Oh, and we discovered this morning just why the drainage ditch on the far side of our house is so steep. I did not realize how heavily it rained last night until I raised the blinds in the master bedroom.

The water is several feet deep in the ditch, running fast, and is about five feet from our house.

It would take probably double or triple the heavy rains last night to come close to our house because of the size of the ditch, but it was still quite disconcerting to see so much water close to my window.Oh, and if we can find one, we're going to plant a Japanese red maple in the front yard. Perhaps a flowering cherry tree in the back yard, close to the house. But farther away, I'm thinking about planting an oak tree.

Given how mobile twentysomething geeks are, I think it highly unlikely that I will ever see that tree at its full height—but someone will live here at that time, and they'll appreciate it.

Talked with Sean last night, and started finalizing plans for the the flowerbeds. Looks like we're going to use a combination of camellias and Chinese fringe flowers for the back row of shrubbery (the "Ni!" row, as I refer to it). I'll do clumps of various small shrubs and perennials throughout the beds—lilies, daffodils, irises, tulips, etc. for the perennials and probably flame bushes, rosemary, and shrub roses for the the larger bits.

I'm going to place some paving stones into the ground to give me some room to stand on in the beds without damaging plants. I'll probably anchor those with stuff like chamomile and creeping thyme (though the chamomile may be tough to get here).

I'm probably going to start some jasmine, so that I can train it to creep up the railing. It'll smell wondrous—perhaps a porch swing could be installed to take advantage of it?

The god of smaller things gave me a gift today: for cleaning up my kitchen this evening, I discovered the tiny battery-powered radio that I had given up for lost a few weeks ago.

While in this house, this radio had become a daily link with the world. Our large stereo has trouble tuning in to the weak signal of WLRH, our local NPR affiliate. But the little one does not, and I can carry it around the house with me as I do chores.Through it, I listened to Morning Edition in the mornings, and All Things Considered in the afternoon. I've found their news to be much less sensationalist and more in-depth than anything else I can get locally.

Fighting sleep. Fighting the urge that nibbles at the back of my head, the wave of somnolence that wants nothing more than to pull a soft, enveloping blanket over me for a few hours.

The Shenandoah Shakespeare Express was in town this week for three shows. Slated for performance this year were Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Midsummer was first up on Wednesday night, and it was sold out. Heather and Jess were able to get tickets at the very last minute. I got a glowing report, but didn't get to see the play. (Only a little disappointed, I was.) The next night they called me up from the ticket line and said, "We have you a ticket, but you have to come NOW. We're going to sit on the front row again, and you need to join us."So I did. Ahhhh, Hamlet. It's one of my three favorites of Shakespeare, but up to now I'd never gotten to see it performed live. We hung around for a few minutes afterward and had a few pictures taken—and bought tickets for Friday's showing of Rosencrantz.

Song in my head: David Gray's Babylon. I may well be buying a copy of the album soon if the rest of the album is as promising as that one song.