Roast chicken? Logan, a dog who should be more mature at the ripe old age of 4 can't resist a roast chicken left on the kitchen counter. We had dinner last night and were in the dining room. JUST finished our last bites when we heard a funny dead-chicken-flopping sound. This makes it the fourth roast chicken since February that Logan has tried to "free."

I was gone the first time it happened -- in New York. And Aaron called to tell me Logan had gotten his paws on a roast chicken and eaten every square inch of it. Like the chicken never existed. It sounds like Logan had a moment similar to that scene in Requiem For A Dream. It is now his high of choice.

You'd think we'd know better by now, too. We keep thinking he wouldn't be so bold as to try it again in broad daylight with us only a wall away. We put the bird waaaay far back on the counter to let it cool, but somehow Logan turns into a ninja and surprises us with his tenacity, stealth, and unbelievable reach.

For me, I can't resist signing up for conferences and retreats. I just signed up for the SCBWI Int'l LA conference in August, I'm going to BEA in May (as a media escort,) and I plan on signing up for our 2nd Annual Fall retreat whenever we open registration. Conferences are expensive, but the Seattle one convinced me of how important making personal connections in the industry is and how much more opportunity you have to do that at a conference. And wonderful critical feedback on work. And showing your work in public -- not crying into your roast chicken alone on the kitchen floor (I don't do that, but illustrating IS lonely.) And it is a high. I heard so many helpful things at this last conference. This new knowledge has informed and changed all of the projects I'm working on.

For starters, from Jim's workshop, I'll try out Vista Print to make some new postcards for a summer mailing. I'm not sure about the type at the bottom, but I really like this image and heard nice things about it at the conference.