I'm cautiously optimistic that things are slowly returning to normal over here. The machine that hosts domesticat.net is actually located in England. (This is the sort of thing that happens when you have a British friend who once worked for an ISP.) Yesterday afternoon, meaning late yesterday evening GMT, the uplink to the machine died. It took somewhere between six and twelve hours to get everything restored.

Then, of course, shortly after the server uplink was re-established, our cable modem went nuts. Our cable provider's DHCP server elected to barf on us. Thus no net connection for most of the day.

Oh, well—there were plenty of tasks that needed doing. This year's Stanley Cup is proving to be quite entertaining; for the first time in my life, I have friends around that enjoy hockey. Tonight I did something I've not done in years—called someone up on the phone and said, "Hey! The game's on! Are you watching?"

(Capitals—Penguins was about to go into overtime. The Caps won, by the way.)

Tomorrow night, the geekchicks are gearing up for the end of the semester in good sports-fan fashion: combining beer, photography, and bowling. I fully expect terrifying results. Some of us will be arriving a bit early to sample an extra pitcher or two of beer and catch a hockey game or two. I expect that afterwards, we'll make thorough idiots of ourselves while trying to bowl, but that's half the fun—the other half, of course, being laughing at your friends in silly bowling shoes.

Friday night: Jonatha Brooke concert in Nashville. Kat's going with me—I fear that the pictures that will be taken of me will be as silly as, if not sillier than, the pictures that will be taken of me while bowling-under-the-influence. What can I say—I like her music, and I've never gotten to see her perform with a backing band before.

Current read: Lord of the Rings. I've finally gotten past the detail-rich beginning to the meat of the story, and I'm finding the book to be much more pleasurable reading now. I've put aside D.H. Lawrence for a few days while I delve deeper into LotR. It'll keep.

The white irises by the side of the house are blooming. They are enormous—quite possibly the tallest irises I've ever seen—and the blooms are stunning. I need to borrow Jessica's camera to get a picture of one of the blooms while it's still fresh.

More tomorrow, cable modem willing.