The place where lost socks go...

There goes the Sun
[do da doo do]
There goes the Sun
And I say
It's all night...

The descent into darkness continues. Indeed, today marks a personal milestone on the encroaching dark, for this is the first day of the season where my current home (Oxford) has less hours of daylight than my childhood home (New York City) receives on the Winter Solstice -- the shortest day of the year.

These numbers are meaningless in any general sense. However, for me they are significant. I grew up in New York City, spending the first eighteen years of my life at that latitude -- 40.7 degrees North. My internal sense of normalcy was calibrated there and, to be honest, most of my life was spent at similar latitudes (e.g., Amherst, MA or Chicago, IL) or further South (e.g., Phoenix, AZ or Kamioka, Japan). I wasn't built to expect darkness of the sort that we get up here, at nearly 52 degrees above the equator!

On the Winter Solstice, my hometown of New York City will receive 9 hours 15 minutes and 15 seconds of daylight. Today -- November 8^th -- Oxford gets a mere 9 hours 12 minutes and 24 seconds of daylight... and the days are still getting shorter! By the time of the Winter Solstice, each day in Oxford will receive an hour and a half less light than what I was used to, growing up in the Big Apple. Sunrises after eight in the morning and sunsets before four in the afternoon. Ugh!

The City of Dreaming Spires receives less daylight than the City that Never Sleeps from today through Groundhog Day -- February 2^nd 2013. That's 87 days of less light than the minimum that I am used to. I am only counting hours of daylight here -- this doesn't even take into account how the long path through the atmosphere dilutes and attenuates what little light we get from the low-lying Winter Sun.

There are many things that I love about living in Merry Olde England. I must say that the Winter darkness is not on the list. My dear friend acelightning would adore this long dark tea time of the soul. Me? I'm going to be very happy to arrive back in the States next month, and glad to spend most of January in Japan.

Went to the Oxford Playhouse last night to see Alan Ayckbourn's play Communicating Doors. Really, it was just your typical show about a hotel room with time travelling doors. Still, cheshcat and I enjoyed it.

The show premiered in 1994 and was originally set in 1974, 1994, and 2014. To keep the spirit intact, this production updated the timeline to 1990, 2010, and 2030. I thought that this change worked well, especially since it is not actually obvious at first that the play begins twenty years in the future.

I have now seen twenty-six plays this year. That is slightly better than one per week and well on track to my goal of at least forty shows in 2011. Nice!

What was also nice was coming out of the theatre at half past ten to see that the sky was still light -- a beautiful blue twilight. Ah, how I love this time of year!

To appreciate the season further, my beloved cheshcat and I are heading up to the Lake District this evening for a long weekend away. We are finally taking our late-May bank holiday weekend[*], which was deferred when I stayed to work longer in Japan. Given the push to release our electron neutrino appearance results, both cheshcat and I worked on the holiday and are taking tomorrow off instead.

It has been about four years since we last visited the Lake District in May 2007. It is such a breathtakingly beautiful area and we had an absolutely awesometacular weekend when we were last there. I am rather looking forward to a new set of adventures in such a gorgeous setting!

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[*] For those gentle readers in the States, this coincides with Memorial Day weekend each year.

Yesterday was the first day this year that Oxford received more than eleven hours of daylight. Indeed, to celebrate the occasion, the sun even graced us with his presence! Hooray!

With Spring well and truly on its way, methinks that it may be time to follow my beloved Cheshcat's lead and do a little Spring Cleaning here on Ye Olde El Jay. As she so eloquently put it, I am blessed with many friends... but not nearly enough time to read what all of them have to say. It has been nearly a year since my last culling of the list and, in that time, it is burgeoned to nearly two hundred members. Alas, this is more than I can keep up with![*]

As such, I shall be trimming my list in the near future, probably about a week or so from now. Anyone with whom I have had any sort of contact in the past three months will be kept. So if you've left me a comment, dropped me an e-mail, rung me up for a chat, or paid me a visit at the Event Horizon or Chiron Beta Prime, or offered me a visit when I was Stateside for the holidays, you need not be concerned about the slimming down. Your name shall be kept, gentle reader! There are, however, many wonderful people that I have only met once that will likely be trimmed. Some of them are folks that I cannot even match up real person with LJ name. I have met all in real life -- that is one of my LJ policies -- but we have not interacted since. To those of you, I mean you no ill will and would love to see you again. I will look forward to the time when our paths cross once more! Alternatively, if you are reading quietly and would like to stick around, just leave a comment here to let me know!

