The seminar on medieval manuscripts and incunabula that I'm taking this semester is fascinating, but turning out to be a huge amount of work. It's much more in the vein of the classes I took as a history major, but of course that was 15 years ago. However, I am learning all kinds of useful information, such as the best ways to remove hairs and oils from the parchment in order to get the inks to stick, and that parchment makers were usually located downwind from the village for practical reasons.

In cat news, I took Isis to be weighed on Saturday and she has lost 2.4 lbs since the ACL surgery. That doesn't sound like much, but it's 13% of her original weight. It's like a 160 lb. person dropping 20 lbs. The vet was impressed. I might have to retire her Fat Cat collar soon.

Target no longer carries the same type of tv stand that Isis ruined, and after trying several other stores, I was forced to go to Walmart. I won't go into my usual boring Walmart rant right now (sighs of relief all around), but they have added a sinister new feature. Instead of having to slog through two separate transactions, one for your merchandise and a second for your McDonald's food items, you may now place your food order at the cashier while paying for your merchandise and your food will be ready for you to pick up when you're done. The best part is that they've placed the McDonald's menus on the sides of the cash racks right at a typical 4 year old's eye level. Evil, I tell you.

The Walmart trip was not a total loss. While I was wandering around aimlessly,I found these Star Wars themed car air fresheners. This was very intriguing because who would know what the Star Wars universe might smell like? The films mostly imply that it isn't too good. Darth Vader smells like New Car, which is probably appropriate if gross. The stormtroopers smell like vanilla I guess because they are white, and Yoda is green apple, which indicates someone has a sense of humor. Guess what everyone is getting in their Christmas stocking this year?