The last few weeks have gone by quickly! We are now approaching in the last week of school (i.e., finals week). Both Marc & I have been feeling a little off physically. I woke up with a sore throat and blocked sinus this morning. Marc has been feeling tired and worn.

Marc will be heading up to DC next Wed through Friday for meetings with folks at the World Bank. I have 2 papers to write, a manuscript to revise, and my proposal to work on before we head out of town on Dec 14th. We are also working on finalizing our travel plans in terms of where we will be staying, trains & car rental, etc. Hopefully we will get that all nailed down soon and I will post a document with our contact info while we are out of town on this blog.

On Wed we went to the UNC-OSU mens basketball game at the Dean Dome. It was a really good game. UNC struggled in the first quarter having a really hard time breaking into the inside, and had a sloppy defense, but fortunately managed to do a better job in the 2nd half. The stadium was packed and the fans were going crazy. Still, given that it's an early season college basketball game, Marc & I were surprised that the NY Times reported on it -- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/sports/ncaabasketball/30carolina.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin
It was a late game, so we didn't make it home until midnight and didn't get to bed until 1am -- maybe that's why both of us have been feeling tired -- we are old foggies and can no longer stay up past 11pm!

Yesterday, we spent more money on technology. Marc's Microsoft Office was giving him lots of problems so we went out and finally got a licensed version of it from Best Buy. Then at night, after some shopping around on the internet, Marc & I decided to get me a Dell desktop since my laptop may not last much longer (some motherboard issues). We are spending lots of computers & such this year. This frustrates me because often the hardware does not last as long as they should, and the software programs have many problems. Yet we are perpetuating the existence of companies like Microsoft despite their crappy products. I also really hate having to spend another whole day getting the new computer all set up with all the programs I need and my preferences set. I am not looking forward to it.

Tomorrow we are having a few friends over for dinner -- a sushi party, which is always messy but fun. Otherwise, I think the both of us will be pretty swamped with work this weekend.

~ Shuwen