It Is Finished

Well, mostly. Last night was the final class for TOYH. She was scheduled for one more on December 6th, but apparently St Kates is giving the students time off for good behavior. She still has a paper to finish along with some other odds and ends, but her class requirements are over. No more Thursday evenings. No more Tuesday evenings. No more Saturdays. No more Sundays (yes Sundays, at a Catholic institution no less). What. A. Relief. Now she just has to pass the Boards, get a job, and then we can start paying back the thousands we owe. Yep that's right. As poor as we are, the only financial aid we received was the opportunity to go into hock up to our necks in student loans. God bless America. I guess I really should qualify the statement that she is finished with class. She and her classmates are going to meet on December 6th for a bit of carousing in lieu of class. Effin' a right. They are college students you know.

Now for the important news. Yesterday I was bored at work (that's a whole 'nother story for later) so I pulled out the paper and started the crossword puzzles. I'm not really good at crosswords, although I like attempting them. The local fish-wrap has two crosswords, The NY Times and one called TMS. The Times puzzle is fun because it starts the week easy, and it progressively gets harder until the super-mother-bad Times Sunday crossword. TMS is generally easier to complete than most Times puzzles. That doesn't mean I finish them. Like I said, I'm not so good at crosswords. In the past I usually gave up trying to do the Times after the Tuesday edition. I told you, I'm not really good at these. So yesterday in my boredom I sit down to the crosswords and voila! I finish both of them. Okay, okay, I admit to cheating a little bit. I looked up which Atlantic 10 conference team is nicknamed the Rams (University of Rhode Island) and I also looked up a title of a book by C David Heymann (Liz). I was so proud of myself that I cut the section out of the paper and hung it on the wall.

Speaking of words and crosswords, I have two movies to recommend, both documentaries. The first is Wordplay. It's about the national crossword championship and features Will Shortz, editor of the Times crossword and a weekly guest on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. People in that movie finish Times puzzles in 2 minutes (me 2 hours). The second movie, and probably the most entertaining documentary ever made, is "Spellbound." It's a movie about the National Spelling Bee. "An entertaining movie about spelling?" you ask. Trust me. It is poignant, funny and nerve wracking. Please do yourself a favor and rent it.

The weather dorks are predicting 6 or more inches of snow, to commence falling tomorrow morning. I am determined to get out on my winter beater bike and ride around with the club, sore back or no sore back.

Effin' a right.