we were entertained by dampness and ricketts

The title is of course from Craig Ferguson's monologue, this time in regards to his childhood in Scotland. He also made a joke about Sean Connery playing 'Sam I Am' from the Dr. Seuss book, but I'm sure it has lost something in written form.

I preordered the new Counting Crows cd from iTunes - but now that I'm trying to download it, it tells me that I'm now forced to upgrade to the most recent iTunes release. Bah. I'm downloading the new version now, but since I want to go to bed, that means I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get my virtual hands on the music.

I scored a major victory today when I found a great cafe only an hour away from my house - they have sandwiches with *sprouts*! and *guacamole*!! The cafe is on the Indianola town square, which will mean nothing to those of you who don't live in Iowa. Indianola is home to the National Hot Air Balloon Museum and Simpson College, and is the nearest real 'civilization' (where 'civilization' is defined by the presence of McDonalds, Quiznos, and a significant number of stoplights). This means I can stop off in Indianola when I'm desperate for a mocha, rather than continuing the extra half-hour to the west edge of Des Moines. Yippee.

By the time I got there, I only had an hour and a half, since it closes at five. I managed to write 1035 words, which is 465 below my goal - but what I wrote ties into another 600-word segment, so that may technically mean that I 'wrote' 1600 words today. It's iffy, though, so I need to make up for it tomorrow. I should have written more when I got home tonight, but instead I watched Britney Spears's appearance on 'How I Met Your Mother', as well as the rest of CBS's fine evening programming.

I spent far too much time tonight putting together my page for my Stanford reunion class book - I can't believe my five-year reunion is this fall. I tried my best to be appropriately clever without seeming arrogant, which is a v. difficult task. Craig was playing in the background, which helped, and I also chatted briefly with Vidius Chandicus and Claudia. Now I'm going to go to bed so that I can get up and write tomorrow, because that's what writers do! I may also drink cheap whiskey and find a wife to beat up, but we'll see how the day goes.