I love Halloween!

Not just for the sight of a brave grown-up nerd walking across Lexington Avenue at 10 in the morning dressed as Superman, but also for those folks where you just can't quite tell if they're in costume or not. Girl in a short pink dress with bad dye job carrying a flute case -- Who knows? Guy on the subway wearing a bright blue suit with shorts and bow tie -- probably, but who can say?

Man! I love this holiday!

I'm off to see the New Jersey munchkins at their school parades, and then do some trick-or-treating with them. Then, later, it's back into the city to make like Marie Antoinette again for a party at Swing 46. Here's hoping my hair survives!

Movie Soundtrack Meme

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle/Random
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button

Opening Credits:
"Singing for the Lonely" by Robbie Williams, from "Sing When You're Winning." A nice opening song, I think. Moving on...

Waking Up:
"Reel Around the Sun" by Bill Whelan, from "Riverdance." Now that's just spooky. Starts slow and quiet, like most days when I wake up, adds more layer by layer, and turns into something heart pounding and exciting, with drums and dancing. I like.

First Day At School:
"Too Many Fish in the Sea" by The Commitments, from "The Commitments, Vol. 2." Heh.

Falling In Love:
"Birdhouse in Your Soul" by They Might Be Giants, from "Flood." Yeah, that probably covers it. Wacky and weird.

Breaking Up:
Track 5 from a self-released album by Chris Seldon, a musician some friends and I met at an Irish music festival. Sample lyrics include "And I wanna be somebody tonight." Very cool.

Prom:
"It Takes Two" by Joanna Gleason and Chip Zien, from the Original Broadway Cast Album of "Into the Woods." Which, you know, works. Prom's better with two.

Life's OK:
"Full Throttle" by The Prodigy, from the "Life Less Ordinary" soundtrack. A little more driving and clubby than I'd have picked myself, but not unlike how life feels sometimes.

Mental Breakdown:
"Shapeshifter" by Josie And The Pussycats, from the soundtrack album. Again, I say: heh.

Driving:
"Another Postcard" by BNL from "Everything to Everyone." Ohmigod. So perfect. Reminds me of driving crosscountry with the Queen of Monkeys, Elena.

Flashback:
"Without Letting Go" by Laurie Sargent, from the "Party of Five" tv soundtrack. Lots of soundtracks. Which is pretty fitting, for a soundtrack meme. I picture me packing, for some reason. Shots of people traveling and moving through a crowded city goes very well with this music.

Getting Back Together:
Or maybe not. "A Quick One While He's Away" by The Who, from the "Rushmore" soundtrack.

Wedding:
"Hard Headed Woman" by Elvis Presley, from "50 Worldwide Gold Hits." Not the Elvis song I'd have picked, but it's got a beat, and you can dance to it!

Birth of Child:
"American Girls" by Counting Crows. Dear God, am I going to have TWINS?

Final Battle:
"Here and Now" by Del Amitri, from "Twisted." Not very fight-y. That's good, right?

Death Scene:
Beautiful. It's "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra. Start spreading the news...

Funeral Song:
"Making Time" by Creation, again from "Rushmore". Over 4,000 songs on my iTunes, and I get two from the same album? Wacky!

Sex Scene:
"The Moonshiner" by The Fenians, from "Live At The Harp." Well, sex DOES often involve alcohol...

Dance Sequence:
"Leather" by Tori Amos, from "Little Earthquakes." Actually, I imagine this is quite a difficult song to dance to. Hmmm. Must have gotten my life soundtrack confused with my college roommate's, who did a ballet performance to Tori Amos tunes.

End Credits:
"One" by Johnny Cash, from "American III: Solitary Man." A great cover of the U2 song. "One love, one life..."

(via ***Dave, BD)

SOOOO big!

My hair, that is. See?

Needless to say, this isn't a normal look. I'm heading out with the Keelster to the divine Miss K's Halloween party, and once I add my giant black dress, slim red ribbon around my neck to mark where the guilotine will hit, little net mask, and lots of white powder, I'll be a swankified Marie Antoinette. More pictures to follow soon!

The Great Apartment Hunt 2006!

Went to look at another apartment today at lunchtime, after seeing one last night and finally, finally! getting a hold of our buddy Costas, who seems to have forgotten ever showing us an available two-bedroom apartment. So, we keep looking. The one I saw today was a basement apartment in a house sort of building, rather than the apartment building we prefer, but I wanted to see it before dismissing it out of hand. Silly me. I could have just dismissed it out of hand, and saved myself the trip to Queens.

