My daughter does not have the flu, as we'd first feared, but has instead a very bad chest cold with fever compounded by her usual run-amok spring allergies.

I drove down to Chapel Hill on Thursday to bring her home, swooping in at McIntrye's Books in Fearrington Village long enough to be enticed by covers--the Rambler with Haven Kimmel on its cover as well as Kristen Den Hartog's lovely Water Wings, which I had never heard of before. I could not afford the hardcover price on Michael Winter's The Big Why , but I added it to my wish list when I got home.

Since the dining room table will be required for Easter dinner, I've been cleaning off all the stacks and piles of things, and for some reason felt compelled to check for a title in the stack in my Library Thing catalog. It wasn't there. Further checking revealed that seven out of the 15 were not cataloged. I don't know whether to put the blame on myself or the system, but I feel a bit dismayed.