bedlamsbard | (no subject)

Today I made lemon curd, which was fun, only it took a lot longer than I expected and I wasn't entirely certain what the consistency was supposed to be, but it tastes goods and it's thicker than water, so. *shrug* Also, it's this really pretty glowing yellow.

One of my favorite authors is doing a signing in London on July 7th. I am wondering if it's worth it to try and go up from Cambridge that evening; since she lives in England and I, you know, do not, it is probably unlikely that I'll have another chance. (I'm never in Seattle when authors do signings; strangely, very few authors come to New Orleans when I'm actually there.) On the other hand, time, money, strange city, foreign country, etc. Still do not know schedule.

(Today I told my mother that I didn't want to go to England, I wanted to stay home. WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA, Y'ALL? *breathes into paper bag* I have already paid, I cannot actually back out of this. If Chicago can do a whole year at UCL and New York can do a semester in Prague, which, I may add, is in a country where they do not even speak English, and my dad's ESL students can come to CWU, then I can do one freaking month in England. Only I have not done any of the stuff I meant to do this summer: forget the academic stuff, I haven't even used our new Dutch oven yet. /nervous breakdown.)

Also today I watched Star Trek (for some reason I forget how much FUN this movie is; also it reminds me that

lazulisong's characterizations are my One True Characterizations, though there are of course other acceptable ones, and STXI is one of the few fandoms for which I still read fic, I don't even know) and True Grit (I am so behind the times: last week I saw The King's Speech for the first time, and tomorrow we shall watch The Fighter), and worked on my sock, which is a little slower going than I would prefer since I have four six-stitch cables every six rows, and I'm terrified of screwing them up and having to rip back, so I'm using a US2 DPN as a makeshift cable needle, even though I otherwise always cable without a needle. Since I don't own a cable needle. The goal is to finish these socks before I go to England (denial, denial, so much denial), since I won't cable on the plane.

I am puzzling at my Jaisen Ettore backstory fic, which has had some interesting upsets including things like "does he know that his horse talks?" and "wow, he's kind of a wet blanket" and "I'm more interested in the bandits" and "damn, I guess I'm not going to get an action sequence in the beginning after all" and "he's a tree! she's a horse! together they steal things! #onlyinnarnia" and "so they won't be bad guys then" and "let's bring in a talking fox." Also, I kind of want to go back to my original idea for Susan as spymistress.

I am rereading A Game of Thrones, which, huh, I think Martin's prose got better by AFFC, and trying to psych myself up for a reread of The Magicians. I hated The Magicians to an infinite power of incoherency the last time I read it; this time I'm wondering if I can manage coherent hatred. Apparently I have a masochistic streak.

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Go to England. You'll have fun. I mean, it's possible you won't, but take the leap: I wish I had.

I have heard such mixed things about The Magicians, and while I'm tempted by it, I'm also resisting reading it until I'm done writing my Narnia novel. Soon, though.

I am reasonably certain my plane tickets are nonrefundable without a huge cancellation fee; I have actually thrown money at this, so.... *sighs* Also,

aella_irene would be mad at me if I didn't go.

I hated The Magicians SO MUCH. To such an extent, actually, that I want to read it again just so I can articulate why it bothered me so much.

Also, aella_irene would be mad at me if I didn't go.

I will. *Solemn*

I'd say you can manage the McKinley thing, if you book your train tickets a few days before: it's only about 45 minutes by the fast train, an hour and a bit by the slow train. And I can help you, I'm not working that evening. (I keep meaning to go to Forbidden Planet.)

I think I should probably wait to find out what my schedule is, but I want to go...wait, I should probably find out how much train tickets are, that might be helpful.

Bit late on this, but a cheap day return is about £20 to Cambridge, and it's more than feasible to nip down for the evening (we've done it in reverse).

That's good to know! Thanks.

Oh! As an aside, do you drink coffee? I am trying to think of something to bring as a present.

Not coffee, please. We love coffee, but we've got our own excellent supplier. Bring yourself and some M&M peanut butter, if you really want to bring something.

Um, is there a Target in your area?

No Target, sorry. Small town. (We do have four Starbucks, though. But then, we're in Washington, we're practically required to have many many Starbucks.)

...wow, I never knew there were peanut butter M&Ms until now. I think I need to pay more attention to the world around me. (Um, maple syrup? I remember hearing once that it's significantly more expensive in Britain than it is in the U.S., though I could be making that up.)