As promised, here is a picture of my mom's new kitties, Sophie and Sasha. (More pictures are here.)

Right now they're wandering around my grandpa's bedroom meeting Shannon for the first time. It's going well, although Shannon emits faint rumbles whenever one of the kits wanders too close. She's a crotchety old dog, but sweet. I should get a picture or two of her to put up here before I leave.

WOOHOO! Cable internet, up and running. I am a tech goddess.

(Confidential to Jer: Now that I have regular e-mail access again, e-mail me the Salon info.)

So I'm viewing this post on a 23-inch flat panel Apple Cinema HD display. It's really nice, and no, it's not mine. I'm taking advantage of the local Apple Store's wireless internet hospitality to update this blog while I wait for the dude at the Genius Bar to finish upgrading the family's ancient iMac. With any luck, I'll be out of here before sunset. With even more luck, I'll be able to get cable internet up and running on the damn thing this evening, and then you all can expect some more postage. I'd cross my fingers, but it would be too hard to type.

My life has been marginally more interesting in the last week, considering that I dyed my hair dark brown (it looks good, but a high school friend I ran into didn't recognize me), and we had tickets to a minor-league ball game last night that got unfortunately rained out. However, we had enough time before the game was called to have hot dogs with stadium mustard (a fine Cleveland tradition, and anyone who wants to try some can go bug Ian to dig it out of the back of the fridge) and a beer. The ballpark even had Blue on draft. Don't laugh. For America, this is good. Today I'm hanging out in the aforementioned Apple store, and my mom has just informed me that the computer's about ready to go. Yay!

I fly out almost precisely a week from today.

I want to preface this remark by saying that it's been really nice to be in Cleveland and have lots of time to spend relaxing, watching the Olympics, and hanging out with my family. But...

Not having real internet access at home can suck my giant imaginary phallus. I despise dial-up AOL with the white-hot burning passion of a million suns, and the "browser" packaged with AOL is even worse. I can't get to Hotmail from home, so I have to come here to the public library every few days to delete the next round of "enlarge-your-penis" spam, but I can occasionally get to other sites as long as they don't require any browser newer than 1998. In other words, I have virtually no internet access at home. I'm still hunting for a WiFi point close to home so that I can get online a bit more often.

(and before you ask, I can't download any better browsers because it takes a couple of hours and AOL thinks you're inactive and kicks you offline during that time. I've tried.)

Whew. Now that that's out of the way, I can update you on the real news, which is that my mom is finally going to bite the bullet and adopt kitties! We went to the local humane society yesterday to snuggle lots of cats and decide which ones we wanted, and this afternoon we're going to bring home two little girl kitties (tentatively named Sophie and Sasha). They're shy but friendly, and they purr like motorboats. I'll post some pictures to my photo page as soon as I'm able to get online more often.

I really haven't been accomplishing anything else. My days consist of sleeping late, being lazy and watching massive amounts of TV, reading, and occasionally leaving the house to go shopping or to the library. I could tell you in extensive detail how I waxed my eyebrows last night, but somehow I don't think anyone would be interested. I apologize for the extreme boringness of my life at the moment, but things should be looking up soon. I'll be in London two weeks from today, and until then I will at least have hilarious kitty antics to report.

All of you who didn't come over tonight, you missed tasty, tasty biscuits.

HA ha!

This series of wedding photos is the clearest illustration I've ever seen of the phrase "To each their own."

Well, holy shit. I managed to get everything I want to take to London (excepting Ian and the cats) into my two suitcases.

Of course, there's a crapload of stuff at home in Cleveland that's going to go with me, but my modus operandi for packing tonight was to a) go through stuff and b) if it looked remotely like I might need/want/use it, it went in. This packing technique will be refined before I actually fly to London, since my travelling mantra is "Don't pack anything you can't carry for a mile at a dead run." I don't follow this precisely, but I do tend to pack light. I got everything I needed for a one-week trip to North Carolina into my small red bag.

I'm still ripping CDs. I have 16 left to go, plus the one Ian's making for me to listen to on the plane. It still hasn't ceased to amaze me that I can get approximately 100 CDs into a thingy the size of a deck of cards. Thanks again, Mom and Pa... your birthday present to me is going to save me a hell of a lot of room!

Now, if they could only do the same thing with books...

(no, not really. I never got very fond of e-books, especially not for travel guides. It's all in the visuals.)

Things are shifting into gear. I've been spending the last couple of days ripping a whole bunch of CDs so I don't have to actually bring any to London with me, and tomorrow I'll start going through clothes to see what I'm going to pack. I've got my schedule of classes, which seems nice and light (Mondays 1-2:30, Wednesdays 9-11 and 2-4, and Thursdays 1-2:30 and 3-5, with a concert for my music class at 7 most weeks), and I'm Googling local amenities like internet cafes, tube stations, etc.

