• Fraction’s list of THINGS I FORGOT is up to at least four. That’s some solace. We’re running neck and neck.
• CASANOVA #8 is at the Image booth! The blue looks FANTASTIC. Pick it up and say hello to Fabio and Gabriel while you’re there.
• Dinner last night was at an Indian place on 5th called MASALA that was just beautiful. The food was great, too. The service? Not so much.
• Fraction bought a Darth Tater — for the baby, I am assured.
• Twitter is giving me fits. Twitbin doesn’t show me all my follows for some reason. I suspect it has something to do with the changeover from “friending” to “following.” And I followed the directions to add my phone to my TWITTER account, but when I text’d the confirmation code to 40404, they set me up another account. Grr. Instead of asking me to text the confirmation code to 40404 (which is what everyone else told me to do), it told me to “Verify your number (+xxxxxxxxxx) by sending the following code to +447624801423:” …I did try that, btw, but nothing happened. Then I tried 40404 and got the second account. I e-mailed support, but I’m giving up for now.
• Today is spa appts and working at the hotel for me, I think. Alas. Have to check the calendar, but I’ve got two deadlines next week and there’s no way I’ll meet them if I take the next four days off.
• Fraction’s schedule for the day:
  THURSDAY 12:00 – 1:00 signing @ image booth 2729; 3:00 – 4:00 signing @ marvel booth 2429; 4:45 – 5:45 mondo marvel panel @ room 6AB
• EDITED TO ADD: Terry – we got your friend the spider ring from Bud Plant. No worries.

• Ran into Jason Aaron at the airport in KC and traveled with him all the way to SD.
• Our hotel? POSH.  We have BUTLER SERVICE.  It’s super-dreamy.  I have taken to calling the place “New House.”
• Rantz made us Engine Badges — the babe’s even got one!  I love them so much I snorted.
• I’m very, very pregnant.  It makes me sleepy.  I’m not out playing with the rest of the kiddies because my feet hurt and I can barely keep my eyes open.
• I miss my dogs.
• Did I mention that I love this hotel?  I love this hotel.
• CBR is running a piece on 24seven v2 — which I saw and it looks AWESOME.  Congrats, Ivan.  (I’m quoted in the CBR piece.  That’s right.  I’m all fancy now.)  If you’re at the Prom, pick up your copy at the Image booth #2729.
• Um… did anyone else notice that we didn’t get a big bag o’crap when we checked in this year?  I’m pleased, actually, except… no program?  Or will those be out tomorrow, I wonder…

Making my way through the inbox:

• Isaac Cates, who I knew in high school, writes to say that Satisfactory Comics has a website.
• Fraction has updated the “reading” section of his blog — it’s on the right hand side of the main page. Scroll down.
• Uh… MAIL just crashed and now it’s gone from my dock. Restarting. More later.

EDITED TO ADD:

• Racy little lingerie site that makes me long for the day my body returns to a size smaller than that of a vehicle.
• Abhay has a comic online.  I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve been on a DL bender the last 12 hours, so it’s in the queue.
• I believe Corey Waits has the gotten the first CASANOVA tattoo — the first I’ve seen, anyway.

On the business end of things, we’ll be headed to San Diego for the Nerd Prom on Wednesday. (Note to potential robbers: we’ve got a mean housesitter, a new security system and two vicious dogs, so perhaps you should try Mark’s place next door instead?) Fraction, Ellis, Jamie, Steve, Fabio & Gabriel and Brian have all posted their schedules. (Laurenn is doing a couple of panels — I suspect she’ll post info when she sees I’ve hinted that she should. Hint, hint. EDITED TO ADD: Laurenn had already posted her panels. My bad!) I have nothing to post, but at five feet tall and eight months pregnant, I’m hard to miss — stop me and say hello if you see me waddling by.

If I’m not on the floor, I’ll be at the spa. That’s right, suckas — Imma have me a proper vacation before it’s Mommy Time.

EDITED TO ADD: Link to Flickr SDCC 2007 Group.

