I can't stop talking about Queen Elizabeth (the first). I talk about her like she's just this girl I know with a lot of bad luck and trouble with her family. "She had people beheaded, but she really didn't want to. What else could she do?"

The book fair was nice, mostly for the building, which was fantastic. We wandered all the way up and down it over and over, looking for some kinds of trouble and avoiding others. We paid less attention to the books than we did the numbered mystery cabinets, broken utility meters, framed banners, old key displays, and the giant hammer arm. For some reason (my fault) we discussed how Spiderman would go about crashing through the roof in case of emergency. We decided that the only way it would work would be if he were really careful in the drop, but if it had been in his nature to be careful he wouldn't have ended up as Spiderman in the first place, would he? I don't really know the details, and maybe the Hulk was the clumsy one, but either way we finally ended up in the library and it surprised us both by being one of the best rooms of our lives. We leaned over the rail looking down for a while and I couldn't help worrying that my glasses would fall to the floor below, even though I wasn't wearing them. I'll be wearing ghost glasses in precarious situations for the rest of my life. Eventually we left and went to Grand Central to be baffled by the ceiling (mythology and extreme sports?) and work out the science of violet mints before going home to be warm and dry instead of cold and damp. By five I was ready to go to bed until I came to my senses, turned on some lights, and drank myself awake with tea. Even the Little House on the Prairie girls wouldn't go to bed at five.

There's snow now, but it doesn't look real. It doesn't look cold. I guess I'll go and see.