Summertime

It's been in the 80's and unbreathably humid the past few days in Minneapolis, revealing to all confused non-Minnesotans the reason why this supposedly cold northern state is home to the same vampiric insects as equatorial Africa. I have five mosquito bites already. Argh.

But on the brighter (and cooler) side, I invented an orange smoothie the other day. It's incredibly easy to make, and tastes a bit like a Creamsicle and a bit like an Orange Julius. And I'm too lazy to figure out the nutrition information, but since it contains nothing but orange juice and soymilk, it's probably way better for you than it tastes like.

You'll need
4 cups of orange juice (I use Simply Orange original without pulp)
4 cups of vanilla-flavored soymilk (I use Very Vanilla, the extra-vanilla variety from Silk)
An ice cube tray
A blender
A pitcher

Directions:
Mix the orange juice and soymilk in the pitcher.
Pour into the ice cube tray until the tray is full.
Freeze the ice cube tray; refrigerate the leftover liquid.
When cubes are frozen, put them in the blender with enough of the liquid to cover them.
Puree until the mixture is the consistency of a smoothie.
Pour into cups and drink.

Hope that helps cool off someone else's summer. Now I'm gonna go clean the apartment. Later.

Life is OK

Hi everyone! Things are going well. We've been giving a lot of speeches lately-- I guess the economy has been picking up a bit. We've spoken for St. Thomas University, Spring Lake Park High School, Oak Grove Middle School, and some others. I spoke alone in Eden Prairie on a day when John wasn't able to come, and I also had a table to sell my handmade jewelry at the screening of the movie "Autistic License" at Eden Prairie High School.

I've redone my jewelry page, with individual photos of individual items, so that customers know the appearance of the specific piece they're ordering. I'm going to take a break from buying new jewelry supplies for a while, and try to make as much as I can with the leftover supplies I have. I'm going to see how much I can do with hemp cord, since I have a lot of that.

For those who are wondering what's happening with our science fiction novel... we submitted it to Daw, and it was turned down. We're reexamining it to see how we can make the beginning more gripping, and then we'll eventually send it to Baen.

And, guys, I am trying to stop the spamming on this journal, but I don't always have the time lately to delete every junk comment, so I apologize if you have to wade through pages of crap to find any worthwhile replies to my posts. I'll try to find a good way to get it under control soon.