McShep Awards. Well, I'll be darned.

Thank you.

Whoever nominated my stories for the mcshep_awards, I appreciate it.

Especially Last Port Of Call. After the storm over that story, this in particular means a lot to me.

As for Necromancy For The Living, I almost feel like I should have my betas nominated instead of me. They really pulled a lot out of that story.

But of course you guys aren't interested in my getting misty-eyed. Instead, hey, check it out: New reading list. No, I haven't read a lot of these either.

Oh no...

I just got the response back from the U.S. Nationals figure skating website. The ticket sales people couldn't tell me the price for the practice session tickets, and I just needed to budget for those.

My reservations are set. I was disappointed at the crappy seats I have, but I figured I'd be closer and get a good feel for the sport during the practice sessions. Those were my main goal, as research for Out Of Bounds.

I've now been informed that only the people who buy the $500 week-long All-Event package are allowed into the practice sessions.

I'm now trying to figure out if that's just what they're telling people who want to buy tickets in advance (because you can't buy them in advance) or if they're really locking people out of the practice sessions unless they come wearing minks. It sounds like the latter.

My entire reason for going has gone up in smoke.



Dismal ETA: We already bought the men's Freeskate ticket and it's non-refundable. We can't get a ticket for WG at the last minute because the seating is assigned and he'd be far away. Basically the whole trip's ruined. I would have done this very differently if the people I asked two weeks ago had known anything about the practice sessions.

So much for my Christmas present.