It's time once again for Sheryl's annual birthday party/housefilk, which we'll host at our townhouse in Rockville on Sunday, April 9th, from 2pm til 7pm. (Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!)

We'll have plenty of noms on hand, but feel free to bring munchies or beverages. And instruments, of course! Kids OK, we have TVs for keeping them occupied if needed.

There are two felines in residence, although they will probably both hide under our bed. There is also a certain adorably cute toddler in residence, who will be causing the usual amounts of chaos, mayhem, and destruction.

Comment, message or e-mail me if you need directions.

We're fairing much better than New York or New England, but nonetheless the roads are snowy or icy enough (and the Metro running on a reduced schedule) that my office and Sam's day care both closed for the day. The government had a dalayed opening, but Sheryl decided to take the day. (Since it really takes both of us to even barely keep certain energetic toddlers out of trouble. To the extent one can with a toddler.) So it's a snow day for the whole family. This means later we can actually use the snow bib that came with Sam's winter jacket. Unfortunately, he's too young to help shovel out our cars, but at least he can roll around in the front yard.

Thankfully we're in a quiet period at work, so my schedule can easily accommodate a day off. Gives me more time to work on my NCAA brackets (*grin*).

And here's February's list. Continuing the usual early-year scramble to get through as many of the 2016 books still on my TBR bookcase as I can before the Hugo nominating deadline. (I will, of course, fail to get through all of them.) Also notable is the late-month attempt to actually read a couple of books by African-American authors during Black History Month. I managed two; it would have been three if one of my holds on The Obelisk Gate had come through sooner.

1. Bridging Infinity, Jonathan Strahan (anthology) - The latest anthology in the series features 15 stories of vast construction and engineering projects in our solar system and beyond. My favorite stories were Pat Murphy and Paul Doherty's "Cold Comfort" and Tobias Buckell and Karen Lord's "The Mighty Slinger".

2. Envy of Angels, Matt Wallace (novella) - The chefs of Sin du Jour cater some of the strangest events ever, serving dishes that would make a Kitchen Stadium chef blanch. This is the first of the novella series; #2 and #3 will show up in my March reads.

3. Darkly Human, Laura Anne Gilman (collection)

4. Steeplejack, A.J. Hartley - Won this ARC early last year on Tor.com, finally got around to reading it. A teen girl working for a gang repairing brick chimneys and steeples finds herself investigating a murder and theft. Hartley's city of Bar-Selehm is based on 19th-century South Africa, with all the social, cultural and racial tensions that implies. Well written, made me feel for the main character when she's at her lowest points. Probably shouldn't read if you're afraid of heights (*grin*).

5. Apex Magazine #93 (February 2017)

6. Lightspeed Magazine #81 (February 2017)

7. A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers - I've heard it said this tale of the quirky crew of the wormhole drilling ship Wayfarer will appeal to Firefly fans. I agree with the sentiment; this was a fun read. For example, the Wayfarer's mechanic is basically Kaylee after several cups of coffee and a box of pixie sticks.

8. Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly - It was interesting reading this after seeing the movie and comparing the real history with the Hollywood version. In many ways, there was actually less sexism and racism at Langley than was portrayed on screen. For example, if the book is to be believed, Katherine Johnson didn't have to run back and forth between buildings to use the bathrooms; nobody really policed the supposedly-separate bathrooms. And she seems to have been accepted by the engineers in the Flight Research Division pretty quickly. OTOH, Johnson really did talk her way into the engineering meetings and Mary Jackson did petition the court to be allowed to attend night classes at the whites-only high school.

9. 11/22/63, Stephen King - February's choice for $EMPLOYER's book club. Reminded me why I don't tend to read time travel or alternate history novels. Also, the phrase "too big to edit" applies here!

10. Everfair, Nisi Shawl - I can see why Shawl's alternate history/steampunk tale set in a nation carved from King Leopold's Congo made several best-of-2016 lists. My only complaint is that it dives a bit into magic realism towards the end; I'm not fond of that genre. Nonetheless, some of the best writing and descriptions of setting of any 2016 works I've read.

