I finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. That's really the only interesting thing I did all Shabbos.

I just finished reading the sci-fi anthology that Seth got me for my birthday. It was a bit uncomfortable to read for a while there, because it got infused with kerosene fumes from my fire-spinning equipment on the bus ride home from Justin's wedding. But in the end, it was well worth the occasional choking fit, and by now it hardly smells at all.

The new washing machine that I ordered and which I was told would be delivered on last Wednesday finally arrived today. The shipping men had enough trouble merely figuring out how to get within the vicinity of my house, as they apparently hadn't any particular knowledge of the layout of Tzfat (and equipping delivery men with maps apparently hasn't yet occurred to the powers that be). By the time I reconnoitered with them several blocks away from my house, it had already become apparent to them that there was no feasible road access to any point directly next to my house and that the machine would have to be hauled by hand for quite a few blocks and up a few rather tall flights of stairs.

I know I'm a grammar nazi. This just seems to be my most recent pet peeve, so I might as well get it off my chest. The good news is that most English speakers seem to have broken their horrible habit of saying things like, "Jill and me were eaten by the alligator," instead of correctly saying, "Jill and I were eaten by the alligator." The bad news is that the price for this progress seems to be the fact that people who really should know better say maddening things like, "The alligator ate Jill and I," instead of correctly saying, "The alligator ate Jill and me."

I made shepherd's pie, which turned out well, except for needing salt. I'm almost done with the book of sci-fi short stories that Seth got me for my birthday. It turns out that there are two stories in the book that I had read before (I had originally thought that they were all going to be new to me), but they were worth reading again.