wow.  Just woke up from my post-teaching nap and realized that its already past 4 pm.  And there's nothing to eat here except dried beans, a jar of homemade pomegranate preserves, and an enormous bottle of corn syrup (neither of which are mine, but I want to ask the landlord now if he uses them together).  AND actually, with Gutav barreling down and the holiday weekend coming up, crap, I really need to just go to the store.  Come Tuesday half the town may very well be obliterated... and then...  THERE WILL BE NOONE TO SELL ME FOOD!

And guess what my feathered friends?  We have a surprise for you on the show today.  Our very own Matthew Eric Wise is coming to town this weekend!  Now I have a date for the Chiggerfest.  AND my own personal FEMA representative.  (Note: Matt does not actually work for FEMA but for the CDC on a very prestigious post-doc fellowship thingy.  And he probably doesn't do a whole lot in terms of disaster response (the obvious jab here is to point out that FEMA doesn't either but I feel like as a recent arrival to a Katrina-ravaged state that I should keep such jokes to myself, yes, I'm nesting parentheses again) but I've decided this is a new and fun way to tease him.  Next time you see Matt Wise everyone, be sure say something to him along the lines of "Hey, you work for FEMA right?  You're really good with sandbags?" or "Hey, do you know Michael Chertoff?  Do you think you could get him to sign a photo or something for me?")  Anyway, it will be really nice to see a familiar face around here.  I'm going to show him all the hot spots.  The fried alligator joint.  The Superwalmart.  Where the really big dog lives at the end of the cul-de-sac...