Yes, that, exactly.

Most of the past twenty-four hours have been spent in meandering preparation for canadatrek. The end result: I'm packed, and Jeff's packed. Everything that's required has been done, and the to-do list is down to more mundane things, like running loads of dishes and cleaning the litterbox.

The cats know that something's up. Every time Edmund and I cross paths, I receive a baleful kitty stare. Perhaps he has come to associate the smell of luggage with me vanishing from his life for a few days. If he has, he's a smart kitty. Tenzing, on the other hand, just wants to be played with.

Website-related news: at last, I have working code to make domesticat skinnable. I'm going to use the time while I'm gone to let the graphic-design part of my brain rest and rejuvenate. I'm working on a second skin, based off of a theme of storm clouds and lightning, but I'm waiting to get permission from the original photographer before I use the picture.

After that, I don't know. I'll undoubtedly come back from Victoria with a couple of ideas in my sketch book—and, if I'm lucky, with some short bits of writing scribbled on the plane. For a few days I've been turning phrases over in my mind, trying to find how they fit together. They haven't clicked yet, and I find myself hoping that Northwest Airlines will manage to lull me into a motionless contemplation for the time I spend in one of their birds tomorrow.

Just in case, I think I'll pack my scribbling notebook and a couple of good pens. After all, you never know.