In the car this morning, I was listening to the journalists Diane Rehm has on her weekly news roundup discuss, among other things, W.'s vacation. (Here's the link to the Real Audio file if you want to listen yourself. I recommend it, it's the best part of one of my favorite NPR programs.) As I was listening, I was promising myself I wouldn't write any more about W. because I know my snarky W. comments get out of hand (pun alert!) sometimes. So I'm not talking about it -- I just want to mention quickly that he is taking the longest vacation any president has had in the past 32 years. Forty-two percent of the time he's spent "in office" has been at his Texas ranch, Kennebunkport or Camp David. FORTY-TWO PERCENT. That's all, just a perfectly innocent comment. Draw your own conclusions. I'm not saying a word. :)

I wound up at a Bela Fleck concert last night, due to some quirk of fate involving a friend of H. and an extra ticket. And it was a great concert even beyond the mere fact that it was at Wolftrap, which is always a good experience... it was just really fun music from extremely talented musicians -- I'm sure a true fan would find that an offensively shallow assessment, but I'm a newbie. Despite the insanely hot and humid weather, we generally had a lovely time. Blankets on the sloping hill and bare feet and nice people and H.'s lemony pasta salad and a sort of heavy, damp, charcoal-colored sky that managed to let through the light of a few dozen stars.