I’ve been spending much of this week editing the Tibet book, which I think is coming along pretty well. We have prepared three chapters and an outline to submit to editors, hoping they will like it enough to request the entire book. Now I need to finish editing as many chapters as possible before school starts, since the book might require another round of editing. Unfortunately, I know from experience that you can edit a book forever without ever being totally satisfied with it, but I don’t think we have that luxury with school looming ahead for both of us.

I got some interesting birthday presents from my family. Jean is the practical one, so she got me some much-needed shirts to wear. Andy gave me a cd carrying case since my new Jeep Compass finally has a cd player (as well as Sirius Radio, so this car will be music heaven while I am driving!). Mark gave me Richard Thompson’s Front Parlour Ballads which is as good a cd as I anticipated from my favorite recording artist.

I usually buy myself a book for my birthday as well, and this year I bought two books in Jack McDevitt’s Academy series of far-future mysteries involving the search for a lost alien race: Deepsix and Chindi. Since I already read the first novel in the series, The Engines of God, which I enjoyed a lot, I anticipate some good reading ahead.