I just opened my birthday present from my aunt and uncle. It's a cookbook of Jewish vegetarian foods from around the world. I keep opening to random pages, and finding all this stuff that I've never heard of (a lot of middle eastern foods) that look so good. I think I might be cooking stuff from this book for the next several weeks, at least.

Hil is making me hungry.

Hi Nilly!

all this stuff that I've never heard of (a lot of middle eastern foods)

Yay for new foods! And yay for birthday presents that actually make you happy!

Nora! How are things going with you?

Ooh, that's a great present.

I feel very accomplished, or at least very socialized, this morning. I just got back had a nice snarky breakfast with Kat, followed by an irritating trip to the San Jose Airport. (Alaska Air can bite me.)

I've also put together my to do list for the day, but the first thing on it is nap.

Things are going pretty well... I am taking a graduate class (going for a Masters in Higher Education Administration) and right now, at this very moment I am procrastinating working on my second paper for the class by Nattering! I did well on the first paper, and I don't know if that is helping or hindering the process this time around though. Probably a little of both.

Other than that, Tom and I are enjoying our home. Did I tell you that we hung up the blessing plaque that you gave us? It's always in my line of vision when I'm watching TV so I am often feeling blessed and loved by Nilly while lounging around at home on the couch.

Perkins' to-do list must be a really good one.

Masters in Higher Education Administration

Oh, go you! Good luck with that.

I did well on the first paper

This deserves yet another "Go you!", I think.

What's the current paper about? Whenever I have to write something, I find it helps me if I talk about it to somebody, even if that somebody is myself.

Did I tell you that we hung up the blessing plaque that you gave us?

No, not until now. I'm so glad you did, too. Thanks for letting me know.

Now my present saw your new home, but I still haven't. Heh.

Ugh I am apparently drinking the motivation-free coffee this morning. I'm awake, but can't be bothered to do anything.

Went to a birthday party for one of Mr. Jane's ex-coworkers. Sweet, sweet boy we haven't seen in a while. He was all excited we showed up. Everyone chipped in to buy him a guitar. There were tears. So, pretty nice night with random fun people, having drinks in a courtyard strung with fairy lights. Also, the gay boys loved my shoes, so I felt special.

My current paper is supporting the American Association of University Professor's assertion that academic tenure is crucial to universities fulfilling its obligations to students and society...

I'm more than half way through writing it and I have no idea if it makes any sense. I figure after I bang out the rough draft I can try to make it make sense...

So, the burning up stuff science fair project is not going as planned. But we are being persistent. We are doing this outside and the wind is causing a problem blowing out the candles. The original plan was to do it in the garage, but we now have about 20 gas cans and a generator in there and even if we moved it all the fumes and spills would make the garage not a good spot. So I thought maybe we could use the kitchen for the next test, but then one of the samples burst into flames and caught the one next to it, melting the holders and setting the popsicle sticks on fire. So nope, not going to do it in the house. The boys are moving all the stuff to the front step now since the wind in coming from the other side of the house. We shall see how this goes. At least I got pretty fire pictures.