oh, the places we can go

Tonight, we had an awesome dinner with friends (thanks Ms J and Mr M!). The meal was very picture-worthy, but I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have a picture (although Ms J did offer to break out her camera, take a picture and send it to me). We had lamb, couscous, vegetables, pita bread with hummus and strawberries. The couscous was conveniently sitting near me on the table, so I just kept eating it.

Along with dinner, we got ideas for places to go in the coming months and I'm very excited and already day-dreaming. There's a music festival that apparently resembles something like Burning Man sans the drug culture that comes with that and the Exploratorium. I'm pretty sure that Poke has told me about this place before (because Poke and Mr Poke go to the most fun places). I'm looking forward to checking these places out. We already have meek little summer plans, but believe you me, anything should be better than last summer.

This summer, we're hoping to got to Apple Hill for all kinds of good summer fruits. Before or after that, we're not sure yet which, we're hoping to make a real quick stop in San Francisco to buy children's book in Italian at Cavalli Italian Book Store. Then, if Nana V has recovered enough from surgery, we're hoping to set up camp in Lake Isabella. It's been two years since our first (and last) family camping trip and we're anxious to get back.

I needed all of these good things to fantasize about because I've been a bit floudering lately. As the semester closes, I've been feeling that nothing semester-wise is as good as it should be. And, today, I was reminded just how sucky my academic writing is (I wasn't reminded in a bad way -- 'sucky' is totally my word -- and my writing really, really does need some major work). It's sometimes just hard to understand how I've gotten this far and still writing the way I do.

Okay, so, let's kill the sour note. We have tiramisu left over from last night and I think I'm going to go talk Cardo into sharing it with me right now.

Oh, and how could I forget, I also have Seattle to look forward to. Friends and I will be presenting papers at RSA, and Ms A and I are determined to see a bit of the sights.