So I bought a lotto ticket yesterday, and on the way to work this morning I was thinking about what I'd do with the money ($5.5 million) if I won.

I think I'd start with funding a restaurant for %%diary-fulminous%% and a community theater somewhere for %%diary-floodtide%%.

I'd put away a million dollars for, y'know, food and impulse vehicle shopping and retirement and stuff.

I'd pay back my college loans and maybe a few of my friends'. I'd get my aunt and uncle a 40-foot boat fitted for the deep sea. I'd hire a full time nurse for my cousin Chris and fund a studio for Sean.

The way I figure it, this leaves about two million. I'd get a couple plane tickets and disappear for a couple years, first of all. Xinjian, Zanzibar, Antarctica, Iceland, Capetown, Ushuaia, Fiji... all the vast, obscure places I will never visit any other way. Spend a few months in each. Try to pick up Uighur, (Swahili?), Icelandic, Afrikaans, and whatever the hell it is that's spoken on Tierra del Fuego. Just wander the planet for awhile, trying not to leave too many tracks. [ed: I will get back to you when I think of something a little less obvious. Meantime, what would you do if you won five million bucks?]