That earlier portrait is pretty rough looking so, by way of compensation something a little more pleasant.  Herewith, young Jessica who chose to stand on one leg, for reasons best to known to her.

I fear I have been less than sociable of late.  We’ve started serious work on the new lounge room and, other than that, I’ve not felt much like chatting.  Read some good stories (including a very good one by Gregory Feeley in Otherworldly Maine called “Awskonomuk” which isn’t genre enough for the year’s best, but is well worth checking out), started Justine’s How to Ditch Your Fairy, and am enjoying that.  Went out to a Sean Williams’ bookstore appearance where we didn’t really get to catch up (which was fair enough) and heard a lot about Star Wars (which was fair enough too).   We have dinner tomorrow night, so that should be good.  And then a busy, busy weekend. I’m also beginning to think about returning to work, and Calgary.

Via catsparx: Take a picture of yourself right now. Don’t change your clothes. Don’t fix your hair. Just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. (Except maybe to get the image size down to something reasonable. Don’t go posting an eight megapixel image.) Include these instructions.