I've had this suspiscion for over a day now, but this morning I confirmed that there are bugs infesting the pack of tobacco I've been smoking for the past few days. Itty bitty little beetles. Did that gross me out? Not really. Did I keep smoking after I realized just what I was smoking? Yes. If they asked me to smoke a bug on Survivor, that would be no problem. These haven't changed the flavor at all, really.

I am going to switch to a backup pack of a different brand (Drum) that I happen to have in my briefcase, but not because there are bugs in the other one (Look Out). It's because the bugs fucked up the proper consistency of the tobacco by, I don't know, chewing it into smaller bits or something. I've been wondering what was wrong with this pack for days, and now I know. The tobacco should be in soft, thready, springy shreds�not too moist, not too dry. The buggy pack is all dense and crumbly.

So now you know. I will choose smoking tobacco with bugs in it over not smoking at all. Maybe I should watch "Trainspotting" again.

Had a lovely evening with Deb last night. She sauteed catfish, roasted potatoes, and made cole slaw. We took a walk around the neighborhood. The weather has been gorgeous lately. We each had one of the chocolate-chip cookie vanilla ice cream sandwiches that Deb made Sunday. Man, those are good.

I set up the sprinkler and watered the dogwood in the front yard for about two hours while we watched "Space Cowboys". Fun flick. Deb cried. A lot of movies make her cry.

We watched "Pay It Forward" while we were on vacation. It's the one with Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment. The one where the kid has the big idea to do three big favors for three people and then ask each of them to do the same thing. At one point I was so frustrated with how sappy and how slow-moving this film is that I burst out with, "This has GOT to be the most emotionally manipulative film EVER MADE!" It was just so transparently and clumsily manipulative that I couldn't stand it. The little boy character's idea is great. The movie sucked. I looked up when the movie was in the midst of its agonizing, ham-fisted kidney-punching ending, and Deb was crying.

Not that I'm criticizing Deb for being a softie or anything. I'm just saying it's hard for us to pick movies to watch.