Big greasy lip prints.

A big greasy lips print on the window outside my Slave Leia standup. Heh. Hey, come on in an buy her. You can take her home!

On second thought. I don't want to know about that.

**********

Had a Walking Dead action figure walk away yesterday.

Hey, you are what you steal!

Amazing how yucky shoplifting makes me feel. I can't describe the feeling. Disappointment, only worse. Vulnerability. Just a deep down discomfort.

Considering the kind of store I have, I'm probably lucky it doesn't happen more often.

I know it's naive of me, but I can't help but wonder at someone who would take enjoyment out of an item they stole. "Wow. What a cool figure! (and I'm a slimebag.)

**********

Read a chapter at writer's group; the scene setting up the penultimate 'action' chapters.

I knew it was just a bridge chapter, a 'marshaling the forces' chapter.

But one of the group members, Gary, told me I'd resorted to "school boy" solutions to the problems.

Ouch. But it was totally accurate. I understood exactly what he meant. It was as if I had a protagonist stranded on a road in the middle of nowhere, and in order to get him where I need him I have a bus come by to pick him up -- just coming up with solutions that aren't quite credible.

He also had a suggestion that would make the set up more credible, but which will require a whole bunch of rewriting.

The closer to the end of this book I get, the more I realize I'm in for a real job of rewriting. I was kidding myself to think otherwise.

On the other hand, I probably needed to kid myself about how easy this was going to be, or I wouldn't have started and continued.

***********

Took my financial adviser's advice -- heh -- and left the money in the stock market I had intended to remove into safer investments. (I can't believe I even have a financial adviser --inherited from parents-- or for that matter, the finances that need advice.)

Looking like a hell of a good decision as of today.

Let's see how it looks in a week.

What a big game.