Languages fascinate me, and thus this page, Fluent French: Experiences of an English Speaker, fascinated me. I've always regretted not deeply studying any language besides English (though I have a smattering of phrases in several languages and a bit of German under my belt).

Some people have drugs, booze, or chocolate. In the end, I have words. Think of that as you will.

I chose to keep my mother entertained this weekend by keeping her busy. The original plans for Saturday consisted of Kat and I taking Mom out to Boaz so that she could do some shopping at Boaz' outlet stores.

Nine years, I do believe, it has been since a letter from M.E. last appeared in my mailbox. Nine years, or so, I think it was since I did much paper correspondence. He was British, I the crass American teenager. We shared musical tastes; how much else I do not know.

This past week, my mother phoned me. As an aside, she mentioned, "A letter from a [M.E.] arrived today; I've put it with my things and I'll bring it with us when we come visit this weekend."

My response was of sheer astonishment. He was someone I hadn't thought about in quite some time. But, in the classic "don't think about a white elephant!" sense, I spent the next few days wondering how his life has changed over nine years.

Rather ironic, the rain returning. Just what I needed; an excuse to settle in and write, with cats and spouse tucked into bed earlier than usual, and a movie whose finishing hinges upon the return of my normal attention span.

It crept up, slow and steady, as the day went by. Any southerner knows it—the traditionally blue sky dulled to a white haze by the low-lying clouds. The heat of the day triggers these storms; they come in late afternoon and early evening. If they clear before sundown, the result is a soupy, humid mire; if the storms continue past sundown, some actual cooling-off takes place.

Running errands at two p.m. in the atmospheric soup left me breathless and sweaty. I went home, changed clothing per Kat's instructions, and met up for the casual Wednesday night dinner at the wondergeeks' apartment.

Which, to my almost-total surprise, turned out to be neither casual nor at the wondergeeks.

We rented sex, lies, & videotape and watched it last night; Jeff for the first time, me for the second time. (See my commentary from when we rented it.)

The difficulty of appreciating a bit of eye candy like Charlie's Angels can be understood a bit better when you find out that I've been considering renting a VHS copy of sex, lies, & videotape so that Jeff can see it.