I'm not dead, really.

After a frenzy of posting in the first few months of this year, the last month turned into an unexpected posting desert.  Sorry to leave you all with a critical deficit of beagle haiku and other nonsense, but I had two good excuses:

1) Market Share Reporter: Trends Over Time -- As mentioned in the previous post, this was the book that devoured Monique for four months. In the last few weeks before it went to the printer it swallowed me alive, too. I thought I had a clever idea that would whittle the creation of its index down to a manageable size given a very tight deadline. Instead, it turned out that I had a clever idea that whittled the creation of its index down to an Oh-my-God-it's-waaaaaay-too-big-to-edit-in-this-amount-of-time!!! size.

In retrospect, I produced an index that should've taken six full-time weeks in two weeks of mostly evenings and weekends crammed around the day job. I hope not to do such a thing again anytime soon.  Needless to say, it cut deeply into my available beagle-haiku time.

2) And then, just a couple of days after MSR:TOT went to press I developed excuse #2, which I present in haiku:

Ahhhh, rugby: Thanks for
My dislocated right ring
Finger. Can't type. OUCH!

Monique has asked that I stop describing exactly what happened to my finger, so I shall simply say that the full-time splinting of my poor abused finger will end in another week or two.  After that I may begin to rebuild my typing speed.

In the meantime, look for any posts in the next few weeks to be short.

The Loyal Beagle Shares the Work

Today we celebrate in beagle haiku the above-and-beyond-the-call-of-canine-duty efforts of Katie the Beagle on behalf of Editorial Code & Data Inc.  Katie has loyally been hard at work, lying on the guest bed and staring adoringly at Monique every day, all day -- often late into the night -- as Monique has worked like a madwoman for the last six months to get Market Share Reporter: Trends Over Time out the door and off to press on time.

Katie's contributions towards this project were so large and substantial that they just couldn't be captured in a single seventeen-syllable haiku.  Thus we at the Patio Boat present a double-haiku poem to commemorate her contributions:


The Loyal Beagle Shares the Work

Katie the Beagle
Wants to chase rabbits. But she
Watches Monique type.

The walk comes at two
In the afternoon. Joy! Joy!
Then back to work.
Sigh.


As for Monique's work on this project, it would take a Norse saga twice the size of the Edda to capture all that has been accomplished and overcome.  If you see her anytime soon, please congratulate her on getting this fabulous book off to press on time and surviving the experience.

I shall simply say for now, "Well done! And welcome back!"