Thinking

Random thoughts from a few weeks of exhaustion and gradual recovery:

- My niece's first birthday party was last week. We had fun,
although driving 8 hours with a 10 month old for the eventual reward
of going swimming in a freezing cold pool wasn't exactly relaxing. On
the plus side, the munchkin did get to see his cousin and play with
her toys. Plus he got to be held by Grandma, and sleep on Grandpa.
He also got to visit a new mexican restaurant (he LOVES mexican
restaurants). Still, I was so exhausted by the time Monday rolled
around that I was, just about literally, a zombie in the office.

- I have a bad case of Alaska envy. In grad school the "golden child"
project in the lab took place in alaska, the administrative person at
my current job worked for Alaska's wildlife department for 28 years
and she's always talking about how great it was, and in grade school I
always got assigned Alaska to write a 'state report.' The thing is, I
have no desire to actually move to Alaska, but I would like to go
drive the Dalton highway.

- NBA: Elton Brand...what the hell happened? According to him, I
guess the Clippers gave him a 'take-it-or-leave-it' offer, and he was
insulted by Donald Sterling saying he didn't care if Brand stayed or
went. But then I guess Brand's agent was confused about that, saying
that the team was dealing with Brand personally and circumventing the
agent. All I know is that the Clippers better pick up Josh Smith or
they are going to suck next year. Also, Baron Davis is going to
destroy the 76ers.

- Read Illium and Olympos by Dan Simmons recently. Pretty good
books, but now I have to go re-read the Illiad.

- Cooking fun: Made (from new recipes) fudge, coleslaw, firecrackers
(carrot-pickles), sour cucumber pickles, and potato salad. All of
that pales, of course, before tonight's attempted masterpiece:
Tzatsiki sauce (and eventually gyros).

- Internet gets hooked up at the house on Friday....thank god.