(no subject)

i'm back in cambridge after our five-day vacation in new hartford/winstead, connecticut. we stayed in my grandparents' west hill lake cottage, which has no internet and no television and no cell phone service; it was a bit of a shock coming back to the apartment and all its messes & noises & lights. we had two nights of thunderous rain, one of which included some nearly-overhead lightning & a power outtage; we also had two days of perfect sun & swimming (and one rainy day, and one post-rain holy-crap-the-lake-got-cold day), which was a real treat.

we ended up coming home one day early, because it was too windy & cold to even read a book down at the dock on the last day, and because we missed the kittens. they missed us, too! so cute. they are one year old, as of this past weekend. we visited my grandmother at her house in west hartford before we left, and she fed us a nice little supper and we all chatted about houses and apartments and jobs and such. ( she may be selling the big house this year. goodbye, childhood idyll! )

in other news, i participated in a gallup survey on the phone last night. quick, what are the four most important issues facing our nation today? get your answers ready in case they call, because i was slightly embarrassed at my own. (unfair taxation of the middle class, the war in iraq, abortion rights, and, um, the economy? healthcare? i can't remember my last one. oh wait--the deficit.) also i did not know who dennis hastert is (speaker of the house!), and i was forced to articulate whether i did or did not believe in the following phenomena: angels, heaven or hell, elvis is alive, ghosts, ufos, present past or future life on other local solar system planets, or ESP. there were lots & lots of other things, i got the feeling there were eight or nine separate surveys crammed in there.