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Due to bad decisionmaking on my part, ended up with four to six copies of most of the calendar items listed in my Palm calendar over a several-month period. Slowly started to delete them, but have a ways yet to go.

Decided not to go to World Fantasy this year. Will be sad to miss y'all. Have lots of fun!

Went to Kat B's going-away party. Sadness! But at least I'll have a couple of keepsakes to remind me of her: I bought two of her framed artworks (the original of "Watching the books fly home at eventide" and a print of "Well read by moonlight"), and I found a complete socket set in the toolbox in the pile of free stuff she was giving away.

Reached the first anniversary of my starting my new job. Which meant my stock options began to vest, so I cashed some of them in. This is the first time that I've gotten a significant return on stock options, after fifteen years working in Silicon Valley; I'm very pleased. (I should note that my not-very-lucrative past history with stock options has a lot to do with my own tendency to be highly risk-averse, and a fair bit to do with my own procrastination, and only somewhat to do with bad luck and bad timing; if anyone's to blame, it's me.) (I should also note that my recent exercise of options wasn't huge by Silicon Valley standards; I'm not a millionaire now or anything. But it was plenty more than I expected when I started the job (based on past stock-option experiences), so I'm very happy about it.)

Went to comic store for first time in a very long time; bought and read a bunch of the comic book Y: The Last Man, which I liked so much that I'll be writing a review of it for SH soon.

Have had several odd encounters with animals in the wild lately, but that's worth an entry of its own.

Have been staying up way too late and sleeping way too late.

Rearranged my workspace at work, with the help of some very indulgent Facilities people.

Had a particularly productive week at work last week.

Talked with my manager about taking some unpaid leave when I finish my current projects. I really should've done that earlier in the year. Everything feels like it's rushing by; I need to spend some time just sitting still, having time to think about things, picking up some dropped threads, getting some stuff done around the house, replying to some long-overdue email, and so on. Maybe I will also start thinking about having a housewarming party (only two years late), and maybe I'll try to start back in on the fiction writing. Not sure when this time off will happen, but I'm hoping it'll be relatively soon.

Spent most of this morning and afternoon occasionally coughing and/or having a drippy nose. Eventually concluded that perhaps it wasn't just dust in the air, perhaps I was actually getting sick and should head home. So I did. Feel somewhat better now; we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Finally finished watching the first season of Mad About You on DVD with Kam. Some of it is very funny and totally charming and really sweet; I'm still a sucker for stories about people who really care about each other. Some of it is remarkably dark and sad for a sitcom. Some of it is pretty extreme humor-of-embarrassment, but somehow it feels less mean-spirited than a lot of such; it's not quite humor of humiliation. Also, Helen Hunt has a stunning smile, and Paul Reiser can be really charmingly endearing. But I'm not sure I'm gonna keep watching; I'm only really liking about one episode in every three or four. Maybe this is yet another series where I should get someone to make me a best-of list.