More entropy.

It's no good, the tides of entropy are still high here. Or maybe the tides of mope, but it's more feeling overwhelmed with stuff that Needs Doing than just plain mopey.

markgritter is doing his part: he installed a new toilet seat last night and sleek new drawer pulls in the bathroom. Last night I pulled open a drawer, and the handle did not fall off and have to be propped back on (stripped screws) with much swearing. That made me feel better all by itself.

Unfortunately, it means that I'm seeing our other closet and drawer pulls with new eyes. Ick! How fussy! How very not-us! I would have said, if you'd asked me, that our closet and drawer pulls were really not much our style, but who thinks to do anything about it? How much difference could it make? (Um. Please don't cry, retrobabble. Don't tear your hair. It is nice hair. We've thought of it now, and that's something, isn't it?) So there may be an era of new pulls around here when I go to another hardware/home maintenance store, which I will have to do anyway due to absence of humidifer replacement parts at the last one. They're cheap. They're easy to install. And now I keep noticing the old ones, feeling and seeing them as I didn't before.

Anyway, surely the entropy must recede at some point, and in the meantime, there are stories to tell and clothes to wash. Pigs to slop, as matociquala would say. Gotta slop the pigs. Chop wood, draw water, and all that.

Also there is a note on my desk that says, "Social insurance of heroic death availability re: Valhalla," and that can't help but mean good things for the day to come, can it?

Short story, but.

Well, the good news is that I've finished my first short story of the year, and before Twelfth Night, and it's wintry like crazy.

The bad news is that it is not, as I hoped, "Carter Hall Lights the Lamp." Instead, it's "The Snow Queen and Milady de Winter." So...yah. Rather different.

Those of you who wanted a copy of "Carter Hall Lights the Lamp" at Christmas: do you want this instead, in addition to, or not at all? Let me know, e-mail or comments. (And anyone else who wants to speak up for this one but who didn't want "CHLtL," that's fine, too. E-mail or comments.) It is still possible that I will finish the Carter Hall story before the end of Dec. 6, so "in addition to" is an option. I just don't know whether it's a likely option or not. Brains. Very stubborn sometimes.

Also, if you want either of them and have a strong preference for a hard-copy instead of an e-mailed copy, speak up. E-mail will be my default, but I know that some of you just won't read an e-mailed story, and not through lack of desire.