NYC Edition

In no particular order:

1. Comfortable flights.
2. Hamilton walking tour.
3. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
4. The Met.
5. Serenata.
6. Dairy Queen.
7. Hot dogs from street vendors.
8. NY pizza in general.
9. The Strand.
10. Spyscape. (I'm a Spycatcher!)
11. Central Park Zoo.
12. Friends who let you stay in their beautiful apartments while they're away.
13. Terraces.
14. Thunderstorms.
15. Coming home to kitties.

1. Fairly efficient packing.
2. An agent asked to read my manuscript.
3. Blue Exorcist.

As you might guess from the "packing" part, I'll be traveling again and therefore not updating here for a week. Come back to see ALL the good things that happen in NYC!

1. I recently rediscovered my tumblr. Mostly as a place to shelve fanfic snippets. And today someone there messaged me and told me I'm wonderful, and that felt beyond good.
2. Bagels. Fresh ones.
3. Homemade lemon meringue pie.

1. A lunch disaster ended up being a happy accident. We tried to eat at one of our favorite places, but the staff just couldn't get it together, so we decamped and had a fantastic lunch at another restaurant.
2. Kids got good reports from the orthodontist.
3. Sangria.

1. Freshly painted finger- and toenails.
2. Finding a wonderful new bakery.
3. Working with a colorist to choose paint for the house.

It was a really busy day, actually, so the best thing about it is that it's over.

1. Finished reading a great book.
2. Wrote some more.
3. Good first PTA meeting of the new school year.

1. Good morning walks. (Yes, plural.)
2. More writing. But also lots of reading.
3. A nice time at a friend's house that included writing critique but also just hanging out.

1. Slightly cooler today, which made for a nice morning walk.
2. Found a fun new place to try for lunch.
3. A little more writing done.

1. Went to a social function and totally behaved.
2. Got a bit more writing done.
3. Tried Holmes of Kyoto and thought it was really cute.

1. More writing.
2. More reading.
3. Mostly lazy day.

1. A little bit of writing.
2. A lot of reading.
3. Chose someone to paint the house.

1. Getting closer to finding someone to paint the house.
2. Found a video that encapsulates my feelings about Sherlock. (I don't like to talk about it, and now I don't have to!)
3. Thai food.

1. Good morning walk.
2. Writing.
3. Hubby brought me dinner when we realized the orange chicken had real orange in it (I'm allergic).

1. Breakfast out with my boys.
2. Constructive writing group meeting.
3. Brownies, lovingly made by my husband and daughter.

1. Swimming in a cute new suit.
2. Morning walk.
3. Showing the kids Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Though I did have to explain the slang use of "bogus."

1. Finally finished writing a chapter that seemed to be going on forever.
2. Reading.
3. Finding new anime to watch.

1. Bowling. I'm getting better. Not that the bar was very high to begin with.
2. Seeing my daughter have so much fun at the barn. She's happy just to be helping. She mucked stalls, cleaned tack, turned out and bathed horses. Genki desu.
3. Showing our oldest Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I have issues with the underlying themes of that movie (never read the manga), but it's still fun. And lots of fun to watch my son watch it.

1. More writing.
2. More exercise.
3. Clean house.

1. Releasing silkworm moths into the wild.
2. A nice walk on a cool morning.
3. Writing again.

1. Going on safari with the family.
2. Eating at a favorite restaurant that is two hours from home, so it's a rare treat to eat there.
3. Beautiful weather.

Paris Edition

1. Business class
2. The generosity of old friends
3. Ice cream on hot days
4. Bread, butter, frites, ramen . . . so much great food
5. Having locals tell me my French is pretty good
6. Navigating the Metro
7. Nike of Samothrace
8. Versailles
9. Sweet little (air conditioned!) hotel rooms with skylights over the bed
10. Rosaries*
11. Gorgeous views
12. Surviving stairs . . . so many stairs . . .
13. Watching home improvement shows in French
14. Coming home

In short, a fabulous trip. But exhausting!

*I buy a rosary every time I visit a cathedral. I guess I collect them, more or less. This time I bought one at Notre Dame and one at Sacré-Coeur.