So what's been happening the past month?

BIG NEWS: Since Wednesday evening, we are hosting a refugee from Hurricane Katrina. Picture coming soon. A 12 week old shepherd (mix?) or an Australian cattle dog. Not sure which. The little guy is traumatized and very shy. Our goal as foster parents is to get him socialized and give him a home until his family claims him or he's able to be adopted. He's already bonded with our oldest cat -- the one who missed our old dog the most. The other two have been MIA except for feeding time.

Huge, 50 year old maple next to our house brought down and chopped up over the last four days. Very sad -- the oldest tree on our lot -- first tree my grandparents planted -- but splitting down the middle. It took three and a half days and two people and two chainsaws. Saved us $2,500 doing it ourselves. Thank goodness for dads who are retired and have power tools. We now have sun where none was found before and a lot more yard. I'm totally in love with his electric 2.5 amp chainsaw.

The Twin Cities Book Fest. Always fun to catch up with the Rain Taxi and Minnesota literary crowd. We were there armed with 'zines and chapbooks. Sales were up from last year. Wish there were more participants for the Twin City genre scene, though.

A trip to Fargo/Moorhead with my dad for a family wedding and time to tour Moorhead to see my dad's old house and neighborhood.

A visit to The Wildcat Sanctuary to meet with Executive Director Tammy Quist, to see if there was any way I could help and to trade resources. We may need to start a support group for directors of nonprofits who are trying to go from volunteer to paid staff. I felt very privileged to be able to tour the sanctuary with her since it's closed to the public for the cats' sakes. So many sad stories. I can't believe people take these wild animals for pets. It's a labor of love for Tammy and has consumed her whole life. They have a great website. You should visit it. As the only wildcat sanctuary in the upper midwest, she deserves our support.

I finished a story! After battling through a year of frequent bouts of writing but not finishing anything/not writing, I have completed a novella. Feels very good.

More basement stuff but we're all getting bored of that. I'll have pictures for comments soon.