Meanwhile, I am riding home on Ye Olde Oxford Tube after a long, but good, day. This morning, I set a new record for my inbound commute -- one hour and twenty-eight minutes.[**] Not bad! It helped that the coach arrived at the stop at the same time that I did. The evening wait was quite nice as well; the coach pulled into view as I reached my stop and then arrived about a minute later. Ironically, I had the same bus driver for both directions; not sure that has happened in one day before! Looks like I caught him on his first trip to London this morning and his last return to Oxford just now. Still, I went in at 11:13 this morning and returned again at 21:43, so that is rather a long day for him, too!

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[*] Honestly, I cannot understand how some people can keep up with their e-mail, LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, Dreamwidth, MySpace, and so forth. Just the first two on this list leave me eternally falling behind!

[**] Thus beating the previous record by one single minute! That record was set on December 16th 2008, very soon after I started doing this commute.

Yesterday was Groundhog Day. It was also the day that I proved that the Nomad fails at obscure humour. It has been observed that the previous entry was posted twice. It seems that all who noticed this glitch chalked said duplication up to a mistake. Alas, not one of my dear friends observed that the time loop might have been in honour of Groundhog Day.

Does anyone remember the 1993 film, Groundhog Day? I'm not surprised that my Brit friends may have let this one slip by... but surely some of you Yanks can recall it, no? After all, it has even been added to the United States National Film Registry for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

For those who do not remember -- or those who have never seen the film -- here is a brief synopsis: The main character, Phil, is caught in a time loop on February 2^nd. He repeatedly wakes up at 6:00am [1] on Groundhog Day as his clock radio plays Sonny & Cher's hit I Got You Babe.[2] As a meteorologist, Phil is in Punxsutawney to interview the famous groundhog with whom he shares a name, Punxsutawney Phil[3]. Although he is stuck in a time loop, he can remember all of the previous events. No one else can.

Hence the clues left in yesterday's post. They are all there, calling out in their little clue-voices to be found! Don't believe me? Check out this short clip:

I had several hundred points on hand, ready to cheerfully award to the first person who suggested that I might have slipped into a time loop. But, sadly, no one did.

So, as I said at the start of this entry, the Nomad fails at obscure humour. Or else all of you collectively do, gentle readers. Perhaps it amounts to about the same thing...

---

Yesterday was also Imbolc, which is the first day of Spring by some calendars. Huzzah! Indeed, there is some significance in this: Today is February 3^rd and, for the first time since November 7^th, the amount of daylight hours in Oxford is not less than the minimum received in New York City. As a NYC native who has lived half his life in the Big Apple, I use the City that Never Sleeps as my reference point. On the Winter Solstice last year, New York received 9h 15m 05s of daylight between sunlight and sunset. Today, over six weeks later, Oxford receives exactly the same amount, with a precision of one second. The deepest part of the Dark Period -- which I use to refer to the 87 days where Oxford receives less hours of sun than the NYC minimum -- has now ended! Huzzah! Verily, the daylight is coming back!

This last sentence is probably of little use to those who are now under the Blizzard that Ate the United States. Still, for somebody who has been back in the Deep Dark North for nearly a month now, I certainly do appreciate the change!

Interestingly enough, the latitude difference between my once home of NYC and my current home of Oxford is just about enough so that we spend about 1/4 of each year getting less than their minimum (i.e., Winter), 1/4 of the time getting about the same amount (i.e., Spring), another 1/4 getting more than their maximum (i.e., Summer), and then a final 1/4 getting about the same once again (i.e., Autumn). The pattern is clear... but the fairly even divisions of time makes for an interesting coincidence.

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[1] Note the time stamp on yesterday's entries.

[2] Note the "current music" on yesterday's entries.

[3] Note the subject field on yesterday's entries.

Just landed at Heathrow a short while ago and am writing this entry on the coach ride back to Oxford. The journey from Narita was uneventful, as usual, but it did give me the chance to finish reading Something Rotten -- the fourth book in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. It was absolutely fantastic -- I think that I enjoyed it more than anything that I have read in years!

