july 27, 2002.

We woke when the CBC started playing the World Youth Day theme. As the Boy hit the snooze button, I thrashed around and mumbled something to the dream-people who had just left me behind.

"I have a surprise for you," he said quietly, recognizing my need for soft-pitched voices at this appalling hour.

"I hope it has nothing to do with your groin," I muttered, still half-asleep.

It was this. It was a monitor, borrowed from a colleague living a few doors down. It was the answer to my mean reds. And luckily it had almost nothing to do with his groin.

I have spent the morning wallowing in the cool cyber world so long denied to us. I've been looking up pages I have no need to see, simply because I can. I even made a graphic for a planned essay that will be written after we return from Chicago in August. See? Useless stuff. I love it.

3 years ago today: "I've never seen such a hairy ten-year-old girl."