Another requirement to add to our list: no linoleum floors anywhere other than the kitchen, and even that's pushing it. Also, to landlords? Renovating an apartment doesn't mean just painting it. It means ripping out the kitchen appliances that haven't been changed since the 70s. Just a hint.

So the search continues. If anyone knows of any available apartments in Astoria, or has a great broker or landlord, please let me know. Thanks!

Things are getting back to normal

They must be, since I had time this morning to do some early Christmas shopping. Got all my cards, too. Ain't I the forward-thinking one?

And, of course, as my thoughts turn to presents for others, so must I consider gifts for me! I mean, if Ali's talking about drugstores decorating for the holidays (no, not Halloween, the December one!), I can think about gifts, right?

OK, fine. No list yet. I'll keep it in my head until November. In the meantime, I still have to get my Halloween costume ready. Need to buy some black tulle, and find a craft shop of some kind where I can pick up the makings of paniers, and something to make my hair super big! A towering cascade of hair! I'm already dreading having to brush out all the hairspray I will have to use. Still, it'll be awesome.

Even MORE Prague!

Ok, Doyce managed to get all his notes up from our trip. Go check out Days Four, Five, and the Long Trip Home. What have I been doing, you ask? Finishing up all my notes from Frankfurt, reading manuscripts, and finally getting all caught up on the tv I missed. Oh, Veronica Mars, how I missed you so! There was a great song featured on the last episode I saw, and I really like it. You can check it out by going to the singer's MySpace page, and watching the video. I'm off to download it from iTunes.

More Prague! More Pictures!

Considering the readership of our blogs is pretty well cross-polinated, you've probably already seen that Doyce posted recaps of Day Two and Day Three of our trip to Prague, but for those of you that don't normally go read his stuff... Go! To whet your appetite, another picture.

Also, a report from the movies, where I'm diving into the plethora of films available to me in the pre-Oscar, pre-holiday glut of entertainment. Marie Antoinette is better than Lost in Translation, I think, very pretty, very pink, but ultimately unsatisfying. The Prestige is, simply, brilliant. I saw it on Friday and had to get up early Saturday morning, but my mind wouldn't let me fall asleep easily, still turning over all the twists and turns of the film in my head. Oh! And! Parts of it were shot at the Stanley, in Estes Park, though they said it was Colorado Springs. But I knew better.

Someone's been reading us...

So, you know how we were talking about watching "Hogan Knows Best" on MTV Europe? And Rob mentioned wanting to see Hogan's Heroes in German? Well, this isn't that, but it's still funny! From an episode of Robot Chicken that I missed while I was in Europe.

Ooh, look! A famous person being FUNNY!

Via Neil Gaiman, on The Smoking Gun, Iggy Pop's concert requirements. My favorite part so far:

Sorry about that rant about Santiago, by the way. I just wanted to get it off my chest, and killing people is sooo 80s, don,t you think?
The next page contains the information you require.
Bear with me. Not a real bear, of course.
By the way, our guitar roadie, Chris, assures me that the panda is not of the genus "Bear", but is actually a part of the "Pig" family. Could this possible be true? And if not, why would he risk telling me, so that I can tell the whole world his half-baked theory? Unbelievable.

Go read for yourself!

Two things

One, it was brought to my attention that I have an odd propensity for using the word "Woot!" in my posts. This seems to me patently unfair to other fun and exciting exclamations of joy and/or surprise, and I'd like to open the floor for suggestions of other injections. I'm rather fond of the idea of strangely outdated sayings, like "Cor blimey!" and "Cracking!". Doyce suggests "Shazzam!" What have you got?

Second, I keep getting emails from the good people at Nanowrimo. I'm 100% certain I can't manage a full novel this year, but what do folks think about starting up another Storyball? I'm thinking the 2000 words every five days or so would help me stay on track with my revisions on HtDaS. Or maybe I'm just crazy. Opinions?

Prague, with Pictures

Doyce spent a honking huge amount of time writing up a great recap of our first full day in Prague, with pictures by me to illustrate it. Go read it! Follow the links to more neat pictures like this one!

Another good thing about traveling WITH people

They blog about it, so I don't have to! Go read Doyce's take on our first day together in Europe, with more recaps to come. And... pictures!

Back in the saddle again

Back to work today, and trying to tackle the large piles of books and emails that have piled up while I was gone. I think I have a system under control, though, so I'm giving myself a blog-break.

