1. First up, for those of you who have read my book After the Burning: Princess

I hereby present, in miniature, the Island of Shantai:

I was surfing pictures while waiting for stuff on the stove to finish cooking and laughed out loud when I saw this. 🙂

2. This last week was seriously busy on the driving side. Going to just do “work” calls tonight, and Tuesday the car gets to go to the shop…I think I’ve got a CV joint starting to say “no mas”. I’d rather get er’ fixed before things get bad, but it is definitely making some occasional noises.

3. Writing is going as usual. (Good thing.)

4. As much as I–and many others– gripe about RTD (the bus system here in Denver), I have got to give credit where it is due. I’ve been prepping for my big vacation!(tm), and decided to check the routes to the airport + park and rides. Turns out A. it is much more reasonable than I had expected, and B. the times for pickup and drop off make it very simple for me to park the car in a covered lot, hop on a comfy (not kidding) bus and bop off to the airport….AND same thing on the return leg of the journey. All of this for about a 1/3 of the cheapest airport parking solutions and a LOT cheaper than cabs/uber/lyft/shuttles (I’m talking about the whole cost both ways, not just one direction). I was wondering how I was going to do the whole airport/n/back thing and now that is completely in the bag. (whew!)

4b. For those wondering why I, Mr. driver guy would go this route…our lovely airport  is located pretty close to the damn Kansas border (meaning a freakin’ long way away from anything). Cab runs out and back are expensive as all get out because of this.  Shuttle buses are a pain in the butt, and I don’t have “me” to take me there. (I’m cheaper, heh.)

5. Speaking of the vacation!(tm), just 23 days until I’m here (literally, as this is a view from one of the cabins) 😀 :