5-19-11 3:42 P.M.

Stuart, a giant of a man, an el-cheapo, not albino but close to it, forever a bachelor, took his bowl of cereal and turned it up, forcing it down his gullet with maybe eight or nine desperate-sounding gulps. Raymond looked away, seeing in his mind’s eye a hog devouring its soupy slop. Rent-free, he told himself. Rent-free.

5/19/2011 9:04 A.M.

Dreary, grey, and drizzly out, just the way I like it. Last night, Hannah and I watched episode 28 of All Creatures Great and Small, the excellent TV series (excellent books, too, btw) filmed in jolly ol' England. I highly recommend the series.

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Raymond is not a member of the Nod family but rather plays the straight man to the wackiness around him, certainly not an original idea. Raymond sort of plays the Marilynn from The Munsters role.

Raymond is a former high school English teacher who takes a job at the local newspaper writing profiles of interesting local-yokels. He's a good sort of bloke, lost in a lot of ways, needing and searching for redemption. I'm still thinking about a last name for the gent.