Productivity has failed me. I am remaining bouncy even through lunch coma.

The crew went to Tim's Cajun Kitchen for some tasty lunchtime eats today. Didn't realize how popular that place was until I went in there. At 10:55, there was no one there. By 11:02, the entire room was filled. Seems like everyone knows that the lunch special starts at eleven…

We had a good, geeky lunch. Kat fixed the annoying problem I'd had with my cell phone—helped me delete some old numbers on there that I no longer needed.

Brad and I will probably teach them how to play Hot Death Uno tonight. Eeeeeevil, we are.

So this is what it's like to have a social life…

We are fully prepared for Brad's arrival. The signs are made, the airport greeters have been chosen. Jess got inspired on these signs—we'll have to send them home with Brad as souvenirs. Poor guy. He called last night, and it was all I could do to NOT blurt out to him, "You have NO idea what you're getting into!"

But we sidestepped that by just yelling "ph33r m3!" a lot.Everyone who has arrived so far—Heather, Kat, Jess, and Terry—came by the house last night for last-minute preparations. (i.e., making signs) As usual, we ended up playing lots of music really loudly and romping with the orange-and-white wonderkitties. Tenzing, especially, was fascinated by posterboard…and the sound it makes when you shake it back and forth. Silly cat.

Our house has been officially dubbed "the geek Country Home." I love it. It's terribly appropriate, too—when they come out here, they're usually coming out here to rest and relax…

Terry arrived at the airport last night. Pictures will be posted as soon as I can find a business that does one-hour APS film developing. I've got a couple of good pictures from the airport that deserve to see the light of day.

We've pretty much got this picking-up-friends-at-the-airport thing down pat. On Monday, when Kat arrived, we met her with a huge bundle of balloons (including a Powerpuff Girl balloon that was just exquisite in its appropriateness). For Terry, we showed up with four huge signs and a cheering crowd of six people.

The Great Influx Of Geeks begins today. Katharine arrives back in Huntsville in a couple of hours. (yaaay!)

Today's been one of those unproductive days. I haven't been able to concentrate on anything. As I said to a co-worker today, it hit me at around ten this morning that I've got fourteen people staying with me this weekend…

Other random news: my herbs out front have been thoroughly infested by spider mites. Dammit, dammit, dammit! They started on my rosemary, then moved to my summer savory (which they devoured) and now are trying to take over my thyme seedlings. I am NOT happy about this. I've been spraying the plants with insecticidal soap in the hopes of saving them, but I fear that I've lost every one of my summer savory seedlings, and I'm going to lose at least ¾ of my thyme seedlings.

I finished Look to Windward tonight. I wish I knew exactly why Iain Banks' Culture novels aren't being published in the States. They're thoughtful works with a lot of depth—something that I think is lacking from everyday fiction in the States now.

Brad says that tonight I should talk about chrome bumpers.

Brad, I hate to tell you this—'cause I love you and you're my favorite Canadian and all, but you're totally and utterly full of shit. Why, again, am I letting you stay in my house?