How could I have forgotten to mention I finished Tristram Shandy?! I'm going to read it again in another couple of years, because I want to read it in one stretch, instead of over the about two months it took me this time. It really is an amazing book. My favorite bits were Mr. Shandy's "beds of justice" where he conducts scheduled fights with his wife, and the three main groin injury plot twists. It's the 18th Century's answer to "America's Funniest Home Videos".
On to Erasmus!
I booked about five nights of theater today--there are at least two festivals going on at the moment, and you know nothing cheers me up like bad theater!