I suspect no one will be surprised that I gave into temptation on Friday and joined the small crowd at the Toadstool bookshop here in Peterborough to wait for midnight and Harry Potter 6! They had a magician for the younger kids and it was a lovely evening. Plus, they were selling the book for 30% off, which was nice. I finished it Sunday around dinner time and look forward to comparing notes will all of you as you finish it! Harry is definately a year older than the last book - he makes some very mature decisions (like who he takes to the Christmas party) and I’m really rather proud of him! Will shut up now before you yell at me to give nothing away! Look for posts concerning book 6 sometime in the next few weeks - I will put spoiler warnings on them when applicable.

Saturday afternoon I took Harry and went off to the beach, which was lovely! The first public beach I came across was fairly crowded and parking required paying through the nose, so I went a little farther and found a quiet spot (and free parking). This was by and large a pebbley beach, though there was some sand it was up away from the water. And of course, not white - more dark brown with black specks. I was surprised at how much the color affects the temperature! - the sand was almost too hot to walk barefoot on. Down by the water, the ground was entirely rocks, tiny little pebbles, not as comfortable to walk on as sand. I waded some, but mostly I sat on my big flat rock and read Harry.

I came home in time to eat dinner and shower and then went off (same highway, other direction) into town for a concert I’d found out about the day before. Part of a concert series in the Town House (same sort of architecture as the local churches, only with a stage at the front), this was a vocal ensemble specializing in Renaissance polyphony. There were ten of them, mostly men, and they sang for a good hour and a half or two hours and were VERY good. Good accoustics, too, which helped - I had a great seat in the balcony.

Ha, just heard the AC is back on in this building, after having been out since Thursday. I didn’t even notice until people started complaining of the heat late Thursday and Friday (It’s been warm here, but nothing like post-Dennis in FWB without AC, I know.). Amusing. It WAS getting stuffy by late Friday, though, so when I was invited to leave early, I scurried out.

Categories: Harry Potter, internships
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I love the variety I get here. Yesterday it was Ellis Island immigrants, the day before it was Bolivia or Reconstruction, and the morning it has been Native American houses. Just works out that way, since I’m always working on this or that for several different editors, and each has several different issues going at once.

I’ve been wanting to introduce you to some of the personalities that make it interesting around here, but I always fret about using people’s names and whether they would want a name used or whether someone could use their identities to figure out mine (which they probably could anyway), so I’m sidestepping all that and making up pseudonyms as I go.

I like working with Ellen - she’s sweet and can always find something for me to do - and is charmingly unorganized. She’s the sort of person who might clearly think she handed you a stack of articles, but they’re just as clearly still sitting on her desk… She’s fun, though. I really like working with Amy too, who is very efficient and keeps an eye out for me. We had a design meeting for the Edison issue recently, which was a fun one for me because I had helped her sort out the photos and written the captions, so I was more familiar with the material that I have been at other design meetings. Pete seems perpetually stressed over these Civil War books, I sometimes feel sorry for him. He’s very friendly, though, and will strike up conversations on totally non-work-related subjects, which I (never much good at making small talk) appreciate. At any rate, the books are looking really nice - the first pass of book seven, ‘Jefferson Davis’ is sitting on my desk at the moment for proofreading. I’ve seen the design for it’s cover - with my text on the flap - I am STILL tickled pink over those. The article I mentioned a few posts back died an unmourned death, but it’s not a loss.

In a more physical sense, I keep spending my weekends rambling around the region. Small towns, fun little downtown areas, cute shops (and weird ones), lots of hills and trees and pleasant weather (I thumb my nose at Florida!). Last weekend was Amherst, where I visited the house of Emily Dickenson, which was very nice. The organization that runs it also owns the house next door, where her brother and sister-in-law lived, which is fascinating because it has never been redecorated since the last time Mrs. Dickenson did it in the 1880’s! Same flooring, same wallpaper (now peeling off the walls of course), everything. They’ve only had the house for a couple of years and are still working out how to go about preserving and restoring it.

This weekend I’m planning to go check out the New Hampshire coast and find another kind of beach. And next weekend, I have a visitor! Pug is coming on Wednesday!!

Categories: internships
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London 2012!

That’s right, folks, all the banners and bus advertisments (that’s ad-VERT-iss-ments if you please) paid off - the 2012 Olympics are going to London! Hurrah for fish and chips, beefeaters, and doubledecker buses!

(psst to Poke - the art museum we visited (the National Gallery) is the building in the background of that picture in the article)

Categories: mmm, London!
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Found this page while researching for an article on Outward Bound (couldn’t care less about the topic, but am thoroughly pleased and gratified that I’m being asked to write it, so will do my damndest!). Nice design in general, but I really like the box that pops up (a hidden layer) when you click on “six declines”. Yet another reason to learn some Java!

And oh - this is my 100th post!

Categories: internships, technologia
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