We landed back at JFK on Saturday afternoon, and got through customs and baggage claim and passport control without too much hassle (comparatively), met with our driver, then headed back to the glorious comforts of my apartment, and the stuffed DVR. Enjoyed my first American meal in weeks (yum, chicken roll!) and watched the season premiere of "Battlestar Galactica" before collapsing into insensibility at 10pm Eastern, or about 4am, according to my body's clock.

Sunday, though, we were up bright and early, had a giant delicious diner breakfast, and watched another episode of BSG before I took Doyce off to the airport for his trip home to Denver. And then I collapsed on the couch for the remainder of the afternoon watching "Heroes," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," "Ugly Betty," "Gilmore Girls," "30 Rock," and "My Name is Earl." Much more still to see. There's a lot of tv on in two weeks, especially at this time of year. I'm also saving "Veronica Mars" for last, since those, alone among everything else I taped, I'll save even after I watch them. At least until the Season 3 DVD is released.

Today, my body still not adjusted properly, I woke up early (!) for work, got all gussied up in my favorite new suit, and spent a busy morning going through the above-mentioned piles. Hit my Weight Watchers meeting at lunchtime, and was highly gratified to learn that not only didn't I GAIN any weight while I was off in Europe, and not being as exact about counting points, but I went down another 3.8 pounds! Total weight lost so far: 34.4 pounds. Woot!

Still, no time to rest on my laurels, smaller though they may be. Back to work! When I get home again later and have time to put up a fuller photographic essay, I will do so!

Home!

YAY!!

More pictures to come soon.

Want to be home. NOW.

This has been our time so far in the Frankfurt airport:

1. Arrive from Prague. Go through passport control, baggage claim, and customs.

2. Travel to different terminal. Check in for our flight. Go shopping.

3. Go through passport control and security.

4. Have (unappealling) lunch.

5. Go through security again to get to our gate, a small area where the only other flight posted is to Tel Aviv.

6. Nap. Ah.

7. Having been told '"it's not a jail" and that we can leave the gate area, I go get ice cream for both of us forty minutes before we're scheduled to board.

8. Return to security with ice cream. Am told I can't bring it in, and Doyce is inside with our carry-on bags and jackets. Attempt to flag him down to come out and enjoy frozen (note: not liquid) treat.

9. See Doyce with our bags. Find a spot to talk through the glass. Loud German voice woke him from nap to tell that we were boarding.

10. Throw out 5 euro ice cream, untouched. Go through security and get wanded AGAIN by same German attendant.

11. Show boarding pass and passport to another set of Germans, to go through metal gate and sit back down EXACTLY where we sat down two hours earlier.

12. Blog furiously, highly annoyed.

There better be free beer and a good movie on this flight, that's all I can say.

Another airport

Another step closer to home.

(Although I am unimpressed with the shopping in the Frankfurt Airport. Unless you want a giant Tolerone bar, that is.)

On the way home

Sitting in the Prague airport waiting for the first flight on our trip home. Yesterday was spent picking up last minute souvenirs and gettings our last looks at Karlov Most and Prasky Hrad. Then, up VERY early today to meet our driver and voyage through the fog to the airport.

Later, we'll get to spent five hours in the terminal at Frankfurt. Woot!

Prague's been great, but we're looking forward to coming home.

In previous trips to Europe...

I have often found myself sitting alone in an Irish pub, drinking a beer, listening to trad music, and writing in my journal.

This is better.

Castle!

Sitting at the Karlstejn train station (nadrazi, for those of you trying to pick up some Czech) waiting for our ride back into Prague. Did lovely castle touring this morning, to the "most visited castle in the country," as my ever-fattening guidebook tells me. See, as we go along, I've been putting flyers for places we've seen and ticket stubs and receipts and business cards into the book, so it gets bigger and bigger and heavier and heavier.

This afternoon, when we get back to the city, we're hoping to hit the Museum of Decorative Arts, and later return to the Irish pub we liked for live music.

Trying not to think about packing all the souvenirs we've bought - or still plan to buy - back into my suitcases for the trip home. Eek!

My dogs, they are barking.

Climbed something like... oh, I don't know... a gazillion steps today on the way to Prague Castle, all up around Hradcany, to the tower at the top of St. Vitus' Cathedral (287 steps!), and then headed over to Petrin Hill after lunch and climbed to the top of their mini Eiffel Tower, which still managed 303 steps (or thereabouts), but at least had one way stairs and seats and rest platforms.

