I thought I’d write a bit before I fell asleep tonight. Ten O’clock just passed but I feel as if I’ve been up all night. The house is supernaturally quiet. Perhaps I feel that way because my ears are full of snot. I don’t know. I can’t shake this cold or lack of energy.

Today was decent, anyway. I graded papers at the coffee shop for a couple hours after breakfast. My schedule doesn’t allow me much coffee shop time this semester, so I was glad to slip on the headphones and knock out some commentary. The U’s email server is slow as ever, of course, so I couldn’t speed through the papers as much as I would have liked, and a few neighbors interrupted my work, but I still managed a serious dent in the backlog. I ate a quick pre-lunch at home and sped down to Borders to pick up a couple Archie comics for the boys and another book (Kevin Smith’s journals) for the plane ride. I think I’m set for books through at least the end of the year, but I’m terrified of running out of reading material while either on the way to Europe or actually in Europe. Yes, I’m aware that, well, someone in Europe should get his pretty little nose out of a book, but the texts’ presence ground me even if I leave them back in my hotel room. I hit a quick meeting at work then locked myself in my office for more grading. A few friends visited here and there, but I knocked out about 75% of the work before the afternoon ended. The email server went down (of course) for a bit, so I picked up a couple BK veg burgers (slimy today) and checked with Best Buy on a charger for my mp3 player. Apparently Best Buy stopped selling creative/zen accessories back in Europe. This worried me. Later I met M down at a new restaurant and ate dinner. We didn’t have much to do afterwards so we hit Radio Shack, where a guy told me they didn’t carry creative/zen accessories either. When I arrived home I checked the Circuit City site and found the charger I needed. Whew. I ordered one with extra-fast shipping. The shipping added eight bucks to the tab, not good for Catholic guilt, but I’ll be damned before I fly to Europe without an Mp3 player. I flew to Denver last year with a CD player, and that fucker almost caught fire on my lap. I am converted to the church of the mp3 player, and I worship happily at the altar.

Later the boys were still up, so I took T and S on a ride through town. We had fun. They hadn’t stayed up that late in a while, and I don’t think they’ve been out in the car that late all summer. They seemed fascinated by the city at night. S mentioned that he hadn’t expected the town’s lights to burn all night. Funny. Dan and I talked on the phone for a while, until my voice faded, and here I am.

A couple of bullets:

The Brewers are officially out of the playoffs. I hate the fucking Cubs. The hate will do us well. Next year we’re going to blow them totally out of the water. I am rooting for whomever the Cubs play.

Stars of the Lid are brilliant.

More later.