But enough about you

I was out of town 4/19 through 4/27 and it took longer to recover than usual because I got sick near the end of the trip - today was the first normal, productive day since before we left. I'm finally really back!

Some trivia:

I'm experimenting with tinted lotion to cover up my ghastly pallor. Results mixed so far - not as streaky and orange as I feared, but not completely unstreaky or unorange. Maybe I should have gotten something more expensive, but I thought I'd start at the low end and work my way up.

I saw a good friend from grad school today. She moved away about three years ago and I've really missed her. I wish she would move back, but things are going well for her on the east coast, so I guess we'll have to stick with occasional visits and emails. More local friends would be good - there's just no substitute for talking face to face.

I started a task today I'd been putting off for months. It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. Now, as a reward to myself, I get to put together some of the LEGOs I got for 25% off at the math store. (The sale's still on, hurry in!) Because I'm that kind of LEGO freak.

Jon and I went to some open houses this weekend. We saw quite a range of houses, from amazing (but already sold) to soulless and cookie-cutter. I love this part of a house hunt - all dreams and fantasies. It's like trying on glamorous costumes and playing dress-up with your whole life.

First of May came and went - OFS has officially begun. ;)

Sit-ups good.

Here's what's happened lately --

• Elliott and I went to Minnesota for Christmas. Elliott had a bad cold the whole time we were there, which put a damper on things, but we had a good time anyway. My parents got me some Lego sets (at my request) and the excellent book Forbidden Lego, so I've been doing a lot of miniature construction work lately. Elliott is getting interested in "grown-up Legos" in addition to Duplos, which is great.

• For New Year's Eve, Jon and I hosted a small gathering at my house. Our friend David introduced us to a Spanish tradition of eating twelve grapes at midnight, one for each chime of the clock. A few of us pulled it off, which supposedly grants us twelve months of good luck and prosperity. I guess it's harder with the large, white variety of grape typically found in Spain at the end of the year -- but we were using little purple grapes that were easy to swallow quickly. David said it still counted.

• I've been re-watching Babylon 5, since Jon got me season one on DVD for Hanukkah. (My first Hanukkah!)

• I'm famous: I was on the Official Google Blog a few days ago.

• Over the past few months, I've been decluttering my house. A lot of stuff has gone to Chris' condo (or will soon) and I'm hiring a junk service to come and cart the rest away. I can hardly wait.

• I've decided that when I'm at home, I'm only going to cook vegetarian (mostly vegan) food. I get plenty of meat at work and at restaurants, and I've been wanting to expand my vegetarian cooking repertoire, so I'm going to try this for a while. Tonight I made spinach fettucine with basil-cilantro pesto and artichoke hearts -- a recipe from the Veganomicon -- and it was delicious. The pesto has almonds in it instead of cheese and I think it came out really yummy.

That's the roundup for the last few weeks. What's up with you, fair readers?