If it’s anything like last year, this year’s pool will get deep fast. Help everyone navigate by tagging your photos.

Suggested tags:

names of people pictured
“confloor”
“dinner”
“hotel”
name of hotel
name of party
name or group
“cosplay”
name of restaurant
name of booth
“loot” — for purchases
name of event

…and so on.

The countertops are here! The countertops are here! The sink and faucet are in… I may actually weep. I’m told the backsplash guys are starting this afternoon. (I think WordPress will date this entry the day I started it, rather than when I actually hit post… so, there’s going to be a few days’ lag. Oops. This is actually posting on Monday, July 23rd.) The rest of the Hackberry stump came out this weekend and the new fence guys are starting today as well, I believe. AND the house painters are starting this week or next. It’s all so exciting! By the time the baby comes, it’ll be a whole new house… well, practically. There is that small matter of the hundred or so other things on my to do list and the Great Purge I’m still trying to find time to squeeze in.

The shower was Saturday and can I say it was AWESOME? I cannot possibly thank the Ladies Braverman enough. Truly. And it was so great to see the out-of-town guests! — my beautiful family and beloved Ms. Courtney (who stayed on our couch and was one hell of a good sport with regard to the dogs). Laurenn was awesome and took scads of photos; I’m sure I’ll post links at some point. (Note: no one was subjected games and there was a build-your-own BLT bar. My friends rule.)

Oh, and Fraction got me (among other things) the KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON poster for my birthday. With as busy as we’ve been over the last few days, I don’t know that I made a proper big deal out of how much I love it, so let me do that now: I LOVE IT. I can’t wait to get it framed and up — I just need to decide where it’s going to go!

EDITED TO ADD:

• I’m seriously thinking about putting KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON in the nursery.  I believe it’s sound advice.
• I added a couple of photos — one taken mere moments ago — and you can see that the backsplash has in fact been started — yay!!
• The housepainter called.  He’ll stop by tomorrow morning between 8:00 and 8:30 am to drop some ladders off and for us to meet the crew.  They’ll start the job proper on Thursday and while they won’t really start painting-painting until we get back (there are days of prep and repair involved) they should have a few sample boards done for us when we get back.  Yay!
• I think the fence guys are starting on Thursday as well.  I need to call them and confirm.

I meant to post a reminder about this earlier today and I got swept away in work and family and household and everything else.

But–

The Order #1 is out today!  This is Fraction’s new book, about a new team in the Marvel Universe — all very exciting stuff, to our way of thinking.

I am very, very proud.

(Go! Buy!)

Ivan says, “Image Comics and the 70 creators of 24seven v2 broke their backs to get the book in EARLY to the printer and to Diamond… barring some freakish shipping debacle, it’ll hit stores NEXT WEDNESDAY, July 25th and we’ll have copies of it and the 1st volume at the San Diego Comic-Con, BOOTH 2729!”

If you look carefully, you’ll see my name in there among the contributors…

Edited to Add: Preorder Code JUN071889 24 SEVEN VOL 2 GN $19.99.

The photo is one Fraction took of the solar system mobile in his office.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I am feeling better today. Not yet back to what I consider normal, but I’m functional at least — which is grand timing as I have to finish up the adaptation of Black Cat 14 today and I got ZERO work done over the weekend.

In addition to not getting any work-work done, I got nothing done around the house. Especially a bummer as family and friends who are coming in for the baby shower start arriving on Tuesday. That list I made of all the things I wanted to get done before they arrived? Not touched really. (Fraction pointed out that he did change the light bulb on the front porch, so one thing got done.) Oh, well. I suppose they’ll still love me.

E-mailed the tree guy this morning to find out where we stand on getting the rest of the hackberry stump pulled out — the fence guys can’t start until the stump is gone.

