I'm head-and-shoulders into my thesis presently, and also don't have Internet access at my new place. Thus, I may be a bit distant until after August 11 (the dreaded due date).

Before I left, Dad got me a cake. Despite a long car ride, I managed to take it with (and keeping it cold was kind of a pain). So now it's sitting at the new place, as am I (actually getting some work done on my thesis, since my computer's here, although no internet means no distractions--but also no info when I need it). Problem is, plates are still packed, and silverware's absent as of yet.

Although I did experiment with cutting cake with chopsticks. That was amusing.

Back to thesis work with me.

Before beginning this post, you should know that I write this with bemused fondness, not the sarcasm it probably reads as.

So before I left, I mentioned to Dad that I wanted some Wisconsin cheese to take back with me (mostly because the cheese selection around here isn't fantastic). Now, in answer to this he passes along a package of "sharp cheddar cold pack cheese food" that he had around. Now, this isn't even a debate about whether or not cheese spread is actually cheese (which it's not). The point of this story comes when he packs it up for me to take with.

He took the spread out of its bag so it could go in the cooler—-this particular spread, being "genuine," needed to be kept cold. He looked at the little gift bag (with cows on it and red handkerchief-patterned tissue) from The Cheese Box, a local-ish shop (from the town on the other end of our ten-mile-long lake) and apparently decided the crackers would be lonely. He picked up a can of tuna and a can of salmon that he had sitting on the counter, and asked me if I ate tuna. I said yes, and emphasized how much of it I usually kept handy. He then proceeded to put both cans in the gift bag, next to the crackers, despite protests that I've got plenty.

Because you know, I can't go buy a couple dollars worth of canned fish if I ran out. Which I won't anytime soon, of course.

Despite this brouhaha, I sit here in front of my computer, eating cheese food and crackers because I'm hungry, but the food selection at this house presently is slim, and that which you can eat without utensils even slimmer (and going out of the house would make me feel like I was shirking on my thesis work, even though I'm doing so presently by typing this). So, you know, maybe Dad wasn't so far off.

Except I've got no can opener for the tuna out either. Smart me.

But you know, for "cheese food," it's not bad.

And I need to make another trip to the dealership. With six hours of the ride back left, my car's CD player decided it liked the CD it had in it so much that it kept it. But wouldn't play it for me, oh no. Instead I had to resort to radio. The number of country and/or Bible-thumping stations between western Ohio and here astounds me. Thank the powers that be for NPR. I caught the debate between Dean and Nader about third party candidacy and the election process. Fascinating. I freaking loved Nader's support of a binding "none of the above" vote. I will note, though, that neither of them wanted to touch the question about how we can open up the presidency to women and atheists. I found it interesting to note that whether or not women and atheists can even run is unclear.

I arrived back to find that virtually all my belongings (which had already been boxed) had been moved to the new place by L. and J.

My friends rock. The end.

So, I've made three trips to the dealership today. As soon as I left from the (supposedly) simple oil change that turned into a bunch more little things, I found out my driver's side (power) window had decided to die.

Better I find out now than on my trip, as I kept saying.