In Which We Are Introduced to Hydraulic Cows

15 February 2003

Good morning, good morning! I think I've gotten over my sleep deprivation from two nights ago. Yay!

Also, because I flexed my geek muscles, half of you read yesterday's journal entry, tried to do the thing that I said didn't work, and said, "Uh, that worked. What's the problem?" Because I got in there and fixed it, people, despite opposition from my domain registry people, who are not getting my business again. That's what a clever girlgeek I am. Go me.

Last night I was grousing that I hate fonts, and Mark's solution was that I should learn Metafont and write my own. I'm happy that he assesses my geekliness that highly, I guess, but I wasn't really concerned about that. When we met, I was halfway to having my name legally changed to That One Physics Chick. Mark never knew me when I couldn't solve differential equations. So I figured he knew I was fairly geeky. I just think learning Metafont is not the answer.

There's a Karina again! Yay! And she's had a similar Asimov Award experience to mine, where things just start working again. I wonder how many of us had something like that. Hmm. Good stuff, the Asimov Award.

And, in news that nobody outside this house cares about, Bobbie has finished off the Wild Cherry Pepsi! Finally! We've been trying to get rid of it since Chelle was here, so I'm glad it's still good, but more importantly, I'm glad it's gone. I would have refused to move the Wild Cherry Pepsi. It's not the sort of thing I would usually give to a food pantry, but I would have made an exception.

Food pantry. Mark and I both produced this as the term in question, but it just sounds stupid to me. Like we have clothes pantries.

Anyway. Yesterday Timprov and I had Chinese food with his folks and then picked up a few more books near there, some of which were his birthday presents, precious. Very cheap. Then we drove through Niles Canyon and down by the Calaveras Reservoir, which made me wonder if I have another story in the same world/characters as "Glass Wind" there. Hmm. Maybe, but I'll have to do the rest of the Point Reyes story first. I worked on that a little last night, when I was done working on DBM for awhile. Anyway, in the afternoon, we looked at the green, green hills and the cows on them, and we gave each other implausible explanations for the cows' ability to graze facing downhill at 20 degrees' incline or more. And then came home and ate pepper beef and watched alarming TV and read and worked and so on. (Alarming TV: Timprov had on "While You Were Out" and "Trading Spaces" and I watched -- this one was all my fault -- "Iron Chef: Chocolate Apple.")

And I read a tiny bit of Louise de la Vallière, and I enjoyed it, except for one footnote. They were getting better, I thought -- not always useful, but generally not as snotty and annoying. And then. Then! There was a footnote that said, "This mystery will not be explained until Chapter N of The Man in the Iron Mask, when the veiled lady will be revealed to be...." And it went on to tell who all the mysterious figures were. And, okay, I already knew. But still! That's just beyond the pale! That's not all right! And it's incomprehensible to me: what would make you think that it was a reasonable thing to footnote? That's like having, "Mr. Body lay in a pool of his own blood.*" and then "*The butler did it. See p. 317." It's just wrong.

Grrrrrr. Wrong.

Anyway. The plans for today involve the obligatory (and tasty) fish tacos in Half Moon Bay and time at the "beach" (I've said this before and I'll say it again -- if I have to wear a sweater there in July, it's not a beach). We may just head back from there, or we may wander around in Santa Cruz for awhile before driving back up here. We're being flexible, especially with two sickies around. In the meantime, I'm sending a few stories out and getting cleaned up and ready to go. And trying not to grouse at footnotes of Louise de la Vallière, most likely. Sigh.

Back to Morphism.

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