..il papa..
i can't decide whether i should care more or less about the new pope. i'm somewhat fascinated by the process (thanks to dan brown), but i've never been very religious so it seems somewhat distant to me. it's the first new pope in my lifetime (literally-- john paul II was elected two months before i was born), so it's a pretty big deal. it's an immense undertaking that we don't really recognize until we have to replace someone who has been fairly prevalent and progressive. i'm a little disappointed in the choice of ratzinger-- one, because he was the "easy" choice as JPII's right-hand man for two years, and two, because he's considered a stalwart conservative in a time when the catholic church really needs to adapt to the changing world of today. JPII had started to do that on some fronts, because some of the practices of the church are archaic and not applicable in today's society (condemning the use of condoms? come on). so, we'll see.

i do wonder how they choose their papal names, though...

..ucla scholarship state finals..
woo hoo! they went really well... i had a great time, as usual, even though it's such an exhausting day. two of our kids did well (including the kid i babysat when he was little), and i think three of the four we sent down to state finals from our area will SIR to UCLA. the fourth is still deciding (between mit and ucla, it seems), so we'll see what happens there. i really think ucla is a much better fit for her-- she's a bubbly, outgoing, ambitious, involved person who would get bogged down by the extreme academia of mit. i think she'll succeed no matter where she goes, but gut feel counts for a lot. i got to hang out with bay area bruins friends and even reconnect with some old friends, as well as make some new friends! always a good thing. i didn't have much time on campus, though, which was sort of too bad. i did get over to ackerman for some power shopping (i had to buy a new shirt, it's tradition!), but we didn't have much free time.

..free time..
speaking of which, i haven't had much lately. i'm looking forward to being able to actually sleep in this weekend, and maybe get some yardwork done. yay!