Monday

Not very arty or bombastic today. No idea where the shirts are. Occurs to me that I should have bought them two weeks before I knew I wanted them. This, however, cheers me up to no end. Can't wait for the fall. I'm sure it'll be cheaper than the $300 Lego Death Star I was tempted into getting Saturday.

More important, tonight, after a few weeks of puttering around at the keyboard, being distracted by the Internet, and just being plain baffled, I'm working on the novel again with a solid roadmap in my hand and notes upon notes from the "Stuff I Wanna Include" pile.

Dinner with friends and extended family Saturday. Have a cousin who informs me that Seattle is not her kind of town, which made me feel as if it was my fault. We were born and lived in the Chicago area, and I like it here more than she does. She's having a hard time here, and I know not everything works for everyone. Still, I can't shake the attack on my confirmation bias that Seattle is a wonderful, rain-soaked oasis, and if she's having a hard time because the people aren't that friendly here, then I wonder does that make me part of that antisocial crowd. Ah!

Attempted to explain to her that we don't mean to be cold and aloof, we just want everyone to be left alone and do their own thing. It's difficult if you don't speak the language or understand the customs, or come here during 8,000 straight days of rain. I don't think I got through to her. Maybe she just wants to be around more recognizable locations as she gets older. Fair enough, but there's that lingering taste of "you Seattlites are hard to warm up to." I guess I'm a Seattlite now.

Sunday, massage by a friend who could probably debone a human being and still keep said human alive. I'm seeing her once a month, enough time to have all my kinks shift back into place so she can unfold me again. Spent the rest of the day in a post-rub fog, sitting on the couch, watching Gregory Peck be the coolest Southerner ever captured by American cinema. My lovely wife and I decided that the next boy kitten we get will be Atticus Finch Ryan.

OT, I'm tempted to say something about the coverage of Dick Cheney's big weekend. I'm strangely comforted by it. Just like everything Team Bush has done, the matter has been mishandled to a point beyond farce and, unlike Iraq, we can laugh about the violence.