As I type this it is only approximately 20 hours until the first event. I've been feeling the strain today, I complealy freaked and did nothing but read a book I was going to take, and made jewelry. I tend to do impractical things when I'm freaking. I spent a compleat day earlier this week, making the rest of the pages for the blog, and filling out the nessicary information on what events are where. Each day of the tour is posted, with the live events listed with time and location. And web-links if I could find them.
I am going to have to get a hold of myself, but I'm partially reveling in the insanity. I just have to remind myself that we're only going to be gone for three days, and then we get to come home for a little bit. Having my computer blow up on me is just a topper to the tier cake of stress that I've been baking.

That's another thing I do when I stress, bake. I turn into June Cleaver if there is going to be any social gathering at the house and I must bake at least one layer cake, decorate it and have it on some kind of display platter, or I don't feel that I'm being a good host. Our friend Karen, shares a similar form of this reaction, but she does more in the way of standard cooking ("Brisket for 150? sure I did that yesterday, It probably hasn't frozen yet.") I know people who mop the floor, or who ceaselessly organize a given room until the stress passes. Me, I bake. I've been avoiding the kitchen of late, because if I stay there too long, I'll bake something, and with us leaving in a few day's, it would be wasted, and just attract more ants.

So, here is a big shout out to all those people out there who become more domestic when their world is being upset. You are not alone, and I'll give you a cake if you'd mop my floor or clean my closet...

Not much today. More shopping, less fun. Went and got new luggage for the tour, as we needed them. Also picked out / up our new glasses. And a few new shoes. that's about it. Going to call it a early evening, as we need the rest.

My Main computer is still down, and I'm working through the secondary computer. Soon I'll transfer to a tertiary computer for the duration.
Darla has told me of your requests for a message board of some kind over here, and I've given the go-ahead for that to happen, so hopefully that will happen soon.

We've gotten a look at our itinerary of the tour, and boy-howdy are w going to be busy!. Laurell is currently scheduled for more TV than ever before. and the scuttlebutt from our publicist is that if international news doesn't get more "interesting," we may be approached for even more. We're sort of torn between hoping that things aren't any more interesting because things are over with, and hoping things are more interesting because things are over with. Neither of us expect this to be done with by the end of April, but we do hope that as many of our service people as reasonably possible, are unharmed.

All the media is great, but is dose fill our already busy schedual. But the only thing we can do is to Grin, Bear it, and make the best use of our down time to rest and recuperate.

Nothing new today. Just us going to the doctor, making sure we are healthy enough to go on tour, which we are. Me getting a new Driver's License so I have a valid ID to get through the airports. And shopping for more clothes. we are sick of shopping for clothes. I'm having trouble remaining cheerful today. but it could be that I'm doing yesterday's blog entry... Or it could be that my main desktop computer blew up yesterday and I'm working through a secondary computer... but that could just be my own personal gripe.

More shopping today. But nothing fun happened this time out. no, not this time. no today, we went shopping for jeans and spring coats. Did you know that apparently all the spring fashion and other clothes were sent back to the manufacturers around mid-february? I didn't. I'm looking for a nice spring weight trench coat and I can't find one for the life of me. I have two coats, both leather, neither with a removable liner. so they are heavy, both in weight and in warmth. I haven't had a spring coat since my jean-jacket died an honorable death last year. I found a jacket today that makes me look like I should be pumping gas in the 1950s, and it was on a sale rack. We've gotten so desperate for light-weight coats, I've almost started trying on women's coats. If I didn't have such broad shoulders,(though Laurell often comments that I carry her purse better than she dose because of them...) I'd have seriously tried that.
And we couldn't find jeans to save our lives. I cleaned out a major department store of the one style of jeans I wear, and I didn't have enough of them to meet my needs. And Laurell is having similar problems with her section. Oh well. This is why I took the kiddo out to get my comics this afternoon and let Laurell have the two hour bath she's been craving.

I love comics. I have since I got my first comic lo these many years ago. (Transformers #1 from Marvell for those of you keeping track.) I have sustained a habit that once exceeded my income by orders of magnitude. I'm down to maybe a dozen titles a month, with a regular pull-and-hold file at my local shop. I've been going there regularly for about four years now, and I know most of the staff on sight. I try to go in once a week and pick up my file, and talk with them about TV, Movies, Comics or Gaming. Its a nice little shop in one of the many municipalities that make up St. Louis, and they have been around for some time. In fact they have several locations throughout the Metro area and I don't see them folding any time soon. I like that. It gives me a place to go and talk to people that don't look at me odd for wearing my Spider-Man 2099 t-shirt, or for knowing the value of my comic collection better than I know my cell phone number. I like the guys that work there, and they have turned me on to several series that I would never have looked at if they hadn't recommended them. I've also had the joy of introducing Trinity to comics, and to collectible card games. Today, she picked up her first comic and cards. I was very pleased. So pleased in fact that I'm springing for card sleeves for her.

