Salpy said she was no longer getting notified when someone replied to her comments. I’ve asked Mollie to look into it, and she wants to know when the notifications stopped; Salpy’s post was on the 10th. Did it start near the time the new post e-mails started?

I had a very bad Tuesday. And Wednesday. Thursday wasn’t great, either. There was a major storm (and one of my trees toppled into my neighbor’s driveway), my internet went out (but thank god my power didn’t), when I was in the storeroom trying to restart my modem and router, I heard dripping water in the kitchen and went to try to find the leak which was in none of the obvious places (thank god, I still had power), and then just as I was getting ready to crawl under the sink and find the damn leak so I could go fix the internet, the power went out. I gave up and went to bed, where Emily leaped up and meaning to sink her claws into the comforter to pull herself in, got my foot instead.

Twenty-six hours later, the power came back on (most of northern NJ had gone dark, so it took awhile, thank you very much line workers), my foot had stopped bleeding, and my neighbor said no problem he’d take care of the tree, but the internet was still out. Fixable, said my provider, just go to this website and follow the instructions. (There may have been swearing and shrieking at this point.). I spend all of Thursday driving to free WiFi (that would be MacDonald’s) and struggling with the website until I finally gave up at 9PM and just went to bed. At 2AM Friday I woke up, and I had internet.

It was a freaking miracle. (It’s 2:30 AM Friday as I type this, even though it’s going to post on Sunday. This is what I’m happiest about this week, that’s why.). OMG, I have internet again. Did you know you can’t get most of your Kindle books without internet? Yes, of course, that makes sense, but I never thought about it before. And those random questions that pop up during the day that you can just google for? Not to mention banking and posting blog content and comments and e-mail. It was a damn wasteland here.

But now I have internet. And I’m so happy.

What made you happy this week?

I’ve been without internet for about three days (yes, it was hell) so I’m trying to catch up now.

Mollie changed a provider we had, so anybody who signed up to get notifications of new posts, they’ll look different.

I am very far behind in the comments–THREE DAYS, PEOPLE–so if you had a question that didn’t get answered while I was at MacDonald’s scarfing their Wifi, please ask again.

I just realized one of my favorite romances used smirked incorrectly. Damn it. Still one of my faves, though.

I am contemplating potstickers from my freezer. The power was out for twenty-six hours, so technically I should throw everything in there out. If you don’t hear from me again, it was the potstickers.

Edited to Add at 5:30AM: TWELVE PAGES OF COMMENTS. And still no potstickers. Life is harsh.

Remember how some of you said you didn’t like it that Nita was drunk in the first scene? I think you were right. I just read a book where the protagonist kept getting drunk and doing something stupid and it was a DNR, although part of that was because the hero was an asshat. I flipped to the end to see if they got any better and there were TWO babies. Just no. On the other hand, Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On was interesting, high school magic fantasy with interesting characters, and Rowell is a good writer who knows what the words she uses mean, so it was fun to read. It had too many points of view . . . yes, that’s another mistake I’ve made in the past . . . but good story. And I reread Network Effect because it’s such a palette palate cleanser after too many sentences like “What . . . allows you to depict who I can and can’t have in my bed?” I mean, what the hell?

Grumble. Grumble. Get off of my lawn.

What did you read this week?

I’ve been reading a lot of BookBub romances, trying to figure out how romance has changed in the last ten years. If you think that’s not work, you haven’t read a lot of romance lately. (Oh, wait, look who I’m talking to. Of course you’ve read a lot of romance lately.). I’ve found some really good authors, but I’ve also found some (that shall not be named) who use words they don’t know the meaning of (like smart. Or depict) which is just sloppy as all hell. It’s like a carpenter who keeps trying to hammer in screws. Learn the tools of your trade. And then there are all the green eyes. Blue eyes must be so twentieth century. What is it with eye color anyway? I’ve known Krissie for thirty years and I’m not sure what color her eyes are. Blue? I think my daughter’s are hazel. The only person whose eye color I ever noticed was Paul Newman, but I think his glowed in the dark. Where was I? Right, I’ve been researching twenty-first century romance novels.

What did you do this week?

Temps are going up again next week–but only briefly into the 90s, so there’s that–but for right now, it’s wonderful. Rainy but wonderful. The dogs have stopped panting, I’ve turned the fan off, and life is good.

Also, Americans, please stop setting off those damn firecrackers. Did the Founding Fathers have firecrackers on July 4? No, no they did not. The damn things are bad for animals, humans, insects, and life in general. If you must light something, try a sparkler, but for god’s sake don’t drop it. (In case you can’t tell, the American Fourth is not my favorite holiday. I like Halloween. And the Day of the Dead. The day after Valentine’s Day often makes me happy, too: candy sales. Otherwise, no.)

Bah humbug.

What made you happy this week?

I’ve been re-reading The Book of Firsts, trying to figure out what makes it such a good romance and not erotica despite the nearly sixty sex scenes (by the author’s count).

What did you read this week?