I'm rereading The Black Company trilogy and liking it, dare I say? much more than the Severian whatever-it-was. Finished volume 1 and was romping merrily through vol. 2, marvelling at Cook's economical elliptic style. Maybe 40 pages from the end I happen to glance at the book's subtitle: 'vol 3 in The Black Company Chronicles.' That's not economical elliptic; that's me skipping an entire volume. Though I do find Cook's action elliptic: cities come, cities go, battles come, battles go. I blame the absence of a map, because unlike many people I *need* maps in my fantasy to know what's going on. Absent a map, the action is like Cook's: here, there, anywhere.

We have a new baby at work, who for a change *is* a baby. Five months and a bit. I was holding him while he had a mild freakout over his bottle being a bottle and not the boob he's used to. This may be a problem in future. Also he lost a sock somewhere in the room, which is a feat for someone whose only movement is rolling from his back to his front. Turns out to be not so much of a feat in the event. Undressing last night I detected a soft bit of cloth attached to the velcro of my lumbar brace, which is always under my tanktop. Catchy stuff, velcro. Shall bike over tomorrow and leave it in his cubby to delight his Mom on Monday morning.

Today I vacuumed the upstairs for the first time in several months. Am going to have to hire a cleaning service because my arthritic elbows are simply not up to this. Worrying, how much strength I've lost in my upper arms. Though the aches today might just be aggravated by, yanno, holding babies yesterday. Still, maybe I need to research strength training for arthritics, because no one has a cure for elbows.