Ahhh ... an update from Little Silver, for old times' sake. For a truly nostalgiac experience, I was going to update from my laptop, which I had on earlier while I updated some of my Webshots desktop photos, but it was so painfully slow. I am now definitely a confirmed internet snob. If it's not DSL, I'd rather watch the Gap "Crazy Stripes" commercial than be online.

OK, maybe that's too drastic. But you get my point.

The parents have one of those crazy keyboards where the right-hand and left-hand keys are split down the middle and at an angle. Apparently, it's supposed to be more comfortable. I hate it. Always have. Have I written about this before? I might have.

Computers are really cheap these days. In a matter of 30 minutes, Dave, Casey and I managed to talk my parents to the brink of a new computer (Dell desktops are like 500 bucks at the moment, and a decent laptop is $900) and DSL. They balked at 40 bucks a month for high-speed internet, but when we reminded them that they could get rid of the second phone line and their ISP costs, it's not that much more. They want a new computer because this Midwest Micro (do they still exist) is slow, and it's never printed well. Oftentimes, when they try to print, the printer will spit out a single page with a capital "K" in the top left corner and nothing more. My mom got around the glitch by telling it to print two copies -- the second would always print correctly. As a result, there are always random letter-sized papers with single Ks on them lying around the computer desk, and any unofficial or unimportant printouts will often have a "K" on one side or the other. It's like the spirit of some half-hearted Klansman is stuck inside the printer, but just doesn't care enough to print the whole thing.

Or not.

Heather called me from Vegas this afternoon just as Notre Dame wrapped up a basketball win against No. 8 Maryland, the defending champs. "How much time is left?" she asked. "I'm so far from the TV I can't tell." "It just ended," I replied. "We won." Then she regretted not placing a bet on the game, which tipped off with Maryland favored by eight and a half.

An hour later, my phone rang again because Heather saw two of our former college newspapermates, who now live in D.C., walk by her in the Mirage. At first I marveled at the randomness of the sighting, but then I remembered that these two -- Katie and Tom -- hate her. Heather ducked away from them, considering they're kind of a snotty couple and haven't liked her much since senior/junior (my senior, Heather's junior) year when she didn't give one of them the spot on the editorial board she wanted. That made it a little more amusing. It's one thing that two people from different coasts run into each other in a Vegas casino on a random weekend, but add to it the fact that neither party would want to see the other, then it gets comical. Sort of. Gee, HAC, imagine if it had been Doug. But I guess that would be really amazing, considering he's on some sea defending America at the moment. I think.

Anyway, Dave and Casey just went on a Blockbuster and Thai run, and the kitchen timer is about to go off and tell me it's time to run up the street to get my pizza. I've missed the Pizza Company, and I'm happy tonight worked out where they wanted something I don't eat and came up with the solution that enables each of us to have something we crave.

And we're all getting Crispy Rice Treats later! Yeah, America's Choice's marketing geniuses came up with "Crispy Rice" as the name of their crispy rice cereal. Of course, that's what it is.

I gotta go.