J from our writing group is moving! She just bought a condo. She borrowed a digital camera from her dad to get photos of the furniture she's selling (it's in good condition, but she doesn't want to move it, and it doesn't match the rest of her stuff) but she's not a technology person. So she needed one good geek.

I came over and helped her out. The end result was a flyer she can post around her apartment complex, and an ad on Craigslist. Phoenix-local people: Two stripey Southwestern-style couches, used & sturdy, and a hand-made coffee table. Price negotiable.

I got the coat tree (not pictured, but I'll snap it eventually myself) in exchange for working on this with her. Something so simple from a tech-savvy person's viewpoint, and yet so complex from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't know which end's up on most tech stuff...

I finally got to meet her dog, Ziggy. Ziggy is a medium-small pale gold lab, very friendly and wagging and shedding. He reminds me of Fern. Very licky as well. She finally fenced him out of the bedroom-partition while we worked on the stuff.

Today ruled.

When I got there, trystan_laryssa and hcolleen were already there. I had come up with a writing prompt for hcolleen to write on the board ("Everything was backwards"), and there was a lot of happy fun talking about stuff in general before getting down to business. We had another new person today. I still can't remember hcolleen's friend's name, the one who's very defensive about her writing.

Constance McNeill tackled me in the shower last night. Constance is a new character who just came out of fucking nowhere, and she already has quirks. The writing prompt actually provided me with a viable way of introducing her. I am collecting characters. This is a good thing.

We went around the room and shared stuff. Fun was had by all. trystan_laryssa wound up actually figuring out how to start off some project that she'd been planning to do.

The last hurrah at Cafe Fiat was excellent. The food was good as per the usual, and there was actual chocolate cheesecake -- on the last day we'll be meeting there, figures! trystan_laryssa and I shared the last piece of Double Chocolate and a piece of chocolate swirl.

M wound up tailoring writing challenges to the individual. I am to write a mundane heterosexual affair without dialogue. I may fudge the requirements a little and include some "She gasped loudly, then yowled his name so loudly the neighbors started pounding on the walls" and so forth, but no actual conversation, no actual ... well, the lead-in may well have to have meaningful dialogue so that I can stand to write it and I'll know what the characters are actually doing besides fucking with great glee and abandon. It is horribly difficult for me to write romance that does not include the supernatural, because I write what I know. And I do not do a good job of having romance that does not include the supernatural.

I think that Constance is going to be the one having the affair.

trystan_laryssa explained tabletop gaming to azwriter. Something tells me that azwriter is going to jump in wholeheartedly and do her darnedest to raise her girls as Good Little Gamers. Pocky was also explained. There was joking with subtext, pickles, and whipped cream. All normal good clean fun. trystan_laryssa was not freaked out by us being wild and crazy, because that's what normally happens around our friends...

There was much bus-giggling. trystan_laryssa and I snarked at a particular asshat driver. She wanted to remember my spur-of-the-moment comment, which was something to the effect of: "Who ripped off your dick and replaced it with a stick of pocky?"

I wound up dropping by her place for half an hour or so before catching one of the last buses home. Loren was there. Good filking fun was had by all.