Spent most of the day hanging around Weber Tire while Carlos worked on the Toaster; he did a tuneup and replaced the clutch fan, so there'll be no more overheating or hesitation. This makes the prospect of driving up to Hunt Valley (change at Cockeysville) for Balticon tomorrow morning much less worrisome. Still have to take the first fan clutch back to Advance Auto Parts and get my $30 back, but that can wait. Way too fagged out to try doing it now, after falling asleep early last night and waking at 0230.

Finished C.J. Cherryh's Intruder and Protector, the two latest novels In the Foreigner universe. Much of the plot in these two novels revolves around atevi politics, as Bren Cameron and the aiji Tabini try their best to clean up after the civil war set off by the late usurper Murini - a task made more difficult as it becomes apparent Murini was just a puppet of shadowy forces to whom Tabini's wife Damiri may have man'chi. Add in the heir apparent Cajeiri's attaining the felicitous age of nine, his planning a birthday party involving his friends from the space station, and the subtle political machinations of aiji-dowager Ilisidi, and you have a couple of novels with a lot going on, even before Cajeiri's pet monkey* injects some slapstick humor into the proceedings. I think I may have missed the three preceding novels in the series and will have to go back and (re-)read them. Oh, the suffering. Anyway, like the vast majority of Cherryh's SF, these are highly recommended.

Opened up EVE for the first time in a couple of months and played with one of my alts for about an hour. Probably won't get around to doing anything with my main until Monday, though I might throw something in the training queue before I crash tonight.

Tomorrow I'll be getting up fairly early to blog, get cleaned up, and throw a change of clothes in the backpack along with some drugs before I head up to Balticon for the day. Supposed to be a nice day for a drive; we'll see how it goes.






*Okay, it's not a monkey, but it might as well be one.