Nested thoughts prior to nesting:

It’s raining and I am stealing turkey and “the internets” from my in-laws (the pluralizing of “internet” is one of my favorite Bush-isms from the Kerry debates – I was heckling from my couch and yelled something at the screen about my surprise that there was more than one). I have finally gotten around to all my new-hire paperwork for my new job (allow four to six weeks for processing). I was up at The Circus today raiding my predecessor’s files as per her instructions and discovered, when chatting with my principal, that my immediate supervisor (who I have not yet and probably never will work for) has quit for an assistant principal’s position in another district. One wonders, as one of six new hires (now seven), if the rats are coming or going on this particular ship. I got Kim an interview for Thursday to see if I can begin to pad the team with my cronies – actually she is highly qualified for the opening as it is in her specialization. It’s always nice to see workplace stability when buying a new house. My father told me that he thought my higher salary in this district was in part hazard pay. We’ll see.

We’ve been trying to keep busy so our living out of boxes experience is mitigated by a little living. We went and saw Transformers last night and thought it was fun as summer no-brainers go. On DVD we watched Gosford Park and the first two installments of the National Geographic series Guns, Germs, and Steel. The documentaries are based on Jared Diamond’s book of the same title, which I read (listened to on tape) in the spring. I think his thesis is correct – you’ll have to check it out and get back to me. His critics think he oversimplifies, but Occam would disagree on principle – I think it’s an elegant little number from which many interesting extrapolations follow (location, location, location). Essentially he asks and answers a simple question about inequality in the modern distribution of goods by looking back at the latitude advantage of Europeans in the transmission of agricultural technology (high protein wheat and barley allowing greater specialization within the tribal unit) and disease resistance, predicated upon large animal domestication and uniformity of climate across numerous cultural groups. Anyway, check it out and get back to me. When I graduated undergrad I was one course away from an anthropology minor. The interest persists.

Jes and I are trading off on Netflix titles – lately, she gets films and I get documentaries, though I did get The Prestige and Volver after The Fog of War. We’d done a number of TV series and have the second season of the new Dr. Who in the queue. I’ve been teaching Jes how to play Axis and Allies, which is basically Risk on crack, so if you’re up for a game let us know. We’re also trying to track down a good domino set as Mexican Train was all the rage at the lake.

I’ve been working on the car a bit – or paying others to. We have four new tires, fresh oil, and a flushed out transmission to our credit. It’s hard to believe that our new car has almost 40,000 miles on it already. Those country roads took the back tires down to the steel.

We close on the house at nine a.m. tomorrow. Wish us luck.