Waiting, waiting. Kristen and Marcus are off tomorrow to visit my namesake on Maui for a couple of weeks. What time I will mostly spend house-sitting for Kristen. Annie will be looking after Marcus's cats. Meantime, I'm going to be getting my flu shots, seeing about getting my teeth checked, preparaing for the final and last hegirah--I calculate that I've got about a month (before the borders clang shut and Bush's domestic reign of terror goes into high gear--He, and the paramilitary agencies into which he has poured trillions, can't step back from it). Even now, reason tells me, it may be too late. So I try to visualize myself celebrating Beethoven's birthday in Paris, looking ahead to spring in the Bois de Boulogne, jours de grandes eaux at Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte, attending lectures at the Sorbonne, preparing for a Master's in Old French and Medieval Latin. Vedremo.