Before you applaud my generous nature, know that I have ulterior motives. I have every intention of hooking the kiddo on my other guilty pleasure that you find at gaming stores... Miniature Battles. < VBEG > I can still remember having her ask if she could play against me when I got a table top space battle game. I told her that she would have to be able to read a little better than she could, but when she could read the rules, I'd teach her to play. Now that she is reading better, I'll see if she is still interested, but I think she will be. I often catch her having imaginary battles between her stuffed toys and her Barbies.

So I'm going to go now and curl up on the couch and read my new comics and watch as my daughter helps the 7th Barbie regiment take hill 123 from the forces of the Furred League.

The First day of Spring. And the wonderful spring air is poisoning us. Our Allergies have hit high speed, and as such we are feeling miserable. but not to worry, this is normal for us at this time of year. ;-) We have learned to adjust to the fact that the air itself is attempting to kill us.
But it is nice to see the flowers begin to bloom and all the green and growing things to burst forth from the earth once more. It gives us a sense of renewed hope that no matter what happens, the earth will continue to turn and things will continue to grow, and none of our problems are all that big a deal. Spring is the time when I take the long view, and see all that is possible with just a little effort.

Laurell has gotten in to the mood of spring and has been reading poetry looking for a good Spring poem. I think that looking in The Compleat Works of Rudyard Kipling is not the place to look.... But she is nothing if not persistent.

Today Laurell actually got to write! She's deep into the third Merry Gentry book, SEDUCED BY MOONLIGHT. Not only do we have to prepare for the tour and get all that done, but she also needs to still be writing. Its what pays the bills and what makes it so that we have a book to tour for. Yesterday afternoon, a new pair of boots came all the way from England. They looked awfully narrow to Laurell. So narrow she almost didn't want to try them on, but I persuaded her. Once on, they fit! They fit and she agreed they looked really cool. They have little buckles in the shape of bats. Laurell was worried they'd look too cutsey. I assured her they didn't look cutsey, other adjectives came to mind, but we'll leave those up to your imagination. All I need to do now is find something to put on the sole to give them a bit more traction, as they have absolutely no tread.

It's been a day. It started well, with bacon for everyone, and hot tea for Laurell and I. Then the sudden dawning that today was picture day at school and we hadn't planned for it. When I was in elementary school, there was only one picture day all year. Today was our daughter's third this year, so we're running out of outfits. Add to this the adventure of trying to get her pig tails even, (does the phrase Picasso Pig tails mean anything to you?) and we almost missed the bus. I had managed to get the kiddo off to school only to see Laurell running to the bus whirling what looked like a black-jack over her head. I was mistaken, it was a plum in a plastic bag for Trinity's snack. Not long after this, Laurell went to get her eyebrows waxed and has just returned. I love my wife dearly, but why you would do something that causes your eyebrows to swell this much is beyond my understanding. She says that it will be compleatly gone in 3 days and I believe her, but still... [3/19 I talked with her and she says that waxing her eyebrows will have them look better longer, and that it hurts lest than having them plucked one at a time. I guess I understand it. She assures me that if my eyebrows were any less than perfect, I'd be doing it myself.] Anyway, tonight she's taping an interview with a local radio station that will be aired on the Sunday, and we have to plan our wardrobe. Even though its "only radio" and no one will see how she is dressed, it counts in our minds as a public appearance and as such our appearance matters. I believe that if you are a professional and are doing your job, you should look professional. I'm lucky that Laurell agrees.

Happy St. Patty's Day, everybody. This is sort of a trial run. My husband and I are thinking about doing a journal about the tour. But since neither of us has ever kept a journal for longer than two weeks at a time, we thought we'd practice. So, really, this is a journal about getting ready for tour. All the little things that you never think of as important, until you are about to spend a month away from home. Little things, like having enough food for our dogs, or that the person that you're having over to house-sit knows how much food to give the fish, and how often. Its all the stuff you do before a vacation, but more so. The biggest difference between tour and a vacation is packing. On vacation we get to pack shorts and t-shirts, jogging shoes, hiking boots. On tour we pack suits, ties, skirts, hosiery, and boots. But these are so not boots for hiking. These are boots for walking around in, yes, but the biggest thing is that they look fabulous. The truly uncomfortable footwear, stays homes. Because on tour, unlike vacation, you cannot control how long you'll be on your feet, and how long it will be until you reach some place where you can take your shoes off. We want to look good, but not torture ourselves. We do not do cruel shoes. Mainly, as my husband just said as he read this over my shoulder, because you can't run through an airport in them. Not unless you want to break an ankle. All those people more physically coordinated than we are, that can run full out in spike heels, more power to you. We bow in the presence of such accomplishment, but we'd hurt ourselves.