I immediately spotted the new George R. R. Martin novel, A Storm of Swords, the third in his Fire and Ice series. This is a true epic tale, and a virtuoso effort with five or six gripping storylines going on at once. I haven't enjoyed a big story so much since Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, and I think Martin is a superior writer. I'm not usually a fan of sword and sorcery, finding far too much of it a big Tolkien rip-off, but Fire and Ice is a brilliant series. The amazing part is he's publishing a book a year. They aren't diminutive, either. The latest is nearly a thousand pages long. It's a feast to read them, and I was delighted to find this one on the shelves.

Then I found Steven Saylor's latest in his Roma Sub Rosa mystery series, and since I wasn't paying for it I snapped it up. I was very disappointed in the previous novel; I thought he let the readers down and made a poor choice in surprise endings, so I wasn't going to purchase the next one even though I love all his other books. But what the hell. I did want to read it.

After that I wandered the store for an hour and couldn't find anything else to buy. I'm like this sometimes with gift certificates. I want to spend them on something I wouldn't normally buy myself like hardcovers and specialty items. Consequently, I weigh everything against whether I might buy it in the future instead of whether I want it. Sometimes this backfires. I finally gave in and bought only the two books.

Because I was book shopping I didn't meet Michael at Borrone's. I invited him to do something today, and we opted to go into the City. I sure appreciate his willingness to drive so far just to spend time with me - it's 45 minutes just to my house, and then we usually drive somewhere else as well. We went to Japantown and walked through the little mall, then strolled up Fillmore Street window shopping and people watching. I ducked into Smith & Hawken's to see about using yet another gift certificate. I was enchanted by the San Francisco store, it's much nicer and bigger than the one at Stanford Shopping Center. I toyed with several items, but once again felt overwhelmed by largesse and couldn't bear to spend it without questioning myself. Still, it was lovely to mooch around fingering glass ornaments, highly fragrant dried rose buds in silk pouches, and $80 English spades. Afterwards, we had lunch at the Pride of the Mediterranean, the same place I ate with Shelly a while back and just as yummy.

Michael's been recommending Borderland Books to me for quite a while, and we decided to drop by today since we were kind of in the neighborhood. To my great surprise and excitement George Railroad Martin himself was there signing his new book! I bitterly lamented having bought it only the previous night, and of course I didn't have it with me since I didn't expect him to be there for a signing. But the extremely cool bookstore employees offered to let me get one signed and hold it for me until I could bring in my B&N copy and exchange it. I was elated and went over to have him sign it for me.

I was so excited, in fact, that I introduced myself and mentioned we had mutual friends. Which we do. Which I promptly could not remember for the life of me. I laughed it off, and said nice things to him, and enjoyed our short conversation. Afterwards, I joked with the employees about my being so starstruck. Everyone gets that way, and even though I'd rather have remembered who it was we both know I didn't really mind dorking out. I'm sure it's nice for an author to see enthusiasm even if it results in shatterbrained behavior on the part of the fans. And someday I'll remember who it was and be able to remind him. Maybe by the time he comes back for the San Jose Worldcon in 2002.

The rest of the day was lazy and quite cozy. We lay around talking and reading and drinking sodas. Keiko bonded with Michael as usual, and was in his lap at all possible moments. He went off to have dinner eventually, and I did a bit of web work while John watched tv and the cats searched for a new lap to occupy. It's gotten cold this weekend, so chilly that we're keeping the heat on even at night. It's very frosty on my last walk at night especially under the full moon; Dixie likes it, but I keep forgetting I need more than one layer on under my coat.

We have a part time guest which is fun. Bill Humphries is making use of our new sofa sleeper and claims it's really comfortable. The cats are delighted to have someone new to snuggle up with and Bill seems happy to have cats to snuggle. It's a good deal all around.

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