Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas

Happy is he who understands the causes of things. At least according to Vergil. And the London School of Economics.

I graduated today, officially becoming a Master of Science. I feel a little unfulfilled, since I wasn't able to participate in the actual ceremony, and stupid Oz forgot that he needed the international access code and the country code in the number to send text messages to his people in London, so sadly we do not yet know if Sir Howard did the hand-shaking and if Carlatio was there to see his little birds take flight.

And apparently I also missed a killer pair of spike heels, worn by the G-Lo. One hopes there are pictures. But the Moms made some steaks and some yorkies to celebrate, and that was good enough for me. I had to save the glass of champers for a little while, since I didn't want to go to rehearsal drunk.

Congratulations to Dirrty, G-Lo, P-Diddy, Quentin and the whole gang. We'll have to do that again sometime.

Apologies for the oversight

Apparently when I updated my bloggage I lost the links, which made Dirrty sad sad sad. And this was not the intention, so I ask all to forgive the oversight. I have properly disciplined my staff.

In other news, I have discovered the joys of the wireless network extend into the bathroom. Now I have blogged from bed and blogged from the bathroom. I would like to stay I had blogged while in the bath, but that poses some safety hazards that I haven't quite figured out how to overcome. Instead, I leave the location of this blogging to your fertile imaginations....

Apologies for the oversight

Apparently when I updated my bloggage I lost the links, which made Dirrty sad sad sad. And this was not the intention, so I ask all to forgive the oversight. I have properly disciplined my staff.

In other news, I have discovered the joys of the wireless network extend into the bathroom. Now I have blogged from bed and blogged from the bathroom. I would like to stay I had blogged while in the bath, but that poses some safety hazards that I haven't quite figured out how to overcome. Instead, I leave the location of this blogging to your fertile imaginations....

Happy Birthday Pops

Please wish the Good Doctor a happy birthday today. We won't mention how old he is, except that its the start of a new decade. He is, of course, on the hospital service so we haven't seen or heard from him yet tonight. Which is causing unreasonable delays in the availability of the steak. And since I haven't had the steak for, oh, ages I'm starting to get restless. There are also chocolate eclairs in the fridge from Gram (the Dad's Moms), and those can't be eaten until after the steak, so you can see what kind of problem is about to be caused.

Oh, the garage door. My salvation! Off to sign his card, and then, the steak!

Hello World!

Hello dear friends. I have returned. Its only been, what, two months? I think I'm going to try a new look and everything - a sort-of resurrection of the bloggage. Ah, the excitement. I can feel it.

The quick and dirty, in bullet points for easy reading:

• I'm back home.
• I work days, the go to the gym, eat some dinner, watch some tv, and go to bed. Sometimes I play my cello.
• Shampoo, rinse, repeat.

I regret that there are no good stories lately. I would like to have reported on the co-ed wrestling at Clifton's birthday party, but I wasn't there so it would be hearsay and that's not admissible in court. I've noticed a relationship between living with the folks and a lack of drunken foolishness, which is too bad, because I can be a fun drunken fool.

That is all, since I need to go watch some Monday Night Football and see if there is any chance I can squeak out a win in my fantasy league. Its not looking good for Oz's All-Munchkin All-Stars this week...

Blogging from bed

Right now I'm coming to you live from the mothership. From my bed, actually, which is awesome. Hooray for wireless technology. I apologize for the unscheduled hiatus. There was this dissertation, and there was stress, and I figured nobody really cared much for my whinging about it all. But now its over (hooray!) and I'm just having bad dreams about having ditched an exam or two, forgotten to turn in a major assignment, or turning in my diss missing a chapter. Horrible, horrible stuff. I thought it would be all cake and roses afterwards, but this stuff just doesn't stop haunting you.

So let's see, since last time I

1) finished my masters
2) packed my room
3) flew home
4) unpacked
5) cleaned my closet (mostly)
6) got a wallet
7) got a couple suits for the office, since I'm going to have to dress nice. No more shorts and slides for me. Bummer.
8) watched exceptional amounts of football.

The kitty and I have been getting reacquainted, and I'm going to need to find his brush, I think, since he's having some weird shedding issues, which is making it hard for me to keep clothes clean. But he leads a rough life. Sleep all day, talk during dinner, sleep on my lap during telly-time, then sleep under his favorite tablecloth blanket all night. I could get used to that.

The only other big news is that my boogers aren't black anymore, since I'm back in the country where the air is clean. And filled with pollen, but that hasn't caused me too much trouble (yet, touch wood). The fat man has stepped off my chest, as an added bonus.

The job starts a week from tomorrow, so I have a good seven days left to bask in sweet, sweet freedom. I'll keep you posted.

The Amazing Flying Russians

A big night in the stadium tonight - a great mens 1500, a great decathlon, and an incredible womens pole vault. The TV crews are feeling artistic this Games. In between jumps they would cut to these sort of dreamy, half-focussed shots of the torch, until a pair of shoes, followed by a spandex-clad woman, come floating over the bar in slo-mo. It was the same with the high jump (minus the torch), some slo-mo action from a few crazy angles. I'm a fan.

Today's dissertation update: progress. G-Lo and I bickered a while about how to construct out models, about how to structure our objectives, but remain friends and in good spirits at the end of the day. Hooray! Tomorrow, some more writing, throwing together our presentation, and dinner and a drink with the Stokes. The Last Supper, if you will.

Progress

Today some writing actually took place. And some database-building. Hooray! I am starting to get nauseated when I think about the deadline, so I've been trying to spend most of my time in my happy place. Its going to be one of those deals where you think that if you ignore it it doesn't really exist. Except that it does. And our LSE supervisors have come through in typical form - my tutor is on holiday (ON HOLIDAY!!) in Rome and wasn't going to bother to check his emails while he was away. Which sucks for me since G-Lo and I emailed both our supervisors to see how they wanted us to split up the paper when we submit to the school next week. So now, finally, almost two weeks later, we get an email that says "gee, we don't know, why don't you look at this other paper submitted a few years ago." This after my supervisor assured me, repeatedly, that I shouldn't worry too much about it because they "have experience with this sort of scenario." My ass. So G-Lo and I are just going to make it up, and if they screw us we're going straight to the Exam Board. I'll have none of this half-assed amateur nonsense.

In other news, drama at the gymnastics tonight. No apparatus kissing, sadly, this Olympiad, but there was a dance-atop-the-apparatus, which came close, and I have high hopes for Beijing. An exciting evening at the track, as well. At least as far as Team GB was concerned, when we could break away from Paula angst. Not that I don't feel for her. Over the weekend, though, the British rowers did their Maj proud. Lots of crying on the medals podium, which, for me, is a sign of a good competition. The reactions on the face of the bird that won the 800 tonight were priceless. Props tonight, as well, to the US Softball and Women's Soccer teams for games well played. Maybe we'll get to see Brandi pull of her shirt again. And, women's saber gold medalist? Domer. Looks like the Irish are going to be unstoppable on the fencing mat for a few more years. The Dome has a fair contingent in Athens this year, including two swimmers, which is pretty cool.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned, but I will be back in the US of A on 5 Sept. And if anybody has any extra tickets to any football this season, I'd be happy to take them off your hands. Particularly for Michigan, but I'm not picky.