In fact, gentle readers, I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes a good book. The first in the series The Eyre Affair is simply wonderful! After finishing it, I wondered how any of the sequels could measure up! Indeed, the second book, Lost in a Good Book, does not achieve quite the same heights... but is still a rather enjoyable read. I found the third, The Well of Lost Plots, to start very slowly. It dragged on for a bit and I had trouble motivating myself to continue for the first third of the book. Eventually, though, it picks up and, by the end, redeems itself as a solid read. As for the fourth, Something Rotten? Unarguably the best of them all -- surpassing even The Eyre Affair! Am now very much looking forward to starting in on book five...

One very nifty thing about making the journey from Tokai to Oxford -- especially at this time of year -- is the sunlight. I left my hotel shortly after five this morning, as the sun was rising. Flying West, I tracked the sun for about twelve hours. By the time the sun sets tonight, at about eight this evening, it will be four o'clock in the morning in Japan. That means that I will have enjoyed about twenty-three hours of continuous sunlight! Huzzah!

Nearly back to the Flat With No Name now. I don't leave Merry Olde England again for six weeks, when I fly to the States for P**T***. It looks to be a rather intense time coming up, as I have several large goals to achieve between now and then! Exciting times!

Oh, and for anyone who was wondering? The subject line for this entry is true.

Yesterday -- March 18^th -- was the first day of this year where the hours of sunlight in Oxford exceeded the hours of darkness![*] Huzzah! In one more day, the equinox will be here! Hooray! Spring is truly upon us![**]

One of the few things that I dislike about living in Merry Olde England is the long dark Winters -- with the most sickly pale sunlight -- that one gets when living so far from the equator. Having survived my fourth British Winter, I can happily say that the Dark Times are now over! Hooray! Let the light flow forth freely!

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[*] Indeed, this is likely true for most of the North. Though it may be off by a day at certain extreme latitudes.

[**] For those of us in the North, anyway. For those of my dear friends in the South... well, have an awesome Autumn!

Today began the deepest part of what I call the Dark period of the year. Sound confusing? Please allow me to explain, gentle readers:

The entirety of the island of Great Britain is further North than all forty-eight of the contiguous States[*]. Even the Southernmost spot in Great Britain -- Lizard Point -- is still about thirty-five miles further North than Northwest Angle, the Northernmost spot in the lower forty-eight States. This difference in latitude translates into a significant change in the number of daylight hours that we receive -- especially in the periods around the Summer and Winter Solstices.

I am now headed into my fourth Winter living in England. Here in Oxford, I reside at a latitude of fifty-two degrees -- approximately twelve degrees further North than New York City, where I grew up and spent the first half of my life. In New York City, the time between sunrise and sunset on the shortest day is nine hours, fifteen minutes, and four seconds. Today -- November 8^th -- was the first day of the season that Oxford received less daylight than the minimum that I am accustomed to. Less than the minimum... and, of course, the days are still getting shorter for another six weeks or so! Indeed, the days here will all be shorter than the shortest day in New York City until February 3^rd! It is, admittedly, a very personal definition. Still, the eighty-seven days that began today, where the number of sunlit hours are less than the minimum that I am used to... this is what I refer to as the deepest part of the Dark period of the year.

This is precisely the sort of thing that acelightning would relish. Me, however? Whilst I can appreciate some good darkness, I tend to be a creature of the light. The long Summer days this far North thrill me -- I love coming home from work in the twilight when it is nearly eleven o'clock at night! These long Winter nights are, of course, paying the piper for those delights! Luckily, I do have a LiteBook, which sits in my desk and work and will be switched on at sunset to fool my body and mind into thinking that the days are a bit longer than they really are!

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[*] And, obviously, Hawaii.

It is now Wednesday morning -- midweek. Seems like as good a time as ever[1] to pen my weekend write-up on how I spent Midsummer (and whatnot).

On Saturday morning, cheshcat and I woke bright and early, made ourselves look nice, then piled into Peter and drove to Birmingham. The occasion? A certain very special bunnypip was graduating and receiving her Bachelors degree -- first class and with honours! Needless to say, we were proud as punch and quite eager to support our dear Bunny... so off we went!

