Leave this house.

Whatever productivity this afternoon might have had was shot when I had to wipe a virus off my hard drive. The desktop doesn't have any shortcuts, I can't find Freecell, and a bunch of programs are currently invisible, and I'm typing this entry in Semagic with the taskbar going just fine and my music playing, so I'm counting it as a victory. It's also something of a learning experience - not to repeat that exact Google search, for one - in that I need to figure out what's going wrong before I can set it right. Which is important to know.

It all looks good from here, and I'm breathing gently with the tentative hope I can catch Doctor Who tomorrow without fuss.

What came after was wonderful, and helped me unclench and recover. Out-of-town guests came for dinner, and the conversation was stupendous. There was a gorgeous sunset on the roof which we shared with another building resident, who came from the same area of Colorado as the guests, had seen them walking down Broadway two hours earlier, and knew my dad from working in close circles at the same university. She's only one floor above my parents - there might well be future run-ins with her, if all goes well.

It's not quite a small world so much as it is that people with similar interests, tastes, inclinations and backgrounds tend to run in the same circles. Still, when the circles are this small, there's nothing to do but laugh and laugh.