Email, we get email: it's been a joy to hear from Margo and Amanda of Snoop the Journals, an interesting collection of diaries. I had a great time prowling through them, and for once found the frames usage quite reasonable instead of intrusive. A good site.
I've also been enjoying hearing from Minette, who doesn't keep a journal yet but thinks she might as she loves reading everyone else's. Do it, Minette! The web is full of bad home pages. More good writers should write online. Rah.
Yes, this is my weekly update page. It seems as though I've settled into a pattern. Four entries of essays, one entry to update the people who care on the ordinary life stuff. This seems like a good balance to me. After all, some people read my diary to keep up with me personally (and thus assuage their tremendous guilt over not keeping in touch via phone, letters, gifts of chocolate and lithe slave boys, etc.). So bear with me, the rest of you.
The dog has come through the post-surgery period with flying colors, although keeping her incision bandaged was a constant battle. She is a wily beast, and always waited until we left in the car or were fast asleep before undoing our hard work. Still, the vet removed the sutures yesterday and was pleased with her recovery. The cats are trying to groom her, which Dixie does not like, so periodically we hear a bark, and a scattering of cats from the other room.
I am to be interviewed for a book on Jane Austen, which I'm looking forward to very much (both the interview and the book). John is still job hunting, with letters of recommendation requested by M.I.T., a hopeful sign. The spring has been sensationally beautiful here, unlike the rest of the country, and for the first time since I came to Tennessee I find I appreciate its particular charms.
The last bit of news is that I finally decided to get myself an ISP. Vanderbilt University simply can't keep up with the demands on its archaic computer system, and I am sick to death of half-hour Internet connection limits. Worse, the server has become unreliable; many people have written in the last month to say they can't access this site, and that will never do. Voila, an account with Mindspring. I'll send an official CoA next week when I get the site set up. I'm looking forward to truly unlimited access and a reliable server. They got great reviews in CNET and MacWorld, and they are the only national ISP that offered a 10 megabyte web site at the same rate as everyone else's 5 MB. So get ready for huntzinger@mindspring.com and a new, much shorter, URL.
And the first person that writes in to twit me about joining the 20th century gets his guts for garters. So I move at a glacial pace, okay? At least I'm finally getting caught up!