The Half-Assed Hitch Knot Post

Remember the hermit crabs? It's okay if you don't, because I myself go days, sometimes weeks, forgetting we have them. Then I remember, and pick up the shells one by one to see if any are still alive. Incredibly, we still have three of them (one didn't make it through our 2007 trip to Ireland, but that was on my Mom's watch). They are the most long-lived hermit crabs of anyone I know, who is not living in their parents' basement, running websites about hermit crabs. As you can see by the above pictured specimen, they are doing just fine (uh, dude, that wouldn't be a piece of someone's claw you're about to eat there, would it? ).

"I don't know what it says about us that we are able to create perfect living conditions for something that apparently thrives on neglect," I said to Patrick.

"I don't know what you mean," he said from behind his computer, as a half-naked child walked by carrying a box of Froot Loops.

Posting to my blog these days is like lifting the screen of the hermit crab tank and turning over shells. I think none of you will still be here, and yet, there you are, all cute and shiny-eyed (and hopefully not eating each other—does that crab look guilty to you?).

Book writing is seriously cramping my blog. When I signed the deal, I briefly entertained the notion of taking a blog sabbatical. But I just can't do it. I'd miss it, and I'd miss you. I miss your comments so much in the book writing process, I've had to start sending my editor single chapters as I complete them, just so I can feel like the words are going out to someone. My deadline is this fall. I hope you all can just thrive on the neglect a few months longer.

In the meantime, things are just going to continue be a little half-assed around here (books, as it turns out, require one's whole ass). I am finding it easy to keep up my Noteworthy blog, because over there, I can blog about cupcakes and fluffy bath towels without shame.

Maybe I can learn to live with posting "lite" here at Notes. In addition to the final installment of Blogging 101, I'm aware of some other story lines left hanging. I'll do a proper on the Blog tutorial, but in unapologetic half-assed fashion, here's a gathering of the other loose threads:

• True Moms Book Event: Rained. But still well attended. Thanks!
  
• Mom: Rained most of the time. Gone home to May snow.
  
• Bunny: Still here. Getting bold. Likes carrots.
  
• Clothes Dryer: Still broken. Clothesline alternative less charming with record consecutive days of rain. New dryer on order.
  
• Tortoise: Released into backyard. "Slow and steady" motto revised to "sink or swim."
  

Thanks for hanging around.

(Hey, what's that in your mouth? Drop it! DROP IT!)