Woo! The dentist says it's time to get my wisdom teeth out. Ok, I'm not actually excited about that, but when I do get my wisdom teeth out, I will also get to finally lose the lower retainer I've been wearing for 13 years. I've mostly forgotten it's even there, but it will be awfully nice not to get popcorn kernels stuck in there any more. :) Of course, all of this is contingent on my insurance company approving the teeth extraction.

My new goal in life is to read all the award winners of the Pultizer Prize for Fiction. Why this award list? Because the ones I've read thus far have been among my favorites, so I trust their judgment.

So far I've read:
2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Probably my favorite book EVER)
2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison
1961 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
1947 All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1932 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

The award dates back to 1918, with only eight years missing, so I've got a ways to go. I'm in the middle of 1999's The Hours by Michael Cunningham, and I have on my shelf 1983's The Color Purple by Alice Walker. At least this is my plan of the moment, until I get sidetracked with a million other books I want to read. :)

Citibank SUCKS. I will never, never use that credit card again, and it will be canceled.

Hmph.

Long story short, I was just penalized, with a $29 late fee, for paying my bill too early. Yeah, good way to keep your customers happy. They're going to waive the late fee as a one-time "convenience" to me, but apparently that's just the way it is, and if it shows up on my credit report, too bad.

Good thing I'm going to Ohio for four days to clear my mind. :)

Kelly's not here. She's slowly melting at her desk in her non-air-conditioned office.

Updating links and other sidebar information would--quite literally--cause her to break a sweat. As would thinking about posting. Or doing work, for that matter.

As you may all be vaguely aware, there are much more effective means of contacting Kelly than through this blog.

Lately I've seen an alarming number of people with tattoos of names on the side of their necks. I've tried googling the meaning for this, thus far without success. I do really hope there's some kind of significance for this though, like a memorial for someone who's died, because I hate to think that someone might put the name of a girlfriend or boyfriend in such a conspicuous place. A breakup is hard enough without seeing the other person's name every time you look in a mirror!