Word count: 91054 | Since last entry: 2396

New Year’s Eve was a pirate-themed party at Willow Cottage. Despite the fact that we’d known for months about the theme, did we start work on our costumes before Thursday? We did not. And there wasn’t a decent tricorn hat to be found anywhere. So Kate knitted me one. Yes, she knitted a tricorn, and it was fabulous.

The party itself was a little strange at first, being populated by large numbers of young people that we didn’t know. Turns out this was the children of the household, who used to run around underfoot, then had their own party upstairs, and now were the party. After midnight things quieted down a bit and we got to chat with Howard and some of the other folks our own age. The first thing on the iPod when we got in the car to head home was “League of Notions” by Al Stewart, followed by “My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend” by Must Be Tuesday (MP3), which both seemed incredibly apropos in a difficult-to-explain way.

New Year’s Day brought the usual potluck brunch at the home of our friends Marc and Patty, which marks the 23rd anniversary of the day Kate and I met.

January 2nd we had a professional organizer come in and help us de-clutter. Kate blogged it, so I don’t have to. Personally, I got rid of at least three large boxes of papers and old diskettes (the diskettes are going to GreenDisk today) and we’re both jazzed up and will keep chipping away at it for the rest of this month.

All during this time I kept up with my quota of 1000 words a day. Sleep? What’s that?

And this morning I learned that “Titanium Mike Saves the Day” qualified for the Nebula preliminary ballot, with 12 recommendations. At least, it’s on the draft ballot that was posted this morning for inspection. So it’s on the preliminary preliminary ballot, and there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip. But it’s still very encouraging news.

More decluttering today, more writing, more great stuff. Happy 2008, all!