The highlight of the year is getting a new roof and the main messages on your friends' egroup have to do with recovering from back surgery and colonoscopies -- neither of which have to do with me personally this time, thank goodness.

Finished watching "Firefly" tonight, and then re-watched "Serenity." I now understand why there was such an uproar when the TV series ended. Joss Whedon is a genius.

My first trip to Memphis and Graceland was out of the question. Not only because my boyfriend seemed set against a trip to the haven of all things garish, but because for our one day we got to spend in Memphis after an eight-hour drive there, it poured. Apologies to Matt Socey: We didn't go to Beale Street at all, so BBQ sause was out of the question. The trip home was worse. Woe to travelers on I-65, for you are destined to see an eight-hour trip morph into a 12-hour one.

So we get back to Indianapolis and it is ... pouring. As of last night (to the best of our knowledge, but who knows) it is also pouring in my house. Seems one of our storms left a nice hole somewhere in the roof, and water has been leaking into the attic room for a while now. Robert went to work on his models and came back downstairs with sopping socks to break the news to me. Of course the attic is one of only two rooms in the house with carpet.

So begins a new oddysey; that of finding a roofer. And, again, my pretty purple siding has been put on the back burner of the wish list.