First, the bad news: I chipped the evrlivingfuck out of my tooth a few nights ago. How did I do it, you ask? Something cool, like a bar fight, or a hockey fight, or jumping in front of a runaway shopping cart to save a GT40 from getting a dent?
Oh no. No, my friends, it’s much better than that. I chipped my front tooth so badly I don’t even want to open my mouth, by . . . . eating pizza. Pear and Gorgonzola pizza from Trader Joe’s, to be exact. (Which is frakin’ good pizza, man.) My jaw is all screwed up, and I’ve needed braces to fix my bite for years, but I always felt it was vain to worry about having perfectly straight teeth . . . and as a result, I’ve gotten this really nasty underbite. So I hit my bottom teeth on my top front teeth all the time, and it has resulted in three bondings in less than a year. I get to go back today to get yet another bonding, and this afternoon I’m meeting with the orthodontist so I can finally get the process of fixing my screwed up teeth started.
Now the good news: I got the unbound galleys of Just A Geek yesterday! It looks like a real book. Oh my god. I also got to see the cover art, which is amazing. I’m so excited! I have until the 24th to give them my edits and corrections, and then I won’t see it again until it’s printed and bound. I don’t have a street date, yet, but I think it will be June or July.
And holy crap, when you find out who is writing the foreword, you will shit. It’s just about the coolest thing ever.
I’ve also been talking with O’Reilly about a book tour, and right now it looks like we’re going to do something up the West Coast — probably San Diego to Seattle — in August. I don’t know if they’ll send me out to the rest of the country, but I’m sure if there’s enough interest, we can put something together. *wink*
Voice Over Excitement: Yesterday, I had the coolest VO audition of my life . . . for Family Guy! They are looking for “utility players,” and I got to go read about 12 different characters for them. If I book it, it will be a bigger deal to me than when I booked Next Generation. I did a pretty good job, I think. I didn’t “hear myself” in several of the characters I did, and I think my obsessive watching of the show on Adult Swim and on DVD helped me out, because I know what types of characters they have — I was able to go “bigger” than I normally would if I didn’t know the show so well.
Today, I have a major callback for this animation project over at Disney. I read three characters for this show about two weeks ago, and I felt like I completely blew it with one, barely made it with another, but totally nailed it with the last one — and they’ve bringing me back for the last one (a character whom I love, by the way) today!
Other stuff: A few weeks ago, I did an epic, three-hour long interview with Sequential Tart, the first part of which is up now. I read it last night, and discovered that I am a fucking LONG WINDED guy. I need to learn how to just get to the point and shut up.
There are two good reviews of Dancing Barefoot, too. This one is from MacCompanion, and This one is from The Southend, at Wayne University.
Okay, that’s it from me for today. I have to go work on Geek now. Anne’s got an update about Kris that she’s working on in the other room. It should be in a little bit.

Anne and I were training yesterday, doing the neighborhood route, and we passed a bunch of animals: mostly other people walking dogs, but a bunch of birds and some cats, too, including a tiny kitten who called to us from the window of a neighbor’s house when we passed. I thought about our dogs and cats, and the birds that are nesting in my backyard, and it made me happy.
Felix is doing really well, considering how close he was to death’s door just last week. He is eating a ton of food, and is super feisty. I still don’t want to get my hopes too high, but I think we have weathered the latest storm.
Yesterday, I gave him his medical catnip mouse, and he chased it around my bed like he was a kitten! I just love how he gets on his back, holds it between his paws, and kicks at it with his back feet. When he’s done playing, he usually tosses it to the side, then passes out on it like it’s a little kitty pillow.
I gave Biko and Sketch mice too, (they . . . uh . . . have glaucoma, or something) and they played even harder than Felix did. Right now, Biko is on the one cat-approved counter next to the phone, safely out of Riley’s reach, cuddling his mouse while he sleeps! Riley is chasing a fly, or something, around the living room, and Ferris is zonked out on the floor at my feet. Sketch is sleeping in the tall grass under a tree in our front yard, and The Bear is watching Anne clean the stove in the kitchen.
It’s quiet outside, except for the soft drone of a distant lawnmower, and the smell of orange blossoms and star jasmine flowers is pouring into my office through the open window. Two doves just landed in the middle of my backyard.
It looks like Demeter got Persephone back from Hades, and boy is She happy.

