Steve, our semi-retired plumber, moonlights as a chimney sweep. He was originally scheduled to do our annual chimney cleaning last Sunday, but it was raining and windy, so I told him that this Sunday would be okay. He said that he thought that I would be in China then.

"No, that's the week after that," I told him, so he came this afternoon for what I consider pretty important annual maintenance. Chimney fires are no joke.

One week from today, I will be somewhere out over the Pacific on a Cathay Pacific flight from SFO to Hong Kong. I checked my flight, and it appears to be totally sold out. At least I do have a aisle seat. Today is apt to be my last quiet day until after I get back from Worldcon.