Pursuant to the keyboard discussion

This is the set-up I use everyday, in all its battered and dusty glory.  I used to have padded rests on the bottom of the board, sort of below the back space and the space keys -- but they wore out.  The two predecessors to this keyboard actually have places where the finish has worn away, which is where I rest...the bottom of my palm actually, rather than my wrists.

This is the keyboard that makes it possible for me to type without my fingers twisting up like tree limbs in the Evil Forest.

News and reminders, with bonus glossy ibis

For those who have been waiting for BN to make the Nook edition of Dragon in Exile available:  Your patience has been rewarded.  Here's your link to the Nook Edition at BN.

Reminder!  Uncle Hugo's is offering personalized and/or signed copies of A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume 3.  There is, as usual, a deadline for preorders of the personalized copies, that being Wednesday, July 1.  Click this link for table of contents, instructions, and an order form.

We -- that's Sharon Lee and Steve Miller -- will be Writer Guests of Honor at RavenCon 2016, joining Vincent diFate as Artist GoH.  RavenCon 2016 will be held April 29-May 1, in Williamsburg, which is very cool.  It's been, like, 50 years since I've been in Williamsburg.   Here's your link.

We -- that's Steve Miller and Sharon Lee -- will ALSO be guests at BaltiCon's 50th Anniversary Convention, to be held May 27-30, 2016, at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore.  Guests of Honor will be George RR Martin, John Picacio, Bill and Gretchen Roper, and Alexandra Duncan.  Also present will be as many of Balticon's past GoHs as can be brought to the event.  Lee and Miller were Writer GoHs at Balticon 37, in 2003.  Here's your link.

Also!  We expect to be able to point you very soon to a source for Liaden themed clothing.  So, yanno:  Watch the skies.

For those who have been following the Epic of Selling the House -- due to events well beyond our control, we have taken our house off the market.  Current plans include having a garage built, to help take some of the pressure off, come winter.  Also, we get to put the Yule lights back up in the kitchen.

After Monday's adventures, we were scheduled to take Kineo in to Charlie's Subaru for a routine 2,000 mile inspection.  Everything was fine, except they had to change an oil filter, and off we went -- to the ocean.  It was a grey and rainy day, and Old Orchard Beach is still not quite open for bidness.  My first choice for lunch -- Pirate's Patio on the beach -- was closed.  Second choice, the newly formulated Duffy's Tavern -- was having its Grand Opening on Friday.  JJ's Two is our usual fallback position, but Steve pointed out that we had never been to The Clambake, in Pine Point, so that's where we ate lunch -- on the glassed-in back porch, right on the marsh.  We were a little behind the usual lunch hour, so practically had the porch to ourselves, and dawdled over lunch and ice tea, watching the birds.  Including a bird neither of us had ever seen before -- a juvenile glossy ibis.  Here are some pictures of a similar bird, spotted at Dunstan's Landing in 2012.

And that's all the news that's fit to print.

Books read in 2015

18. Geekomancy, Michael R. Underwood
17.  The Perfect Rake, Anne Gracie
16.  The Martian, Andy Weir
15.  Blaze of Memory, Nalini Singh
14. Tracker, C.J. Cherryh (read out loud with Steve)
13.  Chanur's Legacy, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve)
12.  Chanur's Homecoming, C.J. Cherryh  (re-read, read out loud with Steve)
11.  The Kif Strike Back, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve)
10.  Why Kings Confess, C.S. Harris
9.  Chanur's Venture, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve) (Note:  the publisher's note at the end of the book states that the next-in-series is Chanur's Revenge. This is false. The next-in-series is The Kif Strike Back.)
8.  Angels' Blood, Nalini Singh (read out loud with Steve)
7.  The Pride of Chanur, C.J. Cherryh (re-read, read out loud with Steve)
6.  What Darkness Brings, C.S. Harris
5. When Maidens Mourn, C.S. Harris
4.  Where Shadows Dance, C.S. Harris
3.  What Remains of Heaven, C.S. Harris
2.  Where Serpents Sleep, C.S. Harris
1.  When Gods Die, C.S. Harris