This is a contestant from Britain's equivalent of American Idol.

Amazing. I just bought a cell phone but I'm pretty sure the salesman couldn't do this.

On the tree.  A lot of trees around here are having a miserable time with the webby stuff on their branches.

Does it affect crepe myrtles and Bradford pears, d'you think? 

That is, the sort who would try to make sure his show tanks upon his departure, but what else could explain his bizarre suggestion of Rosie O'Donnell as his replacement?  

First, here's one more from yesterday, when I'd taken Dmitry and his "pal" Ravinn to SuperTarget.  She was trying to force him to touch one of the "pretty, shiny purses", which he was resolutely refusing to do. 

It's like herding Brianna and Bethany to the store, I swear it is (which will doubtless be my lot next week, when they come to stay while attending Girl Scout day camp). 

Today while driving Dmitry to the sports store to get a pair of the sandals he likes, I was hit with an uncanny sense of deja vu.  Aha!  There's the cause:  the sound of cell phone keys being punched in rapid succession;  in the passenger seat next to me was, of course,  Dmitry, and just like his brother, Charles, before him, he was busily text-messaging friends as we drove.  We have that Verizon America's Choice Family Plan with unlimited messaging, and Dmitry has become a texting fool.  He texts (and how is THAT for verbing a noun, eh, Jane?) Carolyn in Washington at the ROTC camp, Ravinn, and I think Joe, as well.  He's hoping that Dan will get a cell phone after he graduates from Marine basic training so they can communicate via text message, too. 

Did reaching the store bring a halt to it?

Ha.  Not on your text type, ducky.  At one point as we were driving back home he had the PSP (which he'd brought with him) in his left hand and was doing something with his cell phone with his right hand.  Aye carumba!  We've created a small electronics monster.

Upon arriving home there was an email from Svetlana, caroling the delights of St. Petersburg, which she absolutely adored.  Since she's received her university diploma (YAY, SVETA!) she's free to move wherever she wants, and she's seriously thinking of moving to St. Petersburg.  According to her she took "a thousand" photos, and has discovered that which so many enthusiastic digital photobugs have found....there is such a thing as too many photos, as it's overwhelming to even think of sorting through them.  However, she made a start and sent a few along.  Here's one of her in front of a fountain, and another of an undoubtedly famous building, only the caption's in Russian and Dmitry's left to spend the night with the Waybourns:

It appears that for most Russians, unless they live in that area of the country, St. Petersburg is THE primo historical city, possibly even more so than Moscow.  I know Sveta was wildly excited to actually be there.  Bless her heart, she's worked so hard for years, it's wonderful to see her be able to travel a bit like this and finally have some fun.

Seen at Target yesterday:

School uniforms?  On June 14th?  School hasn't even been out for a month yet! 

Next up:  Christmas ornaments.  Hide and watch, folks.  Hide and watch. 

According to an article this morning in the Dallas Morning News, milk prices are expected to shoot up by close to a dollar by the fall.  

We like milk (well, Don, Charles and I....Dmitry drinks calcium-fortified orange juice, as he dislikes milk), so this is going to pinch, especially as I'd think where milk goes, so goes half-and-half, butter, sour cream and cheese.  It's all dairy, after all.  Don't see how milk prices would rise without the other dairy products doing the same, though thinking about it, it seems as if butter prices have dropped while milk's has increased.

That doesn't make a lot of sense. 

The Dallas Morning News carries a column called Ex-Etiquette, presumably dedicated to the etiquette issues arising from divorce, and which I'd not noticed before.  Today's conumdrum caught my attention, though.  Read it and stare in slack-jawed, pop-eyed astonishment:

Wowzers.  First thing I'd try would be to talk my son out of marrying into that family.  Kirstin's in-laws generously offered to pick up the liquor tab for hers and Matt's reception and being neither wealthy nor foolish, we quickly and gratefully accepted, but if they hadn't then we'd have paid for it ourselves.  I cannot imagine effectively demanding our prospective son-in-law's family underwrite the expense.

Here's the relevant part of the response from the columnist:

Bingo. 

Remember a week ago I posted about Universal Studio's planned Harry
Potter World?  Here are a couple of artist's renderings from the plans:

Above is the current design for Hogwarts, and below is Hogsmeade, the wizarding town:

Two and a half years?  How the dickens am I supposed to wait a whole two and a half years?!?!  

Fireworks, that is.  

Tried to make a video with my digital camera but got confused so missed it.  Maybe next weekend.

Between a snappy new cable modem (the old one was cutting out frequently, which was really annoying), having all the house's cable connectors replaced (by the Charter tech who came out due to our complaints about the cable connection cutting out frequently), and our upgrading to the 5MB connection, we've got some serious speed here.

The only tiny wrinkle is thinking of Lois up there in the wilds of Michigan who has, IIRC, a 10MB connection, which Charter down here didn't even offer to me.  If we had a 10MB connection we'd be smokin'!