This morning (after our power was restored) I made blueberry pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup. Not to overstate the case, but they were the most delicious pancakes I've ever eaten. I took a picture, for posterity:

Florida is not a state (literally or figuratively) through which one should be forced to suffer without air conditioning. I maintain that AC is the only reason (okay, the main reason) that Florida is the tourist destination it is today. Why devote a blog post to AC? We lost power for eleven hours last night. Eleven hours. That's significantly more than when we lost power during the 2004 hurricanes! Why, you ask, did we lose power? I'm no electrical engineer, but I'd wager that it has something to do with the fact that they're building like mad on this side of town and not adding the capacity to support it. So for eleven hours we lay in bed, trying desperately not to move or sweat. Now, blissfully, the AC is humming again and peace has been restored to our household.

1. Everyone I know likes wine, except me.

1a. Actually, if I can't have a Cosmopolitan I'd rather not drink at all.

2. If I weren't studying to be an historian, I'd be a baker.

3. If I weren't studying to be an historian, and I weren't a baker, I'd be a midwife.

4. I can touch my nose with my tongue.

5. I love watching lumber sports.

6. I'm obsessive about organization. I can find last month's phone bill in under 5 seconds.

7. ...but half the time I don't know where any one of the following is: keys, wallet, watch, sunglasses.

8. I need 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep each night (although I rarely get it).

9. I love the concept of Netflix, and in fact I pay for it every month, but I rarely get around to watching the movies.

10. I am obnoxiously practical. Therefore, we have no fine china, no fancy towels, and all our dishes are white.

10a. I have expensive taste, but because I'm obnoxiously practical, I'm loathe to actually buy things.

Until a few months ago, John and I were using pay-as-you-go cellphones from Virgin Mobile. It was good while it lasted, but ultimately we decided we needed a bit more options, so we went with a contract through Verizon Wireless. Unfortunately, though, it's not as easy as it might seem to detach yourself from Virgin's "live without a plan" plan. Even though we didn't have to break a contract to end our Virgin Mobile service, the catch is that they've been spamming us every which way they can! We've gotten non-stop phone calls, emails, and even snail mail since we stopped using those phones. So yeah, you don't have to sign a contract, but to quote Stephen Colbert, you'll never be alone again.

John and I were driving to the vet the other evening and were discussing whether or not we were going to get any rain. The clouds north of us were really dark, prompting John to say, "Well, it looks like the people up north are getting lucky," to which I replied, "Yes, but are they getting any rain? HAW HAW HAW!!" John took that opportunity to tell me that he sometimes feels like he's sitting with Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets.

If you ask me, the Humane Society of the United States has entirely too much money. Obviously they have so much excess cash laying around, probably in large laundry sacks, that they simply don't know what do with it all. So they spend it on things for donors and potential donors: personalized calculators, reading glasses (with personalized carrying cases), and more personalized notepads and address labels than I care to count. If they have enough money to spend on worthless crap, why do they keep sending me letters begging for money?

John and I now have an online photo gallery! It's still under construction, so it doesn't look fancy, but you can check it out at http://www.ejlife.net/galleria/.

I think what scares me most about our Commander-in-Chief is not that he made fun of a blind man on national TV, or that he waved at Stevie Wonder, or that he thinks that the US and Japan have been allies for a century and a half, or... well, actually, I could go on and on. It's not as if there's a dearth of material. In fact, if you Google "stupid Bush," you'll come up with over 36 million hits. That has to tell you something. But I digress. Perhaps I should have started by saying that what scares me the most today is that Bush seems to think that St. Petersburg and Beijing are in the same "neighborhood." If you haven't already heard, Bush made some... interesting comments at the G-8 summit when he thought he was off-mike. Speaking to Chinese President Hu Jintao, he remarked: "This is your neighborhood, doesn't take you long to get home." When corrected, he said, "You, eight hours? Me too. Russia's a big country and you're a big country."

While I would have hoped that he would have known that Russia and China are both big countries before taking office, I guess I should take comfort in the fact that he knows now.

If you haven't read the transcript of Bush's comments, I highly recommend it.

Has anyone else seen the latest H3 commercial? Two guys are in line at a grocery store. The first guy is buying tofu and other non-meat products and the second guy is behind him, his cart overflowing with more meat than the entire nation eats on Super Bowl Sunday. The first guy, feeling sufficiently emasculated, then runs out and buys a Hummer. The tag line then reads "Restore your manhood," because obviously the man buying truckloads of meat is a man's man, while the man buying the tofu may as well be a woman.

It's ironic that I'm reading Gail Bederman's Manliness and Civilization at the moment.

I can always count on John, though, to say something totally politically incorrect. Case in point: John's word choice for the H3 that the guy buys to 'restore his manhood' isn't appropriate for this family blog, but it started with P and ended with ussified.

All I can say is, someone at UF needs to do a better job at beefing up their spam filter. Six, seven times a day I'm getting email about Cialis, Viagra, and Rolex watches. What fancy watches have to do with erectile dysfunction is beyond me, but there you go. A few years ago, when I started at UF, I got nothing but Korean porn in my history email account. The folks at UF seem to have stopped the flow of that type of traffic, but can't seem to get a handle on all the impotence-solving prescription drug-related emails. (How's that for a sentence?) I've tried using the spam filter on my email program, but it only catches a few. The bulk of the ones that get through have Viagra or Cialis intentionally spelled wrong: VIAGxRA, CIAjLIS, you name it. *sigh*

I recently discovered another white hair on my head. John says that white hairs are badges of honor, that we earn them through strife. I say that's bunk. To me, white hairs are enemy combatants, enemies of the state, and other war-related nouns that I can't think of. Not unlike prisoners of war (there's another one), they are shown no mercy. I separate them from the pack and throw them in the bin. But here's my question: is it true, as Sex and the City tells us, that when you pull a white hair ten more come to its funeral?

I have a suspicion that I've said this about every place I've lived, but this time it's really true: Florida drivers are the worst in the world. On my way to campus not so long ago, I was run off the road-- RUN OFF THE ROAD-- by some chippie who was determined to get to her destination as quickly as possible, probably to watch The Young and the Restless or something. And when I raced up to her car to flip her off and scream like a sailor out of the window, she didn't even have the decency to give me one of those "I'm sorry, I'm an idiot" hand waves! Things like that happen all the time down here and I have come to the conclusion that John and I are the only ones who go all tense and apoplectic about it. For everyone else, it's just another day.

Cruising around some local shops today, I happened across perhaps the perfect doormat. Those who know our dog will agree that it's perfect for us: