I, Muehlenhaus. U, Riedermaus.

Just when I think everything is under control and cruising along, the winter solstice begins knocking on my door to steal away any sunshine that might have helped me enjoy the semester. Man, oh man, the post-Thanksgiving doldrums are here and real! Not only did Birgit and I finish the entire second season of Lost in record time, the third season doesn't come out on DVD until December 11th, and then the fourth season, which is supposed to start in February, may not even air if these writers don't get back to writing bad dramas! Once we got through the final DVD it quickly dawned on me that Lost was the only thing that had been keeping me emotionally afloat this semester, which summarizes my pitiful state. The show had so many subplots and characters to follow that I couldn't help but get lost in the soap opera ways of the show and forget about all the stress of grading, writing, and dealing with relative issues. Somehow, and very quickly as I had never seen an episode of this dang show before late September, I became a Lost junkie. Thank Buddha for Netflix!

What else is new? Still selling stuff on half.com and eBay. It is kind of streamlined now, with a pile of CDs I posted on the bottom shelf in my office, and bunch of padded envelopes bought in bulk from Sam's Club right next to them. An order comes in. I grab the CD or book, throw it in an envelope, slap on the address, and it goes out the door on my way to school. I feel like a pirate, running some illegal operation from home, but for the first time in my digital career, what I am doing is perfectly legal. Weird. Selling CDs... I didn't know people even bought CDs anymore.

Birgit and I have been more in-sync than ever recently. I like to think it is because whenever we get around her or my family we realize just how crazy they are and fall back on one another for support. Yeah, actually, that's totally it. We always get along better around the holidays when we have a chance to gripe about both of our relatives.

I had an interview yesterday with the International Studies department at Macalester College. It wasn't as surreal as my CIA interview last summer... oh yeah, more on that sometime. They didn't interrogate me or wire me up for two days like the spooks did. But somehow this interview was more stressful. I am not exactly sure what it was. With the CIA I was really relaxed, because it was the CIA, they could do what they want, and they wanted me, which felt really kind of cool. But Macalester frazzled me to the core. Maybe it is because I am a geographer first, and an IS person second, but something felt out of sync. I didn't sleep well the night before, though, so maybe nothing was out of the ordinary except my expectations.

Going to meet Glen now to play some cribbage. Gotta run. Here's the proof the spooks almost hired me!