A busy month ahead.

Good Lord, it's February already. My dance card includes:

• Finishing the Gauntlet II challenge (this involves writing about 40,000 words to finish Mud and Glass as well as writing a 10-minute play for a competition I want to enter).
• Keeping up with my training-coordination duties at my SES Unit.
• Keeping up with my karate training and other fitness goals.
• Normal household chores.
• Supporting Margaret as she starts at her new, very demanding school.
• Helping to plan a Shakespeare's Birthday event with the Illawarra Performance Writers' Group.
• Making sure my horse is okay, and maybe even going for a ride once in a while.
• Updating a web site for a friend.
• Continuing to send out stories and track their fates.
• Probably a dozen or more major demands that will crop up as the month progresses.

At least it's Leap Year -- 24 whole hours more than is usual for a February to accomplish my February goals!

We finished January with a bang — not only were there severe thunderstorms in the area (no, I did not go out on the truck to clear debris and tarp roofs, actually), but we had a very nice dinner with some very nice friends who are in Sydney for a lamentably few days. We ate at Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe, where the beer is always interesting (if not, perhaps, always successful, but then that's the way of many adventures) and the food is unbelievably good. You should go there.