First update in more than four months, and first from the Second Continent in more than a year.

Back at school, having just finished a semester (had my last final exam this morning). Still have one last paper to write, but I feel like I'm up for it. Incredibly exhausted, and not looking forward to a vacation in which I predict little engagement either mentally, physically, or spiritually.

As a sort of catching-up, let me nod with a twinkle in my eye to the fire-maned lioness speeding away to the southwest. May we see each other again soon! You destroy my shibboleths, and free me from the crippling ignorance of my youth.

And now, early to bed. Tomorrow, I attack the blood-stained Verdun that my roommate has allowed our kitchen to become, with stacks of wounded dishes, the carcasses of massacred calzones, and the rotten corpses of baking dishes, wine bottles. At least the furry animals have left; I live in the fifth circle of Hell.