it would possibly please me to move to wales

I believe this is the cutest real estate listing I've ever read. From johnfrancis.co.uk Freehold Terraced house 2 bedrooms 1 reception room 1 bathroom Offers in the region of £149,995 We are pleased to have received instructions, to offer for sale Tan-y-Graig, Goginan. The property is an end of terrace two bedroom cottage, which has recently been upgraded by our client and has oil-fired central heating, partial double glazing and adjoining low maintenance garden to side, with two store sheds and separate car parking area on the opposite side of the road with timber-deck enjoying open views over the valley. The village provides for a public house, whereas Aberystwyth is set some eight miles miles distant.

i would be at the head of the evacuation line

I haven't had a lot of experience with hurricanes, and I hope not to have any more. Last summer when D. and I were moving out here from North Carolina, we hadn't chosen a definite departure date. Then the news indicated that a hurricane was headed towards NC, and we decided at about 8pm to pack everything and leave the next morning, as we didn't want to be faced with the choice of driving in hurricane rain/wind or being stuck there for another 3 days. We left Durham by mid-morning, but unfortunately the hurricane was moving faster than we expected or the path wasn't quite as predicted, and the edge of the storm hit us on I-40 about halfway between Winston-Salem and Asheville. The wind wasn't too bad, perhaps 30mph with some gusts, but I have never seen anything like the rain. It was the rain equivalent of a whiteout, windshield wipers could not keep up, and visibility was limited to about 15 feet in front of one's vehicle. We could not see the tail lights of the car in front unless we were that close, which was obviously a dangerous distance. Pulling over and stopping wasn't really an option as none of the road markings were visible and it was likely that you would be hit by another car that couldn't see you. It turned into this bizarre situation where all the traffic was in (more or less) the right lane driving 20mph with hazard lights on. If you got too close to the car in front the blink-blink of their hazard lights made them visible from a little further away. We drove like this for perhaps 40 miles at which point the rain decreased to normal heavy rain. It was the scariest driving experience of my life (minus recent accident, but I wasn't driving), and if that's what a minor hurricane looks like 300 miles inland, I hope to never experience a major one near the coast. I can only imagine what the damage from Katrina is like; my thoughts go out to everyone in New Orleans.

condo watch 2005

The condo next door is still for sale and down almost 5% to $237,900. Not too surprising as the guy moved out a couple weeks ago and must be getting more desperate to sell.

hi ho honda

FYI, we did eventually get a new civic after looking for about a month. The new one is a 2000 with 40k miles on it and remote entry instead of power windows. We paid a little more for this one than the last one, but we knocked off 6k miles and the transmission is smoother and the gas mileage better (rather relevant as gas shoots up to $2.75/g.). Sadly, no flaming tail pipe (although I do have the flaming piece off the dead one sitting in my living room. I call it modern art.)

everlasting email

Last summer when I was working at Duke they assigned me an employee email address. D.'s email was also transferred to employee status and now I'm pretty sure the IT department didn't notice when we left their fine institution. So we both still have Duke email/server space and no idea if it will ever be deleted. Both addresses have started to get a lot of junk mail though so I'm kind of glad I don't have to use it for work anymore.

cat blogging (august 5th)

What can I say, the cat loves its box.