Also have taken a number of geeky photos of "badges earned", Prince of Persia save points ("Shall I continue your tourism from here when you return?"), and a perfect representation of a cave mission door in Perez.

Tonight, had authentic Budvar in old pivnice that closed remarkably early for a tourist trap, and tomorrow we go shopping! And, you know, see more stuff.

Prague = Purty!

Yes, it's true what they say. This place is very, very pretty. And I have it on the best authority (mine and Doyce's) that the beer is some of the best in the world!

Arrived here Sunday night and are staying in a rather Eastern bloc-esque flat, although the building in which it's situated is drop-dead gorgeous Art Nouveau. I'm taking lots of pictures!

Monday we hit the Old Town Square, climbed a few towers for some amazing views, did our first walk across the Karlov Most, and had a fun, yummy dinner, with some Czech folks I do business with.

Today... Castle!

Whatda ya know?

Frankfurt IS scenic!

Met Doyce at the airport this morning and was able to come back to the hotel, let him shower and all that, and then we briefly strolled among the crafty shops at the Messe before taking the S-Bahn to Romerberg, where I had again the delicious sausage plate I enjoyed last year. So much better in the daytime, with the town hall across the square striking the hour, the sun on my back, and someone across the table to enjoy it with.

After our yummy meal, we did quick, drive-by tourist stops at two churches, went for a walk along the Ziel shopping street, saw the Opera House, got some yummy ice cream, and then took the U-Bahn back to the hotel to grab our bags and head BACK to the airport.

Where, while I was typing some of the above, our cabby dropped us off at the wrong terminal, and we had to hustle over to Terminal 2, and begin the long process of multiple lines, security checkpoints, and some very friendly/ticklish frisking.

Finishing this now in a very empty departure lounge at the gate, without ANY amenities. And I'd say I would kill for an ice cold diet coke (with ice!) except I think I'd be tackled by some over-zealous Germans if I tried to make that joke. Ah well. They better have beverage service on the plane, that's all I can say!

On my way to the airport

For the first of two trips today, this one without any baggage, going to meet Doyce. Yay! I got all my own stuff packed, and gave all my work stuff (plus my two colleagues') to the concierage to send home via Fedex, and I even managed to arrange for a late checkout at 3pm. Being able to do that, this morning just got all whole lot less complicated.

I feel all vacation-y already, albeit a little sore. For the record, should you ever be settling in for an hour long massage in Germany, do be sure to specify an all-body massage. 60 minutes on just my back = not as relaxed a ktbuffy as I'd hoped!

Ah! That's Better.

All done! Woot! My second to last meeting canceled, and I was able to move my 5:30 to an earlier time, so I was done with work shortly after 5, and made it back to the hotel to chat with Doyce at the airport on the way to New York, PLUS grab a massage at the hotel sports club before dinner. I'm so cool.

Still, it's a huge relief to be done. Yes, I'd hoped to get more of my notes done before going on vacation, but you know what? I'll just do 'em when I get home, and still probably be done before the others. One of my colleagues is also going on a week's vacation, and my boss always seems to take the longest, plus she has a new assistant who'll need to be walked through the assembling of the notes into a cohesive whole. So I'm not worried. I'm going to put all my work stuff together and Fedex it back to the office, so I don't have to lug it to Prague and back. So I won't be tempted on vacation at all -- at least not to do any work!

Last night's Russian party was much fun, as expected, and I got the opportunity to hang with our Eastern European subagents, do some dancing, and catch up with some other American rights people, which may be one of the best parts of Frankfurt. The rest of the year, we're all (sort of) competitors, but here, we're all just Americans Abroad, marveling at the wacky Russians, the teutonic Germans, the suave Italians, the chain smokers and multiple kissers. The whole exciting lot of 'em.

Now to start working on the Powers That Be to send me to Bologna in the spring!!

Russian hangover

Except I was drinking beer, which was I'm sure the wise way to go about this - though had I, in fact, been taking the vodka, I'd probably have drunk a lot less. A LOT less.

But I'm up, showered, dressed, breakfasted, and in the Agents Center waiting for my first appointment. And yay! Because today Doyce is on the way to meet me!

Another day, another full schedule of meetings!

Long day yesterday, with meetings starting at 9:30 and going until 5, every half hour, with my first break not until 2:30. Luckily, my 5:30 meeting canceled, so I was able to head back to the hotel a little early, change, and nap for a little bit as I listened to "Date My Mom."