Just when I thought I was mostly recovered from Boskone, I got jumped by a cough and mild fever over the weekend. Could be delayed con crud, could be something picked up sometime during the work week.

It was a good con. The music program once again kept me busy. I shared a children's concert with mewsic, had a 30-minute set of my own, was part of Song Sequitur, contributed several songs to the Cat Songs Sing-Along, and was on a panel on Worldbuilding in Songs. I'm not sure how many kids were actually paying attention to MEW and me since the previous hour's activity building robots out of cardboard boxes, pipe cleaners, and empty 8mm film reels slopped over into the concert. OTOH, spending an hour hanging out with MEW and trading songs is its own reward, regardless of who else is listening.

For the Cat Songs, I did Cindy McQuillin's "Bedlam Cats" and "Bella-Chow-Chow-Chow", Cat Faber and Callie Hills' "I Meant to Do That", and my own "Key West Kitty". I propped Sam's stuffed kitty on a chair as our mas-cat.

Other than my stuff, the only music program I made it to was part of Lorraine Garland and Lojo Russo's concert. The only non-filk programs we made it to were Fran Wilde's Kaffeklatsch (which she merged with Esther Friesner's FTW) and reading, and the Muddle of Mad Scientists' panel (which included Jordin Kare). Most of the other items I would potentially have been interested in were at the same time as program items I was committed to. Ah well, it happens.

We took advantage of the surprisingly pleasant weather (and enough time in our schedule) to get out of the hotel for several meals, making it down to Legal Harborside for dinner on Friday, Papagayo for dinner on Saturday, and No Name Restaurant for lunch on Sunday.

Sam did reasonably well on the train up and back. We had his monkey backpack leash, so I could take him for a stroll up and down the train. He also did his share of watching out the window at the passing scenery. We managed to snag a set of facing seats each way, which makes life a bit easier.

Set list for my concert:

Hey Commander (words me, ttto "Hey Conductor" by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer)
Through a Child's Eyes (words and music me)
Builder's Song (words and music me)
Bridge Shanty (words and music me)
Princesses' Waltz (words me, ttto "Witnesses Waltz" by Leslie Fish)
Songs Flying Free (words and music me)

Those familiar with my repertoire will spot a new title in there. I "borrowed" Leslie's tune to write a song about the Women's March. It went over well (*grin*).

Meant to get this up earlier. Here's my schedule for Boskone:


Worldbuilding in Songs
Friday 20:00 - 21:00, Lewis (Westin)

In a song, you only have a few minutes to draw the audience into a world and tell your story. If your song is set in an original world, rather than an off-the-shelf one, you have to pack all your worldbuilding into those few minutes. In this panel, we'll talk about songs that do this well, and how they do it. Benjamin Newman, Gary Ehrlich, Ellen Kranzer (M)

Kids Concert With Gary Ehrlich and Mary Ellen Wessels
Saturday 11:00 - 12:00, Galleria - DragonsLair (Westin)

Gary Ehrlich Concert
Saturday 12:30 - 13:00, Lewis (Westin)

Song Sequitur
Saturday 15:00 - 16:00, Lewis (Westin)

Join our panel of performers for this impromptu round robin, where every song must "follow" the previous song... somehow. Benjamin Newman, Roberta Rogow, Gary Ehrlich, Lojo Russo, Lorraine Garland

Cat Songs Sing-Along
Sunday 14:00 - 15:00, Lewis (Westin)

Come sing along to some of our favorite filk and folk songs about cats! Lyrics will be projected. Lorraine Garland, Lojo Russo, Gary Ehrlich

A good list to start the year. As usual, it helps that I started a couple of things in late December but finished them in January so I count them for 2017.

1. Borderline, Mishell Baker - Gained some note last year for featuring a double-amputee, suicide survivor with borderline personality disorder as its heroine. The first in the Arcadia Project series of urban fantasy novels set in and around L.A. and Hollywood. If you like snarky heroines (a la Toby Daye) you'll like this.

2. Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee

3. Infomocracy, Malka Older - With a plot that comments on voter participation, party politics, hacked elections and the role of fact-checkers, this is an astoundingly well-timed near-future political thriller. And a debut novel to boot!

