Still busy. I'm wrapping the year up this week, and won't be back at work until the first full week of the new year. I'm not planning to go anywhere - mmm, I've said that already. I'm just going to spend Christmas with Rob and Clarice, and otherwise lounge around.

So I'm trying to get last minute tasks out of the way, because I will not be available for a couple of weeks.

Last Saturday was one of Barry's oversized, overdressed, overindulgent parties. We both enjoy them, of course, but they are so not us. If you want to be seen, that's where to be.

Barry didn't have Josh this weekend, so we spent most of it catching up with Christmas shopping (bad time, I know). We're much better together when I'm not under his roof. I probably should say more about that when I have time.

Tomorrow, Yolanda's taking me to her office Christmas party. I was surprised that she asked, but she went with Laurel to hers, and wants a change. I suspect that her relationship status comes in for a lot of criticism at work. She's in a very conservative field. Fighting that all the time is a lot of stress, and I'm guessing she wants a break from it.

There's another story I've been working on for a long time. Well, "thinking about," rather than "working on," though I did get about half way through it once, many years ago, before I abandoned it.

At that time, it was of the X-Y situation A type, and when I came to rewrite it, I liked the situation, but didn't like the motivation, especially the girl's. A few days ago I had an idea that would resolve this problem for me, and I hope to have the story written and posted over this coming vacation.

Whine time. I'm seeing no reader response these days. That is what has kept me encouraged this past decade. It's a lot harder to become motivated to create a story when all you have to track are page counts. For all I know, only bots are reading the site these days.

I recognize that this is mainly my fault, with the sporadic site updates. I wish I'd been able to give the site the attention it needs in effort and imagination for the past few years, but I've done what I can.

Please, if you're still hanging in there, drop me a line - or, better, visit the forum and leave a word or two. Get a little conversation going, so that other visitors have more reason to be here.