Leci n'est pas une pipe

So the World Cup begins today. It doesn't seem like it's been four years since I was getting up ridiculously early to go over to my friend August's house to watch the live broadcast of the matches held in Korea.* And it was four years before that when I followed the tournament from the Bahamas, where I was participating in an archaeological field school. This year, to make things interesting, postgraduates and staff at the Institute for Medieval Studies have started a sweepstakes, where everyone draws teams, selecting randomly from slips of paper in a hat. Gag gifts will be given to those people whose teams allow the most goals. I drew Germany and Serbia, who I will now be rooting for in addition to the USA.

Leeds is currently experiencing a heat wave, with daily tempuratures reaching as high as 75°. Everyone is complaining about the heat. My standard response, if I can refrain from laughing, is to say "I don't care how many times you say it. I will not agree or sympathise with you until it reaches at least 95°."

One of the articles I've been working on has finally been submitted to the editor. It's the paper I co-authored with two other postgraduates and presented at a conference in King's College London back in March. I am still fine tuning the paper for the Iceland conference, but it is in pretty good shape. When I feel confident about it, I'll begin working on a PowerPoint presentation to go with it. I also still have a book review to write, but that's now not due until August.

*August had a dog that would howl whenever he heard bagpipes. I don't know which sound was more grating on the ears.** Fortunatley, living in Baton Rouge, there weren't many occasions where one was exposed to bagpipes. August remedied this by purchasing CD's with bagpipe music with the sole intention of playing them to make his dog howl.

** I am telling a lie. I like bagpipes. I once gave my mother a CD of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards as a birthday present just so I could listen to it. I did leave it with her, though, when I moved over here to England.