4. Four Roads Cross, Max Gladstone

5. Arabella of Mars, David D. Levine - Steampunk sailing ships IN SPAAAACE, with a taste of Sweet Polly Oliver to boot. A fun read for fans of sea stories and/or Enlightenment. Just don't think about the science (or lack thereof) too hard. Or at all, really.

6. Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari - This month's choice for the book club. Amusing, even if I have never seen Parks and Recreation or anything else with Mr. Ansari.

7. Apex Magazine #92 (January 2017)

8. Lightspeed Magazine #80 (January 2017)

9. The Vor Game, Lois McMaster Bujold (reread)

10. The Lost Child of Lychford, Paul Cornell (novella)

11. Runtime, S.B. Divya (novella)

An already sad day has gotten sadder...Larry Smith, seller of books to large portions of the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast, passed away this morning. From what I've seen posted, apparently he suffered an aortic aneurysm and collapsed at home. He was being wheeled into surgery when he left us.

I have suffered many, many cashectomies at Larry's hands over the years; most of the SF and fantasy novels on my shelves were bought from him and Sally. It got to the point where I felt embarrassed whenever I only wrote a him two-figure check. Once, on spotting me adding a copy of Adventures from the Technology Underground to my stack, he even said "I had you in mind when I picked up that one."

I believe Larry was also one of the founders of OVFF and has been running its dealer's room for many years.

I can imagine Larry sitting behind a dealer's table at HeavenCon happily selling books to all of his best customers who preceded him beyond the Rim.

For once right on schedule, here is the last 2016 bookpost. I find it interesting that all six novels I read (or finished) in December were written by women. It's a current goal of mine to increase the number of works written, drawn or edited by women that I read in 2016, which I modestly succeeded in (going from 34 to 42 items) and plan to improve further on in 2017. I did not plan for a sweep, it just worked out that way.

Another goal of mine was to improve the number of works read from authors of color. I failed to improve significantly on 2015's dismal numbers of full-length workds(we're talking single digits both years). I intend to fix that this year. (I am reading Ninefox Gambit right now, which is a good start.) Although, it should be noted that Apex and Lightspeed, to which I subscribe, as well as Uncanny and Clarkesworld which I currently read for free, are all known for being better than average at featuring a diverse pool of authors.

So here's the final list of books for 2016 and the stats:

102. Cloudbound, Fran Wilde - Sequel to the Compton Crook-winning Updraft. Fran told me "there's filking in this book!" She wasn't kidding; there is an in-universe ballad whose lyrics get tweaked at a key moment. We also find out where the bone towers come from. The trilogy wraps with Horizon later this year.

103. Sky Ranger, Susan Jane Bigelow

104. Apex Magazine #91 (December 2016)

105. The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home, Catherynne Valente - Last of the Fairyland series. Not the ending I expected, but Valente sticks the landing.

106. Lagoon, Nnedi Okorafor - Recommended this one to my book group, which liked it. This book is as much a study of how a city like Lagos would respond to any sort of significant shock, like a major flood, than it is a book about aliens landing. It is nice to see a first contact story set somewhere on earth other than New York, Washington, London, or [insert your favorite North American or Western European city here].

107. Feedback, Mira Grant

108. Lightspeed #79 (December 2016)

109. By Its Cover, Donna Leon - Brunetti investigates the theft of pages from a library's rare books. For me, this was an interesting callback to Ken Jennings' Maphead, which talks about such thefts as they relate to books with medieval maps.

110. The Book Smugglers’ Quarterly Almanac: Volume 1, Ana Grilo and Thea James, eds.

111. The Book Smugglers’ Quarterly Almanac: Volume 2, Ana Grilo and Thea James, eds.

And here are the stats for the year.

Total Reads: 111
Novels: 46
Novellas: 8
Non-Fiction: 8
Anthologies/Collections: 7
Graphic Novels: 20

If you subtract the magazines, it's 87 books, novellas or graphic novels for the year, a slight increase over last year's 82 reads. I would have expected the final number to come out higher given how much time I spent on airplanes and in hotels this year.

