Something that's amusing: A Swiss yacht winning the America's Cup. Next up: Bolivia. :-)

Something that's distressing: The fact that the gummint hired an advertising executive to improve the image of the U.S. in the Muslim world. Now, maybe Charlotte Beers' resignation itself is neither here nor there, but the U.S. government has missed ample opportunities over the last 50 years to improve its image abroad (in the Muslim world and elsewhere); hiring an ad flack to do it has got to be way down at the bottom of the list of techniques, effectiveness-wise.

Something to smile about: Joyce coming over with another comedy video tonight, to keep me distracted from tomorrow's scheduled -- er, downsizing. However I feel afterwards, though, it'll be good to have it over with and be off the rollercoaster. I just keep reminding myself: My mother, my mother-in-law, a remarkably large number of my friends, one of my favorite WMU professors, and my in-laws' poodle have all been through this procedure and have come through it just fine.

Signing off for a few days; I promise to keep the post-game organ recitals to a minimum.