Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

womzilla picked me up around noon yesterday, and we went up to Pleasantville, as usual. I was greeted by someone sitting on the couch calling me by my full name (and mispronouncing "Rosenzweig"). I corrected her pronunciation, thought for a couple of minutes, and bit the bullet: "I know you, but I can't remember your name, who are you?" 'Twas Carol Pinchevsky, who I hadn't seen in years, and spent a bit of time asking after people we used to hang out together, including roadnotes.

supergee was there, and we all chatted a bit around manuscript reading; I grabbed Belinda (the cat) because she was trying to socialize with him and Carol, and they're both allergic. So I told Belinda that her job was to sit on my lap--she was amenable, but it didn't leave much for manuscript reading.

A small but productive work weekend: Walter showed up later than expected, and had to leave early, but we were making corrections before dinnertime. Walter had time to fix a few manuscripts before leaving. (He seems to actively like making fixes, whereas I'm competent at it but would rather be reading and editing.)

Dinner was just me, Womzilla, David and Kathryn and their children, at the increasingly-becoming-usual Chinese place. I had "Szechuan cucumber" for an appetizer, because I love cucumber and had never heard of this dish. It turns out to be lightly-pickled cucumber spears, with hot pepper flakes for spiciness. We (that's me, Womzilla, and Kathryn, the three spicy eaters in the group) liked them; I made a point of saving a few to take home to cattitude, which got me pickle juice all over my hands on the way home.

Eventually we were done making editorial fixes; Kathryn went to bed, David and Womzilla did layout, and I napped on the couch. Got home around 2:30; I can't make a habit of this.

In passing, during dinner, David (I think it was him) said something like "You know you're invited to the SFWA party Monday?" I said something intelligent like "What?" and attempted to get details like time and place, learning only the name (but not location) of the site it's at, and that they've apparently gotten 500 RSVPs for a space that might hold 300. So I'm torn between "go, see people, duck out early" and "too crowded, aargh!" Just before waking up this morning, I dreamed that I'd mentioned this to Cattitude and been told that his gaming had been moved to Monday nights, and that eleanor and I had agreed to meet at this party. Only the latter half made it clear to me, when I got out of bed, that I hadn't in fact talked to Cattitude.

Today, I think, I will drink less tea than yesterday, and try to get to bed early.

I also seem to have a dry cough again: it started late last night (and worried Womzilla when he came back into the living room to wake me so he could drive me home). I am not a happy hobbit, in that regard.