Consumerism

                            PHOTO: NASA/Jeff Williams

OVERHEAD:  A post on social media today let us know that "Monday night's break in the weather proved beneficial for photography from the International Space Station." The pic above is of the Seattle area. I can see our neighborhood, for sure.

My question is why I didn't get the typical "Hey, the ISS is flying over your house tonight" email from NASA that I usually do? It makes me wonder how often it flies over that I don't know about. I guess we need to be more proactive and check maps and paths for ourselves instead of waiting for the auto notice.

PREPPERS:  Today we went to nine different stores. Nine. NINE. Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe shopping? Of course I have. So you can imagine how joyous it was to visit NINE stores. We did pretty well, though, efficiently knocking items off the 'to procure' list. We're trying to get ready for a class we're teaching on Friday (edible art), and a luncheon we're helping with next week. 

And because that wasn't enough, right now, I'm staring at the clock thinking that Amazon "same day" delivery has failed me yet again. My deliver was supposed to be here before 8 p.m. and it's quarter after. I'm giving it another half hour before I hop online to chat with a stranger somewhere about how they've done me wrong and they'll tell me they're very sorry and offer to extend my Prime membership for a month for free. I've been to this rodeo before. I sure hope I'm wrong. It would be great to be wrong. I've been reading comments on social media from others about how Amazon's promised shipping times and reality have diverged more and more in recent months. Not encouraging ...

UPDATE: A delivery car rolled into our alley at 8:30 or so. Hooray! I will sleep better tonight knowing the cupcake boxes and liners are waiting for me in the kitchen tomorrow. Because one cannot live without cupcake boxes and liners, you know.

TO MARKET, TO MARKET: We've been studying the "Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market 2016" trying to decide where to send the picture book manuscripts we've finished. We've decided to shop them to an agent first (instead of straight to a publisher). We think we've identified our number one target. Hopefully, we won't be on target number 387 a few months from now.