So, what have I been up to this week? Shipping, shipping shipping. A Vintage from Atlantis: The Collected Fantasies Of Clark Ashton Smith Volume 3 showed up in the Night Shade Books warehouse last week, and I managed to get about a quarter of the pre-orders packed and shipped before heading down to San Diego for Thanksgiving, but knew what I'd be returning to... a mountain of orders to process.


A freshly cracked-open case. Ah! That new book smell!


Each copy is carefully bubble-wrapped for safe shipment.


Once a stack is ready...

( More and more, including Maddie at the Merry-Go-Round, behind the cut... )

We're down in San Diego this week, a family vacation for the Easter holiday. So far, Maddie's been having a great time at Grandma's house, rolling on the rug, sleeping the couch, and begging bits of bread from Grandma. Oh, and...

"Munch munch munch," went Maddie, her jaws working on whatever she'd found in the back yard.

"What are you eating, Maddie?" I asked, approaching from the house, already dreading the answer.

"Candy," said Maddie, picking up yet another tiny dark sphere and chomping into it.

"And where'd you get candy?" I asked.

"Easter bunny," replied Maddie between bites.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah," she said. "I saw him, and tried to say hi, but he ran away. He dropped this yummy candy, though." She picked up another. "You want some?"

I shook my head, queasy at the suggestion. "No thanks, Maddie."

"Your loss," said Maddie. "Bunny candy's one of my favorite things about Grandma's house."

---

Yesterday, Jill took Jennifer and I to see a matinée of Smokey Joe's Cafe up at the Lawrence Welk Theatre. The Lawrence Welk Theatre attracts precisely the sort of audience you'd expect; our seats were behind a pack of purple-sweatered red hat ladies, it felt like a scene from "Confessions of a Geriatric Girl Gang." During the show, a withered old biddy nearby kept complaining that the show was too loud. "Why do they have to keep screaming?" she repeatedly asked the woman sitting next to her. I considered suggesting that she turn off her hearing aid, and that she should steer clear of rock and roll in the future, but decided against it, since I was considerably outnumbered. It was a great show, but then again, it's hard to go wrong with Liber and Stoller; however, the performance was plagued with sound problems, including wireless mic drop-outs, feedback, and actors' voices that were way too big for the small space. Considering that this was the first show of the run, I'd call it a play well worth checking out.

Today, after brunch at El Galleon (best Mexican breakfast in Escondido), Maddie and I made the trek from Escondido down to North Park while Jennifer and Jill went shopping. Maddie and I picked up Baxter, then attempted to drop in on his sister (kathputli_girl - Maddie's a big fan of her BlitheJournal), but alas, she wasn't home, so the three of us headed over to Balboa Park and wandered around for a few hours, Baxter and I discussing pop culture, people we know (but never talk to), and the myriad projects we're working on while Maddie sniffed her way through the park, marking territory as she rambled. Eventually, we dropped Baxter at home and started the trudge northward, with its inevitable five lanes of stop and go traffic, back to Escondido.


On the way down, we stop at Pea Soup Andersen’s so Maddie can pea.


A flower we found in front of Jill’s house.


Spotted on a dumptruck. Danger, don’t lie under the dumper.


Maddie visits the Old Globe Theatre: “I didn’t know William Shakespeare lived in San Diego.”

( Lots and lots of pictures behind the cut... )