Mom reserved a castle (more like a villa) for the Italy trip. http://www.rentalcastles.com/scandeluzza.htm We have the Madonne and Pelligrini suites. They look pretty nice. looks like it will cost me about $500 for the week. Still have to work out when I wan to go to london, but the flight to rome leaves wednesda may 16th, and comes back saturday the 26th, so i have lots of time to do whatever. There is talk about taking a train to paris, then the chunnel over to london. We'll see how that goes.

In local news, the peguins signed a deal for a new arena the other day. There will be lots of development to come for the hill district and pittsburgh. the Post-Gazette has a nice little write-up about what's expected for the hill. I have been meaning for a while to go down to the hill house and ask about volunteering opportunities, and twice they told me to call back another day. This is really a great opportunity to get involved in the community.

Sparta concert with old friends from the pitt helpdesk this friday. should be fun to reiunite. then rachel's friend is getting married on saturday, and saturday is also St. patrick's day, so should be some fun there, and also my other new roommate, alex, is moving in sometimes saturday. a lot going on, and really, a lot still to do before hand.

registered for 2 summer classes. assuming i pass those, that leave 4 classes to take in the fall and then i'm all done. hopefully i don't reach snags like the courses not being offered or something. It will be nice to know that i graduated. I think keren is on time to graduate in the spring of 2008, so that's some added pressure to finish before her.

no new word on the mellon merger or what it means to me. I was admitted into the formal mentorship this past tuesday, so now i have a guy a few ranks above me to ask for advice and seek knowledge and what not. hopefully i'll be able to utilize that.