HATE the Pirates. I thought trading for half their team would leave them decimated and gasping for air, but apparently not! We actually ended up splitting the series, but even that first game of the DH on Friday was rather clumsily played. Astros FINALLY lost a game today, and even better, so did Florida and Philly. Current standings: Cubs are a half game behind the Astros for the division, and only 1 and 1.5 games behind the WC leaders. There are six games left. I don't know how any reasonable employer or professor can *possibly* expect me to get any work done in the next 7 days!

Wrote a 2-page paper yesterday morning, a scintillating treatise on the tulip poplar. I was really bummed because I found this neat stuff about how George Washington gave tulip poplars to the marquis de Lafayette as a thank-you from America after the Revolution, and some of those trees were planted at Versailles. We had a strict page limit, and that ended up being too extraneous. Sigh. Now I'm attempting to write another 2-page paper, a critique of an article about arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. It's due Wednesday, but I also have a lab to write up and an exam to study for, so I'm trying to draft it tonight. I may have to skip this week's volunteer session at the nature center.

Sold my extra REM ticket at face value. I find selling things on Ebay to be very stressful! Between the constant checking to see the current bid, and having to figure out the best way to ship the stupid thing, I feel like I've expended a ticket's worth of energy in the last five days. Remind me to STOP BUYING EXTRA TICKETS TO THINGS!! Argh.

Govt Mule in Chicago in October. Yum. Note to self: Buy *two* tickets. No more.

- posted by Diane @ 8:58 PM