Oh also!

When I was in the post office today, there was someone mildly famous in line ahead of me. I didn't realize it until she was at the counter, when I could see her name on the box she had resting near me: Terri Irwin. She's the widow of Steve Irwin, the Australian naturalist. I knew she was from Eugene but hadn't thought about her potentially visiting here. It turned out that she was friends with the clerk at the middle station- she was telling him about the weather in Australia and the lodge they've just added to their property, and some conservation work they're doing in Singapore. Cool!

Book completed

The Mountains of Mourning, by Lois McMaster Bujold. (Vorkosigan Saga). This novella is one of Bujold's finest pieces of writing, in my opinion. Miles Vorkosigan has just graduated from the Barrayar's military academy and is looking forward to his first assignment. He hopes for something glorious and dramatic in the space fleet, but instead he's assigned to investigate a crime in a remote mountain community - the infanticide of a baby girl with a birth defect. The episode becomes a turning point in his life. Now when he continues on to thrilling space fleet adventures, he'll be bringing with him a new sense of purpose.

Note: I record novellas as "books completed" even though they're shorter than most books. I figure I read more 600+ page books than novellas, and it evens out.

Sad news

Well, my friend in the hospital has passed away. We had all assumed that she was getting better, but no. It's also complicated because in a sense I'm a coworker, although at this point probably the most I can really do is help with networking and listen to people who are more stressed than I am. I keep thinking of her laugh and her interest in my stuff and the fun we had getting dinners together and how helpful she seemed to find it to talk to me about her work complications.