Today I was finally feeling better about things. Putting things into perspective and trying to concentrate on my work. Telling myself that I really have done a good thing for Tom and that he probably has not seen his birthday greeting yet. Then I made the mistake of sharing it with my boss. She and I share certain aspects of our private life that we don't tell others at work simply because they would not get it. She has a strange "friend" relationship with a semi-well-known rock singer and I have my Hollanderianism. She and I were both the only ones in our office that were going crazy waiting for the last two PotC films to come out and we even took our husbands on a double date to the first day DMC was out. It was planned months in advance. So today she says to me today, in an email and out of the blue that she misses that excitement we had waiting for it. So I decided to confide in her in my conflict of emotions over the Tommy birthday show. I told her all about it and sent her the link. She emailed me back saying she was almost crying over it. That made me feel good because it was pretty touching. At least I thought so. But then she said he did not deserve it. He was JUST an actor. I got really defensive and reminded her that he is NOT just an actor. He is a human being. And furthermore he DOES deserve it. I was nice about it...after all she IS my boss. But it made me think. I am getting a lot of that when people ask if he has responded to it. She is one of the people that said if it was her she would shut down Thomagination. So then comes a sad song on my iPod...something that reminded me of him...hit advance...next track...MacHeath belting out The Knocking Shoppe Tango...advance...Tom reading Roald Dahl's Georgy Porgy...advance again...Mad World. Turn off iPod before I have to explain my mood. Go to lunch.

Come back from lunch and get thrown a curve ball. My co-worker informs me that she will be out for 6 weeks for some Union crap. It gets better...she starts on Monday and has not informed the bosses yet...but that is OK with her because they are not allowed to deny her this. Thanks Katy. Now it will just be two of us to do all the work of four designers because they have laid one of them off. That part was good. He was not a good fit, made way more money than us and spent his entire day on iTunes. Not to mention coming in late, taking extended lunches (once he didn't even return from lunch and never called...we thought he died!) and leaving early.

On the good news front Jason is recovering well and in a month we get to go to Oakland and visit the munchkin and his parents.

Hehe. I can't wait. So...life is a little weird but it could always be worse...and I must take my daughter's advice and remember that EVERYTHING happens for a reason. We may not know what it is right away but it is true. Better days are coming.

I have not written anything here since way back in May. I guess I am just hesitant to put my thoughts down because all it sounds like is a bunch of whining. With the exception of February 9 and July 1, this has been a year of crap. February 9 is known to most so I won't go on about it again. July 1 was the day that our precious grandson Colin made his debut in the world.

It was very tough worrying about our daughter Karin through a difficult pregnancy and a little scary witnessing the birth (only because it is painful to watch your own child go through something you know is one of the hardest things a woman can go through. She was a trooper though and our little guy is a blessing.

I am so excited! Today when I checked the Google Search for Tom Hollander to see where Thomagination comes up it was 4th on page ONE! Actually 3rd if you consider the OTHER Tom Hollander from Microsoft does not count! Yahooooooooo!

Got Mel's Chronometer page layout roughed in. Still need to go back and fine-tune it. This one is almost 4 times as many pages as Longitude.

We are still searching for images of Norry for the cover on this one. May have to call upon Steve Taylor to pose for us. hehe.

I am so thrilled that Mel is happy with the way Longitude came out. I am anxious to continue with Chronometer. It is going to be about triple the size.

I have been enjoying the thought of making handmade books as of late. Currently I am in the process of making one for a friend and it is so much fun for me that I wish I could do it all the time.

When I am messing around in PhotoShop making the covers or laying out the pages I get into a kind of zen-like "zone" where time just slips by. I could literally do it all day and all night.

I am home sick again today. Hopefully I can kick this before the weekend. I do not want to go to Oakland for the big 3-0 birthday bash if I am sick.

At least it is slow at work so I don't feel too terribly guilty.

This morning I was greeted by not one but two emails from Pierre. I had completely stopped our conversation regarding the "Mystery Actor" but he keeps dredging it up. I really did not care who it was. There are only a few select individuals that interest me. As is his usual MO the emails went on and on. Apparently he could not stand it and had to divulge the person.

Bud Cort. Harold & Maude. Yes, a very talented actor and a sad life story but the really interesting part is that Irene and I were just talking about Harold & Maude last night! How weird is THAT? AND even more strange is that while we were talking about what a great classic film it is SHE just happened to be listening to Cat Stevens! Wow. Spooky.

Going to run over to Amazon and order a copy of H & M now.......