Well! A stapler has been purchased (a saddlestitch, at Robert's suggestion,) minis have been assembled, and most of the recent orders are winging their way toward their destinations on the winds of the USPS. Eleanor and I holed ourselves up in our room for about three days straight, cutting covers down to size, collating, folding, X-actoing out "diecuts," and so on. The good part of minicomics assembly is that it only requires part of your brain, so we watched about a season and a half of Simpson's episodes while we worked. I keep forgetting how sentimental the old Simpsons were. Every other episode seemed to make Eleanor cry. When I was young and callow it seemed pretty sappy, but I think the corny "family" stuff was what grounded the characters - the newer seasons are just cheap laughs, with the characters as props. Though to be honest, I haven't actually watched a new episode in a year or two. People keep saying the newest episodes are good, but the last time I watched it was pretty painful. Sorry, I'll shut up about it now - who needs another rant about the Simpsons?

Thanks to everybody who ordered from the Little House shop in the last week or two! (Although it was disconcerting to immediately take such a big chunk out of the books we had just finished making. The dilemma of minicomics: the more you sell, the more you worry about having to make more! )

Also, did you know that you have to pay taxes every year? Once again I had to sit down with a calculator and a manilla envelope full of balled-up receipts, and try and find a way through a tangled briar patch of 1040s, Schedule Cs, and 829s. Being "self-employed" (i.e., broke) means having to personally fill out no fewer than a dozen pages of forms. It's like taking the world's worth math test; one where if you get anything lower than an A, you get arrested. Maybe someday I'll have an accountant to get arrested on my behalf.

Eleanor and I have been enjoying Savannah's gorgeous weather now that we can, walking down to the coffeeshop in the afternoon and back in the evening. Iced coffees, and drawing all afternoon. The other day we found a five dollar bill in the middle of the sidewalk. I took it as a karmic sign that we'd been living life correctly.