Snow Day. A couple of people close to me have observed in just the last couple days how wonderful it would be to have a job where you were paid whether you were right or wrong. Such is the life of a weatherman. Local forecasts called for 1-2" of snow for our area overnight between Wednesday and Thursday. We had a few flurries - zero accumulation. Yesterday, they said we could possibly get up to an inch in some areas but probably not much in the way of accumulation.
We woke up this morning to a good inch and a half.
The kids were going to be out of school today, anyway, not because of the snow - although Tennesseans are prone to calling off school on a forecast - but because of illness. A fair number of county school systems around the state have closed their doors because of the flu. Our high school had a record 162 students (19% of the total student body) out sick yesterday. Today is like a weekend day at our house - kids scattered hither and yon, but on our agenda is a basketball game at a school two counties to our west (about an hour's drive or so, maybe a little more). Fun stuff - the show ... er, game ... must go on, despite its being a snow day.
Conferences. A lot of my writing buddies are spending this weekend at Love is Murder or Left Coast Crime. Next weekend, I'll be attending Murder in the Magic City in Birmingham. This is the fifth year for MMC and I've been every year - it's a great little one-day conference, reportedly one of the best of its kind. I even had the privilege of being on a panel in 2005.
This seems to be the time of year that the mystery conferences really kick off - there are so many to choose from, and if you're a big fan with a nicely comfortable budget, you can see a huge variety of writers in venues all over the country. I'm not quite there yet. When the next book comes out I hope to do a couple conference appearances, but for now I'm content to stick close to home on a budget I can afford.
HP news. Most of you have probably figured out by now that my children and I are big Harry Potter fans. The kids say I'm obsessed with the whole thing. I wouldn't say obsessed, exactly, but yeah, I pretty much eat it up. Potter fans around the world are rejoicing at the news released yesterday - the seventh and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is scheduled for release July 21st. If you're counting, that's eight days after the release of the movie version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
We're a little excited at my house. Well, four of the five of us are, anyway. The WGH couldn't care less. He's not a fantasy fan. I've always enjoyed the genre myself, cutting my teeth on the likes of Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony. Jo Rowling is probably my favorite now, of course. Genius. I've just always thought it would be fabulous to be able to write about a world where you could make anything happen that you wanted to happen, outside the confines of reality. I don't think I could do it, although the WGH would say I'm out of the box enough that I could probably pull it off.
Happy Birthday, Bro! Today is my brother's birthday (my actual, real-life, related because we have the same parents brother). I had fun teasing him when we were teenagers about his being born on Groundhog Day. Not so much now that we're adults - after all, I'm much more mature now. Ahem. Speaking of Punxsutawney Phil, did he see his shadow this morning? The snow's already starting to melt.
Enjoy your snow day. If you're at LCC or LIM, I hope you're having a great time! If you're like me, hanging around home waiting for the starting gun to go off, read a book. It's good for you.
=) JB
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