Two Very Wonderful Things About Today:

1. I think I found a Christmas airfare (Orlando to Amsterdam) for only $572, using Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, both of which are high-class airlines with seatback TVs and such. (The best I'd found so far by using them was $750.) Just waiting on (a) the e-mail confirmation from Virgin Atlantic that that flight really is run by them and not Continental, and (b) the verdict from Ata about what time our astronomy exam is given on the Friday on which I want to leave. Keep your fingers crossed.

2. John Kerry just totally stomped all over Bush on the debate. Bush kept dodging questions, pausing, stumbling, and repeating the same few tag lines over and over like a broken record, and Kerry put him on the defensive instead of the other way around. I don't care what the Republican analysts say - Kerry made it clear that 9/11 and the Iraq war are not connected, something the general public (*cough*Bushsupporters*cough*) doesn't seem to understand. And, even better, he responded to Bush's taunts about 'wavering' by saying that it was possible to use new developments to refine and shape your position, and that it was also possible to be certain and steadfast about something and to be very, very wrong.

You go, Kerry!