Unpacking to pack

I'm preparing for Pinewoods, which means I'm unpacking half-unpacked things in order to repack them in new arrangements. Sa-weet. This could go on forever. But wait, no, it couldn't, because we leave this afternoon for New Hamp-shy-er, where we'll drop off a cat with my mother before driving to Plymouth, MA on Monday for a week of dancing, music, and skinnydipping. Details (suitably edited for family reading) will appear here upon my return. (And, yes, uncleamos et showergrrl et al., we will be about 50 miles from the Great Nantucket Expedition. Damn you all.)

Gus is just fine after her surgery, incidentally, apart from the indignity of a shaved tummy. She has been affectionate as anything today. Mrowr.

In preparation for Pinewoods, I bought a spankin' new camera flash today, using a birthday Best Buy gift card from my dad; it should enable me to take flash photos that fail to suck, or so the reviews claim. The big selling point is the swiveling head, which will let me bounce the light off ceilings, thereby creating Ambient Illumination rather than Nasty Glare. The goal, here, is to be able to walk into a poorly-lit room and take quality pictures of the people I find there, without asking them all to shine desk lamps in their faces. I'm sure y'all will see the results upon my return.

I had a particularly nice phone call today. It was one of those times when I was a bit glum and expected the call would not improve my mood, might even worsen it, but instead it all effortlessly made me gleeful and smiley. People are cool—person is cool. That said, there really should not be a porn magazine called Octo! that features octogenarians enjoying themselves with octopi. I don't think the world is ready.

The dwindling dot waves merrily

And so we are off. More or less; there is still loading the car and stopping at the grocery store to be done. But...soon! And we're only four hours from our destination, astonishingly enough. Mmmm.

We'll be at Pinewoods from Monday afternoon until Saturday morning, with visits to my mom in Portsmouth padding the ends—we should be back in Saratoga next Monday evening. We will have the cell, but lousy reception, so leave a message if you need us.

*sinks gladly into the warm wet wonder of Pinewoods, visible here, between the ponds*