A couple of honorary mentions are in order this evening. They should have been in order last night, but we'll make this vicarious because I was too tired to write anything last night. Here's why:

• Tuesday, 5:15:32 pm: Power in all outlets in the house suddenly and unexpectedly disappears.
• Tuesday, 5:15:33 pm: Phil freaks out because the take-home exam that's due in 23 hours is suddenly gone. Caput. Lost.
• Tuesday, 5:30:18 pm: Power is still gone, and Phil is now desperately trying to figure out what to do about the stupid test.

And since I recently purchased a glorious (not to mention amazing) iMac, there was no way for me to use laptop power. Which meant that as long as power was denied, so too was my partially completed exam. A partially completed exam that I'd rather go shovel cow manure for an hour than actually have to redo any of what was already done.

This is where shoutout number one comes into play. I'd earlier that day saved part of my exam to Google Docs so I could work on it from my laptop, or from a campus computer. So I at least had some of my work still. Next up, shoutout number two goes to Panera Bread, first for having only one of the best chai lattes the world has ever seen, and second for having free wifi for customers. (This is the part where I give a big thumbs down to places like Starbucks other big corporate coffee places who use the T-Mobile network for wifi and actually force those of us who don't use that shit to pay $10/hour for wireless internet. Boo! You guys get scathing looks from me and also no links to your websites for not being cool to your customers.)

Anyway, back to the point of my take-home testing drama. When power finally DID return (when my red-faced and horned roommate got back, it was apparently fine; I had fled the place before 6 o'clock rolled around and sought shelter at Panera, where I sipped tea and worked on my less-than-optimally-functioning laptop. Turns out I lost a good chunk of what I had been working on, because the file was still open when I lost power. So Tuesday night and then on into Wednesday, I busted my chops and cranked out nine pages of sheer brilliance. That's all I'm saying about that.

Next on the agenda, Step It Up and Dance. Tonight's episode was probably the best one yet, because STOMP is fucking amazing. I think a part of me was hoping that more of the dancers would have actually known about Stomp and really gotten into it. I could be biased, because I've been into Stomp for years. I've seen the DVDs, and have seen them live three times. And I really, really, really hope that two weeks from now that bitch Miguel gets eliminated from the show. Every time I see his hair I cringe in fear that lice are going to leap out of the screen at me. Makes me really miss Christian Siriano from Project Runway, because at least when he talked about himself, he had smarter, more interesting commentary than "I'm so the best" or "I really can't stand Michael, he's a wannabe dancer." I'd love to see Heather and Jessica really go to town on Miguel's fashion sense, and just tear him to shreds.