Yesterday morning, Melvin Bragg (who happens to be the Chancellor of Leeds University, my current home, as well as a novelist & nonfiction writer) hosted a fantastic program on BBC's Radio 4 about the history of alchemy. Sadly, I only caught the last ten minutes when it aired live, but I've just downloaded the MP3 file (which you can do here), and I can't wait to listen to the whole program. For anyone else who finds this kind of stuff fascinating, run, don't walk, to the links above! :)

It's been a quiet few days. Patrick worked at home yesterday, which was great. I love the fact that this is becoming a regular occurrence! The whole house feels happier when I'm not just hanging out here on my own. I worked more on my thesis chapter and actually managed to clean the kitchen into a cheerful rather than a depressing state! (You can tell how much I wanted to avoid my thesis chapter...but I did get to it in the end!) We babysat last night, which gave us the excuse (and the funds) to order Indian food for delivery, and we ate it while watching a DVD of the first season of "The League of Gentlemen". It was a little too much (in every way--goriness, pure strangeness, and sick humor) for my tastes, but it was definitely funny, and it's always nice to see something that stands out from the usual bland sitcom formula. After the first two episodes, I picked up my book while Patrick kept watching, but even I was laughing as I picked up jokes from the television.

And today was my Boringly Productive day, with administrative trips sending me tromping all over the university campus. I had to get a new student ID (which will be, with luck, the last student ID I ever have, at least as a full-time student--hurrah!), stop at two different libraries to pick up and return books, etc., etc., as well as meet with students and go grocery shopping. All necessary, all good, none fun. Luckily, I was able to talk a friend into an afternoon Starbucks trip. :)

And now it's time for Nika's walk, before the gray, rainy sky turns into a black, rainy sky on us...