It is no secret that I find graduation ceremonies to be exceedingly tedious. Like greeting cards, they are something that I do because they are important to the recipient... not because I think all that much of them in and of themselves. Indeed, I even skipped my University-level graduation ceremony when I received my doctorate[2] -- preferring, instead, to present at a conference on that day! The conference seemed to be a lot more productive -- and a lot more interesting! -- than a graduation ceremony! I gathered friends, family, and colleagues for a celebration and party when I defended my doctoral dissertation; that had a lot of meaning to me, as I was actually doing something important there. Graduation ceremonies? Not so much.

Nonetheless, I had not been to a graduation since the extremely talented resourceress had finished massage therapy school, three years ago. Thus, to show my pride in my beloved bunnypip's accomplishment, I made certain that -- come hell or high water -- I would be present to watch as she graduated. One thing that became strangely apparent to both cheshcat and I, sitting in the audience, was that British graduations are very quiet. As each graduate was called to walk across the stage, there was clapping from the audience... but no cheers! What's up with that? I am much more used to cheers and hollers and whistling from the audience to loudly show their pride. No matter. Even if no one else in the audience would cheer, cheshcat and I resolved that we would do so for our Bunny -- she deserved it! And so we did, taking the rest of the audience a bit by surprise. After that, though, the crowd lightened up a bit and became a lot more vocal; I guess that they just needed someone to break the ice. Happy to oblige!

Once the graduation had ended, cheshcat and I headed home so that I could grab a short (~1hr) nap before the evening's festivities. Being Midsummer, it was time to make my way back to Stonehenge to celebrate the Summer Solstice. In recent years, English Heritage has opened up Stonehenge -- usually roped off for viewing only at a sterile distance -- for the whole of the shortest night. For the past two years, I have arrived before the sunset and stayed until after the sunrise.

This year, dr_jen and bunnypip accompanied me to the Stones. The first seventy miles of the journey went smoothly, covered in a little over an hour. The last four miles? Not so much. Those took four hours, as we got caught in an enormous vein of traffic -- all headed to the same destination, of course! The magnitude of the queue caught me by surprise; there had always been traffic before... but never like this! I think that the heavy additional delays stemmed from (a) record attendance at Stonehenge[3], and (b) a much higher police presence than in previous years[4]. The long delay meant that, even though I had built traffic time into our travels, we did not arrive in time for the sunset this year. Indeed, we did not pull into the Stonehenge car park until just after midnight! I suppose that I should consider us lucky, though -- as the night went on, I noticed a long line of slow moving (or stopped) headlights waiting to get into the site was present until about half past three in the morning!

As usual, spending the shortest night at Stonehenge was intense! Ancient Stones, drums, dancing! All very good stuff! Also, I feed off of crowd energy[5], which makes the whole site -- and most particularly -- the inner Circle of Stones a very intoxicating place to be. Even without drugs or alcohol!

Having been to Summer Solstice at Stonehenge three times now (and Winter Solstice once), I feel like I can make some analytical comparisons about the event -- as opposed to my first time, when I all I could really express was astonishment at the intensity of the experience. Compared to last year, the weather was much better; that counts for a lot. In 2008, it rained all night -- this year, it was cloudy but dry... and not particularly cold. Also, in 2008, my companions spent a large portion of the night sitting by the Heel Stone, rather than in the actual Circle (where most of the energy is). However, as mentioned, we missed the sunset this year, and there was also a much more intrusive police presence. I mean, they even had a flying spy drone (compleat with flashing lights) hovering above the crowd filming us! How obnoxious!! The crowd was larger this year but, overall, fairly well behaved. There was one incident where a fight broke out near us and I came close to getting drawn in whilst trying to protect bunnypip[6], but overall people were about as civil and polite and friendly as you can expect in a crowd of tens of thousands packed into a small space!

Overall, I think that my favourite year was my first: 2007. That year, cheshcat and I had the best of everything! We had dry clear weather, minimal police presence, no long queues to delay us, plenty of time spent dancing and whatnot in the inner Circle, and we got to see sunset along with the Druid ritual that accompanied it. It seems like each of these things was absent in either 2008 or 2009.

At dawn, many of the revellers was too drunk (or something) to notice the time... but a group of us gathered at the Eastern edge of the circle and watched the sky. Unfortunately, the cloud cover prevented the Guest of Honour, Sol, from making an appearance. Alas, this makes four Solstices that I have attended at Stonehenge... and I have yet to witness the sun rising through the Stones. I know that this is England, and I am told that the odds of seeing sunrise at Stonehenge is about one in ten. Yet I am a persistent Nomad and will have to continue attending Solstices there until I can witness something like this.

