Saddam and Storm Warnings

Doing laundry is actually less fun when it's raining with lightning outside. Poo.

I'm taking a break from cleaning my place to watch CNN's coverage of Saddam's pending execution. I'm torn between following the story (it is news in the making) and switching over to Cartoon Network because I'm so squicked by the whole affair (I fully accept that he's a murdering dictator, but the thought of hanging turns my stomach).

EDIT: CNN is running a "tour" of the chamber where Saddam will be hung, complete with a play-by-play of what will probably happen -- complete with model skeleton to show how his spinal cord will be severed.

"The next thing is the compression of the major vessels that supply blood to the brain [. . .] At three minutes, the brain will be dead from lack of oxygen [. . .] When the brain runs out of oxygen, the person will be declared dead, although the heart may continue to beat."

WHY?

Update

Turns out, Borders.com is having a huge sale. With my $25 gift card, I got

The Beauty Myth

The Working Woman's Legal Survival Guide

Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of Our Children's Teachers

Grand total, I have $23 left in gift cards to spend. Yay!

Also, my grandfather got the complete Mission Impossible (TV show) boxed set for Christmas. It's pretty great.

Weekend fun

Today was fun -- went to breakfast and out shopping with the family; I even got to distract my brother while mom and dad got his gift!

The weekend challenge on the Puzzle Pirates forum is to caption a few "cartoons" drawn by other PP members. I've submitted two, but this one's my favorite (ignore the typo; we're not allowed to edit it once submitted):

Oops.

Did I say "I'll update soon?" Because by "soon" I must have meant the obscure Middle English meaning "much, much later."

Anywhich, almost as soon as I got back from the house things got busy, so now it's time for a nice long update. Yay for me. It will be in list form, viz.:

Things I've Done in the Past Week:

1. Latin tutoring - I met with the girl on Sunday, and am pleased to announce that she's doing pretty well for having been a whole year behind on the language not too long ago. All my doing, of course :-P
2. Taught kinder kids about the Solar System. Last week and next week's theme is Astronomy; I'm still debating whether or not to include Pluto, given that the poster we're using lists it.
3. Bought a book of crosswords. To make it even more interesting (I stink at crosswords), it's a book of Latin crosswords. I'm five in at the moment and haven't managed to complete a full one without looking at the answer key at least once. Fun, though.
4. Watched Doctor Who. The Satan Pit was on last night, and it was teh greatness. Because only The Doctor can be five feet away from Satan and not notice right away.
5. Watched Van Helsing. I'm actually currently watching it right now. Dad was right. It blows. Even the dramatic rescue swing from the rafters is done in horiffic CG.
6. Started my most final of final papers I have to write this semester. That's right, after this one (due Tues.), I have no more papers to write until next semester. This one is, of course, a three-page proposal on how I would design a project to study the effects of the Peloponnesian War on Athenian art.
7. Decided on my Halloween costume for next year.