Snookums and I were excited to see that the convenience store opening one floor beneath us is nearly ready. Today the name was unveiled: “Presido Convenience Store.” We groaned. The name of our apartment building is “The Presidio”. (Note: the typo there is not mine. They actually spelled it wrong on the bloody building.)

Oh. My. God. Lord of the Rings skins for The Sims. Now you can finally live out your sordid little Frodo-and-Sam fantasies!

Ooh, check out the Blogger CD Swap. I’m torn. I’d love to participate… but I’m worried that my CD’s will suck in comparison to everybody else’s. Pathetic, right? I mean, it’s free anyway to nobody’s gonna care. I should just do it.

Snookums went to university at sixteen. His college, Wesley College, would set up its own in-house bar during special events. St. Paul’s College, next door, had its own permanent licensed pub. Students would go on pub crawls through Sydney that would visit thirty and forty establishments. Upperclassmen would host cocktail hour in their rooms. And guess what? Everyone survives. People still form meaningful relationships. People do other things besides drink.

What’s the point of this? Notre Dame has banned dorm dances. Doesn’t sound like such a big thing, but it’s yet another tradition that’s been stripped away in recent years under the guise of “moving focus away from drinking”. Ten years ago, Domers would’ve never dreamed that camping out for football tickets would be banned, or that Sophomore Sibs weekend would be cancelled, or that dances would have to move off-campus. My dorm’s signature event, Queen Week, will probably be cancelled, since it exists in support of our annual fall informal. No more Lewis Crush, no more Alumni Wake, no more Pop Farley.

This is a sad day for Notre Dame. I think Brigita put it best: Rudy wept. I only hope the students manage to mount some resistance to this policy. If there’s any cause they’d rally around, this is it.

What does your US zip code say about you? According to this site, people where I live in Indiana are likely to drive pickups, go hunting and fishing, follow auto racing, and purchase vinyl flooring for their homes. We’re talkin’ scarily accurate, folks.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge turns seventy years old today. A bunch of people born on the same day climbed it today. See, I told you it wasn’t scary! Happy birthday, Bridge!

Peter Buck’s “air rage” trial is happening in London. Apparently at one point during the struggle on the plane he was heard to argue, “I am REM and I can make up a story that I was assaulted.” *wince* Oh, Peter. And check out this summary of the charges. Are they suggesting that he peed on the floor of the airplane bathroom?

Excitement! Yesterday the Snook and I were just lounging around at home when we both suddenly became aware of a loud clamor nearby. There seemed to be a siren buzzing and a bell ringing. Loudly. I opened the door to our apartment to find that it was the fire alarm in the hallway. “Ack! Should we evacuate?” We decided we should. So we headed down the fire escape and out to the front of the building, where we discovered that only five other people from the building had bothered to flee like ourselves. Everybody else was on their balconies watching us. Eventually some guy came out and announced that someone had been smoking in the 2nd floor hallway (smoking is verboten outside private apartments) and that had set it off. By the time we got back to our flat, the fire department had showed up. It was parked right outside our balcony, which is where I took this picture. Okay, so it’s not a very exciting story, but when your days are filled with quilting and soap operas, anything that breaks the monotony is appreciated.

Harry Knowles says Star Wars: Episode 2 is better than your wildest dreams. Of course, Harry liked Godzilla too. But if the movie is as he describes it… I can feel the excitement building. Only two more months!

Elkhart County, Indiana has revealed the plans for its new Fair Ground extension. And get this – the landscape architect that designed it is my dad’s new wife Cindy! Cool.