uphill from here

I figure any day that begins with discovering — by following the stench — that your resident 85-year-old with dementia has hidden a dead mouse in a plastic snack baggie in a bureau drawer is only likely to get better.  Following the mouse removal, anyway.

(For those of you who do not live in 200-year-old houses: the point in autumn where the nights start to get cold is also known as Mouse Season.  There are always, but always, little tiny mouse-sized ways for mice to get into old houses, and they do, and this is the secret True Reason We Keep Cats Around.  We conjecture that the BeloveDad came upon one of HRH Fez's kills and decided to dispose of it.  The answer to the burning question of why this activity then turned into shoving said dead mouse into a snack bag and shoving the conveniently packaged mouse snack into a bureau drawer is, of course, Alzheimers.)

On that note, I wanted to thank all of you who took the time to comment with kind thoughts and wishes about my mom's cancer diagnosis.  She underwent surgery last Thursday, where they discovered that there was more cancer in there than they thought.  No cancer diagnosis is ever a happy thing, and hers is no exception.  The good news that the surgical team did a wonderful job and that there is reason to think they may have gotten all of it out is tempered by the fact that it is a "high grade" cancer and that cancer is an unpredictable and insidious thing.  Mom will be recovering for a while yet, and as with all chronic conditions, we don't know what the future will hold, but for now I'm taking comfort in the fact that she survived surgery, the surgery went as well as possible under the circumstances, and her doctors seem hopeful.

Onward, then, and upward!

ATLANTA!  I will be all up in your sweet tea next month, doing a reading/signing of Big Big Love at Charis Books on the 11th at 7:30 pm.  I'll happily sign any of my other books, as well, if you bring 'em or buy 'em there.

I'll also be at the National Women's Studies Association conference that weekend… giving a paper, hanging out with my speakers' agency Soapbox, Inc. (taking bookings for spring!), and generally causing trouble.

Speaking of which, some of y'all need to tell me what the good date restaurants are near the downtown Sheraton.  They grow 'em cute in Georgia.  A girl needs to be prepared.