Nolan walked over to my desk and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around in my chair and looked into his cheshire grin.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“Oh . . . I just saw something I thought you may be interested in.” I noticed that he had one hand behind his back.
“It wouldn’t be related to what you have behind your back, would it?”
His grin got bigger, and he revealed People magazine. Jennifer Aniston was on the cover — apparently she’s one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.
“I don’t want to burst his bubble and tell him that I’m not all that excited about her,” I thought, “But I don’t want to lie to him, either. Crap! It’s a Parenting Challenge. What do I do?”
“Nolan, I –”
He opened the magzine and revealed a two-page ad for the new Ford GT. It was my favorite car at the entire LA Auto Show when we went a few months ago. He gingerly set it down on my desk.
“I think I’ll leave you two alone,” he said, and patted my knee before he left.
He managed to contain his giggles until he was just outside the door.

Found on TotalFark: Genuine 80’s air guitar sold for $5.50, plus $10 postage.

YOU ARE BIDDING ON AN ORIGINAL AIR GUITAR FROM THE 80’S. THIS ONE WAS USED ONCE AT A BON JOVI CONCERT IN 89 FOR ABOUT 3 HOURS.I HAVE TAKEN IT OUT A FEW TIMES SINCE. GENERALLY AFTER ABOUT 6 BEERS AND A COUPLE OF FRUITY SHOTS.

I had a weird night last night. I kept waking up very suddenly, with my brain racing. It was different from the night terrors I used to have when I was younger, but the same “OH MY GOD!” heart-pounding feeling was still there, just absent the white hot blinding fear that the terrors used to bring.
So that’s a long way if saying that I’ve been really tired all day. I think I’m also a little emotionally drained, as well, with the uncertainty about Felix (even though all the signs currently point in a positive direction).
Speaking of Felix . . . I saw him this morning, and the vet, and all the techs at the hospital all told me how talkative he had been, and how eager he was to come home. He continued to “eat like a pig” they said (he ate almost an entire 5.5 ounce can of food this morning) and he was even eating fish, which he’s always hated. There was another cat in the space next to The Bear, and I guess the two of them had been talking to each other since yesterday. I think I may have seen a copy of Escape from AlCATraz — with feline subtitles, of course — behind Felix’s litter box.
The vet told me that it was really clear that our visits were helping him, and she said the he really settled down when we took his little fleece bed there for him to sleep in so he didn’t have to sleep on a towel.
She said that he’s made so much progress with the fluids and medication, that he could come home today!
So at 4:30, I picked him up, and right now he’s laying on the floor behind me, giving himself a bath.
He wants me to tell everyone, “Hi. ThiS iS FELix. My Mom AND Dad ToLD mE HoW MUCh WWDN ReADerS SupPoRteD ThEM whiLe I wAs SiCK, aND i WaNT to sAY ThANK you. ThEy LovE ME A loT AnD I KnOW THIS Was hard FoR thEM.”
I want to say thank you again, too, and so do Anne and the boys.
Felix will get sub-q fluids every day, and we’re also giving him aluminum hydroxide twice a day in his food to help take some stress off his kidneys. I’m doing everything I can to keep him comfy, too, and I ordered him some Kitty Hooch, because he loves it so much.
The next 48 hours are going to be very important. If he doesn’t slip back to pre-hospital condition, we’re going to be okay for a while. If he worsens, we’ll have to give serious consideration to putting him to sleep. We’re clearly not out of the woods, yet, so if you’ve got an extra thought to spare, we’ll take it.
Oh, and to tie up a loose end from yesterday, my audition went really well. I read for three different characters, nailed one of them, blew it on another, and did fairly well with the last one. But I REALLY had fun with the characters, and also recorded an audio blog that made me laugh.
Update: I just got off the phone with our vet. The lab results came back, and they’re not as good as we’d hoped. his levels came down a little bit, but not nearly as much as we were hoping for. She said that she uses the lab results as a guide, and really lets the cat tell us what he needs, but when I asked her if it was positive, negative, or neutral, she didn’t really want to say . . . so I think it may be more negative than we’d like.
He’s going to get re-checked in two weeks, and we’ll have a very clear picture then. I’m trying to remain hopeful, but I also have to prepare myself for the very worst.