...not so much with reading up on developments while I've been away from DeviantArt.

Haven't been over here since sometime in March. 2008 has been a full year. Somehow I have actually written relatively regularly, although lately my entries to the challenges have been more to make sure the community gets a challenge to vote on than to write for the joy of it. At least one entry wasn't even finished, I just stopped writing and posted it because the deadline was on me. *sigh* I'll finish it and post it about the web for those who watch me.

Starrunner-5 is not finished. Going on a year now. It's got some pieces that I really think do not belong in the same fic with my baby boy bot - as Primary Mover had to be sifted out and made it's own ficlet, there are ideas that have surfaced from others (Mirage, Sunstreaker, maybe Jazz) that need more explanation because to leave them in Starrunner's storyline as they can be tolerated there will make them look like plot-holes.

Let's see... March was Husband and my ten-year wedding anniversary and we took a few days for a real vacation (i.e., no visits to relatives). My Dad had a heart attack and we came home early, to send husband to my parents' place 1100 miles away where he stayed with them for seven weeks to see them past Dad's surgeries. Dad's come through fine, and is actually getting off most of the medications that were initially prescribed.

I got to see Marian Call play at my friends' house ( is here) in April (I think it was in April). Very awesome lady, can be checked out at MarianCall.com. Husband came back in May for a few weeks, then we flew out to LA to visit his family - brother and grandmother. He stayed out there for a few more weeks, to spend time with Abuela (grandmother) and give brother a bit of a break since he'd been her primary caretaker for over a year and a half since their dad, her son, died in 2006.

He came back in June. Abuela fell the weekend before Ike hit and hurt herself very badly, so Husband was in LA with her when I boarded up the house and evacuated with the puppies. When we left that Thursday, the projection put the storm passing just west of our house, with 22 feet of storm surge in our neighborhood, which is only 17 feet above sea level. Thinking her chances were better on top of the parking garage at work, I left the real-life Cobweb there, because five feet of water in the house would cover her over. With friends on the north side of town, I watched the news as the waters rose and the eye shifted a little east. So, recon that following Monday showed my house and neighborhood mostly undamaged.

Abuela died on the Thursday after Ike. Husband helped his brother for a while, and came home again toward the end of September.

We lived through it.

Husband has turned himself around a bit, lost a little weight, found some healthier patterns, and started classes to be a medical lab tech. That's all good news, long overdue.

I played a little football this season, ran my first ten-mile race in October in DC, and participated in a national convention of an engineering society as a section rep for the first time in November. I finished the graduate version of Quantum Mechanics and am now well enough established at work to get rated an "exceptional contributor", which is kind of a big deal with Lockheed. (This job is a record for me since leaving the Navy: over two years in not only the same company but in the same position. And I have two proteges who are doing well, which is the reason I got noticed.)

I'm ready for some time to relax, or at least draw breath, run a few miles and finish a few stories. I want a time to not look back on and think only "we lived through it".