Not that anyone cares...but it appears the laptop may be dead. Officially. Our tech guy has assured me I did nothing wrong, but I don't believe him. Surely I'm to blame in some way. I'm ALWAYS to blame!

But no.

In good news, last week I purchased an external hard drive and BACKED UP the laptop! Oh yeah, who's looking like a genius now? (answer: me. I'm a genius.) So while this whole crash thing is highly disturbing I'm not crying on the floor in the fetal position like I would have been if not for the geniusly-timed laptop backup.

In other new, tomorrow kicks off the one-week countdown to the release of CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, I got nervous just typing that.

You guys want to know a secret? This one freaks me out. Not in a bad way--in a good way. And it's all your fault! That's right. Every time one of you writes or comments about how you're going to buy the book and all of your friends are going to buy the book my expectations creep up a little bit higher.

But do you know what happens every I have high expectations about anything (the Buffy series finale, the overall funness of every party I've ever tried to host, every pair of "perfect for curvy figures" jeans I've ever tried on)? My expectations inevitably get hammered into nothingness.

So really...expectations--not my friends.

And if you guys really want to help me out you'll tell me how much you're not looking forward to the book. I mean not at all. Honestly, people, that would help bunches (because whenever I go into something with low expectations I'm always pleasantly surprised.)

You could say things like "Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy? Might as well be Cross My Heart and Hope Not to Die of boredom!" You could tell me that the only reason you would buy it would be because it's the perfect height to fix a wobbly table you've got--that would help me feel better. Cause seriously, all this "I can't wait!" business is keeping me up nights and let's just say Ally needs her beauty sleep.

later gators

-Ally