A HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout-out to mabfan  this morning, who for those who don't know him, writes science fiction like a modern-day Isaac Asimov (if slightly less prolific).  Hope you have a great day!

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to danmeg , who is even older than I am today.  I hope you have a great birthday.  Don't do anything I wouldn't do.

I gave Kelly her Valentine's gift yesterday, since we had a busy day today, and she gave me not one but two cards this morning, which made me realize that I hadn't gotten her any cards.  Nevertheless, we had a very nice Valentine's day--our first as a married couple.  I was up at 6 AM to feed the cats, came back upstairs and told Kelly that I was probably just going to get up, since I was already awake.  I then promptly fell back asleep for another hour or so, which she found very amusing.

We flew out of Reagan/National and once again, it's great living so close to that airport.  The flight to Albany was less than 1/4 full.  In fact, there were 19 people on a plane that holds 80.  It was quite possibly the emptiest flight I've ever been on.  We left the gate 10 minutes early and arrived in Albany nearly half an hour early.  strausmouse  was there to meet us, and we piled into his car and headed to a nearby mall where we met rmstraus  and their little dude for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  Then it was back to their house to hang out, and where lots of talk about babies took place.

Eric made an excellent dinner that consisted of pasta with sweet potatoes, to say nothing of a side salad with some homemade dressing.  And there was some pumpkin ale to go along with it.  Yum!  For dessert, there were chocolate-filled strawberries and ice cream.  We ate dessert while playing a few games of Apples to Apples.  Ryane won the first game and Eric somehow managed to win the second game.  It's hilarious to watch those two play any game together.  Around 10 PM, Kelly and I called it a night.

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to fellow writer and workshopper will_couvillier !  Hope you have a great birthday! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes this morning to fellow writer and work-shopper alaneer !  Hope you have a great birthday!

January 2nd is Isaac Asimov's birthday and he would have been 89 years old today.  It's hard not to remember the fellow who taught me to love science and science fiction, however indirectly.

If I am not mistaken, today is ANALOG/ASTOUNDING's 79th birthday.  For those who don't know, ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION is the longest continuously running science fiction magazine around.  It started up in 1930 (when my Grandpa was 10 years old!) and is still going strong today.  (In the 1960s, the name was changed to ANALOG).  It is usually considered to be the "major" science fiction magazine market.

On a related note, I have a story that's been out at ANALOG for 31 days now (that's longer than any story I've ever submitted there, but I attribute that to the holidays).  Last night, I had a dream that I received a "rejection slip" from Stanley Schmidt, editor of ANALOG for 30 years now.  What was strange about it was that it was a long, handwritten note (several pages) with questions about the story scrawled in between references to various articles on the science contained within the story.  There was not a word saying that the story was accepted or rejected.  This is interesting because mabfan, in a radio interview, described getting a similar letter from Stan and not knowing whether this meant Stan wanted a rewrite or not.  To me, it's just a sign that the submitted story is in my mind.  One other thing about the dream:  in his note, Stan asked "What happened to Norman?" (Norman is the protagonist in the story)--implying that the ending was not clear.  This is contrary to the actual story where it is very clear (to me) what happens to Norman.

Heading off to go shopping now.  Hoping to get some writing in later today. 

Kelly and I headed over to Sarah's house at around 8 last night.  There were a total of 6 of us there and it was a nice, quiet evening.  I made my apple, ale and cheddar soup (this time using chopped apple and less cidar) and I thought it came out good.  People seemed to like it.  We sat around talking, watching Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve (with Ryan Seacrest), and shortly after midnight, we headed home and fell into our bed.

Happy New Year, everyone!  2009 is looking up! 

We were up early and even Logan was up early in anticipation of opening presents this morning.  As always, it was a lot of fun.   I got Kelly some Christmas movies that she was missing (Elf, and some Charlie Brown Christmas cartoons).  I also got her this little silver elephant whose prehensile trunk can be used as a ring-holder.  Her big gift this year is a new MacBook, which we will pick up this weekend when we are back home.  She got me lots of little things too: new gloves, a scarf, a Yankees desk calendar, a baseball game for Wii, a cool little tripod for our digital camera, a couple of new shirts.  My big gift was a new pair of Oakley sunglasses.  My old pair lasted a while, but got a bad scratch in the left lens.  So it was time for a new pair.

Kelly's parents got us a bunch of baby books, Goodbye Moon and others like it.  I also got a gift card to Barnes & Noble, which always comes in handy.  Jason and Logan got us a really nice-looking stroller for the baby.  We saw a picture of it (the actual stroller will be delivered to our house).  I got a new sweater and there were lots of other little gifts.  Logan really made out.  We got Kelly's parents a Garmin GPS.  It was a fun Christmas morning.

Kelly's aunt and uncle came over around 1 PM and we had a pick Christmas dinner that included turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and corn and green bean casserole, and rolls, you name it.  It was delicious!  By the time they left, somewhere around 6:30 PM, we were tired and Kelly was exhausted.  So it's off to bed!  We have a whole day to rest tomorrow, before we head home on Saturday.

First, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to strausmouse .  For your birthday, I give you warmer weather than you've been having lately. You can thank me later.

Etc.:

I know, it's been a few days.  I've had intermittent wireless access and limited time.  Nevertheless, I've got the backdated posts  mostly written and should get them posted shortly.  Just a few quick items of business.  Doug has a blog!  (And kruppenheimer  will be happy to see just how much the content of Doug's blog entries take after his big brother's.)  I have passed the halfway mark in The Hard SF Renaissance.  More on that shortly.  No writing today, but some notes and ideas down on paper and maybe I'll squeeze in a little bit of writing sometime tomorrow.  Along with the aforementioned backdated blog posts.