After the dawn, bunnypip and I spent some time wandering the site and greeting the Stones before it was time to meet up with dr_jen. Then we made our way back to the car and I drove us home.

Back at the Flat With No Name, bunnypip and I woke up cheshcat and chatted for a bit before falling over. We had time for a few hours sleep, plus some quality alone time, before she needed to leave to return home and pick up her children. I could have used some more sleep, but opted to go to St. Giles instead and ring bells for the Sunday services. Still, it was a mellow evening and both cheshcat and I ended up going to bed early to gather our strength for what we knew would be (and is) a very busy week!

Overall, I enjoyed Summer Solstice at Stonehenge... but I seem to be the only person I know who really likes it. Of the four other people I know who have attended both the Winter and Summer Solstices there, I am the only one who does not overwhelmingly prefer the Winter Solstice. Thus, after three years of spending Midsummer at Stonehenge, we are likely to do something different next year -- Solstice at the Rollright Stones seems to be the top contender. This is quite okay with me, because I do like to have a variety of experiences. I do love Summer Solstice at Stonehenge... but I have done it three times now! In any case, I shan't be leaving Stonehenge behind, as everyone is [quite] ready and [very] willing to continue doing Winter Solstice there.

( Obligatory photos behind cut )

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[1] Save yesterday or the day before!

[2] To be fair, I did attend the [much smaller] Department-level graduation ceremony a few days later.

[3] When I went in 2007, on a weeknight, there were 20,000 people there. When I went in 2008, on a Friday night, there were 28,000 people there... but it was raining. This year, on a Saturday night with clear weather, a record 36,500 people attended! That's nearly double what I encountered with cheshcat two years ago!

[4] Thanks to some new police chief who obviously feels the need to compensate for something with a loudly proclaimed "ZERO TOLERANCE" policy that did nothing to stem the flow of alcohol and drugs onto the site. All it did do was make delays.

[5] This is the reason, for instance, that I made certain to be in Times Square, Manhattan, on December 31st 1999! Millions of people! Hooray! I've never experienced another crowd -- or energy -- quite like it!

[6] One of the combatants grabbed my hair in an unpleasant manner when I tried to break things up. Nothing more than that -- he did not manage to land any punches.

Wednesday evening. Writing this entry from -- where else? -- the Oxford Tube on my way home from work. Despite the fact that I worked late and it is after nine o'clock, I can still see the sun in the sky. Indeed, it is quite a beautiful sunset this evening!

Ah, how I love these long Summer days! They are what make the insanely dark Winters bearable![*] I have never been much of a morning person, but I am tempted to do a little experiment later this month, just after the Solstice. I am toying with the idea of shifting my schedule to the early side so that I am asleep by about nine o'clock in the evening and wake up at about five o'clock in the morning. Just for a week! It would be interesting to go an entire week without seeing night! We shall see if I can make it work...

Thus far, this week has been quite ordinary. Progress at work continues apace, and I am really enjoying being in my current group. Much better than my last job, with a hostile boss and a difficult atmosphere! Nonetheless, I finally got around to doing something important yesterday. Something that I have been meaning to do for quite some time. I joined the union. Specifically the University & College Union. So, as of July 1^st, I will be union labour once again! Huzzah![**]

Next, in entirely unrelated news, I would like to congratulate acelightning!! She has long held the title of the most frequent commenter in my blog.[***] Now she has also secured another prestigious honour! Yesterday afternoon, she posted the TEN THOUSANDTH comment in my journal! Nicely done -- go Ace!! This is an accomplishment so monumental that I cannot even award points for it! How can one quantify such a milestone?

What else is new? Yesterday evening I missed bell ringing at Mary Mag, as the coach that I was on broke down and we needed to wait for a replacement. This was a bit of a disappointment, especially as I was hoping to have rung there for all eight Tuesdays of Trinity Term this year.[****] Making lemonade out of the lemons, I used my newfound time to sit outside in the Summer evening air and read more of The Sandman, specifically issues #16 - #20. I am really enjoying this series! Part of me thinks that I was daft for waiting two decades to read it... but part of me is very glad that I did! Not only do I have a solidly good story to follow, but I think that I understand and appreciate much more of it now. Partially because I have a more mature and sophisticated understanding than I did at age fourteen... but also because living in England -- and becoming an amateur expert on English history -- gives me a lot more context for where much of the comic has been set so far!

