And so it has begun.

I'm dissertatin', y'all, and it's already been an incredibly fruitful week. Despite the fact that my old laptop is now officially a paperweight, all of my old research files translated over so very beautifully to the 21st century that it is to be marvelled at. I shall prepare a fatted calf for sacrifice.

Or not.

It is remarkable what one can get done when there are only cats to disturb your reverie - and since cats form at least a tiny portion of my dissertation, it seems only fitting that they sit on me as I write.

Today I converted all of the .CRD files over to the new Cardfile program -which for whatever reason I have always found to be better for my thought processes than Access or Word or what have you. So hundreds of files later (with cryptic designations such as 'provisions,' 'apparitions,' 'scurvy' and what not)I am poised to begin writing in earnest again.

So here I am - crazed, yet knowing a hawk from a handsaw, so long as said handsaw is being used to fabricate a new mizzen - ready to finish a chapter in both my dissertation and my life.

If only I could remember more Catalan....