Thursday the 13th -- What's been happening?

Friday the 13th came on a Thursday this month -- and nothing unlucky happened.
Well, maybe one -- if you count the fact that I set up the library computers before opening time and was working in my office on a Summer Reading Program report when the branch manager came in and asked why I hadn't set up the computers yet?

What?
I did. I know I did.
So I trotted back out onto the library floor and discovered the reference computers had nothing set up on them. Nothing. Just a message that the 'update' was done. I set them up again and tried to figure out what had happened. Just before we opened, the other librarian and I figured out that we had seen the computer people doing various things around the branch. They must have activated some updates to the computer -- which meant they took all the other programs down to do it. (The catalog, the meeting room schedule, SAM which overlooks the usage of the public computers, and everything.)
Mystery solved.

What else has been happening?
I'm beginning to send queries out to agents, again.

Which is really poor timing because the end of August is when all those school teachers and school librarians begin sending out the writing projects they've worked on all summer. Plus, the National Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) 4 day conference just ended on Monday, which means that the thousand people who attended it are all fired up and will also be sending out things. My stuff will be lost in the flood of slush.

I'm also expanding my stories about Lance, the Golden Retriever. It's either going to be a three book picture book set -- or a short novel, covering three different time periods beginning in the summertime and culminating in the snowy wintertime. We-shall-see. I'm hoping to have it ready to go by next Spring, in time to take it to the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults' novel workshop.

I'm trying to arrange time off from work. (we have very little money for substitutes this year.) Time off to take the 9-year old down to the Smithsonian. And time off for me to write. Three days in a row (without a child around) would be lovely.

Added a few minutes later:
Click your way over to Nathan Bransford's blog and read the entry for Thursday the 13th of August. He has collected a long list of literary terms which he is calling a Book Publishing Glossary. It's everything you need to know when talking to people in the publishing world.
-wendieO