By the way, I do have a new cube-mate now. She's temporary, too, but she's a contractor rather than just "a temp," so Google likes her better. You can tell because she not only had a computer ready for her on the first day, but also a complete assortment of office supplies. It took me a week to get a computer and I had to snag my own stuff from the supply room. Oh well. It was sort of funny yesterday, because all this new stuff was showing up at my desk. I got in early that morning (after over a month with Google) and all of a sudden found that I had notepads and pens and highlighters and a tape dispenser and a stapler and kleenex and a wastepaper bin and everything. I was just starting to go "Aw, they do love me after all" when I realized it was all supposed to be for the new person. :-) Anyway, she seems nice enough and it's not terribly annoying to have her working behind me. It's a fairly good-sized cube after all, so it could be a lot worse.

In literary news, I started reading Ulysses the other day. That's going to be one of the trickier books I've ever attempted and I'm not even going to pretend to understand it all, but I still find it strangely fascinating. Part of it is just the way Joyce plays around with language, which I really enjoy. I wouldn't want to write like him, but there are certain aspects of his writing that it would be fun to emulate. Plus, this will be sort of a stepping-stone on the way to the real brainsquasher, which will be Finnegan's Wake. That one looks delightfully insane. We'll see if I make it through both books. In an entirely different corner of the book world, I pre-ordered my copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last week. I'm very excited, but it's going to be a long wait until June.