I'm at my parent's place. I got a sore throat, likely from someone at the airport/airplane. In a few hours, we're going to take the kids and drive up to Madison to see my brother for the weekend. That should be fun, although I wish I didn't feel like crud.

Hopefully this will be mostly past in the next day or so. Madison's got a climbing gym that I'd like to check out, if at all possible. There isn't one close to south bend that I've been able to find, and I'm not sure how many times I'll be able to take the hour or so trip to one of the ones in a town in the general vicinity.

While I'm not going to be left on my own for a week, I would like to connect to any and all friends I've got within the nearest three or so states, if possible. Perhaps between Christmas and New Years or the week after New Years. If'n you're in the vicinity and want to hook up for a day (even if it's just going out for dinner) that'd be cool. Drop me a line. damienroc at sandwich dot net or damienroc at gmail dot com

The iPod is awesome. I'm so glad I got one. Replacing my CD player and a huge wallet of CDs with this little thing is such an improvement. Also, the noise-cancelling, canal earphones I got worked really well on the plane. They only cost $30 and while I'm sure I could get a pair that's slightly better and more comfortable for more, I'm quite happy with them.

Also, for any of you in the Washington area, give Loony a call to wish him well, if you could. If you haven't heard, he got beat up pretty bad on the job in the past couple weeks. He's going to be fine and the guy who did it has been taken in by the appropriate authorities, but it seems he might have a bit of trouble getting the whole legal situation straightened out.