Midday

I'm supposed to be editing/writing a paper so I'll have one less thing to deal with during exams at the end of April. Thus far I've managed about 45 minutes worth of solid work (listening to Fresh Air from University of Edinburgh on iTunes Radio) and about another 45 minutes of intermittent putzing around on Lexis and Westlaw and my notes.

And about 2 hours loitering on the internet. I have both Bloglines and Googlereader, and on Bloglines, more than half my bookmarks are at 200 unread posts. So I, of course, had to deal with some of the backlog.

Can I just say, though, that I'm way tired of the twee names whitey white America has taken to give its off-spring. I'm no fan of "original" names, either (having a weird spelling of a normal name and siblings and family members with beyond weird [for the 70s, during our awkward elementary school years] ethnic names gives you a different perspective). So it's a real close race for me as to which I hate more, wee little Hugh or sassy Mikaylia.

On a very weirdly sad note, my aunt's ex-husband died last night. He had been diagnosed with pretty nasty cancer a couple of years ago. Although he and my aunt divorced about 5 or 6 years ago, and I hadn't seen him at all since then, I'm close with my cousins, who are much younger than I. They're in their late teens/early 20s, and it's so hard on them, obviously. And even on my aunt. I can't imagine what his parents are going through.

I was surprised to find myself choked up last night when the husband told me, and again when I spoke to my aunt and one of my cousins. Death sucks.

On a brighter note . . . well, it's snowing again. I guess that bright whiteness is bright enough for now.