thanate | minor improvements

Have system. Have... some of the programs I lost; still tracking down a couple others, but all the essentials are in. thank goodness for

troyfish and

tchnmncr, whose combined efforts have kept me from going completely batty. I now have something I can work with... and I can start dealing with the novel. Soon, anyway. Maybe not today; I'm not sure. Camilla (the computer incarnation-- my car is fine, thank goodness) is dead, but john barleycorn lives on.

Spent yesterday wandering DC with

heuchera where we got free stuff from the festival of the book (I got a real book, even), stared at the white house and congratulated ourselves on not having jobs that make us live somewhere that tourists gawk at from the far end of the lawn, observed beads and many statues & fountains, ate green tea and ginger ice creams, and read about "the ultimate act of stenographic piety" at the Folger's exhibit on early printing age books. (would it ever occurr to you to write out the bible in shorthand?)

heuchera has also decided she is a fish. (that makes three, if she doesn't change her mind) I told her she was mistaken. There was some argument to this effect. heuchera: I have lots of bones, so I must be a fish. There also still remains the faint possibility that we'll both decide that the world as we know it is a horrible place and move to outer mongolia (or at least boston) in hopes that this will help, but it's probably unlikely.