In about 20 minutes, I’ll take the dogs for their furminator treatments (where I’ll ask them to bag up Claude’s hair for Nikol to spin — I kid you not!), then stop at the bank on the way home to have some papers notarized. Then? Hopefully, off to a coffee shop where I’ll work until my lunch with Steven and Xtop. After lunch, I’ll head back to the coffee shop to work until I’m done.

Long day ahead of me. Bleh.

Ugh. Was so sick yesterday I couldn’t get off the couch, couldn’t work, couldn’t clean, couldn’t even knit while I watched TV. Nausea, chills, body aches, diarrhea, heartburn — the whole sexy package. Finally hit my limit and asked Fraction to phone the doctor-on-call. Turns out something’s going around – he had admitted another pregnant patient with the same symptoms about 1/2 an hour before. (Immune systems are not at their finest in the third trimester.) She had gotten severely dehydrated, so he told me not to worry about solids, but that I had to keep my fluids going. He sent Fraction out for Gatorade and asked him to call back if my temperature spiked. The kid stayed really active the whole day, which was, if not comfortable, at least comforting.

After sticking my fingers down my throat and vomiting stomach acid I was finally able to sleep. Woke up at 8-something feeling better, but drank a little Gatorade and water and felt nauseous again. Body aches aren’t nearly what they were — and I’m able to do things like update this blog which would have been inconceivable yesterday — but if I’m not feeling better by 2ish, I’m going to have to call folks and cancel this evening’s birthday dinner.

Wah.

Wallowing in self-pity, I remain,

Yours,

Kelly Soup

EDITED TO ADD: Okay, dinner’s off. Fraction pointed out that I really don’t want to push myself right before family comes and with San Diego just around the corner. Probably very much for the best that I didn’t go to the Naughty Needles Burlesque show the other night after all — no telling how bad off I’d be now. And ever-altruistic Aunt Polly reminded me that if it’s the flu, I might be contagious and the last thing I want to do is get anyone else sick.

I hate, hate, hate the idea of being cooped up here again today, but it doesn’t seem as though I’ve got much of a choice.

Le sigh.

• I added a pillow to my sleeping arrangement and had a much better night last night – thank god. And a big thank you to my husband who took my usual shift and tended to the dogs in the early morning so that I could sleep an extra two hours. TWO HOURS.
• The bearded guys (above) are all done and, according to the kitty genius blog, they’re going to be $35/each. Now we just need to figure out which we want and where we’ll put them before they’re all gone!
• I’m not quite the right kind of nerdy to properly enjoy this (read: I’ve never seen Dr. Who), but: Dalek cupcakes.
• Oh, no! From the New York Times: “A first-of-its-kind study released in May by the University of Pittsburgh concluded that parenthood demonstrably reduces physical activity, while marriage has only a negligible effect.” …That absolutely terrifies me. We must be vigilant. I keep telling myself it’ll be different for us because we both work at home, but I certainly haven’t remained properly active through my pregnancy…
• These Envirosax are tempting — great price — but I’m very bad at remembering to take/use my own bags at the grocery.
• How cute is this zine? I might’ve ordered one but they were sold out by the time I saw the link.
• I’m tempted to order this underbed shoe organizer while it’s on sale, but I’m read, er, listening to the audiobook of IT’S ALL TOO MUCH right now and the author practically begs you not to make any purchases until you’ve at least started decluttering first. Or maybe it’s until you’ve finished reading…? I don’t remember. I know it’s not RIGHT NOW, though. (It’s apparently very common to react to clutter by… buying more stuff. Thus the incredible success of places like the Container Store.)
• Speaking of decluttering, I have got to do something about my books. Here’s one idea.
• Heh.
• Third Trimester: I’m nesting. This staircase wouldn’t work in our house, but it’s killing me, nonetheless. Other home/design blogs I consume with my one morning coffee: Shelterrific, Decor8 and Apartment Therapy Nursery. I’m also a huge fan of Posie Gets Cozy. Also, did I already post this nursery?
• The kitchen has been on hold for most of the week as the subcontractor doing the countertops apparently didn’t do what they were supposed to do when they were supposed to do it.