...although to be honest I would have seriously considered going just so I could jump for Adam and Jamie. :D

Some notes from the Rally, mostly covering things that wouldn't have shown up on the TV coverage:

( Some random notes on the Rally )

Anyway: Jon and Stephen live are adorbs. I hope Mitchell and Brooker are that adorable when they get their live show. And are forced to sing just as much.

( 12 photos, mostly crowd shots )

I dreamed last night that I had built a boat.

..well, no, I dreamed last night that I had *dreamed* I built a boat. It was one of those little plywood-and-fancy-glue designs that are meant to be buildable by a beginner in one weekend, and I'd downloaded the plans and been thinking really hard about it, so when (in the dream) I woke up from the dream, I for a minute thought I'd really built it, until I realized that I couldn't've. And then I looked out the window and it was *there*, and people were congratulating me on having done such a good job for a beginner, and the pirates from Coot Club were putting together a rigging for me, and I'd *never actually built the thing*. It had somehow *appeared* just because I thought I'd built it, and I didn't even know where the heck the *plywood* had come from, much less the labor, but I didn't want to say anything because it was clearly my fault the thing was there but wasn't quite real, and I wasn't sure what would happen if it the word got around that it wasn't.

This is probably a metaphor for a lot of things in my life.

Anyway, that explains why the first thing I did after *actually* waking up was to find this page. And OMG, do you know how long I've wanted my own 12-15 ft, clinker-built, single-masted gaff-rigged keeled sailing boat? At *least* since the first time I ever read A Wizard of Earthsea. And now that I've realized that Lookfar and Swallow are essentially the same boat, I want one *even more*.

...Maybe that's all I'll put on my Christmas list this year. A 12-15' gaff-rigged clinker-built keeled sailboat and a place to learn to sail it in.

Metro subway trains wear Vorkosigan livery; Amtrak wears Imperial Service colors. I just thought you might want to know what goes through my head while sitting at train stations. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who dresses their minions in orange and blue (MARC) or turquoise polka dots (Acela). Although if I ever have minions I'd be tempted to try that last. CSX freight trains are patchwork, of course, but the locomotives are all gold and navy (who wears gold and navy livery? I can't recall. And it's been ages and ages since I've spotted a car that still had Chessie on it, alas.)

I timed my walk from the station to the car today; it took me eight minutes to go the .45 miles to the car, which ends up about 3.5 mph, while carrying an 18lb pack. (Apparently, ten-year-old laptops are godawful heavy. Who knew? Add in the two textbooks I *usually* carry, and we're up to 25 lbs, which is already approaching the suggested backpacking weight for somebody my size.) Then I helped Mom mow the lawn, and then I grabbed my hiking stick and we took a walk down to the old WB&A bridge over Old Mill Road that got washed out by Agnes in '72. That was about 1/4 mile in 6 minutes, which is still 2.5 mph. So let's split the difference and say my average walking speed when not pushing myself is about 3 mph. Which is actually better than I thought it would be.

Which means I ought to be able to do 16.6 mi in not much more than 7 hours, barring disaster, even at my slower stop-and-smell-the-wildflowers pace. This is relevant because it's 16.6 miles to the first campsite on the C&O trail, which would be both the longest stretch and the longest day by far. (What, you thought I wouldn't keep talking about that? Hahaha. The thing is, it's so eminently *doable*, and I so want to do it, so why not? I just need three days free with clear weather, and I shall be off, I will, I will.)

( Canals and trails, trains and hikes, maps and dreams, and oh yeah, I should be doing homework. )

Anybody want to join me some weekend in bushwhacking from my house down to Academy Junction on the old WB&A right-of-way, and find what's been built of the WB&A trail? If they ever, finally, get the wheels moving on finishing that trail, before I'm too old and creaky to enjoy it, which, fingers crossed, they may actually be doing at long last, it's concievable that I could go all the way from our front yard to my sister's place without leaving designated hiker/biker trails - and while I'm dreaming, then I could concievably just *keep going*, right past Mom's hometown, until I hit the Pacific Ocean - and wouldn't *that* be cool? But baby steps, kid, baby steps.

If I ever get stuck and convinced everything I'm writing is utter crap? Remind me to go ding for a while. Yeah.

acadine has declared a Mary Sue goodfic challenge. Hence, an excuse for an attempt at my American DaDA teacher who saves Hogwarts and boffs an OoC Professor Snape . .

( he wasn't looking forward to this. )