There is the faint smell of burning in the air. For the past hour, I've sat here at my computer, putzing around doing nothing remotely productive, and tried to figure out whether it was just my nose going wacky, or if there really is something burning. Then, I tried to figure out where it was coming from. Wandered the office, checking to see if any of our power strips suddenly decided to go through hot flashes. Finally went downstairs to turn on the outside lights, and opened the door to the charming smell of a fire, somewhere nearby.

I didn't see any smoke, and have heard no sirens. It's been horribly hot today and I can only hope that whatever it is that's on fire, it wasn't important. It's either that or someone started their Fourth of July BBQ early, but that really isn't a BBQ smell. Hmm.

The code part of this two-week class is halfway done. It's gotten to the point now where when we're given an assignment to actually *do* (instead of just reading or being lectured at), the instructors tell the rest of the class one thing, and then give myself and the one other guy who seems to have a clue what he's doing, extra stuff. And despite the extra work (which only ends up being a challenge, and a breath of fun and excitement in an otherwise very long and dull day), we *still* finish it way before the rest of the class. The last hour or so of class, after they gave us an introduction to objects, classes, and properties, Richard and I amused ourselves by writing code back and forth at each other. If Jennifer.silly(goofy) then....well, you get the picture. An infinitely useful way of killing time for both of us. And they pay me for this. Go figure.

Bless all those nice little Bay Area Americans who decided that they ought to just take Monday and Tuesday off since Wednesday was a holiday. The traffic - while still awful - was better than usual driving home from Pleasanton this evening. Okay, so I was crawling along at about 20 miles per hour for an hour or so, but the difference here is that we were *moving*. Hey, I take what I can get.

All reports indicate that the weather is not going to give us any time off in the next week. Before our guests (my parents and the soon-to-be-in-laws) arrive tomorrow, we have to clean the house and get to the grocery store since if one is going to throw a BBQ, it helps to have something to cook. Somewhere in all the hoopla of family and grilled meat and fireworks and of course the requisite viewing of the one of my favorite movies - 1776 (rent it! Never before have you seen the signing of the Declaration of Independence done as a musical. It rocks), I need to read two chapters to get ready for class on Thursday. Considering how this class has gone so far for me, I have a feeling that I could probably get away with merely sneaking peeks at it during lunch break on Thursday, but gosh darn it, I'm petty enough to want to keep that edge I've been holding over the other students.

The burning smell is getting stronger. I think maybe it's time to go find some shoes and wander around to see if any of my neighbors is in for a very unpleasant surprise. Hrmm.