It's a fine day.

• There's hope for the younger generation. Now to buy the whole class copies of Little Brother. I am seriously impressed.

• NotN: Nerdy little swot tries to smarm into Speaker role.

Teflon plumber's tape is the watery equivalent of gaffa. arkady successfully replaced the laundry hot tap with one that works as a tap and doesn't leak. The hose on the toilet almost doesn't leak and tomorrow I need to go get breeze blocks to perch the bowl on, which should be 100% more stable than a stack of rotting plywood. Then we can try some serious drying and, with the landlord, try to work out how to fix the extension properly. Plumbing fills me with a sense of manly suburban achievement.

redcountess went out to meet secretlondon and borrow her Advent 4211 (MSI Wind clone). Freda has of course adopted it as ( the perfect Pickle-sized laptop. )

Liz also ordered new glasses — varifocals with the extra-clear coating and the photosensitivity. Which is REALLY GOOD these days — Arkady's glasses are clear inside and turn into sunglasses outside in about a minute. Just the thing for Liz to visit Australia wearing. Not cheap, but when you buy glasses you're buying a prosthetic body part, so skimping is ill-advised.

I am LOVING having music again and playing flippac's techno collection. The Zen Touch is a bit large and heavy to really be convenient — it's like they thought, "Let's copy the iPod, but make it suck a bit!" Ever noticed how everyone tries to compete with Apple on features, and none on claiming to actually have a better user interface? There's a reason Apple 0wns the MP3 player market. Still, the Zen is 100% better than no MP3 player and came at the right price. I shall love and cherish it.