After that too-short interlude, my boss and I hit two cocktail parties at one hotel, stood in a long taxi line only to end up jumping it with another agent, then headed our separate ways: she to dinner, and I to the monster cocktail party of them all, where they were literally handing partygoers a map of which room had which kind of food. Gi-normous!

But I ran into quite a few folks I knew, had a couple of beers, and even managed to eat a little meat and potatoes before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel. Oh! And German taxis? Are Mercedes Benzes.

Back in my room, shoes happily off, I drew a bath, added some of my favorite lemon-scented Philosophy shower gel/shampoo/bubble bath (someone find me a link, will ya?) and soaked for a bit with a mass market paperback before crawling happily into bed some short time after 11pm.

And now? About to take my first meeting at the very comfortable hour of 10am, I managed to make it down to the hotel's buffet breakfast and was able to eat my own Cheerios, as well as a yummy big pot o' tea and some toast, with two mini corn muffins tucked away in my bag for later. "But what about your diet, ktbuffy?" You ask.

No worries. I don't think I've managed three meals a day since, oh, Monday, so I'm not worried. Honestly, if I get two meals, I consider it a good day. And that's not even getting into quality. Ta!

There's a baby at the book fair!

I can see it from where I sit in the Agents Center! Why's it here? It's CERTAINLY not going to buy any books!!!

:)

Although, still only comes in second fiddle to the sleeping toddler in lederhosen I saw at one of the parties last night.

My eye!

Ok, that's annoying. All the smoke and everything is totally pissing off my contact (just the left one), plus I think I have another stie. Eeew.

Trying to ignore it, trying to ignore it, trying to ignore it...

NOT WORKING!

Tired, but ready for Day Three!

Yesterday ended up being quite a bearable (rawr) day, with just enough short meetings and breaks to give me a few rests, and chances to run outside, through the smoky cloud around the doors, to get a breath of fresh air. After my last meeting at 4:30, and a social meeting at 5:30 with a Czech publisher, my boss and I went down to a Scandinavian social call in the halls, then headed back to the hotel for a hour and a half break before grabbing a taxi and heading out to the FFHof.

Or, that was the plan. It's mostly what happened, although the taxi line at our hotel was crazy long, so we grabbed our transit passes and took the S-Bahn first to the Hauptbahnhof (the big, glorious train station), where we changed for another S-Bahn to the FFHof -- although we missed our stop and got off at the next one, which was Romerberg, or the beautiful big square where I'd had dinner last year on Saturday night, and which I'm hoping to explore on Sunday with Doyce in the daylight. Cross your fingers it's not raining!

We walked back from Romerberg to the FFHof, me doing the exciting cobblestone shuffle in my heels, and stopped in first at a French cocktail party serving Veuve Cliquot, then a Dutch party, with food! The French was a very international party, with little Americans, as my boss explained -- although I told her I figured that out when she was speaking Italian to a Spaniard while surrounded by the French.

After enjoying the relaxing Dutch party, and speaking with a Dutch agent who'd spent her last holidays in Namibia (with Angelina Jolie! Ok, not really, but Europeans go on much more exciting vacations than your average American), we met up with a couple of scouts and another foreign rights agent, and took a long cab ride to a very out of the way club for a German party. Which was crazy.

Pretzels and sausages on one table, champagne handed out at the door with blue glowing ice cubes, soup at a cocktail party, speeches heralded by the muscial themes from Star Wars, and a lounge/opera singer in a tight black corset and giant white blouse singing "Carmen" in German and "Tonight" from "West Side Story" in English. Mere words cannot explain the horrors and the humour. Fantastic opportunity for German-people watching, though!

Got back to the hotel around midnight, and headed almost directly to bed, not getting my notes done -- so yes, I'm already falling behind on my genius plan. Ah well.

Today, my first meeting's not until 9:30, so i have an extra half-hour this morning to get ready/take it easy, and I'm hoping tonight becomes an earlier evening. I need sleep!!

There's a weird lump

At the back of my stocking, just above my ankle. I feel like I have an invisible growth - which, granted, is better than the visible kind, but still... annoying.

I had a lovely lunch of a ham sandwich on a pretzel (oh, those wacky Germans!) accompanied by a very nice white beer. A half liter of a very nice white beer, to be exact, after which I did a little browsing in the nearby arts & crafts stands, managing to hold off on buying anything until we get to Prague, even though I found the same woman who sold me my amber ring and earrings, and even though I very much want a matching pendant.

I'm between meetings again enjoying a Euro 3.50 diet coke (yes, that's as expensive as it sounds!) and getting off my feet, for though the shoes are adorable, to paraphrase Famous Author MJ, "they pinch."