I have similar feelings about this New Year's post as I did about last year's. From a global perspective, I agree 2016 was a pretty craptastic year. For us personally, it was a decent year.

I realize a good portion of my social circle is varying degrees of angry, disgusted, and downright terrified by the Presidential campaign and its results. And with good reason; I know that circle includes public school teachers, Federal government workers and contractors (mostly with NASA and NIH), all my various LGBT+ friends, and all the many musicians and writers whose songs, albums, stories and books I enjoy. Right now there are a lot of people who afraid of losing their jobs, their health insurance, even their very rights, and I don't blame them in the least. Even we are worried about the Jewish stereotypes that were aired during the campaign, not to mention outright anti-Semitic statements and actions that were made or happened both during and after the election.

Then you add the celebrity deaths and the losses in our own filk community on top of that, and I can see why most of my social circle is bidding good riddance to 2016.

All that being said, there are silver linings in the cloud that was the past year. Our 2016 was spent watching our son start crawling, taking him to Canada for the first time, celebrating his first birthday, taking him to his first Worldcon (and first baseball game to boot), watching him start walking, and hearing him say his first words, among other happy milestones in his young life. We had one medical scare during the summer, thankfully brief and not that serious in the end. He's about where you would expect an 18-month old toddler to be and behaving about how you would expect an 18-month old toddler to behave. (Current favorite activity: throwing his toys down the stairs.)

For those curious, his first words include the usual "mama" and "dada", "cat" (though it sounds more like "dat" at the moment), "up" and "hello" (usually said while holding random objects up to his ear like they were a phone).

Meanwhile, I wrapped up the year by earning a promotion at work. My direct supervisor (who reports in turn to my department head) resigned in November to return to points West and go back to what he was doing before he joined us. So I applied for the open position and got it! And with opportune timing too; my travel schedule should be lighter this year than it was in 2016, and there are other reasons it's also a good time to make this move.

So here's to 2017! May it be a better year than we expect it to be.

As usual, we spent the holiday weekend at the_sheryl's parents in Boynton Beach. Except this time we had a 17-month old energetic toddler with us, which made life interesting. For starters, between a not particularly comfortable bed in their guest room and vertical blinds that don't do much to block the sun I don't sleep well anyway; add a toddler waking up at 7:30am wanting a sippy cup of milk and a change and you have a recipe for sleep deprivation. Plus, despite an attempt by Sheryl's parents to remove breakables - and the presence of several actual toys - said toddler still found more appealing items of interest within reach, like the plastic covers off two nightlights, the charger for a cordless phone, assorted magazines, a couple of boxes of tissues, and a few fake shards of grass off the fake plant in their living room.

We did find a few outlets for Sam to run off some energy. Some Googling led me to the Schoolhouse Children's Museum, which he was perhaps just a bit young for, but which can easily be returned to in subsequent years. Sheryl's dad drove us up to the Lantana Municipal Beach, where there was some playground equipment and swings. We took a couple of walks up to the pool so Grandma and Grandpa could show him off to their friends. And we also met my dad and stepmom at her daughter's house in Delray Beach.

We did our best to eat our way across Palm Beach County, including stops at Longhorn Steakhouse, a Chinese buffet, and Mamma Mia. Because that's what you do when you're on holiday along what I joking call "Retirement Row".

Nothing particularly weird/amusing/unusual to note from our TV watching. Partially because I could swear Sheryl's dad stayed up later than I remember from years past, so we didn't get as much control over the remote. Mostly we ended up watching parts of the Science Channel's "Mythbusters" marathon.

Just like last year, our flight home from West Palm Beach (PBI) was delayed over an hour (over 90 minutes actually) due to "air traffic control". One notes that flights departing PBI to the east go right past Mar-a-Lago. So you know who I'm blaming for any flight delays...

And with that, we lazily slide into the end of the year.

The thought has occurred to me that I should get some apps for my phone or tablet to entertain certain wriggly, energetic little boys on plane or train trips. A bit of Google-fu has given me a few ideas, but if anyone out there with small ones has suggestions, I would certainly welcome them.

