[So I'm proposing a swift, orderly change]
Originally, I was going to title all my Birmingham blog entries "Summer of Slum," and assign parts and chapters to each day, week, etc. But I don't live in the slum, so I can't do that. Isn't that a shame? What a waste of a perfectly clever title.

Day three is half over. I just now ventured out of my cave to scavenge for nuts and berries and trinkets. I snagged this coveted public computer, only to find that the majority of e-mail I have received today is -- surprise! -- spam. Now that spam blockers are all the rage, the spammers have had to conjure up new subject lines to avoid being purged. In two days, I've gotten messages with subject lines of "rhododendron" and "amplifier episodic." You can't make this stuff up. Well, I guess somebody did.

My mom had a job interview yesterday with the Lifeline Bloodmobile people. They spoke to her for two hours, and by all accounts, that's a good thing. She's a little disappointed about the pay -- $14-plus dollars an hour, but I figure that's an excellent amount, and it's better than her $0 paycheck right now.

I bought her a book as a pre-congratulatory gift, but I am selfishly reading it before I mail it. It's called Stiff, by Mary Roach. It's a journalist's-eye-view of what happens to human cadavers. It's fascinating and disgusting. She writes a lot about the Body Farm in Knoxville, and the different decaying bodies they've got strewn around the field. I'm already halfway through the book. Perhaps I can mail it and Amber's CD tomorrow if I ever find the post office.