Realm: By the numbers. Subrealm: Dum loquimur...

[choco_frosh]

[with apologies to Harper's Index, Susan Townsend, and Margaret...
and really, to everyone reading this ;-) ]

Days until I leave for Germany: 15 (eep!)
Of these, number that will be spent driving to Maine, moving everything out of old house, and coming back: 4.
Days until Great Big Sea is performing at Toad's: 17 (grr. Everybody go, dance, scream along to the lyrics, and think of me. Fulbright orientation is unlikely that much fun)

Boxes of books stacked in my sister-in-law's bedroom: 6.
Additional boxes that will be joining them: 3 (large).
...that will be shipped across the Atlantic: 1
Papers, miscellaneous, to be sorted and boxed or thrown out: depressing numbers.

Library books waiting to be returned on bottom shelf of smallest bookcase: 15
Number of these that I have more than skimmed: maybe three.
Current year in my current Civilization III game: AD 1575.

Pages of notes on Maurer's Konstanz im Mittelalter: 33 and counting.
(not counting maps, diagrams, and bibliography)
Days until it's due: 1
Days until I meet Maurer: 70 (est.)

Number of students from my TA sections last semester who area still in town and keep bumping into me: at least 4.

Things I would like to know (random):
--where I am going to sleep between Sept. 24 and Oct 1.
--whether I should pack my dinner jacket.
--bibliographic information on guides to the archives of the Thurgau, Konstanz, and Freiburg, and of private collections in the region.
--German words for "cell phone family plan"
--ideal number of people to consume one Downside Watson.

Comments

[sovay]

What goes into a Downside Watson? And how much of it is there?

Of those books that you've more than skimmed ...

[(Anonymous)]

... do you include the DLS letters?

Sovay: A Downside Watson is Ashley's obscenely huge sundae, served in a Frisbee. It involves something like nine scoops of ice cream, seven toppings and a couple of bananas. Are you coming to help us eat one on Aug. 4?

Re: Of those books that you've more than skimmed ...

[sovay]

Just the novels and short stories: should I read the letters? I am very bad at keeping up with authors outside their fiction. (Or have I misunderstood your acronym?)

That sounds like an unconscionable amount of ice cream and I'm all for it: I have commitments in Boston on the 2nd and the 6th, but I should be here on the 4th. Do we get to keep the Frisbee afterward?

Re: Of those books that you've more than skimmed ...

[maddy-harrigan.livejournal.com]

I'm 99% certain you get to keep the frisbee. You also get your photo on the wall if you manage to set a record for how quickly you can eat it. The current record is something like two minutes, and I get a headache even THINKING about it.

Incidentally, Josh, how did you manage to get this far in life without learning that one ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, packs one's dinner jacket?

And a towel.

Re: Of those books that you've more than skimmed ...

[(Anonymous)]

We currently have Sterling's copies of vols. 3 and 4 of Sayers' letters waiting to go back to the library. You should DEFINITELY read them, they are witty, intelligent, and sometimes scathing, in DLS' inimitable style. I've read practically every word she's ever published and do not regret it ... as Josh put it, "I wish she'd lived 15 years longer, so we could find out what she would have said about the sixties ..."

Don't worry, Margaret, we will pack towels.

However, our landlord wants to compound our packing mess and misery by ripping out the front room closet. ARGH!

P.S.

[(Anonymous)]

I believe you get to keep the Frisbee regardless, but you only get your picture taken if you eat the thing ALONE.

A thought I hesitate even to contemplate.