I expect you all know what day this is?

That is correct.  Today is the second anniversary of Warrior Princess Jasmine Sprite's triumphant arrival at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.  She immediately took to the basement, to begin her conquest of the denizens thereof, before ascending to the Administrative Level to take up the merciful and orderly governance of Her People, to whom she is known, fondly, and probably 'way too often, as Boopsie the Wise.

Here is one of the first photographs of Princess Sprite, after she had ascended to the light:

In addition to the Royal Anniversary, this is a bread-baking day; in which I shall make my second attempt at Pullman Bread.  It is also a writing day, and the goal for the day is to break 50G on The Gathering Edge.

Tomorrow, work may or may not happen.  We expect the Propane Guys (finally!) to arrive at 8 a.m., ditch-witch in hand, to install the propane tanks for the generator, lay the lines (hence the ditch-witch) and hook them up.  In theory, this should not disrupt the schedule here at the Confusion Factory at all.  Note operative phrase, "in theory."

Once the propane hookup is done, we will call the electrician back in.  He will make the final adjustments on the electrical side, and! Bob's your uncle (or possibly not, but bear with me) -- we will have a whole house generator installed and ready to rumba before Thanksgiving Day.

Steve and I are very grateful to everyone who has made this project possible.  We're convinced it will make our continued residence in the country house much more comfortable.  Especially as Murphy's Law clearly states:  Install a generator and you will never lose power again.

Which leads me, not as tangentially as you might at first suppose, to the topic of Patreon.  We are funding the pay-off of the (ahem) Rather Substantial Costs associated with generator installation through donations made through the Lee and Miller Patreon account.  We hope to have the whole thing paid off in about 18 months.

Now!  Patreon is on a Quest to make their service More Useful and More Transparent, and in pursuit of this they have adjusted the way they're showing total donations and patrons on the left side of the main creator page. Those numbers used to reflect the total number of patrons, whether or not their credit cards were in denial, and also the Total Amount pledged.

What Patreon is trying out, on select creator pages -- and ours is one of those chosen as a test site -- is displaying the total number of patrons whose credit cards have not been declined, and! the amount of money the creator will actually receive at the end of the month -- which is Total Amount LESS fees and declined pledges.

I'd like to know what people think about this change from the patron side: Is this confusing? Enlightening? Disturbing? Something else?

Thanks.

And that?  Is what's been happening around the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.  More or less bidness as usual as we settle into winter.

We are not planning to travel until mid-February, when we will be attending Boskone 53 -- February 19-21, 2016.  Writer Guest of Honor is Garth Nix; Artist GOH, Richard Anderson; Special Guests Arnie and Cathy Fenner; Featured Filkers Vixy & Tony; and NESFA Guest Bob Eggleton.  Looks like fun, and we're looking forward to seeing you there!

Here is a photograph of Princess Sprite among a few of her favorite objects, this morning: