I'm reading David McCullough's book on the Johnstown flood, and I just went for a walk in the park and spent the whole time looking at the spring and creeks and dam and everything there and figuring out how it all worked and how likely it was to fail.

Teppy, may the rest of your vacation pass peacefully and delightfully.

I'm just ready to get home. The air quality doesn't seem to be messing with anyone else, but my eyes have been burning since we hit the Triangle last Friday and haven't stopped. Also, my lungs hurt. Part cold, part Evil Smog air quality, I'm sure, but I've had to use my inhaler for the last few days, and I haven't used that thing since The Pleurisy.

Plus, I just want some privacy and no more comments on how I choose to live. Home soon. Less than 36 hours.

Oh, also, Teppy - you probably know this, but ibuprofen really does help with the discomfort of a sunburn.

Well do I know that. The sunburn doesn't hurt horribly, but it is quite red. You could use me as a beacon. Or a heat lamp.

And the author of the Amelia Peabody books is also a real archaeologist! Barbara Mertz, whose books on Egyptology are very interesting (must get a copy of Red Land, Black Land )

The owner of the book shop (dedicated to mysteries) who introduced me to Amelia Peabody was also an archaeologist. Lovely woman, never steered me wrong.

There used to be a tagline on the Peters/Michaels books that the librarians had to keep them under lock and key to make sure people didn't sneak them out to keep.

ooh! and if you like the Amelia Peabody books, have you read the Vicky Bliss ones? those are fun too!

I'm off to Sydney for a few days. Family vacation!

The exterminator was supposed to come to deal with the rodent problem here today, but he decided that he's going to come next week instead.

I want it to be the weekend already. Except that I want people on the East Coast and central time to have NOT made it the weekend already, because that has made my job very difficult today. ARGH.

I may be a jerk. Because even with the chair and my daddy issues and all that, I crossed a guy off my Datable List because he wrote a too-passionate blog post about "Two and A Half Men". It wasn't just that, though...we weren't going to click. But a lot of my friends would have tried to make a go of it because "He likes the Coen brothers and the wheelchair doesn't make him gag." But I have that. With y'all. Also, we ended up talking about virus protection. Sexy!

The supermarket had what was clearly chicken breasts with a chicken thighs label, making them $1.59 a pound. I bought them, but now feel faintly guilty. As Huck Finn said, "If I had a yaller dog that didn't know no more than a person's conscience does, I would pison him."

I think you have to pay attention to what pings you, erika. (I closed out a "match" on eHarmony - even though the guy's profile looked promising - when I got to the part about how he admires Rush Limbaugh. Even though everything else looks great, telling me you learned anything from Rush Limbaugh better be followed by a winking emoticon (real or implied) or I'll do my darnedest to avoid conversing or (shudder) debating with you). You know what buttons you don't want pressed or what larger problems just one blog post might be a symptom of.