This is a cold, cold place. It snows all the friggin' time and it's just plain cold. Exhibit A: At NO time before the weekend is the temperature supposed to reach above freezing. What's that about? I DEMAND ANSWERS. Exhibit B is the big clump of snow that has been in a little sunless nook in my apartment complex since December. It's gotten smaller, yes. But it has not melted. I am scared of it. I think it eats people. I want it to be July again so I can bitch about how hot it is and get back all the people at work who ask if it's cold enough for me by getting all up in their face and screaming: "HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU??? WELL, IS IT, PUNK???" and laughing maniacally. That oughtta show 'em.

Tonight is the culmination of the Great Purge, a term I borrow from my friend Sean that refers to going though all your CDs and making plans to trade in the ones that suck. See you, Garth Brooks! Good riddance, Bryan White! Rick Astley -- oh man, you stay where you are, honey. We're going to some place in town Sean knows of that will take our evidence of earlier lapses in taste and give us money. He won't guarantee that they won't ridicule us for what we're trading in, though. But I guess such sacrifices of pride must be made for the Great Purge. I'll feel better when it's over.

Speaking of CDs, Geoffrey and I finally got to where we couldn't take our CD cases (and, in some cases, the CDs themselves) being in some box shoved in a closet, so we bought some purty CD shelves (yay Ikea!) and now proudly display our music in our apartment, which really needed some more furniture to clutter it up anyway, don't you think? Great Purge items not included, I found that I have approximately 260 CDs. Not enough. Need ... more!!

Tomorrow we're leaving for our first visit back to Anderson since we left in May. We've been looking forward to this for weeks. Most of our friends who were there when we left are still there, so we'll get to hang wit' da crew and paint that Electric City red, doncha know. Not surprising to anyone reading this, I'm sure, we are looking forward to our food opportunities almost as much as the people time. There will be Sonic, oh yes. And there will be Stuart's, the sub-Waffle House Waffle House. And there will be real Waffle House on the road trip there and back, I'm sure. And there will be Corbett's, mostly for drinking but also for good eating. And Mama Penn's! Restaurant of choice for the amazing break-out band "Stacy and the Sugar Daddies" (oh really? You like them, too?). Not particularly good soul food with endless sweet tea and high-school lady waitresses that flirt with Marcus. Site of many band meetings and some butter flinging.

LISTENING TO: I finally broke the CD dry spell! My new selections are: CAITLIN CARY/While You Weren't Looking (she was in Whiskeytown with Ryan Adams; I love him, too, but wow, she was underrated); GREG BROWN TRIBUTE/Going Driftless, in which various artists (including Ani Difranco and Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch) cover Greg Brown's songs; HANK WILLIAMS/A Collection (just some reissues, but I had to have something); and I replaced the stolen-with-car and oft-missed LYLE LOVETT/I Love Everybody (my Lyle collection is once again complete, bwah ha ha ha) and GRAM PARSONS TRIBUTE/Return of the Grevious Angel. I bought these instead of a car kit for XM, so hopefully they'll suffice to keep me company on the long drive to and from South Carolina.