Okay, I’m a little out of it.  The quick trip to Portland, combined with coming down with a fierce head cold Friday night after the signing and not sleeping at all (is there anything worse than having a great hotel room and not being able to enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep because your head feels like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon?) has all made me feel like I’m running late for a bus.  Or rather late for my usual Monday morning blog.

So forgive me for the Tuesday afternoon edition.  I have to kick this cold before I fly to Tennessee on Friday morning and get my revisions in for Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress before I leave.  I’m pretty much done with those–so that will make going to Tennessee sort of my time to read and knit on all the planes and think about what I am going to write next.  Of course, I fried my laptop yesterday.  Note to self:  Don’t put the electric pencil sharpener on of the laptop and use said pencil sharpener.  Apparently this creates a magnetic field that leaves your poor Macbook giving you nothing but a flashing file with a big “?” on it.  So last night I had another reason to sniffle other than my stuffed up head.

Yes, it’s only Tuesday and already its been a week.

But enough of my fussing, let me tell you about the signing at Powells, which was, IMHO, great fun–and I would love to show you how much fun it was, but I forgot my camera at home. I had my camera packed until I came around the corner and spotted this on Friday morning–what is it? you ask.  Well, the little hero was home from school on Friday (I know, only two weeks into school and already the teachers get a day off) and he kept watching me scurrying around and packing and kept asking “Beach condo, Mommy?” (Translation: Seaside, Or.) “Uh, no, Matthew.”  He’d watch some more and then ask, “Papa’s House?” I shook my head.  “No, we aren’t going to Papa’s house. I’m going to Portland.” That really didn’t float his boat, so when I wasn’t looking, he went downstairs, packed his own suitcase (and did a good job for a 7 year old with autism–2 toothbrushes, toothpaste, a pair of underwear and his portable DVD player) and had put it by my car.  Quite plainly, if Mom was leaving, he wasn’t going to miss out.  That is until Dad came home early from work and he realized he would have Daddy all to himself.  Then it was “don’t let the car door hit you on your way out, lady.”  And I think he’s the same little piece of business who gave me this wretched cold. Ah, kids.

So to bring a long, meandering story along, I took the photo of the suitcase in the carport and then promptly put my camera down on the table in the entryway and it didn’t make to Portland.  But when I got to Powell’s, to my shock and surprise, Ciara arrived! (Is it me, or does that girl get around?!) And she’s carting a camera and took all kinds of shots for me.  (Okay, I sort of badgered her to help me out.) Here she is with her friend, Carrie and on the left, fellow Avon author, Samantha James.  And quite frankly, I am too tired and tired of reaching for the kleenex every other line, to give you all the great pics and all the dirt from the signing.  But voila, Ciara has it all over at her site. So thank you, Ciara, for doing a much better job of recaping the signing than I will ever do (at least this week!) and if you want to see everyone and get all the talk, I suggest you meander over Ciara’s way.

Oh, BTW, congrats to the winners of the blog posting contest!  Michael has promised to send those books along to you pronto!

Now if you will excuse me, I have an appointment with a hot cup of tea and the aspirin bottle.