I've started adding the unfortunately named Xtreme Bean to my coffee joint rotation. I used to kind of hate the place, largely because they replaced the shabby funkiness of the Gold Bar (the old coffee joint that used to be in this building) with a sort of glossy corporate look, even though Xtreme is indie. It made no sense to me. But a few years down the line, much of the gloss has worn off, and some cozy clutter has accumulated (like used books for a buck or two, an overflowing community bulletin board, stuff like that), and they've done away with the annoying free-but-password-required wifi and replaced it with simply free wifi, and they're playing a solid mix of old fart 90's stuff (Nirvana, Soundgarden, the Chili Peppers, Counting Crows, selections of that ilk), and I think the major improvement is simply that's it's a lot darker in here now.

I just have to train them to give me my drink in a proper ceramic mug, and I think we'll be in business.

I wrote a couple-few thousand words here last week, and I hope to write a couple-few thousand more here this week (and at Steve's Espresso, and at the Starbucks down the street, but not at the new Gold Bar across the street, because the guy that runs that place is an idiot and half the time there's a 5-piece jazz band blaring away in there and the chairs are all these wobbly wire bistro pieces of dumbness).

This is basically what I want out of a coffee joint:
1. Good coffee beverages
2. Courteous, efficient baristas
3. Enough tables such that I can enjoy my good coffee beverage at a table
4. Enough electrical outlets such that I can plug in my laptop
5. Free wifi, such that I can procrastinate and waste time when I feel like it
6. Colorful neighborhood characters who don't make loud noises or pull guns on me or ask me for money
7. Chairs with lumbar support
8. Yummy snacks, both sweet and savory
9. Walking, or at least short driving distance
10. General cozy funkiness

I haven't found the perfect coffee joint yet, but I'm like Galahad in this. I'll keep looking. The one Tim used to frequent in Santa Cruz, Pergolesi, seemed to come close, but I only spent one morning there, and it currently fails the walking or short driving distance test for me. They did, however, have a cat that sat still long enough for me to bother it with my camera. They also served beer.

I managed to finish off a troublesome chapter yesterday, and I'm trying to finish off another troublesome chapter today. I don't know when exactly this happened, but I crossed the 300 page mark quite recently, though I'm not sure how much that means since there's a whole character I've decided to delete, and there's all those troublesome chapters to rewrite. So, a great deal of work left to do, but progress is progressing.

Oh, also, I had a terrific, relaxing, delicious weekend.

As you can see in the photo below, I have empty pages at the end of my manuscript, and it doesn't look like anyone else is gonna volunteer to fill them up for me, so I guess I should stop faking and start writing.