Both my phone and tablet are Android so that's my preferred OS, though the_sheryl does have an iPad Mini. OTOH, I have Otterboxes on both my devices, which means they have a better chance of surviving being tossed down the aisle. (Or into the row in front of us, though obviously we hope to avoid that.)

And we're up to date! How about that? November's theme was cramming; trying to squeeze in two Cherryh novels before Philcon and three 2016 graphic novels before the deadline for the Goodreads Choice Awards. We will note the eventual winner was not one of the five nominees I got around to reading. Ah well, at least I read five of the nominees, which is more than I can say for any of the other genre categories.

95. Apex Magazine #90 (November 2016)

96. Merchanter’s Luck, C.J. Cherryh – This one and #97 were clearly my attempt to cram in a couple of Cherryh novels before Philcon, where she was Principal Speaker.

97. Forty Thousand in Gehenna, C.J. Cherryh – Picked up on account of Kathy Mar’s song. This may be another reminder that colony-based stories don’t necessarily excite me unless they push another one of my buttons.

98. Ms. Marvel Vol 4: Last Days, G. Willow Wilson & Dan Slott (writers), Adrian Alphona & Giuseppe Camuncoli (artists)(graphic novel)

99. Ms. Marvel Vol. 5: Super Famous, G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alphona, Nico Leon & Takeshi Miyazawa (artists)(graphic novel)

100. Black Panther, Ta-Nahesi Coates (artist), Brian Stelfreeze (artist)(graphic novel) – The king of Wakanda gets a new run at the hands of hot author Coates. Coates’ story appears to link to previous runs, rather than being a reboot. He’s also definitely playing a longer game; the first collection doesn’t quite complete a full arc.

101. Lightspeed #78 (November 2016)

Well, I've made it through another year. Do the math in the subject line and you can figure out my age (*grin*).

We had given thought to celebrating my birthday with a local folk event, but I failed my babysitter-finding roll. But we had a nice dinner at Trapezaria and did a little catching up on the DVR.

Today we hosted my traditional birthday party/housefilk. Had a good bunch of folks over, including thelongshot, katrinb, starmalachite, stevemb, suecochran and eyalmozes. As usual it was more of a chat-fest than a filk, but we did get some singing done. Mr. Adorable was looking unusually serious for a short while after he woke up from his nap, but once we fed him some fruit and milk he became his typical charming self. And there was cheesecake.

My book and CD piles grew larger by a few items. I definitely need to make a lot more reading time in my schedule, before the book piles fall on Sam, one of the cats, or the_sheryl. The little guy also has some new toys to play with.

All in all, a pleasant weekend.

Almost caught up! October's reading was all over the map – some books that have been on the shelf for a long time (Primates and The Apocalypse Door), some 2016 releases (Once Broken Faith and Company Town), the usual pair of magazines, and yet another Zombies Need Brains anthology. I am convinced Joshua Palmatier dreams of breaking Martin H. Greenberg's record for number of SF/F/H anthologies published. He only has 1,291 to go for the tie.

85. Once Broken Faith, Seanan McGuire

86. Primates, Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks (graphic novel) – Tells in illustrated form the stories of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and (3rd name). Ottaviani’s series of graphic novels about notable figures in science (Feynman, Turing) are great fun.

87. The Apocalypse Door, James MacDonald

88. Lightspeed #77 (October 2016)

89. Alien Artifacts, Josh Palmatier and Pamela Bray, eds.

90. Gutenberg’s Apprentice, Alix Christie – Historical fiction revolving around Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. Folks interested in the history of books or technology and “font nerds” should like this.

91. Apex Magazine #89 (October 2016)

92. Company Town, Madeline Ashby

93. Grandville, Brian Talbot (graphic novel) - Finally made it around to reading the original, after enjoying Grandville: Mon Amour and Grandville: Bete Noir courtesy of the 2011 and 2013 Hugo Reading Packets.

