{my book is calling me, so this will be a brief update}

Canada Day is July 1!

So, the One Shot World Tour is long over, but I still like my logo, and I want to wish Canada a happy birthday weekend – and to say thank you to the writers Canada produces, especially my bud, C.K. Kelly Martin, who is probably happily still in Dublin, the lucky gel.

Happy Weekend! It’s been a busy and profitable week, and I hope that you were successful in all that you did. The revision of my science fiction novel is literally almost done; I expect to rewrite the last chapter and tie up what loose ends I’m going to tie on Monday – and then do that synopsis thing and outline the sequel or another piece in the series. I’m still not sure what I’m doing, but what the heck, I’m doing it. We’ll see how the chips fall. And yes, I am working on America’s birthday. We’ll definitely have a celebration here in just a few days, but Monday is a work day for us. Tech Boy turns in his doctoral dissertation in just SEVEN DAYS!!!!! (Cue screaming.)

As always, it is weird being away from home during a holiday weekend, but I have seen two parades already today – nothing remotely to do with America or Canada, but hey! A parade, just like I saw last year in Virginia! And now, I shall sing a patriotic song and have a tofu dog, and think about home. Which is pretty much what one does on the Fourth anyway, when one is home or away. The only thing I’m missing is fireworks, but I have glowsticks in the freezer. Happy Birthday, homeland!

I also want to wish a happy birthday to my gran, who on this very day turns eighty-four, and to Mom, who on Sunday turns…

…turns…

*crickets*

*Cough*

It’s amazing, how she can shut me up from five thousand miles away, isn’t it? Right. Mom’s birthday. It’s not a very big number, since she was fifty about five minutes ago, and she looks twenty years younger than her age – she’s been annoyed about that for most of her life, but now it’s working for her! So, anyway, Happy Birthday, Mama! This weekend, parties and celebrations abound, and I’m happy to be a part, even long distance.

It was actually well into the 70’s this morning, and the sun shone long enough for me to take a good ramble through the park, photograph industrious bees and lazy flowers (three hundred pictures in just two hours!), have toast and tea at a coffee house, and see the kitty wandering the park, daring someone to pick it up. (Not me – it was a longhaired tortoiseshell, and I have an aversion to wheezing. Pretty cat, though.) Now it’s time for me to find a stack of pillows, and read through this warm, rainy afternoon. I hope you have a marvelously relaxed weekend.