I'm in a mood

I'm in a mood. Bear with me.

I received a box from Dreamspinner Press today. At first I though the postal service had managed to detour it through a war zone because it looked like this:

  Then I touched the box and realized no, not a war, a flood. The cardboard was still pretty soggy.

Fortunately, someone at DSP did a fantastic job wrapping the contents in plastic, because this is what was inside:

Yay! My print copies of The Tin Box! And they arrived unscathed.

Later today, I saw an ad for this scarf. Why bother knitting when you can just drape the entire skein of yarn around your neck?

Now can I complain about money? My older daughter began high school a little over a month ago. In that time, we've been asked to dole out money for 1. A tennis team trip to an amusement park, 2. A tennis uniform, 3. A tennis T-shirt, 4. A tennis servathon, 5. A choir T-shirt, 6. A yearbook, 7. A student ID card, 8. A mandatory PE uniform. For the younger kid, who's in 5th grade, we've been limited thus far to a field trip, a yearbook, and a cookie dough/wrapping paper fundraiser.

We're lucky--we can afford all this crap. But what about families that can't?

And finally, can I vent about colleagues at the day job who get pissed off at other colleagues but won't tell them directly, and instead expect me to act as mediator?

I feel much better now. Hey! Look at the beautiful book!

PS--Did you enter the giveaway yet? Did you catch my post over on Tali Spencer's blog, or my interview at Garrett Leigh's?