Big explosions heard this morning ... I think I heard a mortar go off not to far from where I'm living ... I was told that they were aimed at the Green Zone. Also heard there were some deaths (both Iraqi and American) by a car bomb near a base in Rustimiyah (eastern Baghdad) ... but I never know the accuracy of the reporting I get. Some of it is just word of mouth. Taxi drivers listening to the radio and reporting to me in broken English.

I had to go to the University today to drop off the last of the graded tests, only to find that the grades I had given in last week were all wrong! I used the MS Excel program and made a silly error in adding up the test scores. Frak! I was pretty embarrassed. I'm glad the students didn't lynch Dr. Maan, the head of the department, because of my stupid mistake!