Posts from the “Geek” Category

Oh, my.

Posted on January 6th, 2013

Yesterday was a day. Nothing went right. It was emotionally exhausting. But today, apparently, I decided to make up for lost time. I woke up relatively early for Sunday. Went grocery shopping. (There were firefighters! Nothing is cuter than firefighters grocery shopping!) I decided to run a PBEM or by post, or something game, based on a book I wrote a gazillion years ago, where gazillion=15. I discovered the book is freely available on a pirate site, which should bother me a lot, except I haven’t gotten any royalties since about 2000 or 2001, despite several inquiries on my part. I created a Facebook group for this new game. It’s not publicized here, but if you want to know, email. I wrote a post…

Categories: Geek, Good day, Too much to ask?

The Gift of Family

Posted on December 23rd, 2012

For Christmas, I spit in a cup. Technically, a test tube. It took a long time to fill that sucker, even when I closed my eyes and thought of lemons. Why? Because for Christmas, M ordered genetic testing from 23andme. And I am so excited about it. Excited to see if the genealogies are correct (because they match to families, and as more people are tested and join the database, the more accurate it becomes). Excited to see what percentage of Neanderthal I am (M is 3%; I got him this testing a couple of years back). Excited to see medical predispositions (other than the blood clotting weirdness I discovered after Pea was born and which makes my life, actuarially speaking, worthless — or…

Categories: Geek, TMI

For $14.50, I bought a mystery!

Posted on November 20th, 2012

Today I stopped by an antique store that I haven’t been to for ages and ages. (My law office, when I was a solo practitioner, was across the street from it, and going there was my postprandial entertainment when I was pregnant and trying not to fall asleep at my desk.) And some days, I just had a feeling that there would be something cool and new, and I’d go look. Today I was nearby, and I had that feeling. And I lucked out: I found an antique Federal Bullseye mirror for a crazy low price. And by crazy low, I mean that even being stressed for money I couldn’t pass it up — like half a tank of gas inexpensive. (Excuse my enthusiasm,…

Categories: Geek, Good day

All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for?

Posted on August 12th, 2012

You know what I suck at? Pitching fiction. (I am happy to brag about legal accomplishments, geek bona fides, and my kid. My private FB page bears that out.) But here’s the scoop. I have a completed, polished, and — in my humble opinion — damn good historical romance that I have done…nothing with since polishing it. Why? Because I’m chickenshit. And it’s time for me to get over myself. This week, now that I have two huge monkeys off my back, the truly onerous editing job that took me 21 hours of WORK time to get through first edits before I could turn it around and send it back to the author) and Pea’s school situation, I am going start selling the thing.…

Categories: Epiphanies, Geek, Writing

Baby’s First Existential Crisis

Posted on May 29th, 2012

She came in my office last night while I was writing and said, “Mom, I’m feeling a little bit sad about something.” Since she’d said that she didn’t want to grow up a few minutes earlier, I asked, “Is it about growing up?” She nodded. “I don’t want to grow up.” I pulled her onto my lap. “That’s fine with me.” “I don’t want to be five. And I don’t want to die.” “I know.” She looks up and fixes me with a clear stare. “I’m not dying.” “No, not now. Not for a long time.” “I just want to stay four.” “OK. I think you’ll get bored if you don’t grow up, but it’s fine with us.” “I don’t want to die.” “Daddy…

Categories: Geek, General Parenting

Sex Probability Brownie Point System

Posted on February 15th, 2012

Part of my geek credibility comes from having written a book for a roleplaying game that, in part, devised a system (separate from experience points) by which player characters (PCs) would be rewarded (or penalized) for their actions within a superagency. I’m guessing only — maybe — 1% of you are interested in knowing any more about this, so that’s all I’m going to say about the matter. (If you are interested, I’m happy to chat more about it.) As I was tossing laundry into the washer today, though, I was thinking about two things: first, that (most) men always seem to want to have sex, all the time, and second, that it is entirely a contingent proposal on (many) women’s part. I read…

Categories: Advice, Geek

We’ll do better than an Eagle for you, Sweet Pea

Posted on February 11th, 2012

Pea knows that the very loud military jets that fly over the Target are F-15s. How? Well, I taught her. I know firsthand just how amusing it is, as a petite woman, to pop out with military aircraft knowledge at a cocktail party (I have a story involving university faculty). So when we were shopping at Target the other day and an F-15 flew over and Pea said, “Mama! That’s an F-15!” I was so proud, you guys. And then she said, “When I’m older, I’ll fly one of those, Mama.” And again, I was so proud, because being a military pilot would be a nice stepping stone to astronaut, right? I said, “By the time you’re older, Pea, we’ll have much better aircraft…

Categories: Geek, General Parenting, Good day

After nineteen years of marriage…

Posted on February 10th, 2012

…Valentine’s love is a magic trackpad. I’m a practical gal, people. (Besides, nothing could top the Sammy’s roses from our anniversary six weeks ago.)

Categories: Geek

The Wreck of my Afternoon

Posted on February 8th, 2012

I’m descended from one of the survivors of the wreck of the Crown of London. I learned this four or five years ago and duly put all the information into Geni. As I am planning my fantasy trip to Scotland (and it is a fantasy), can I find any of it now? No. Can I remember the ancestor’s name? Oh, hell no: that would be too easy. Between the website’s delays and crashes and my complete inability to remember which branch of the family I should be looking in (I don’t remember if this survivor ended up in Northern Ireland or Jamaica), I’ve wasted all. freaking. afternoon. You’d think hardcore Presbyterians would be easy to locate in a family tree, but not mine. They…

Categories: Geek, Not crazy...yet

Romans 0, Celts 1

Posted on January 30th, 2012

I bought a couple of Roman Playmobil sets when Pea was a baby, because I knew I’d want to play with them someday. (I know, selfish. I love Playmobil.) Today she saw the boxes in her closet and we opened them. After the gratuitous assembling, we shot spears with a ballista, had the horses ride around, and then she asked me who the good guys were. I explained we were descended from Celts, but that Daddy prefers the Romans. (He’s quite the Roman history buff.) Pea decided the Celts were the good guys, and under her leadership, they killed all the Romans. We put the eagle in the hand of one of the Celts and took pictures (for Daddy, of course). “Do you want…

Categories: Geek, General Parenting, Good day