michaeldthomas

How the hell is it 2011 already?!?! Seriously, it feels like we just did that whole Millennium thing. I am not a fan of this whole time-moving-quicker-as-I-get-older thing.

We had a quiet evening last night. Caitlin spent most of the morning crying every 20 minutes due to cramping and soreness. Thankfully, she felt better by the afternoon. Lynne and I "celebrated" New Year's Eve with Chinese food and awful television. At least we were together and not in a hospital. We should have friends stopping by today and tomorrow. That will be nice.

2010 was a phenomenal year for us. Like any year, it had highs and lows.

The bad:

1- My grandfather passed away.
2- Caitlin's hip surgery.
3- My big nonfiction commission was put on indefinite hiatus.
4- I didn't write anything good enough for publication.

The wonderful:

1- Caitlin stayed healthy and had a successful surgery.
2- We continued to have amazing friendships and met some new wonderful people.
3- Chicks Dig Time Lords was a major success for Lynne and Tara, leading to book signings, our first Gallifrey One convention, fanart, fanvids, interviews, convention guest invitations, and fantastic reviews. We even impressed a few famous people who worked on the show. It's been an phenomenal ride.
4- I met all of my writing goals and completed another novel.
5- Lynne and Deb finished Whedonistas.
6- The NIU SF collection grew and Lynne was even interviewed for Locus.
7- Caitlin rocked her communication device and had a smooth transition to a new school.
8- We went on an amazing Make-A-Wish trip.
9- Lynne started two SEEKRIT PROJECTS that will be big deals in the next couple of months.

2010 was a magical year for us. Let's hope 2011 continues this trend.

We couldn't have done it without all of you. Thank you for your love and support last year. You made us feel like the richest people in Bedford Falls. :-)

We were having THE BEST WEEK EVER. The Gallifrey One Convention was fantastic, Caitlin received her communication device, the early buzz about Chicks Dig Time Lords has been amazing, and we had a wonderful time with mirrorthaw and truepenny during their stay in DeKalb for an author event.

Well, that's over.

My grandfather's bladder cancer took a turn for the worse. He's in excruciating pain. The doctors say there is nothing left to do for him other than heavy drugs and hospice.

My grandfather has been like a father to me. He's a phenomenal man. Even though he's 86, none of us are ready for this. It's especially hard to have his razor-sharp brain dulled in his final days.

Please keep him and my family in your thoughts and prayers.

maryrobinette just passed along the news that Kage Baker is fighting cancer. It sounds pretty grim.

Please keep Kage in your thoughts. She's an amazing woman. We met her at Odd Con a couple of years ago. One of the high points of my life was attending a panel where Kage and Lynne discussed why art was valuable to the three of us in the audience (they were up against grrm's GoH speech). Kage is one of the greatest SF/F authors of our time. Lynne is very proud to be her archivist.

As some of you may remember, my grandfather has been in poor health. He's been feeling awful recently, so my family finally convinced him to get checked out by his doctor. His blood work showed very low levels of hemoglobin, so they got him in for a CAT scan. They had suspected bladder cancer for some time, so nobody was surprised when they found a tumor.

My grandfather is 85 and lost my grandmother a year ago. He doesn't want any treatment, not even a blood transfusion to boost his hemoglobin levels.

This is very hard for me. I'm very close to my grandfather. He's pretty much my father figure. There was a time that I was seriously thinking about changing my last name to his.

In other sad news, we've decided that we need to bring Xander back to the shelter. He keeps attacking Caitlin. After he chewed through her feeding tubes, we decided that we would have to bring him back if he hurt Caitlin or her equipment again since Caitlin's safety obviously comes first.  He's decided that it's fun to gnaw on Cait's left ear. Caitlin can't defend her left side, so he ends up making her ear all red. Xander doesn't draw blood, but it does make her cry. During the day, I've been pulling him off and correcting him. Last night, Xander decided that this would be a fun game at 4am.  That's obviously unacceptable. He's also still chewing up any plastic that he can find. He bit right through a phone cord yesterday.

He can be such a sweet kitten. I really want to keep him, but we can't risk him seriously hurting Cait.

rarelylynne already chronicled the joyful aspects of meeting with the Make-A-Wish Wish Team. Caitlin is still giddy a couple of days later. I’m now going to write about the other side of Caitlin getting a Make-A-Wish wish granted.
( Cut for painful, brutal honesty. Feel free to skip this uncomfortable entry. )

After a week of a mega-cold that followed her big seizure, Caitlin is finally feeling better. She had a good day at school. At least she will get in a week of work before the holiday break. This also means that I will finally get to work on some writing this week. The lack of production is making my brain go peculiar.

Like much of the country, we were hit by a cold front last night. I have to say, the new windows are really making a difference. We barely felt the 40 degree temperature plummet last night.

There's not much else going on around here. Tonight we will be making up holiday cards. With luck, they may reach people early next week.

Just finished reading: The Writer's Tale by Russell T Davies and Ben Cook
Currently reading: Goblin Hero by Jim C. Hines

Well, that week sucked. I feel pretty beat up from the IEP meeting, big seizures, vomiting, rarelylynne working two evenings, David Tennant announcing the end of his Doctor Who tenure, and the fights with bureaucrats who combined their incompetence with a total lack of empathy.

Not that we didn't have many happy things in the mix. The IEP meeting went well, Caitlin had a wonderful birthday party at school in her regular kindergarten class, Lynne's event with her new BFF Peter Sagal went well, she and her co-author sent a draft of their academic book off to their publisher, and our friends eeknight and chats_noir announced that they're expecting a baby.

I think I could use some time off. :)

Not surprisingly, I didn't get too much writing done this week. I made some progress on the novel revisions. I should finish the damn thing before WindyCon. I keep chugging away at the Doctor Who project. I will move a lot quicker once the novel is off with my early readers. It's very hard to work on two writing projects when all hell is breaking loose on the Caitlin front.

Now we're off to Caitlin's third birthday party of the week. This time, it's with my family.