Book Tour by the Numbers

4: number of cities officially part of the tour (San Fran, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles)

34: number of heel-to-toe steps it took in my size 8 shoes to traverse the dining room and adjoining living room of our "fireplace suite" at the Alexis hotel in Seattle (that's not counting the adjacent bedroom)

0: number of times we used the fireplace

0: number of times in our lives when we've stayed in a hotel room that big and that nice (thanks, Penguin!)

35: number of minutes I had to make it from my 7:55 a.m. Portland airport arrival to the KATU-TV studio where I would be on live local TV

4.25: hours of sleep I got before said live TV appearance

2: number of times interviewers asked me about the overuse of "literally"

3: number of times people asked me about "Bob and me" used as a subject (as opposed to "Bob and I")

4: number of times people asked me whether text messaging, e-mail, and the dang kids who used them are messing up this here English language

2: number of times people asked me about the "at" at the end of "where are you at?"

38: low temperature Tuesday night in Seattle

85: high temperature in Pasadena the day I got home two days later

91: high temperature in Pasadena the day after that

0: number of flights that were delayed (big difference from my wedding/honeymoon trip a few weeks before)

50ish: the number of times I told my husband how much better a book tour was with him along for the ride

3: number of consecutive days I wore the same black slacks without washing them

4: approximate number of hours Ted or I spent trying to get our "kitty cam"* to work

3: number of friends who said they or a loved one heard me on NPR

6: approximate number of ounces of water I dumped on the studio floor when I spilled my cup during a brief break between live radio broadcasts at KUOW-FM in Seattle

1: number of items I took out of hotel honor bars on Penguin's dime (but that was one damn good Canada Dry ginger ale)


* Re the kitty cam: Some time ago, I bought a PC card and some cameras that allow me to remotely monitor our home -- both in real-time and via motion-detect recording. That's right, I can log in remotely on a Tuesday, punch up a timetable of stuff that was recorded on motion-detect on Sunday and watch recorded action such as Tibor licking himself or Maddie licking herself or Smudge engaging in her daily exercise which consists exclusively of changing sleeping positions. There's just one problem: In the last month in which we were on the road for three whole weeks, we were only able to connect to the server on one day. We think the problem is that our dynamic IP address is just too damn dynamic. It keeps changing on us. It sure would have been nice if we could have confirmed that our house had not burned down and our cats were alive and not trapped in a closet or a box or something. (A couple of them really are that dumb. Tibor recently managed to trap himself in a pet carrier that had been perched precariously on some folded comforters. It tipped over in such a way that the door was lodged against the wall of our closet and his body weight held it firmly shut. The door to the carrier has since been removed.)