No fish today. . .

...on the other hand, I found out that two huge tasks at the day-job have shifted -- one out of my office entirely, and the other out by a year -- moving me from "Ohmighod, how am I going to survive the spring semester, much less finish writing a novel?" to "Hey! I can do this!"

The Gods of Chaos Giveth; the Gods of Chaos Taketh Away. Blessed be the name of Chaos.

...at least, in this instance.

At home, finished shifting the 2009 files out of the drawer and into the file box, made 2010 files, finished the 2009 filing. I'm counting this as a Job Well Done and am retiring to the sofa to finish reading the book I've been slugging around with me for dern near a month.

Appropos of Nothing Much, I lately somewhere came across this quote:

These things cannot be retrieved:
The arrow sped from the bow,
The word spoken in haste,
The missed opportunity.

...which is all right, except I remember learning it this way:

For four things there is no recall: The spoken word, the arrow sped from the bow, the march of fate, and time that is past.

Anybody have another variation?

Books Read in 2010

The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
The Ten-Cent Plague:  The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America, David Hajdu
Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart