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So, in the process of cleaning up my room, I found my old Nalgene bottle I used to carry around when I was in grad school. I’ve been trying to drink more water, so I’ve gotten back in the habit of carrying it to work:

But this has its problems. If you’re not familiar with Nalgene bottles, they have a wide mouth. This is great for filling it, but not so great for drinking from it. Also, the only way to attach it to a bag is to weave the cap through a strap. Both of these are problems, so I went to REI yesterday to fix it.

The attachment problem is simple: I now have a carabiner on the cap loop to attach it to a bag. (Okay, technically, it’s a carabiner keychain. It’s even stamped “Not for climbing” on the side. But the REI guy and I both figured that a real carabiner would have been overkill for the situation.)

But the coup is the little piece I bought to fit in the mouth of the Nalgene bottle and make it easier to drink from. It covers most of the mouth, and it looks like this:

Yes. It always gives me a bit of a smile when I open the water bottle.

I’m about to enter the pay period just prior to Worldcon. That means that I’m about three weeks out. I think it’ll be three weeks tomorrow that I get on a plane and leave for Denver. That means I need to figure out what has to be done in those three weeks.

1. I need to get my ribbon order into the ribbon printers. I know Worldcon isn’t as ribbon-happy as Baycon (there are very few places that are as ribbon-happy as Baycon, and I have the badge to prove it), but does anybody out there care to give me an estimate of just how ribbon-happy Worldcon can be?
2. I need to find and pack books that I might want to get signed while I’m in Denver. This will require a long perusal of the attendance and a trip to the storage shed. It’s cheaper to mail than to take the box on the plane with me — I’m already going to have trouble keeping myself to one bag to avoid the $25 charge for the second. The book box needs to be mailed no later than Monday August 4th, and probably should be mailed the Thursday or Friday prior. Also, doublecheck with Mal that the address you have is correct.
3. I need to check with ceemage about what plans are being made that may require my technical expertise.
4. I also need to put together an issue for the August eAPA mailing. This is mandatory for two reasons — one, I skipped July, which means I’m falling dangerously close to failing to meet minac, and two, I’m trying to make plans to meet those members whom are going to Denver. I should probably start on that sometime this week so the end of the month doesn’t creep up on me. Again.
5. The weekend prior (Aug 2nd and 3rd) I need to make sure that most everything is packed. I need to doublecheck this on Monday. Tuesday is going to be a whirlwind of a day, as I’m working a full eight hours and catching a flight to Denver, and there will not be time for last minute packing such as I’m famous for. If I’m packing on Monday, it’s a problem.
6. Hopefully the preliminary schedule will be up soon so I can go over it. It’s probably a good idea to walk into this at least having a vague idea what might be coming up.
7. Anything else? I know I’m missing something, but I’m not sure what that might be. Any help from those who have attended prior Worldcons?

It is going to be an interesting three weeks.

I spent most of the weekend mucking out my room. That is, I’ve been in there cleaning it up from the disaster-area state that it was in and moving things around.

It’s not completely done. There’s a lot of things in boxes, and I’ve got a lot of sorting ahead. But my carpet has been revealed as a completely depressing shade of red and you can actually walk from the door all the way to the bed.

I’m not used to this!

So you can imagine my surprise when I’m curled up on the bed relaxing after having worked rather hard on the room, re-reading John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and munching on some black licorice I bought at the store earlier when, suddenly, there’s a snuffling and the dog appears at the side of the bed, looking longingly at my treats and giving me the sad puppydog eyes.

I moved over to let her get on the bed, and shared a few of my treats (I know; I’m so cruel) and she’s been on the bed since, staying put even as I fetched the camera and took the shot.

Such are the perils of clean rooms, I tell you.

It’s like living in a smoker these days in Sacramento, between the heat and the smoke. Last week was absolutely gorgeous. Mild temps and the smoke cleared out. But a heat wave is building in, and the smoke’s pooling in the valley again. In the last hour or so, the smoke’s really descended. I stepped outside about 3:30 and took this shot. (The intersection in the picture is Watt and Folsom, if you know Sacramento.)

Keep in mind, the camera cuts through some of the haze. Even sitting here, in my cube at work, the office building that’s approximately 75 yards away is starting to get fuzzy through the haze.

I have a forty-five minute commute ahead of me in a car without air conditioning. Wish me and my poor suffering lungs well.

I don’t know how long ago I stumbled upon Real Life Preacher. I know it was back before we even knew his name, back when his blog was on Salon, but it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that there was a guy, who claimed to be a real life preacher, and he was saying some incredibly moving and profound things. As somebody who came out of a fundamentalist Christian background and was wrestling with what her faith entailed, Preacher was a light in the darkness. He said things that were profound, things that helped me come to terms with my past and given me ideas. For that I can’t think him enough.

He’s hit another one out of the park with his most recent blog entry: Spam & Grey Poupon. He starts off telling the story of the time he put Grey Poupon on spam and his love of cake icing and his determined fascination with getting just the right bag of Goldfish crackers, and manages to take those things and fasten them together to make a profound point.

Go read it. It’s beautiful.