This afternoon we had a lovely big thunderstorm that dropped the temperature nearly 20 degrees in less than an hour. The usual post-rain sauna effect never really set in, and now dusk is nearly upon us. A rare nice July day in New Orleans. Chris has the next two days off, and tomorrow morning we will drive down to Venice (Louisiana, not Italy) to do some birding, returning sometime late Wednesday. Then I'll be here Thursday and leave for DC on Friday.

I wish I could break myself of typing book titles in capital letters rather than in italics or underlined as they should be. I don't do this in "real" text, only online, and it's nothing but a crappy holdover from Usenet, where formatting is well-nigh impossible and I always felt that titles needed a little more distinction than just their initial caps. Anyway, I'm going to try:

A Confederacy of Dunces

I Sing the Body Electric

Liquor

Are you asleep yet?

I've been reading an advance copy of Caitlin's The Dry Salvages and enjoying it tremendously. I try not to indulge prejudices against entire genres, but there is very little hard science fiction I can honestly say I've enjoyed, so this is a double compliment. People who classify Caitlin as "just one of those authors who only write about whiny Goths doing drugs and being in bands" should be held down and forced to read this, rather like Alex being made to watch violent pornography in A Clockwork Orange. In addition to many other things, The Dry Salvages is a pure-D ripping good space yarn. I knew Caitlin didn't just write about Goths, but I had no idea she could write a ripping good space yarn, let alone make me enjoy it. That's the thing about good writers; they keep surprising you.

I think it's great that Ricky Williams is retiring from the NFL so he can sit on the beach and smoke pot (as some reports have it; at any rate, he is on record as saying he's tired of resorting to subterfuge to pass the drug tests). New Orleans sports-talk legend Buddy D on the subject: "Opinions are like noses -- everybody seems to have at least one." Now if he'd just come out of the closet (Ricky, not Buddy) ...

I leave you with the sort of meme I absolutely love doing even though I suspect that no one else finds it the least bit interesting. Thanks to medakse.

Last Cigarette: I know I was at the bar at Marisol after hours drinking Wild Turkey, but I can't tell you when.
Last Alcoholic Drink: Wednesday at (argh) Harrah's Casino
Last Car Ride: today, driving around to the post office, UPS, and the seed & feed store, where I coveted parakeets but only bought wild birdseed
Last Kiss: this afternoon, from Chris
Last Good Cry: Wednesday, riding around listening to Rain Dogs (oh, the memories) after all that Wild Turkey
Last Library Book: Shamefully, I never use the library
Last book bought: Ten Percent of Nothing by Jim Fisher
Last Book Read: Long After Midnight (reread) by Ray Bradbury
Last Movie Seen in Theatres: Fucked if I can remember. Maybe Red Dragon.
Last Movie Rented: Fucked if I can remember that either, honestly. I tried to rent Mississippi Burning, but it was checked out everywhere, so I bought it off Half.com but still haven't watched it. I think the last movie I actually watched was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Actually, I just remembered that it was Monster, about Aileen Wuornos -- a very different animal from MP&tHG.
Last Cuss Word Uttered: Do those two "fucked"s count? If not, it was probably some other variation of the good old Anglo-Saxon F-word.
Last Beverage Drank: Salt preserved limeade at Pho Tau Bay
Last Food Consumed: Vegetable pho with extra jalapenos at Pho Tau Bay
Last Crush: Paul Theroux
Last Phone Call: My mom, this afternoon
Last TV Show Watched: "Six Feet Under," last night
Last Time Showered: this morning
Last Shoes Worn: Black flip-flops with bamboo soles (still wearing 'em)
Last CD Played: Tom Waits, Rain Dogs
Last Item Bought: 16 pounds of safflower seed
Last Download: I have no idea
Last Annoyance: Since it involves one of my publishers, it would not be politic to say. Instead I give you the crazy guy who tried to barge ahead of me when entering the post office, then said, "Keep movin, keep movin" when I blocked him.
Last Disappointment: In myself, for mixing up the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in my e-mail to Rep. William Jefferson yesterday
Last Soda Drunk: Diet Coke
Last Thing Written: PRIME revisions
Last Key Used: house key to come home
Last Words Spoken: "Sorry" (after stepping on cat's tail)
Last Sleep: 2:30 AM - 10:30 AM, this morning
Last Ice Cream Eaten: I don't eat it much, but there was peach sorbet with the foie gras at Marisol last Wednesday
Last Chair Sat In: this one, at my desk
Last Webpage Visited: LJ friends

There, wasn't that fascinating? See you Thursday, probably.