And that will mean nothing except to her and I!

The Latest From Germany

Where I'm halfway through my first day in the Agents Center, and possibly on my first no-show. Interestingly, it's a meeting with an editor that I saw every time I turned around yesterday at the FFHof. Still, I have my fab new suit on, luscious heels, and I have lunch planned only three meetings away with our Eastern European subagent, who's a ton of fun.

I'd started to type out some funny German phrases from the free daily edition of the British trade magazine The Bookseller that they pass out to us every morning, but the best part of them were more the descriptions than the words, and that was too much to try to type with my blackberry. Still, German = funny!

Anyway, I keep getting interupted by meetings - have had two since I started this - so I will just end this and post it, and send more later!

One day down, Four to go!

Made it through the first day of the fair, sort of. Today's meetings were all at the Frankfurter Hof, where agents, editors, and scouts all struggled to find one another in a smoky mess of humanity. And did I mention the smoke? It's smoky!

It was a nice, short induction into what can be total craziness, since I only had five meetings, and I managed to locate (or be located by) all of them. Afterwards, the boss and I made our first appearance at a cocktail party -- yes, please, I will have a beer! -- and then went back to the hotel to relax for a bit before a publisher's dinner party. Also a mad crush, but we did discover a fantastic new trick: a taxi driver who returns for you! in the rain, it was delightful, as we TOTALLY jumped a long taxi queue to hop into the back of the cab that was waiting for us. This was the truly amazing part, though -- on the way to the party, after we asked him to return about two hours later to pick us up, he didn't ask us to pay for the ride there! We could have totally skipped out on the fare. he didn't take any identifying information from us. Gave us his phone number to call about 30 minutes before we wanted to be picked up, but didn't ask for anything from us. Can you IMAGINE that in New York? Hell, anywhere in the States?!?

Anyway, we'll call him again later this week to do some more getting around. As for me, I have a few more notes to do from today's meetings, and then I think I'm going to Nbc.com to download "Heroes." The TV here sucks -- unless you like "Hogan Knows Best" with German subtitles, or "South Park" dubbed. I mean, I'd be fine with a few more episodes of "Changing Rooms," but I've already seen the same one twice, and I've only been here two days.

Likely the only time I'll say it this week

But I'm a little bored. My first meeting today isn't until 2:30, but I was up at 9am to get breakfast, went over to the Messe to pick up our badges and locker keys and drop some stuff off at the table, and now I'm just sitting around in the hotel room until it's time for my meeting.

I finished going through my guidebook on Prague, and marked off a number of sights and such I'd like to see on the various maps, so that's all done, but all that does is make me want to get through this week faster and get to my vacation!

My notes for my meetings are all ready, so there's no more prep work I have to do, and it's still raining - even worse than last night - so it's not like I really want to be out and about sightseeing. I think I'll make a cup of tea. According to The Doctor, that fixes everything. And I even brought PG Tips!

Really long day

Feels like I've been up for years and years, even though I had two naps today. So this is that "jet lag" thing you speak of? Hmmmm... Not sure I like it.

Probably ate more today than I will the rest of the week combined -- actually managed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which will be the last time that happens for the next few days. Tomorrow should be a nice easy day to ease me into the fair -- I don't have any meetings until the afternoon, so I can get up, get stuff done in the morning (maybe go for a swim in the hotel pool?), get my badge over in the Agents Center and stuff before my meetings at the Frankfurter Hof.

In other news, it's rainy here, which can't help the tiredness, and my room is on the opposite side of the hotel from last year, so I don't have the lovely view I had last year. Instead, I get to look out over the Messe, which just reminds me of all the work yet to come this week. Blech.

Time to curl up with BBC Prime and MTV Europe. G'night!

Landed!

Safely landed in Frankfurt, where the sun is just starting to come up, and after some fun issues with my ATM card, I'm on my way to the hotel.

Note to other airports: you have GOT to put in spas in your departure lounges. I didn't get any treatments, having done all my primping and pampering on Friday, but the publishing friend I ran into at check-in got a pedicure, and sitting chatting with her in big comfy leather chairs was a delightful way to while away the time until we boarded.

More later!

Ready to go!

The bags are packed and standing by my door, I have a sandwich for on the plane, got all my toiletries, left out-of-office messages on my email and phones, and I'm just waiting for the car to pick me up and take me to the airport. Now if only I could get through this annoying part of Prince of Persia before I go, I will feel so satisfied!!