Well, here we are, Thursday, and I think DC has finally cooled off from Reaganpalooza. I knew as soon as that story broke that it was going to make for an interesting week at work. The whole city pretty much came to a standstill after noon on Wednesday and all day on Friday. That was kind of nice, because it meant a little less traffic -- especially on Friday, because I can see National Cathedral from my window, and our street was the northern point of closure on Wisconsin Avenue. Normally, Wisconsin is best described as taking the traffic from your local interstate and placing it on the street outside your house. But Friday, there was nobody around. Still, it was pretty neat... it was the first major news event to happen since I started working at WTOP.

We're heading into the home stretch of The Ordeal Which Is Buying A House. On the construction front, things are excellent -- the carpeting was 60 percent complete on Monday evening, meaning by now it's all done. Basically, the only obvious things that aren't in yet are doorknobs and electrical outlet/switch plates. Everything looks good except for the curious hole in the kitchen floor. It's over near the wall and is about one inch in diameter. I'm quite hopeful that they're going to notice that sometime in the next six weeks and I'm not going to have to call them out on it at the walkthrough.

My communication with the mortgage company finally wound its way through the channels, from me to the phone company to some soothsayer in Turkey to a dude in Slovenia and back to Greenville, DE. It's a state program with a nice cushy 5.5% interest rate. So now the state will spend the next few weeks deciding if we are worthy of receiving their money.

In the meantime, we've been pricing furniture, refrigerators, and other items we'll need for the place. We've located decent stuff we can actually afford at places like Big Lots and Sears Scratch 'n' Dent, perhaps two of the coolest places on Earth. However, the entertainment center has been more difficult. Mary has something particular in mind that costs no less than $500 in stores, even the Sauder Home version. While lamenting this fact the other day, she muttered that I should just build one.

My ears pricked up. Hark! Do I sense the opportunity to acquire numerous power tools? I caught a glance of death.

We'll see what happens. We've decided to go with this. And since Hearn convinced me I could actually do this, any impending disasters are hereby his fault.

In closing, I'd like to note that the window in my studio is currently frosted glass. This is not a normal feature -- that's how humid it is in DC right now. I almost had to wade through the air to my car today. Happy Summer!