In which it is an honor to be nominated

As previously discussed in these pages, Thursday was a Day of Travel for the Cat Farm Thumbs.

Since we didn’t know how long the Maine Literary Award Ceremony might go, we used Star Points to book a room at the Westin Portland Harborview Hotel (formerly the Eastland Hotel).  Since we had used Points to get the room, the hotel warned us that we would not have a room with a view.

Here’s a picture of the no-view:

We arrived in mid-afternoon, checked in and went for a walk around the Old Port, visiting a purveyor of Asian artifacts (including old kimonos, antique marriage rooms, and mother-of-pearl inlaid cabinets), an art store (one of about ten zillion, since the Maine College of Art is in the neighborhood), where Steve had a hard time separating me  from all the Beautiful! handmade! paper!; a rock-and-tarot store; a pipe store; a deli; and a couple of antique stores.

When we were done exploring, we returned to the room to dress for the Event.

Here’s a picture of Steve, dressed up and practicing Tai Chi:

After all that excitement, it was time to go to the Awards Ceremony, so we did.  Here’s a picture of the pre-ceremony reception:

The ceremony was good-natured, and at times light-hearted.  I tried for a while to tweet out the winners as they were announced, but my Twitter skills are nowhere near that good, and I had to stop after only a half-dozen categories were announced.  The award recipients were uniformly pleased, and generous in their thanks.  Here’s a list of the winners. For those keeping score at home, Necessity’s Child did not receive the Speculative Fiction award.

The ceremony was over earlier than we had expected; we could have driven home, but we had the nice room with no view waiting for us, so we went back up the hill, fed the chupacabra, had a glass of wine, and went to bed.

Friday morning, since we were so close and all, we motored down Route One to Old Orchard Beach, breaking our journey in Scarborough, to enjoy breakfast at The Egg and I.  We had a half-hour walk on the beach, Elevensies at Pine Point, and so to home, where the cats were embarrassingly pleased to see us.

A word about Kineo, the new car.  It turns out that Kineo is equipped with a six-speed continuously variable transmission.  I had been. . .somewhat concerned that there was something dicey with the transmission, because I am used to driving three-speed automatics.  Old three-speed automatics, at that.  This trip let me get a feel for how Kineo approaches the challenges of the road.  Overall, I remain pleased.

And, now?  I have stories to edit, edits to input, and new words to write.

Hope you are having a fine weekend, wherever you are.