News in Brief

1. We had an insane flash flood downtown yesterday. After it stopped pouring, I walked out of Ballantine on the way to my car...and was confronted by this:

This little stream is normally about 4 feet wide. Dr. Long always called it the "Mighty Mighty Jordan" with more than a tinge of sarcasm, but on this day, the river got the last laugh.

2. I have an apartment in Rome! Sheesh, finally. It's this one: http://www.mercuriusrelocations.com/romanrentals/id115.html . No washer, AC, or internet, and probably it was too much money for having none of those amenities, but it's close, has a great kitchen, lots of light, and a bathtub. And more importantly, it's mine! I was wasting hours every morning perusing Craigslist and hoping that I would have a fantastic offer miraculously materialize in my inbox, but now I can finally focus on tomorrow's exam.

3. Sahara Mart now carries a bar of milk chocolate I can have! It's $5.00 a bar, which seems like a lot, but until Tuesday, I had not had milk chocolate of any kind for over a year. It's made by the same company that makes the dark chocolate bars I can eat, but it's a brand new line. Their dark chocolate is really good, of course, but it's also really intense. Sometimes I just want something light and sweet, although at that price it definitely won't be a weekly indulgence.

4. Special Author exam tomorrow morning. I still won't be done, though - I didn't find an Italian article to review til yesterday, so she told me I could just turn it in early next week. Argh. I really wanted to have this all over with... Aaron made me laugh really hard the other night when he referred to the criteria of "one foreign article" as "Affirmative action for articles."

5. Daffie's getting around easier, Aaron's over his cold...I'm the only one who's still kind of a wreck, but hopefully by tomorrow afternoon, at least part of the stress will be over!

6. My poor lime tree is in recovery. I had been neglecting it before we went to Maine, and when we got home, all the leaves but four were off. I put it outside on the porch where it could get sun, warmth, and lots of rain, and today I noticed that there are tiny leaf buds all over. Yay! I probably will never get as many limes off it as I did last winter, when it lived in the sunroom of our old house, but as long as it's green and smells nice, I will be happy.