I love Doris Day movies with a deep abiding passion. Really. I’ve seen probably all of them (or very nearly). I can discuss the relative merits of Send Me No Flowers as compared to Lover Come Back. I can sing all the songs from On Moonlight Bay and Teacher’s Pet (probably to the great annoyance of my husband).

The movie!

So I was super excited when I saw in Time Out that there was going to be a special big screen showing of Pillow Talk. Pillow Talk! One of my absolute favorites! Doris Day and Rock Hudson! Together for the first time! Not to mention Tony Randall (love!) and Thelma Ritter (heehee!). I’m pretty sure I squeed.

I tried to find someone at the last minute to go with me to the Charlotte Street Hotel (where the movie was being shown…with a Q&A afterwards with some film critic-y people I’ve never heard of but would probably know who they were if I’d lived in the UK all my life). I couldn’t find any last minute takers, though. So I went by myself. I don’t always do that…while I don’t mind going by myself somewhere (actually, I kinda like it…I’m weird that way), this was very last minute and I had to get the babysitter set up and all that nonsense (the hubby had his own thing he was already going to).

So glad I did though. After all, this was probably my only chance to see a Doris Day movie up on the big screen. And the digitally remastered version they were showing (it’s being released on Blu-Ray for the 100th anniversary of Universal) was BEAUTIFUL. Heck, the talk afterwards was even interesting.

And hey, I got to have a fancy martini at the hotel bar. Where, incidentally, the beautiful people go to work and hang out. I swear everyone that worked there could have been a model and they were all so darned nice. All in all, it was an adventuresome day (I haven’t even mentioned how I started the day at the dentist, went for a Jamaican hot chocolate afterwards at Louis Cafe and wound up as background in an ITV shoot).

Anyway. I was going to blather on some more about Doris Day and the whole things-having-happy-endings-thing but this is already getting long and boring enough. So. Moving on.

All mailed...

If you’re one of the librarians that took me up on my offer or someone who’s requested a signed bookplate…guess what? I mailed out a boatload of stuff today. Literally. Okay, I exaggerate a little…a bagload. Definitely a bagload.

The thing is, the postal service over here in the UK isn’t like in the US. For one thing, the post offices (or Royal Mail…doesn’t that sound fancy?) are generally located in the back of a convenience store. They’re privately run. It always takes forever to do anything, especially if you’re mailing stuff internationally and most of what I was mailing was to the US, with a smattering of stuff to go to other places, like Russia and Australia.

When I came in with my bag of stuff, I thought the lady was going to have a heart attack. And the counter is about 2 inches wide, so I’m having to stick on stamps and air mail stickers while straddling stacks of water bottles and boxes of cereal. It was an experience.

So, yo. If you’re one of the people getting something, I sure do hope you appreciate it. I’m not even gonna tell you how much I spent on postage. It was painful. See how much I love you guys?

In other cool news (now buried so far down in this post that I’m sure you’ve all quit reading and gone on to more exciting things like picking lint out of your belly button)…there were some great new reviews and interviews posted up today! (Yay, Google Alerts!)

Over at We Have a Situation, there’s a fun interview with me from Rachel. You can find out about cat names, what the original idea for the book was and other interesting stuff.

And at Charlotte’s Library, there’s a really lovely review that says “Cat Girl’s Day Off is fast and funny, with the spot-on cat comments that liberally sprinkle the pages being especially entertaining. Though Natalie is a well-developed character with genuine teenager-ish concerns, and people’s lives actually are in danger, it’s not a book that takes itself too seriously, which makes it a very pleasant break from reality.” And a bunch of other stuff too! All nice! I <3 you Charlotte!

There’s also some really nice reviews up over at YA Books Central (which always makes me happy, since I founded that site waaaaaaay back in 1998). Kim B. said “This is one hilarious, fun romp that made me want MORE!” and Francesca said “The (dare I say zany?) madcap adventures in Kimberly Pauley’s truly delightful new book are Hughes-ish in the best possible way, happy ending and all. I can’t imagine finding a better beach book this year, but if I were you, I wouldn’t wait until summer to read it.”

Love.

Oh. And have you checked out the new t-shirts yet???