Don't miss the last paragraph.

First, a quick shout-out to Lee-- I love strawberry rhubarb, too! I think it's probably my favorite as well. It's delicious :)

Shout-out to Mark and Stef -- congrats on the new home! I really can't wait to see it! I bet you're very happy to have a place of your own now. And congrats to Mark on graduating!

Shout-out to Q -- generally doing extremely well with her new business ventures of doggy-walking and being willing to work all those inconvenient times. I hardly see ya anymore, but you're making it work well!

OK, that's enough shout-outs for the time being. This is getting ridiculous.

So the original plan was to bomb up to Union, Maine this weekend (Sat afternoon, to be precise), and come back down to Boston on Sunday. We decided against that. Instead, we went hiking on Mt. Wachusett yesterday afternoon (which is such a lovely, if a bit too rocky of a hike) -- it's about an hour and 20 minutes away, which is just at that not-too-far away point. Since we were in town, and remembered that Lyrica was in town, too, we called her up and asked what she was up to last night. As it happens, NOTHING! So we got to see her! It was great. As soon as she got here, we drove over to Christopher's (our favorite neighborhood bar and grill -- they even have buffalo tofu!) and hung out over food. There's something about sharing food that is so wonderful. Anyway, she had to leave really early this morning, but daN and i are both so glad we got to see her.

Today? Who knows? I think we're going to take it easy. Sitting on the grass reading, doing some yoga, etc. Making bread.

In other exciting news, daN and i were preapproved for a mortgage last weekend, and tomorrow we have an appointment with a buyer's real estate agent we both really like... Very exciting...

Oopsie...

Some of you are probably wondering if i am, in fact, still alive. Well, i am. And i've been very busy lately!

2 weeks ago (or was it three?) i went to Denver, CO for the Mod 67 Reunion! And it was a blast! A few short things about Denver and Colorado in general, from my short stint there:

• The Rockies are AWESOME. The landscape there is just amazing, swinging from deciduous trees to coniferous trees to snow-covered mountains to desertous mountains in a wink.
• Denver itself has a high percentage of small businesses that look like they're actually doing well. I was surprised at how few chains i saw.
• The weather is perfect. No joke.

Seeing the roomies again was, in a word, homey, in every great way possible. It was harmonious, and because we've lived together before, in addition to the fact that we've all become more adult and are not crazily trying to finish our rigorous Hampshire educations anymore, it was just plain chill. My heart was so happy. I had a great time.

daN and i went up to Maine at some point for a day or two, and that was fun and short. At this point, i can't even remember the point of the trip, but we had a good time.

Last week, i went to Washington, DC for two days to assist at a conference that i have been helping to plan at work. It was very successful, and the experience was very much like being backstage for 48 hours straight. The weirdest thing was not seeing the sun for that long. When i returned, my circadian rhythm (controlled by exposure to sunlight; that which tells you where you are on the planet) was fucked.

I have spent the last week recovering from all of the above. In between, i have managed to see some friends, and lots of good movies. I finally saw the most recent version of "The Producers," Mel Brooks at his finest. It is brilliantly ridiculous -- a Thanksgiving-sized plate of satire served in a DVD case. I also saw "Spiderman 3" and "Pirates of the Carribean 3" ... but really, the highlights for me have been aforementioned Brooks film and "Everything is Illuminated," complete with Ukrainian rap.

Overall, I am happy to see the sun again. It's not as warm as the pie i made last weekend. Then again, not much can live up to a good strawberry rhubarb pie.