We’ve got a lot of visitors passing through over the next few weeks, so the plan was to spend today cleaning the house. Ok, so I blew that for a start by also arranging to spend the morning chatting with the Washington DC bookcrossers as a test run for the chat we’re doing during the convention. But eventually I tore myself away from the fun and decided to get some housework done.

Actually, there wasn’t all that much to do. MrPloppy had done his normal housework yesterday so the key stuff like cleaning the toilet and bathroom, and dusting and hoovering the rest of the house were done, so really all that needed doing was a bit of tidying up, and a few little jobs here and there. So here’s the FutureCat approach:

1. Decide the most important job is to move the boxes of books still sitting in the hallway from when Dad dropped them off last week.
2. Start to move boxes, but then notice the mirror he gave us is still there too
3. Decide to hang the mirror first so it’s not in the way
4. Spend quarter of an hour searching through the garage for a picture hook and hammer
5. Spend another quarter of an hour trying to find a stud in the wall (Among the many other weird features of our house is impossible-to-find studs. The tapping with your knuckles trick doesn’t work, electronic stud-finders don’t work – even measuring along from the doorways doesn’t work. Nobody has ever managed to find a stud in this house other than by sheer luck.)
6. Give up and just bung the picture-hook up in a random spot and hope the wall-board is strong enough to hold it.
7. Hang the mirror, then notice it’s very dusty
8. Get some window cleaner and polish the mirror
9. Decide to give the glass of the pictures hanging beside it a quick wipe down while I’m there
10. Remember that one of the pictures needs a minor repair, so go and get the superglue
11. While I’ve got the superglue out, decide to glue up the couple of cable-ties that have come loose from the ceiling (Another feature of this house is that it wasn’t designed with the internet in mind, so there’s only one phone outlet, in a really stupid place. So we had to lead a phone line extension along the ceiling to the study to connect up the modem.)
12. While I’m up at ceiling height, notice there’s some fly-specks on the wallpaper
13. Get a damp cloth to wipe them off
14. Remember the wonderful thing about walls is that they’re large continuous surfaces, so you can’t clean one part without cleaning the whole thing
15. Spend the next hour or so wiping down all of the walls
16. While wiping the walls, accidentally knock the linen cupboard open, and notice how untidy it is
17. Pull out all the towels and re-fold them, and rearrange the whole cupboard…

So have you spotted it yet? Yep, the boxes of books are still in the hallway!

Oh well, at least I got lots of other things done!

All of a sudden, everything seems to be turning to custard.

For a start, one of our guest speakers is in hospital, and while he seems to be making a good recovery, it was serious enough that I can’t really ring and ask if he thinks he’ll be well enough by the 18th to do his talk.

And now we’ve had a call from the bursar at the school telling us they need some electrical stuff repaired in the hall, and guess when the only time the electrician can make it is? Yep, the 17th! So we can’t use the hall.

And TheLetterB has decided she won’t be able to make it to the convention Which means the committee is down one, which means it’s going to be a lot more of a juggling act to get everything done by the rest of us.

Oh, and nobody’s heard from Otakuu for weeks, so I’m starting to worry that maybe she can’t make it either, which will really throw us into chaos (actually, I’m starting to worry about her in general – it’s not like her to be off-line this long. I hope it’s just a computer malfunction and not something more serious).

And we still don’t know if our mystery guest speaker is available.

And there’s a million and one tiny last minute things we need to do, and there’s only two weeks left to go … in fact, less than two weeks!!!

But I’m trying to stay positive (custard is supposed to be a sweet thing, after all ) We do have a back-up plan for the venue, which should work out really well – the school has a chapel they’re willing to let us use instead of the hall. It’s a little bit smaller than the hall, but it’s a gorgeous space (lots of old polished wood and stained glass), and they’re going to move all the pews out which should give us plenty of room.

And although we’re down one warm body by losing TheLetterB, we’ve gained one in the form of eringreenshore, a previously inactive local bookcrosser who’s been inspired back into bookcrossing by the convention, and has leapt into helping us out with the planning. So she’s stepping into a lot of the breach left by the absence of TheLetterB.

And even if we are one (or even two) speakers down, we’ve still got Zeborah, whose talk on the history of books and freedom looks like it’s going to be great. And I’m sure we can throw together some sort of ad hoc panel discussion (hmm, we’ll have a couple of members of Support present…) or game or something to fill the gaps in the programme. And who knows, maybe Professor Evans will be fully recovered, and the mystery guest will turn up.

And there is another small glimmer of light on the horizon – I have heard some potentially excellent news. I can’t say anything more for fear of jinxing it, but watch this space

And above all, when I find myself getting into this state of feeling sick of the whole convention, and that two years is way too long to expect anyone to stay enthusiastic about a project, and that I just want to get it over and done with… I just remind myself of the ever-wise Skyring’s words that all you need to do to have a successful convention is fill a room with bookcrossers and they’re sure to have a great time together. And then I realise that they will have a great time – the buzz on the forums is already proving that. And once everyone starts arriving, their excitement will rub off on us and we’ll forget all the stress and anxiety of the planning process and finally remember the point of it all – to have a fantastic weekend with our friends. Which we will.

And then I’ll sleep for a week.