Omigod, Janet just made the best banana milkshake ever. I knew there was a reason I married her. :) Thanks to a generous gift certificate as a wedding present from a good friend of mine, we got a blender/food processor about a month ago, and have only used it once before, to make potato leek soup (also incredibly yummy). I've been eating so much healthier since Janet got here, and have had so many things that I never would fix for myself, like chicken curry, or miso soup with tofu. Man, this sure beats the days when I did nothing but microwave my meals.

(I just put a dollop of Malibu coconut rum in the shake; very tropical.)

I'm deep into writing final research papers now, but as you can see, I'm procrastinating a little, but only because this freaking milkshake is so good. As for the paper I'm currently working on, it's about the role of bureaucracy in Futabatei's Ukigumo and Kafka's The Trial. It's an interesting topic, and I'm a third of the way done; let's just hope I can keep it coherent. My other papers concern Gennette's concept of text time in understanding Kelly Link's cool short story "Lull," and taking a writer's view of how Jonathan Swift constructed A Tale of a Tub. Thank god I don't have finals in any of these classes, or my brain would just collapse. Next week is the last week of classes, and it's terrifying how close the end is; the first paper is due Thursday, the second on the following Tuesday, and the third on that following Thursday. Bam bam bam. The fun fun world of graduate school.

Janet and I took a break earlier today, and headed out for some errands. After finding some stuff at Wal-Mart, a reporter approached us in the parking lot as we were loading our purchases in the trunk. I thought she'd ask us how we felt about shopping at a place that treats its employees like shit, but instead she was doing a story on driving safety. Janet scooted off-camera while I answered what I thought were good rules of the road and how I thought bad drivers acted on the road. If they decided to keep the footage of me in, it would have been broadcast about thirty minutes ago. Did I sit in front of the TV waiting to see if my bumbling comments made it onto the air? Nope. I got papers to write.

Last night we went to a tripartite birthday party for my friend Courtney (who's in the creative writing program with me at NCSU), her fiancée Chris, and his dad; the dad's b'day was last night, Courtney's is Wednesday, and Chris's is Thursday. I thought it'd be really strange to have a birthday at almost the same time as your significant other, but Courtney said was a like a mini-Christmas, and they were less likely to forget each other's birthday that way. So we hung out and ate burgers and drank some Vernors and talked to people. There were probably around forty people in Courtney and Chris's townhouse, and they all crowded around once the candles were lit and blown out by all three birthday folks. (Helpful hint: always light from the inside out.) We stayed until the cake was cut. At home, I finished reading Fray (thanks to Jenn for the suggestion). It was a fun evening.

Oh, and we discovered that we had ants today. I squashed one on the coffee table as it was crawling out from under a piece of paper, and when I lifted the paper up, a whole swarm was under there, at least two or three dozen. Janet discovered a trail from the door, but we still can't figure out what brought them in. We don't typically leave piles of sugar laying around, or rotting hunks of food. Anyway, we sprayed the little buggers to death, then vacuumed them all up. Stupid ants.

All right, back to work. This paper ain't gonna write itself. Man, that would be sweet.

Now Reading:
Show World by Wilton Barnhardt

Stories Out to Publishers:
7

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26

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11