94. The Warrior’s Apprentice, Lois McMaster Bujold (reread)

95. Apex Magazine #90 (November 2016)

My September reading reflects two key decisions: (1) I should really start working on my Comixology backlog, and (2) I should work some of the piles on my to-be-read bookcase from the bottom up. The four graphic novels are the result of #1; the two non-fiction reads the result of #2.

74. The Killing Joke, Alan Moore (writer), Brian Bolland (artist)

75. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain

76. Morning Glories, Vol. 1, Nick Spencer (writer), Joe Eisma (artist) (graphic novel)

77. How Mirka Met a Meteorite, Barry Deutsch

78. Iron Man: Extremis, Warren Ellis (writer), Avi Granov (artist)

79. Broken, Susan Jane Bigelow – First book in the Extrahuman Union series. A bit of everything here: super-powered humans, aliens, an oppressive government, and a mother and baby on the run. A surprisingly hopeful tale despite the dystopian world in which it is set.

80. The Golden Egg, Donna Leon

81. Jim Henson: A Biography, Brian Jay Jones – I learned a lot of interesting tidbits about Henson from this one. For example, I knew he attended the University of Maryland (which is why you’ll find a bench occupied by sculptures of him and Kermit), but didn’t know the Hensons lived in Maryland for a time.

82. Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer

83. Lightspeed #76 (September 2016)

84. Apex Magazine #88 (September 2016)

Looking back at August’s list, I realize I only completed two paper books in August – Indexing and Central Station. I started Quiet but hadn't finished it before the end of the month. Everything else I read during the month was in ebook form. Notable among the reads are the 2nd novel set in the universe of K.D Spangler’s excellent webcomic “A Girl and Her Fed” and Lavie Tidhar’s collection of stories set in a near-future Tel Aviv/Jaffa where the old bus terminal has been replaced by a giant spaceport.

67. Apex Magazine #86 (July 2016)

68. Red Rising, Pierce Brown

69. Indexing: Reflections, Seanan McGuire

70. Lightspeed #75 (August 2016)

71. Apex Magazine #87 (August 2016)

72. Central Station, Lavie Tidhar

73. MAKERSPACE, K.D. Spangler

For the second year in a row, I'll be spending the last month of the year (give or take a day) catching up on bookposts. I’ve gotten waaaaaay behind on those, let alone any sort of posting to LJ. Blame it on too much business travel and (as mentioned last post) all the time and energy spent chasing a toddler around the house. Clearly the middle of Hugo Award reading, with the eventual Best Novel (Jemisin) and Campbell (Weir) winners, both of which I enjoyed, and another nominee (Novik). With a break to enjoy another entry in the {_____} Destroy {_____} series. Plus a trip through Victorian London (and computing history) courtesy of Sydney Padua's amusing webcomic.

59. Uprooted, Naomi Novik

60. Apex Magazine #84

61. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, Sydney Padua

62. Lightspeed #74: People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction!, John Joseph Adams

63. The Martian, Andy Weir

64. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Michael Reeves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

65. Planetfall, Emma Newman

66. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin

Because life with a toddler means never having time/energy to post.

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As usual, we had a quiet Thanksgiving, just the three of us heading over to my mom's for dinner. Sam spent most of the visit toddling a continuous circuit around my mom's den, kitchen, living room and dining room, using various objects to test gravity. I tired myself out just walking around behind him.

Despite all the crap that has happened in the world this year, life in our little corner of Maryland is still pretty good. Among the many things to be thankful for:

My lovely wife, who has to put up with all my business trips (15 just this year) even when they fall during Passover or while she's recovering from a twisted ankle.

My adorable son, even when he is sowing chaos, mayhem and destruction around our house. (IOW, being a toddler.)

Our kitties, even when they are causing their own mischief or waking us up way too early on a weekend morning.

Parents who are local and can watch little boys while we go food shopping, or occasionally out for an evening by ourselves.

Making music with friends, even if I really need to find more practice time.

Hope y'all had a good holiday, and see some of you at Chessiecon!

It's time once again for my traditional birthday housefilk, which we'll host at our townhouse in Rockville on Sunday, December 11th, from 2pm til 8pm. (Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!)