Finally, I should note that I bought my plane tickets to the States yesterday, in preparation for my Summer Vacation next month! All of you gentle readers on the Western side of The Pond^TM, prepare to have scheduling information come your way soon! It has been nearly five months since my last trip Stateside and I am quite excited about returning!![*****]

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[*] Although I am envious of my Good Twin, the adorable tawyneypup! Living in Michigan, which is in the far West of its time zone, she gets Summer evenings that are nearly as late as mine without the short Winter days! Being much further South, her Summer days are shorter... but the Westness shifts them later. Personally, I prefer that -- having the sun up before five o'clock in the morning is not much use to me!

[**] I also need to re-join my favourite union, the Industrial Workers of the World. After being a member for years, I let my membership lapse... mainly because I did not know where to find delegates to pay dues to in the UK. xugglybug or any other Wobs reading this, any advice on this front??

[***] Not counting myself.

[****] We are currently in Week Six.

[*****] Plus, there are less than seven weeks left until Starwood!!! YAY!!!!

Today was a surprisingly good day. Not surprising because I had expected anything bad to happen -- I hadn't and it didn't. Just surprising because not very much at all happened... and yet a number of small but positive things contributed to making it a good day.

It actually started last night, when I was ringing at Mary Mag during the first OUSCR practice of Trinity Term. Right after walking in, the master asked me if I wanted to ring a touch of Plain Bob Triples. Now nobody actually rings Plain Bob Triples. They ring Plain Bob Doubles (five bells), Plain Bob Minor (six bells), or Plain Bob Major (eight bells). No one rings Plain Bob Triples (seven bells). Indeed, the standard book of methods that I use doesn't even have PBT in there!

As such, I am not at all practiced in this method. I do consider myself quite adept at Plain Bob Doubles, though, and getting skilled at Minor. Sometimes I can do Major, but not reliably. On the fly, I pieced together what I know from Major -- since eight is close to seven -- and Doubles -- since five is also an odd number of bells -- and gave it my best shot. Amazingly enough, my best shot was quite good! I kept the method consistently for quite some time... and I could even hear that my striking was well placed. Very nice, if I do say so myself!

I have been doing a fair bit of ringing lately, and I feel I am making more progress. So that put me into a happy mood that continued into today. From there, things just got better.

For one thing, the weather today continued its recent trend of being incredible! By and large, one of the things that I dislike most about living in England is the weather[*]. Of late, though, that complaint is baseless. Good! Coupled with the fact that the days are now nearly fifteen hours long -- and still growing -- it is positively a joy to be outside! On my way into work this morning, I had a lovely bicycle ride across Kensington Gardens, taking in the weather and the lake and the greenery!

Work itself continues to go reasonably well. I still have more to do than I can get done. But what else is new? Progress is happening, and I am getting excited about the upcoming trip to Japan. Not as excited as I will be about the September Japan trip -- where, at long last, I get to return to my "home" area of Gifu and Toyama after six years away -- but excited
nonetheless!

It goes on from there, though: Our flat was inspected today, and passed with flying colours. As a nice side-effect of this, the Flat With No Name is now quite, quite tidy. Just the way I like it! When I got home from work, cheshcat was in a cheery mood. No matter what else is going on, that always brightens my day. And if it is an already-bright day? Well, so much the better! And brighter! I arrived home just as her music -- set to shuffle play -- switched onto Another Day (from Rent). With no discussion, we naturally slipped into a very energetic version of this duet. We had a blast... though I think that we may have startled both kitties!

After eating dinner, I had a delightful "phone date" with the terrific tawneypup. She has only been gone for a couple of weeks, but I definitely miss her. Ah well -- at least it will be May very soon[**], at which point I can say that I am seeing her again in the month after next!

Finally, the day is almost done... but I have an excellent weekend to look forward to! Tomorrow, bunnypip is coming down to join cheshcat and I for a two-part theatrical rendition of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy at -- you guessed it! -- the Oxford Playhouse. Then there is a weekend of Beltane fun to follow! Huzzah!

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[*] In contrast, one of the things that I miss most -- aside from certain special Anarchists -- about living in Phoenix is the delightful weather there!

[**] In just over twenty-four hours!