So I got outbid on that fabulous 1920s style dress, as I’d expected to. I was regretful but not surprised, and started poking around at other not-quite-so-good ones.

Then I got an email from a reader.

She’d clicked through to see the dress, her husband had seen her looking at it, surmised that she wanted it, and bid on it for her. “But,” she said, “I didn’t want it, I was just looking at it, so would it be too weird if I just had the seller send it to you?”

After I collected my jaw off the floor and squeaked about insisting she let me repay her (“I have all your books,” she said. “Even BABA YAGA’S DAUGHTER?” I asked somewhat incredulously. “Even BYD!” she said. I LOVE YOU, READER LADY! (whose name I am not outing in case she doesn’t want me to, but I LOVE YOU!)), I allowed that it would not be Too Weird, and, well:

So the party was absolutely smashing, and I’ll be posting portraits I took, but not today because wrong computer. :)

Between and around the party, we went to the farmers’ market, where I delivered a couple of lemon cupcakes to the green grocer I’d bought lemons from* the weekend previous, and had on my way out promised her some lemon cake. She was swanning around inhaling them and not letting other people even have a whiff. :)

We also went out to DICE, the comics expo out in Dundrum, where we caught up with Paul Cornell (for the second time this YEAR! and he’ll be at WFC, too! 3 times in one year! almost making up for not seeing him for years in a row!), and chatted with Michael and Leony Carroll for a while, which was good fun. Oh, and after a bout of shyness, Young Indiana warmed up to Michael and let himself be held, only to be put down when Spider-Man came over. Young Indiana ran to Spider-Man and hugged him, which, tragically, I did not get the camera out in time for, but:

Having tired ourselves going to DICE, we then went home and prepared** a delicious repast of bbq chicken for ourselves and my parents, who then took over the care and feeding*** of Young Indiana so we could go to the above-mentioned party.

After staying out/up until 2am, an hour I cannot last remember seeing voluntarily, we came home and collapsed into bed. Upon the arrival of Sunday morning, we lurched out of bed at the appointed times and I dragged myself back to DICE in time for the 11am Breaking into Comics panel and the following Not Just A Boys’ Club, the latter of which was genuinely inspiring, with the amount of passion and drive coming from the panelists. I had a minute or two to talk to CB Cebulski, who remains a terrific human being, spoke with the PR guy from 2000 AD (Paul Cornell, the day before, had said to me, “Why aren’t you writing for 2000 AD?” I said, “I don’t know, aren’t I too American?” and Michael said, “The creator of Judge Dredd was American!”, so I guess not. :)), saw a number of friends, discussed the state of the SF/F/comics world, chatted up an artist I recognised from last year, and generally had a good old time until I concluded going home before I turned into a pumpkin would be a good idea.

Still wrecked, but a great weekend. Now if I could just find my fitbit…

*As it turned out, I was too lazy and didn’t use the lemons, but bottled lemon juice for the cake, but don’t tell anybody.

**By “we prepared” I mean “Ted prepared”

***It is true that Young Indiana had been fed and indeed put to bed by the time we even got ready, nevermind left, but you get the idea.