G'night, all!

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm sure you get lots of Christmas and holiday newsletters so I'll keep mine brief: 2008.  There.  All done.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Much Love,

Jamie

(P.S.: Next year's newsletter will likely include the obligatory baby photo.  If you just can't wait, here are pictures of someone else's baby.)

My company had the holiday party this evening and Kelly and I arrived there at 5 PM.  I received numerous comments on my clothes.  Kelly made sure that I was sharply dressed.  It was a fun evening, good food and drinks, and good company too.  At around 7 PM they started the raffle (each person attending had a ticket).  They worked their way from the smallest prize up to the grand prize.  About halfway through, they called my number and I walked up to the front of room and accepted a $25 gift card to Champps.  (When I got back to the table, I joked with Kelly that if our other number was called, she'd have to go up to accept the award.)

Our other number was called for the grand prize.

And so, Kelly walked up front and accepted our prize, which was 2 free meals at Chevy's and 1 weekend night's stay at the Residence Inn in Arlington.  How cool is that!

We were home at 8 PM.

Today was payday, which is always nice.  Not much reading today.  I'm 70 pages through The Hard SF Renaissance, and about 55 pages through A Man on the Moon.  The latest issue of NEW SCIENTIST arrived yesterday and I'm working my way through that as well.

We have some last minute holiday shopping and errands to do tomorrow morning (early, to avoid the crowds), and then we're having brunch with AJ and Denisse.
 

A very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to bigblu4 , who is spending his big day on the East Coast this year.  Looks like he even got a present from the weather.  While it's overcast and a little rainy, it's nearly 60 degrees in NYC at the moment.  In fact, the weather is eerily like the weather in Southern California.

Hope you have a great birthday!

Sarah came over and the three of us decorated our Christmas tree today.  Here's a picture.  Simon is sitting under the tree.  In the background are two bookshelves containing, almost exclusively, Isaac Asimov books.  (Click for a larger image.)

A big Happy Birthday goes out to my niece, Ruby, who turns 5 years old today.  (Whenever someone turns five years old I can't help but think of the opening line to Harlan Ellison's story, "Jefty was five.  He was always five.")  Hope you have a terrific birthday!

And a quick note:  I was offline for much of the holiday weekend.  Backdated posts covering the weekend should be up soon.

Great Thanksgiving dinner at Sarah's this evening.  Early in the afternoon, I set about making my stuffed mushrooms.  I made two kinds, a spicy, seasoned kind and a more bland kind.  The spicy, seasoned ones came out really good.  I surprised myself.  We headed over to Sarah's just before 3 PM.

All told, there were nine of us there, Sarah's family, plus some friends.  We sat around talking, and munching and watching football and finally, eating a huge Thanksgiving feast.  Lots of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and all kinds of yummy sides to go along with it.  I had 1-1/2 plates full of food.  Afterward there was dessert, and I sampled three of the desserts that were put out.  By the time we headed home, we were both stuffed to the gills.

I mentioned the odd sleeping patterns we've fallen into.  I went back to bed at about 1 AM and tossed and turned and slept fitfully until about 2:45.  Then I fell asleep and slept pretty well until 7 AM.  Kelly got up and I started reading the latest issue of NEW SCIENTIST in bed until just before 8 AM, when I got up and showered.

Skies are clear blue today.  Even the temperatures are a little warmer.  It's supposed to be close to 50 today.  I made a quick run to the grocery store to pick up a few things we needed and fortunately the store was mostly empty so I was in and out quickly.  Now I'm back home and we're sitting in front of the fire, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Later, I have to make stuffed mushrooms (two different kinds) for Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon at Sarah's.

Happy thanksgiving, everyone!

Happy birthday wishes go out to kruppenheimer  this morning.  Congratulations on finally being able to run for president.  Welcome to the ranks!

Can you believe it's been one month since our wedding already?  Time has zoomed by at an incredible rate!  I had to work late today but on the way home, I picked up a dozen roses for Kelly in celebration of the special day.  (Kelly had Veterans Day off.)

The cats were hungry early and so I was up at 5:30 to feed them and then decided to stay up.  I was in the office at 7 AM and didn't head home until 6:30 PM, making it the longest day in a while.  At lunch, I finished reading Einstein: His Life and Universe.  What a great book!  It was definitely a five-star book.  I thought I knew the general Einstein mythology, and I learned a great deal more.  His life story was well told and kept me turning the pages, even when I had to stretch my imagination at some of the descriptions of relativity and quantum theory  I don't give books 5-stars very often, but this one was well deserving.

(See all my 5-star rated books here, 20 of them out of nearly 400 read.)

I then immediately started in on Conrad Black's immense (1,200 page) biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Kelly has unwittingly inspired my reading of these last two books.  She was watching the movie I.Q. one evening, and that reminded me that I had the Einstein book sitting on the shelf, unread.  Then a few weeks later, she was watching Warm Springs and that reminded me that I had started the Roosevelt biography years ago and never finished and it was time to start over.

When I got home from work, I dashed out to the mailbox, eagerly awaiting NEW SCIENTIST.  The box was empty.  Duh!  Veterans Day!

I got through another dozen thank you notes this evening.  Spoke to he11o_sunshine  on the phone this evening.  Spoke to Dad briefly earlier today.  Feeling better today.  I got a flu shot this morning.  That means I'll either get the flu, or I won't.

Just wanted to wish Kelly a super-big HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  She gets to work from home today which means we get to spend the entire day together (even though she really does have work to do).