The voices in my head don't think they're imaginary - What's been going on, by category

• FAMILY. My grandmother died yesterday afternoon. She was admitted into hospice care on Friday, and daughter and I made the trip up to Seattle on Saturday. It wasn't really unexpected--she'd been in an Alzheimer's care unit for about seven years now--but it was good to see her one more time and bid her safe travels. Best of all, I got to spend some quality time with my mom and sister and aunt and daughter--death being woman's work, as my mom pointed out. It was a bittersweet trip, but I am really glad we made it.

• WORK. I had a pleasant surprise today. I opened the story that I wrote for Tin House, the one that I basically ripped out of my metaphorical typewriter and shoved into the mail. I'd been afraid to look at that story until now, almost a month later. To my huge surprise, it does not suck. I've also been productive on the other stories I'm working on--of course, my personal definition of "productive" has changed from "lots and lots of words" to "a small number of good words that don't suck that I don't have to cut out later." Not much else going on ... another very encouraging Clarkesworld reject, and lots and lots of DayJob^tm work. And, of course, JayCon this weekend!

• COMMUNITY. The challenges of working out of my home office have been compounded by the onset of summer vacation. We now have, on average, five to fifteen kids running around like wild First Americans all day, bored out of their tiny little minds. So we've instituted the Monroe Street Summer Camp. My neighbor and I round the little savages up every MWF around 4 p.m. and take them for a long walk around the neighborhood. Additionally, husband takes everyone up to the pool on Tuesdays & Fridays. It's not much, but it gives them something to look forward to. Also, we're planning a neighborhood barbecue for the Fourth of July.

• GARDEN. The sunflowers are flourishing, the tomato plants are huge. I just this week put in the last round of seeds--zucchini and pumpkins and some peppermint and some other assorted flowers. It's getting a bit late for seeds, and the days are so hot that I'm going to have to be aggressive in watering the beds to make sure they don't dry out. We shall see.