No big plans for me. I actually turned down the chance to have drinks with a couple of co-workers so that I could go to Whole Foods to buy a crate of clementines. Sad, I know. Lately, I've been leading a pretty dull existence. I've been busy doing boring things, like trying to make my new ipod talk to my mac. My firewire cable will charge but not sync it, so I have to tie up a precious usb port instead. I feel that there must be a trick to this, but hope that it does not involve buying a new cable.

I listened to a story on NPR the other day about classical music on Youtube. It would never have occurred to me to look for classical music there, but there is a real treasure trove of clips, like Rostropovich playing a Bach bouree and Toscanini conducting. A great way to spend the important midnight to three am designated internet trolling hours. I may be falling in love with NPR again. Lately, it's been a sort of background noise and I've been more interested in the Beeb and CBC. The local NPR station has had great stories, though, and is reeling me back in. When I woke up this morning, they were doing a piece about the Valentine's Day Massacre "for the single listeners". How could you not love that?

Oh--the new ipod. Love it! I had to sync it over night to get my library on it, but it all fits. I say all, but I still have dozens of cds that I never uploaded. I've even watched a video on it already, which was very exciting. I'm one of those people now, who needs to be entertained at all times.

I broke down and bought the anniversary issue of the New Yorker. I was going into snarky cartoon withdrawal and needed a fix. Still haven't made much progress in the Jane Austen compendium. I've got some sort of literary startitis now. I bought Julia Child's autobiography the other day (amazing! Every page leaves me hungry!) and some other book that I don't remember but must have seemed very interesting at the time. Add to that The Tea House Fires, a novel about the opening of Japan to the West, and a collection of short stories called My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead. I apparently think that I have a lot of time to read, but until I can figure out how to knit and read at the same time or drive and read (bad, bad idea), that will not be the case. The last book that I read, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, was a bit of a letdown. I'm not sure what I thought it was going to be, but the noir style really didn't it cut it for me. I like the idea of pulp, but Austen and I Capture the Castle are more my speed. Hell, one of my favorite books is a Willa Cather novel.