happy event delayed

We're leaving the Bay Area tomorrow morning.

When we took off from New Mexico in our minivan on Dec 16, we originally had been planning to return on Dec 27, but, as the days went, it became obvious that my sister-in-law's adoption process would happen later in the month, so we decided to stick around until Jan 1 if necessary. But Sue's sister found out yesterday that a mistake had been made about when Theo would be born, and that the happy even might not occur before Jan 14.

On the bright side... If not for that delayed departure, I wouldn't have met some of my fellow posters from Making Light. It was with great trepidation that I drove to Mountain View yesterday morning and had coffee with Dawno. Heck, it's only 55 miles between there and Tom Hanks's hometown of Concord and it may seem like a lot to some people, but not to someone who just drove 1100 miles to get to the Bay Area. Anyway, I had a great time and hope I didn't make a total fool of myself. My trepidation seems to have been baseless, but I have often been shown wrong. I'm currently trepidating about tonight, as Sue and I are going to meet another ML person, who invited us both to meet her and her hubby in Oakland when she found out I was around. Both Sue and that ML person should get along famously, as they're both writers. And they both like Hugh Jackman.

So, overall, this Holidays trip was good. For one thing, I got to encourage the corruption of my youngest nephew with all this comic-book playacting and all this Bugs Bunny watching. Still, much as we'd love moving back to the Bay Area, we'll be glad to be back among our stuff, and to my waking up at 4am because leaky puppy Cagney has to be taken out to answer Nature's Call.

I shall now leave you with this doggerel I composed myself. (Hey, you in the dark corner, I heard that.)

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
One year almost dead,
Another near new.