Things.

[rivka]

I can't see my way clear to going to the Farthing Party. A plane ticket would cost more than I am comfortable spending with Michael out of work. A train ticket would be more affordable, but it would mean being away for four solid days, which is longer than I want to leave Alex. (Alex wouldn't come along on a 12-hour train trip, for tolerably obvious reasons.) A suggested carpooling option didn't work out.

Lots of Very Cool People are going to be there - I should probably unsubscribe from the Farthing Party community so that I don't see any more reminders of who. And I'm so utterly impressed with Farthing as a book that I was looking forward to discussing it all weekend - not to mention, cheering on papersky for her triumph.

All of this being the case, I should not have been reading Making Light threads on fannish parties, which has inevitably provoked yearnings.

Quick, help me plan some other con to look forward to, far enough in the future that our financial situation is likely to have improved, and likely to be packed full of my friends. Minicon, maybe? Is it true that there's going to be a Minneapolis alt.polycon?

---

When I came downstairs this morning, Alex came running over to me, holding up our Pinky and the Brain figurines. "Mama, kitties," she explained. (Yes, we've told her that they're mice.) "Clap clap... a side, oh, back, a slow."

It was clearly a story, and told with great emphasis and urgency - before I'd even managed to get past the baby gate. I have no idea what it meant, or why it trumped normal preliminaries like "Mama, up." or "Hug hug."

In other Alex news: she's now genuinely counting to six, assigning one number per item counted. She's starting to show a lot of interest in letters. All at once, she's become incredibly affectionate, showering us with hugs and kisses. And I should've thought twice before teaching her how to play "Ring Around the Rosy," especially the part where Mama and Papa can join in.

In other Pinky and the Brain news: Michael pointed out that traces of our wedding cake icing can still be seen in the grooves on the bottom of the figurines. Awwww.

---

It's so hard to be at work knowing that today the mail carrier will deliver Disc Three of Season One of Veronica Mars. I don't think I've ever gotten addicted to a show so quickly - trembling hands, the whole works - and due to inadequate Netflix account management, we haven't seen a Veronica Mars episode since Thursday.

Must not read ahead in the TWOP recaps.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i don't know if there's going to be a mpls alt.polycon or not. i am greatly hoping there will be, though.

also, minicon! minicon minicon minicon! woo!

[kightp.livejournal.com]

What do we need to do help to make that mpls.apc happen? 'Cause I'm sooooo overdue a trip to Your Fair City, and johnpalmer and I have been idly talking about getting a sleeping car and taking the Empire Builder out for it, and I'll be woefully sad if it doesn't turn out.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i do not know, exactly. i haven't read a.p. for a while. i know that i am not the hotel liaison for it, so there might be a want for help in that direction.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

traces of our wedding cake icing can still be seen in the grooves on the bottom of the figurines

Heh. With a toddler, probably not for much longer...

[thette.livejournal.com]

I'm planning on attending the 2008 Worldcon, if it's in Chicago or Columbus. Fixing up a Swedish room party wouldn't be impossible. ;-)

[ckd]

I'm sad that you can't make it to farthingparty. However, I would love to see you at Minicon. Minicon Minicon Minicon!

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Apart from the clapping, Alex's story sounds to me very much like something about ballroom dancing.

Sorry the trip didn't work out. Interesting comment about not taking Alex on the train - my goddaughter's family would feel the same way, whereas I'd much rather take a small child on a train than in a car. I wonder if it correlates with what people were used to themselves as small children? My family never owned a car, but we travelled by train a lot.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I would sooner take her on a train than in a car, but I wouldn't take her on a 12-hour car trip either. She would only have gone along if I had flown.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

My earliest memory is of a train trip my mother undertook with her three children, ages 6 months, 19 months, and not-yet-three. This was from Washington DC to the northern part of the lower pennisula of Michigan, however far north the train service went in 1961. I don't think they still had train ferries across the Straits of Mackinaw at that time, so we must have got off the train in the LP.

There were no disposable diapers then, either. I've no idea how she managed this. I've asked her, and she doesn't know either.

K. [thumbs up on this whole Minicon idea]

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

*nods* There's just no ideal method of travelling with kids of that age, is there?

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

English country dancing maybe? When I first read it, I thought that someone had been teaching her the Hokey Pokey.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

She's actually had some exposure to ECD, because our local group has a "family dance" once a month with English, square, and contra dancing. But we haven't been in months - they don't meet in the summer.

The first part might've been a reference to a song we sing at story hour, which has clapping and then swaying from side to side. But I'm not sure where "Back, a slow" came from.

I have tried to teach her the hokey pokey, but the only part that stuck was "around, around." :-)

You're one of the people I really, really wanted to see at the Farthing Party. I hope you have a fabulous time.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Why thank you, I expect to! Although I'd hoped to see you too.

[jenett]

I would definitely love to see you at Minicon. Woo, Minicon.

I can't go to the Farthing Party either, much as I would like to. Maybe you and I can have comiseratory discussion sometime that weekend?

[dlacey.livejournal.com]

Allow me to add to those chanting Minicon Minicon Minicon. It would really be great to see you there.

[pnh.livejournal.com]

Well, that sucks; you're one of the people I was hoping to see in Montreal.

However, next year's Minicon is very likely to be the first one tnh and I get to in some years, so it would be great to see you there, too.

[pnh.livejournal.com]

Oh, and re Veronica Mars: yes.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

However, next year's Minicon is very likely to be the first one tnh and I get to in some years, so it would be great to see you there, too.

Aha! Because I was thinking, "Well, there's Minicon, but then I wouldn't get to see Patrick and Teresa." We'll see...

[aloha-moira.livejournal.com]

Veronica Mars is, certainly, crack in TV form. I think we decimated both seasons in the span of two weeks or so?

[minnaleigh.livejournal.com]

Sorry you're going to miss out on your fun trip! Speaking as someone who's had to miss out on some fun out of town adventures lately, you should plan to do something fun locally during the Farthing Party to minimize the poutiness of being left out.

Enjoy Veronica Mars! I particularly enjoyed the part where the aliens landed and the making out started ;-)

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

It was too bizarre even for you, so I had to read it again. The second time through you weren't actually encouraging Rivka to minimise the poutines.

Now I'm trying to imagine a foodie conversation in which you might have said that.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I probably wouldn't need to be encouraged to minimize poutine. ;-)

[minnaleigh.livejournal.com]

HEE! That cracked me up. Also, now I *really* want some poutine.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Minicon! Minicon! Minicon!