R. has been nominated to join the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. At first, after a quick scan of the materials sent to us in the mail, I thought this was just another one of those Who's Who come-ons that we throw straight into the trash, but then I caught the signature of a gal I know from high school, who works for the university, and realized it was legit. There's opportunity for scholarships and travel abroad, networking and internships. We'll have to go Chapel Hill in the fall for the convocation ceremony. Who knew that there was an organization to recognize high performing college freshmen?

S. and I have begun--for real this nth time--reading The Odyssey.

Spent some time in a bookstore yesterday. I took a list I'd compiled that morning after reading recent posts at Bookgirl's Nightstand, So Many Books, and Book World; fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, I found none of the books I was looking for and came away with only the SAT and chemistry study guides S. was in need of. And my own itty-bitty Moleskine since I gave the one I bought in December to R., who was not up on all the Moleskine lore and therefore not properly awed by being presented with one. My lack of personal greed at the bookstore means I'll keep the copy of American Brutus that showed up in the mail, although I ought to do a better job about keeping up with my "do not send" clicks at the book club websites.

One thing that entertained me at the bookstore (and at home afterwards, reading reader reviews at Amazon: did you know the best way to know what the U.S. constitution says is not to read the Constitution, but to read this book?) was an politically incorrect guidebook to American history that was given prominence on a display table. If I had money to waste it would have been a fun one to have on hand to mock, I think. I only read the sections on those wonderful, wonderful, extraordinarily wonderful settlers at Jamestown and how the Indians did-so-too share the concept of land ownership that the Puritans had, but that was enough for me to conclude that this is the type of history that will definitely lead high schoolers to conclude the First Amendment does indeed Go Too Far.

I am supposed to be writing, not blogging, all weekend. It would help if members of this household wouldn't see fit to knock on my door every three or four minutes. Or meow.