I will not disapoint my colleauges on this one, Pete. Roberts will be confirmed as our new Chief Justice, unless ol Teddy Kennedy digs through his garbage and finds a picture of Roberts wearing a pink tu-tu. Roberts has very little record as an appellate court judge and no record as a legal scholar. When I say record I mean no document proving he is a raving conservative hatchetman. Now ol' Teddy and his fellow jackasses are trying to get more documents, obviously the garbage investigators have failed in their task, and they are specifically asking for the papers Roberts wrote as a lawyer for the first Bush administration. So far G.W. has told them to stick their requests where the son don't shine, meaning there is probably some document that shows Roberts is a little extreme. However, after reviewing the man's record I can say without partisan bias that he will probably be a good man for the job. Roberts grew up in the same town as my Dad did , Laporte Indiana, and he has argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court with nearly a perfect string of victories. To all you Roe v Wade hecklers and praisers out there I ask you to remember one thing: STARE DECISIS. It means that yesterday's decision will govern today's decision, and judges worth their salt will not overturn a rule of law simply when they get a new majority. Even if Roberts and the person Bush picks to replace O'Connor vote to strike down Roe v. Wade, that's still only four votes counting Scalia and Thomas. Furthermore, I highly doubt Roberts will strike down Roe because like a good conservative he believes in the tradition of stare decisis. I think Bush will either pick a woman or a Hispanic to replace O'Connor, with most of my beting money on a Hispanic. Bush has his straight man running things at the judiciary, now he needs something to say the GOP is not a bunch of WASP men and that probably means Gonzales. I mourn Rehnquist, he had a brilliant mind and he wasn't afraid to beat those ACLU commies down. I hope Roberts will do the same.

Still no shower curtain. Baths are very nice. I'm not gonna mention the fact that we don't have one to Michael again unless he really wants to get one... cuz i don't.

New phone number: (815)922-4738. It's a cell phone attatched to Michael's mom's "family plan," so i am now officially family (it was by far the cheapest way i could achieve phone service. I'm not going to carry it around with me all the time like a cellphone by my word! It will stay at home, in my bedroom, where a phone belongs! It is subservient to me! I am not its tool!

The main interesting thing that has happened since last post is that i have become innundated with work. This masters program is INSANE. I am taking four classes and teaching three this semester. That is too much. I was up till three two nights last week and up till four monday night (and awake at 8). And its only week three of sixteen. How much longer can i do this before collapsing? The constant prescense of "i should be doing homework right now" that was such a prominent feature of life at Knox is much worse here. They definately assign more reading than you can do, and i never learned how to skim.

Of course, it doesn't help that Michael and i have this habit of procrastinating homework by coming up with and starting (but not finishing) bizzare new projects for our apartment. We now have a clothesline hanging 30 feet above the driveway of our building between a huge tree and the 3rd floor balcony. It comes fully equipped with a pulley on each end so that the whole line can be accessed from the balcony, and a turnbuckle to keep the line taught at all times. How did we get a rope and pulley 30 feet into a tree? I was hoisted up, tied to Betsy (Michael's car) backing down the driveway. Talk about fun shit. Then our old-lady neighbor yelled at us for "taking over the neighborhood" by being up in her tree. Our kitchen is now blood-red (one gallon of paint: $5 at the Habitat for Humanity store), we have pipes hanging from our hallway ceiling and holes in our living room wall (i don't even want to explain that one), a half-assembled, octagonal dining table in our Dining room, and Trina (Michael's woman) has recently picked up a stray, un-neutered tomcat that we will probably end up bringing to our apartment if no one claims him.

Teaching went ok on Friday. I had two sections of a class one after another, and we were set to discuss a whole bunch of postmodern epistemology type-stuff. (why that's featured in an urban planning textbook, i'm not sure). Because they are going to be lab periods for most of the term, the classes are scheduled in a computer lab. No good for discussion, but the first section TURNED DOWN my offer to go outside on that beautiful day! So they sat and played solitaire while i tried to have a discussion. The second section, however, voted to go outside and we sat under a tree and discussed confusing things and many people participated and life was good. 1 out of 2 ain't bad for a first attempt... i guess.

Drew, we are all desperately awaiting your expert analysis on the impact of the death of the Chief on our nation's politics. Don't let us down.

I should be doing homework right now. Luckily, i have no classes or anything else on most Wednesdays, so i get to do homework all day today. I was thinking of seeking out one of Urbana's lovely parks to host this afternoon's study session. That should be nice, since it is yet another tauntingly lovely day outside. Peace.

So I'm at home again after spending a week at our house in Galesburg, and my throat now no longer feels like the fiery furnaces of hell. For those who don't know, I had my tonsils pulled on Tuesday, and the surgery went okay, and I was supposed to leave after spending just a few hours in the hospital, but I ended up spending the night there. Turns out, my body doesn't like anesthetic at all, and they pumped a bunch into me. So when I woke up, my throat felt like hot knives had embedded themselves in it, and the doctors said "You have to eat something." so I did... and then within a half hour was wretching uncontrollablly, to the extent that they put morphine in my IV. I spent the night in the hospital, and after two more vomit sessions and a nearly sleepless night later, I went home.... and slept and ate pudding for the last 5 days or so. Strangely, besides the hospital stuff, this has been quite a cathartic experience for me. I've practiced my sight-singing, learned the alphabet in sign language (because I can't talk very well yet), read this book by a guy named Dr. Emoto who has these theories about water that are borderline crazy but intriguing none the less, and generally have begun to reawaken to the kindness of the people around me that I have taken for granted for so long. My mind feels quite refreshed. I have tons of ideas for songs swirling around me head, and now I have the motivation and dedication to get them down. by the way, that should be happening soon because I bought a 8 track recorder (not the 80's deal, but a semi-pro recording device) and some mics, and I'm shooting to have around 15-20 songs recorded by December. So the Hoot Hoots are quite alive and well.... and Christina is learning some bass :) Other than that, I'm teaching guitar lessons for some money, I'm dreadfully worried my brother and Mitch won't find a job in Galesburg and won't be able to pay rent, and I'm singing in Laura Lane's professional choir Nova Singers for the 20th anniversary as they perform Bach's St John's passion (I feel pretty honored). I'm sure there's a lot more to say, but I'll keep in touch as the weeks go by. Love you all.