sarah · dessen

Good morning! (Note that exclamation point: that means I just drank my coffee.)

This weekend, we (and by we, I mean my brother, who is awesome) made some changes to my website, including a page about Just Listen , which has some background on where the story came from, as well as some other fun info. Also, I have a couple of confirmed appearance dates, both local: I'll be at The Regulator Bookshop in Durham at 7pm on Thursday, April 6th--the pub date!---and Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh on Wednesday, April 12th at 7pm. More national stuff to come as soon as we (and by we, I mean the fabulous, calm-cool-collected Allison) has everything confirmed.

Speaking of publicity, and such, several people have suggested that I get a MySpace page. I checked it out this weekend, and put something together, but I'm not entirely sure 1) how it all works and 2) whether I can actually handle another Internet distraction. God knows I already waste enough time just with Livejournal and Google Entertainment News. I worry that if I add one more thing, I'll never get anything done. Or leave the house. Which could, um, be a problem.

Speaking of domestic issues, my dog toy travails continue. At this point, Coco has ripped the stuffing out of 1) her chicken 2) her cat and 3) her bed. Everywhere I look, there's stuffing. I keep having to take things away from her: the entire kitchen island is like a graveyard of maimed and mauled stuffed animals, missing their eyes, various appendages and most of their guts. It's depressing. We have our last dog training class tonight: maybe they can show me how to teach her to be kind and gentle, and not rip things to shreds? Or maybe shaking hands is the best I can hope for. Oh, well. There's always nylabones, I guess.

Finally, for no other good reason than it's Monday and some of you may be feeling down, here's a link to something that ALWAYS makes me laugh out loud, my very favorite snl skit ever. Okay, so it's a bit of a distraction. But it's a good one. And no one--chickens, cats, beds or otherwise---gets hurt. Can't beat that.

have a good day, everyone!