I found a branch of the RSPCA a 10-15 minute walk just down the road from where I'm staying, so I can get my kittyfix and help out some homeless pets at the same time. Yay! I was hoping to be able to find somewhere to volunteer nearby... this semester is going to essentially be a vacation for me (albeit an academically interesting one, the best in my opinion), but it's still going to feel damn weird not to be working. Volunteering should help that.

I still have a whole bunch of stuff to do before I leave, but I have most of the essentials dealt with. I fly out three weeks from today... I'm going to miss everyone here a hell of a lot (thanks again for all coming out to see me the other night! I had 25 people over here... in your face, Ian!), but I will be staying in touch through this site and through e-mail as much as humanly possible. I don't know how regular my net access will be, since I'm pretty sure I don't have it in the actual house where I'm staying, but rumour (i.e. Google) has it that there's a WiFi enabled café just down the road.

Excitement, excitement.

Thanks to all who came out to the party last night! It was great to see everyone, and I hope you all had a good time.

Have some wine. Have some gin. Have some steak, with some real butter.

RIP, Julia Child.

Why do I want to become a homeowner? Well, somehow I just don't think something like this would fly with our landlord, as nice as he is.

This is a sign that things are still right with the world. (registration is required... go to Bugmenot.com for a free login.)

The secret of the Brits' famous reserve and unflappability is revealed.

My final's over, the laundry's in the dryer, the biscuits are out of the oven (that's not euphemistic... I really did bake biscuits today), and there's a drinking contest at the Shadow tonight between Drew and Chunk. Life is good.

Really, what else is there to report?

I feel like I'm hemorrhaging money today. I've been paying bills (tuition, residence, etc.) in preparation for London, and today's been one goddamn bill after another. On the bright side, I'm nearly done with all the boring preparatory stuff, so now I can start figuring out the fun stuff like what to pack.

This site is full of interesting things overheard on the Tube. It's pretty hilarious.

Back in town, posting from my newly wireless-equipped laptop (thanks again, Tony!). It was a great trip, and I like Duke Law School a lot. Really a lot. In fact, before I went there, I was thinking of choosing Cornell if I'm accepted to both. Now I think I'll choose Duke. The schools themselves are basically equal in reputation, academic standards, etc., but Duke has several distinct advantages, at least to me. First of all, Duke has one of the only programs in the country where I could get a JD (the basic law degree) and an LL.M (a master's in law) in three years, and it's in international and comparative law, which is one of the things I'm most interested in anyway. I think I'd have a good shot at getting in, too. After all, I already have four years of international study experience. Plus, I'd get to take part in a summer institute in Geneva as part of my degree.

Secondly, Duke is in Durham, North Carolina, which for those of you geographically-impaired readers, is in the South. Lots of people would put this in the minus column. Not me. I love Southern heat and humidity, I love the accents, I love the food (biscuits n' grits!), I love the proximity to family in Georgia and Tennessee, and most of all, I love the low, low real estate prices. Yes, that's right. If I go to Cornell, I might buy a house, but if I go to Duke, I most definitely will. I could be a homeowner less than a year from now. Considering that my major financial goal for the next five or ten years is to buy a house, this is pretty good.

Thirdly, Duke has a lot going on in terms of after-school activities, so to speak. One of the things I've missed in the last few years is the ability to participate in a good choir, and Duke's is renowned. The law school even has its own little choir (called "Public Hearing." Heh.). Durham is a medium-sized city with all the trappings thereof, so if I want to see a major theatre performance or the like, I don't have to drive for hours. The state capital, Raleigh, is about half an hour away, and the mountains and the beach are equidistant from Durham. Lots of recreational opportunities for me to take advantage of when I'm not studying.

Now, the downsides. Durham is a lot more diverse than I expected... I saw just as many "Kerry-Edwards" as "Bush-Cheney" bumper stickers, and there's a pretty decent ethnic mix in the city. However, it's still the South, and the South tends to be pretty conservative, republican, and Christian. This is more apparent in some areas than others, and Durham seems to be pretty mild on the Bible-thumping scale, but it's still something that I'd need to keep in mind. Also, Duke's law school is very non-Mac friendly. I'd have to give up my beloved little iBook and get an IBM laptop or the like. Really, though, if these are the only real downsides I can think of, that's not so bad.

We shall see. I have to be accepted to some law school or another first, which may be a rather difficult task if the little orange stripy fucker who lives in my house doesn't stop eating my recommendation letters. (Where was this cat when I was actually young enough to pull "The cat ate my homework, teacher!"? I ask you.)