Birdie. And we exchanged gifts. :) I also finished my So You Write comic and posted it.
- Thursday
was Christmas, of course, and we had a little early dinner at my mom's
with everyone. I brought Jeaux, and my sister Lindsay brought her
husband Mike. We had breakfast for dinner and it was pancakes, toast or
bagels, fruit salad, eggs, and there was also bacon but of course I
didn't have that. I brought hot cider that I had spiced myself and I
also brought a Yule Log Cake that was delicious. My mom even had soy
eggnog! Which was pretty good! The party was really excellent. We
exchanged gifts with each other, ate all the food, and visited for many
hours. Ahh, it was lovely. After the party I went home and read a book.
- I got presents from my mom, my boss, Jay, Jeaux, Heather, Victor and Tia, Mike, my sister, and a mystery person who sent me a book but I don't know who it is because there was no note. (???)
- good book but lacks of scientific completeness:
Francesco on Amazon gave me three stars (my first non-five-star Amazon
rating, huzzah!), apparently finding it disappointing because it was
written for general audiences, not scientific ones.
- Elizabeth's review gave me five stars on Goodreads (and qualifies that she gives it 4.5 stars in the review, except there are no .5's in their rating system).
Places featured:
- Carrel Books: My publisher got a site up for my imprint and now my book is listed there.
- A Tumblr user posted about my book three times (one, two, three), discussing being thrilled to have received a copy and then quoting from it and stuff. I love when pople get excited about my stuff!
- Completed reading: Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket. Three-star review.
- Currently reading: Hurricane Punch by Tim Dorsey.
New singing performances:
Here I'm singing "Thank U" by Alanis Morissette. Because I think this week deserves a gratitude song.
New drawings:
Webcomic Negative One Issue 0502: "A Little Rebellion."
Webcomic So You Write Issue 43: "Stop Worrying."
New videos:
Not-So-Frequently Asked Querying Questions is available now! All about less commonly discussed aspects of querying.
New photos:
I have a ton but just here are some of the best!
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| Aunt Lindsay! |
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| Ash is 1! He seems disinterested in the cake. |
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| Oh wait, now he's into it. |
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| He picked up the whole cake! |
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| "Here Mommy, I want to share my cake." |
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| Ash got a ton of toys for his first birthday! |
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| He loves playing with the bubbles. |
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| My sister the feet eater. |
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| I was trying to teach Ash about selfies. |
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| We took a group selfie. |
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| Upside-down kiss lessons! |
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| Banana boy. |
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| First time seeing a lit menorah! |
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| "Mommy, I NEED some of that ice cream!" |
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| "Hooray, Daddy's giving me some of his!" |
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| Learning to high five. |
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| Cute slippers we got for holiday gifts! (I'm in pink.) |
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| Fish face boy and the book I got him for Christmas. |
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| My Yule tree! |
Social media counts:YouTube subscribers: 4,187 for swankivy (19 new this week), 421 for JulieSondra (4 new). Twitter followers: 597 for swankivy (lost 1), 803 for JulieSondra (lost 3). Not sure why I lost Twitter followers. Perhaps they were people who added me last week and deleted me when I didn't auto-follow back. That happens. Facebook: 273 friends (no change) and 155 followers (lost 1) for swankivy, 504 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 54 likes for Negative One (no change), 90 likes for So You Write (1 new). Tumblr followers: 1,769 (6 new).
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