We'll have plenty of noms on hand, but feel free to bring munchies or beverages. And instruments, of course! Kids OK, we have TVs for keeping them occupied if needed. There are two felines in residence, although they will probably both hide under our bed. There is also a certain adorably cute toddler in residence, who will be causing the usual amounts of chaos, mayhem, and destruction.

Presents are not necessary, but feel free to check out my Amazon wish list if you insist *wink*.

Comment, message or e-mail me if you need directions.

Yes, it's almost September. Y'all should be getting used to the routine by now. Not surprisingly, a fair amount of Hugo reading. Note my comments are all on the non-Hugo nominees.

49. Engines of War, George Mann

50. Meeting Infinity, Jonathan Strahan - 4th anthology in the Infinity Project. This one didn't grab me as much as its predecessors (particularly the first two collections).

51. Perfect State, Brandon Sanderson (novella)

52. Shards of Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold (reread) - Keeping up with the Tor.com reread. And I found out I've spent the last quarter-century with an incorrect interpretation of the epilogue. D'oh!

53. Invisible Republic: Vol 1, Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman (writers), Gabriel Hardman (artist)(graphic novel)

54. The Divine, Boaz Lavie (writer), Asaf & Tomer Hanuka (artists)(graphic novel)

55. The Builders, Daniel Polansky (novella)

56. Foxglove Summer, Ben Aaronovitch - 5th book in the Rivers of London series. DCI Grant versus the Fair Folk in a romp across the Herefordshire countryside.

57. The Aeronaut’s Windlass, Jim Butcher

58. To Rise Again At a Decent Hour, Joshua Ferris - Note to my book club: just because a book won the [insert major award name] doesn't mean it will appeal to our club members. Amusingly, among the things our current crew does seem to have a taste for are "accessible" SF and fantasy (e.g. Station Eleven, Neverwhere) and historical nonfiction (e.g. Devil in the White City, The Boys in the Boat).

Anyone want to bet on how soon I get to July and August?

After taking a year off from Worldcon to become parents, we made our return with a trip to Kansas City for Midamericon II (aka Bic Mac2).

We had a good time at Midamericon. My only real gripe is that navigating downtown Kansas City was interesting. The Marriott we stayed in was uphill from the convention center (and two long blocks), and the Power and Light District where most of the restaurants were was downhill from both. I swear there were a couple of lunch/dinner expeditions where we managed to WALK UPHILL BOTH WAYS. Add to that pushing a stroller and I swore early on that the week was either going to kill me or get me in shape. Clearly it didn't kill me. The jury is still out on the latter.

The filk program was excellent, including concerts from Cheshire Moon, the Suttons, Kathy Mar, Three-Fifths, Alexander James Adams, and the Tomboat Reunion Concert. Parts of which I watched/listened to from the hallway so Sam could crawl around and babble without disturbing the concerts. Such are the joys of parenthood. On the other hand, at one point during the Tomboat concert when I *did* have Sam in the room and still let him go crawling, he discovered an empty jug from the water cooler, whereupon he started giving Cathy McManamon a run for her money on percussion! 8-)

Separate from the filk program Paul & Storm had a 90-minute concert, which was very nice since we haven't seen them in a while. (And when we have it's often been as openers for Jonathan Coulton, so we only got 30-minute sets.) Most of the room had not heard them before, making it particularly amusing for folks like us who've been following P&S since DaVinci's Notebook days.

I had a concert of my own that went well. A decent audience, probably helped by the fact I was "opening" for Trickster and King. And I felt like it was one of my better performances. The setlist was:

Never Too Late (words and music me)
One More Earworm (words me, music trad)
Through a Child's Eyes (words and music me)
Bridge Shanty (words and music me)
Builder's Song (words and music me)
Come Travel With Me (words and music me)

I used the scheduling to full advantage, putting "One More Earworm" in the set on account of its "My Brother, My Enemy" reference and dedicating "Builder's Song" to Ada. I also referenced Balticon 2013 and the Sundown rollout as part of the inter-song banter. Why yes, I am evil (*grin*).

