I met a real, live author!
I met Alexander McCall-Smith last evening. He was doing a talk and book-signing at Borders, an easy 7-minute bike ride away from my house, so I decided to go. I felt a little guilty about leaving Stuart to put Daniel to bed, as our child has hit a serious stage of separationi anxiety if I am not with him AT ALL TIMES around his bedtime, but the event was close to home and free, so I went for it. There were definitely some baby bedtime issues while I was gone, but I won't dwell on that.
Alexander McCall-Smith was great, though. What a charming, delightful, articulate, funny man. I got hooked on the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series a couple of years ago. Right after Daniel was born, during those long days of brand-new motherhood when it seemed like all I did was breastfeed and get up occasionally to use the bathroom, I read most of his other books.
He had so many good stories to tell, including one involving an Irish judge crawling on all fours to sneak out of a two and a half hour lecture on "Philosophy of Taxation," and the resulting dilemma of his bodyguards, who weren't sure about the best way of going about "guarding" him when he was in such a position (they settled on crouching as the most protective yet least dramatic exit). I would recount the other things he had to say, but there's no way I can adequately reproduce his choice of words, his demeanor or his tendency to crack up in the middle of an especially funny anecdote.
On a completely unrelated note, here is a picture of our visitor-slash-mouse-chaser-extraordinaire of last weekend. As you can see, Marcus and Daniel get along quite well:
Alexander McCall-Smith was great, though. What a charming, delightful, articulate, funny man. I got hooked on the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series a couple of years ago. Right after Daniel was born, during those long days of brand-new motherhood when it seemed like all I did was breastfeed and get up occasionally to use the bathroom, I read most of his other books.
He had so many good stories to tell, including one involving an Irish judge crawling on all fours to sneak out of a two and a half hour lecture on "Philosophy of Taxation," and the resulting dilemma of his bodyguards, who weren't sure about the best way of going about "guarding" him when he was in such a position (they settled on crouching as the most protective yet least dramatic exit). I would recount the other things he had to say, but there's no way I can adequately reproduce his choice of words, his demeanor or his tendency to crack up in the middle of an especially funny anecdote.
On a completely unrelated note, here is a picture of our visitor-slash-mouse-chaser-extraordinaire of last weekend. As you can see, Marcus and Daniel get along quite well:
Comments
I've said it before and I'll say it again.. your boy is so darn cute!