My only other program item besides the concert was a panel on "The Future of Cities". Alex Jabolow moderated, Brenda Cooper, Renee Sieber and xx were the other panelists. It was an excellent panel. Much of the discussion focused on "smart cities" and how technology and "Big Data" can and is being used to improve the functioning and governance of cities. I contributed a fair amount on resilient cities, since I am spending a fair amount of my professional life these days dealing with that topic. We also talked a bit about dystopias and utopias in science fiction and why there seem to be more of the former.

In other programming, I caught readings by Sunil Patel, Ada Palmer, Rob Sawyer and John Scalzi, as well as a panel on "Cats!", which included Esther Friesner, Tamora Pierce, and the Hugo-winning Naomi Kritzer and a panel/game show on "Your Character Ate What?" with Fran Wilde hosting and Max Gladstone, Elizabeth Bear, Esther, and Scott Lynch serving as a panel offering "helpful" answers to questions about food and eating in SF and fantasy novels. I volunteered for one of the rounds and won thanks to Max jogging my memory about the race of Stone Eaters from N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season. I also offered up Sam's grey-and-white stuffed kitty as a mascot for the "Cats!" panel. After finding out we hadn't named said kitty, Tamora declared it "Scoundrel".

We managed to find some time to get away from the convention and enjoy some of Kansas City's other offerings. We blew off the first few hours of the con to visit the co-located Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum. We blew off the last few hours to attend a Roysls-Twins game at Kauffman Stadium. Amusingly, this was Sam's first baseball game, which shows you how organized we are given we live within an hour's drive of two major league teams!

Several times I noted with amusement that I have a major work event right back at the Marriott and convention center in October, making this a "dry run". I now have a list of good restaurants to share with my colleagues, including BRGR, the Drunken Fish (sushi, noodles and teriyaki), and the Yard House. And Cosentino's Market if for a quick meal from the salad bar, a pre-made or fresh sandwich to go, or simply a few snacks.

So far in July I have:
-- Attended (and helped run) Conterpoint 2016
-- Gone on a 3-day business trip to Chicago
-- Hosted my in-laws for a weekend
-- Came down with a cold (possibly delayed con crud)
-- Gone on an overnight business trip to Chicago
-- Gone on a 3-day business trip to Casper, Wyoming

I believe I have discovered what it takes to achieve a state of complete exhaustion.

I'm going to bed now.

Today is Sam's first birthday! It's hard to believe it's been a year since I arrived in Chicago on a business trip only to find out I'd be leaving the next day. Also hard to believe that a tiny little blanket-swaddled lump of flesh and blood is now a small human nearly ready to start toddling around the house. (And won't the cats be thrilled when that happens!)

As a present for the day he got poked, prodded, and stuck with needles at the pediatrician's. Not the most enjoyable way to spend one's birthday. Luckily my mom had hosted a party for the family on Sunday (including the_sheryl's parents who came down for the weekend) so he had a bunch of new toys to play with.

If I were more awake (it's been a long couple of weeks for reasons having nothing to do with a baby) I'd have something more profound to say. Let's just say that Devoted Dad is happy.

And juuuuust sneaking in May's books before we get to July. This is the shortest list so far this year, partly because I managed almost no fiction reading time during Balticon, partly because it took some time to get through the DC Metro history (#47).

42. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Lois McMaster Bujold - The latest book in the Vorkosigan series. Not quite sure what I think about this one. The humor we all know and love is there, but the overall stakes plotwise seem rather low. Definitely some character development though! 8-)

43. Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire (novella)

44. Civil War, Mark Millar (writer), Steve McNiven (artist)(graphic novel) - Obviously read in connection with the movie. (Yes, I know, different story/universe. It's called curiosity.)

45. The Jewel and Her Lapidary, Fran Wilde (novella)

46. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

47. The Great Society Subway, Zachary M. Schrag - Schrag's history of the DC area's Metro system was published for the 30th anniversary of the system; I didn't get around to reading it until this year, the 40th anniversary.

48. Deception’s Pawn, Esther Friesner - The second part of Friesner's most recent Princesses of Myth duology, this time telling the story of Queen Maeve as a child/teen/young adult.