-- Ack! So much to catch up on! That's the problem with being busy with awesome stuff, I guess. On Thursday (the 2nd), Ann and I went to the State Fair. She had the day off work and a plan for what she wanted to see, but no fair buddy. I was more than willing to pitch in and eat some ! The photo above is of the agriculture building, which is one of my favorite places, because I like to scoff at the prize-winning vegetables. Puh-lease. You call that a tomato?

-- On Sunday, I got some baking done. I made the above zucchini bread with this recipe (more or less -- I wrote about my changes here). I used a bundt pan, since I could only locate one loaf pan, and I really like the result. No dry end pieces, either! I also made a plain (WW/white) loaf of bread, which didn't rise in the oven, for some reason. It's still really good for sandwiches, though.

-- Yesterday, I made soup and signed up for Netflix, which has the potential to be my downfall. Every episode of The X-Files -- streaming? Chris and I watched the 'Bad Blood' episode last night; he'd never seen it, and everybody knows that's one of the best episodes of any television series ever. Speaking of Netflix, I think I'm done with this update now...

We went camping at St. Croix State Park this weekend. There are more photos in this flickr set.

What a weekend! I'm not sure the cats even recognize me anymore, because I was out and about so much. (That's a lie. They're both currently lying on me and purring.)

-- The photo above is of Alex's breakfast sandwich from the Wilde Roast cafe in Minneapolis. I very much enjoy that place, although it took forever for our food to arrive this time. They gave us a two-for-one voucher, though, before we even had a chance to ask about the delay. A fine example of turning what could have been a negative customer service experience into a very positive one!

-- Earlier this morning, Chris and I went for a run by the river (in NE and downtown Minneapolis, over the Stone Arch Bridge). It was the first time in a long time (and, like, the second time ever) that I'd run with somebody else, and it was fun. I like to think how obnoxiously athletic we must have looked, running along in our (accidentally) matching Adidas shorts. And talking during a run is nice, but I like being able to wear headphones, so I don't have to hear how loudly I'm breathing!

-- Saturday night (I'm going all out of order, here) involved fondue of the cheese and chocolate varieties. Guests were supposed to bring a dipping item, and I wanted to make something that I could do in a sweet and savory version. So I made half a batch of the 'crescent roll' dough from the old Betty Crocker cookbook and turned half of it into mini cinnamon rolls (I nearly squealed when I saw how cute they were after baking) and the other half into savory scrolls. That version had oregano and thyme from the garden, minced garlic, and chopped black olives. I thought they both turned out very well!

-- After brunch today, Alex and I went to watch the May Day parade that Heart of the Beast Theater puts on every year. There are lots of papier mache masks and giant puppets and jollity and randomness. Powderhorn Park hosts the post-parade festivities, and I had my heart set on finding softserve, but it wasn't meant to be. It was just as well, really, as it had gotten pretty chilly and very windy by that point. But sometimes a person just wants softserve. (Sometimes?)

Well, friends, I had the most unassumingly awesome day ever today. No big to-dos, no great expectations; everything was just better than usual.

I went to the gym this morning, planning to do 2.5 miles, but when I reached 2.5, another .6 didn't seem like a big deal, so I managed a full 5k without even planning to. It was really tough to start running again after my ankle healed and to feel as though I'd lost all the progress I'd made in November and December. So it's nice to feel like I'm almost back to where I was, only two and a half weeks later.

Then I had a blueberry Luna bar, which I hadn't tried before, and it was surprisingly good. Extremely sweet, but tasty. I haven't been buying these lately, but the fruity flavors are actually decent (versus the chocolate-y ones, which I think are fairly awful). I'm still waiting for my local shops to start carrying the Luna Protein bars, though. That cookie dough one is awesome.

After finishing the print files for one book and making good progress proofing another, I met Alex at the Perkins in Seward for dinner. Breakfast for dinner. Perkins is generally alright as far as breakfast food goes, but this was an exceptional meal -- everything seemed freshly and carefully made. So even though the photo I took is terrible (point-and-shoot in bad light), I'll still use it for this post. I had an Egg Beaters omelet with spinach and asparagus, one pancake, and the crunchy top bit of the hashbrowns.

Since Alex will soon be freelance, and I'm trying to gear myself up for more projects, I wanted to bounce some ideas off her. I think we spent 10% of the time talking about that stuff, 35% of the time talking about our imaginary office (you guys, it would/will be out of control), and 55% of the time talking about syrup dispensers (of the unicorn-shaped variety). I don't think anybody could possibly think that we're as funny as we seem to find ourselves, but everybody needs a friend to crack up in Perkins with. So that was an unexpectedly delightful evening.

And I stopped at the co-op and bought a new box of Yorkshire Gold (tea), so tomorrow is looking to be a great day, too. Simple pleasures.

I spent a lot of time at home this week (or, rather, left the house even less than usual), so when it came time to get ready for a Friday-evening dinner gathering, I almost wished I could back out -- inertia. Luckily, I didn't (I'm not crazy, after all), and I had a really nice time with smart and funny people. And I got to make the rhubarb crisp pictured above. I had the rhubarb in the freezer (I can't remember if it was from the garden or the farmer's market), so I just used the really simple recipe from the old Betty Crocker cookbook (I wrote it down here). A winner.

And then, today, I had lunch with my friend Alex and new friend (I hope!) Ann, who came from the internet. Or somewhere around the Mall of America, but that's not really as funny. We met at the Seward Cafe, because that's one of my favorite places to eat, and I'm also a little bit bossy. (I am a little bit bossy, but actually I just have a shortlist of places I like to eat and will always suggest, in order to avoid the whole 'I don't know, what do YOU think' rigmarole.)

I had a buckwheat pancake with some 'deluxe' on top (plain yogurt and sliced fruit), and it was so good that I will show you this picture of it, even though it's a terrible photo. Alex commented that the pancake looked like something I would make at home, except I would have cut the slices of fruit more thinly and arranged then more carefully (I also would have alternated the fruits instead of grouping them). I am predictable.

You can see Alex's miso soup in the background, along with the tahini toast I said she should get (as a helpful suggestion, not in a... bossy way). Ann got Mexicali eggs, and everybody enjoyed their food and we sat and chatted and had a good time. Meeting new (awesome) people might be my current favorite past-time. It was particularly handy that Ann's been reading twelve22 for a while, so she sort of knew ahead of time what to expect (maybe? I might make her fill out a survey to find out how my projected blog persona compares to my actual self. I mean, I might ask her.) -- but meeting people in real life gives one the opportunity to tell the same (interesting! funny!) stories that one's friends have already heard repeatedly.

Anyway, it was good for my brain to have some social time the past two days (although I did have a really nice week, despite its relative solitude). I thought I'd be able to post pictures of my bedroom by this weekend, but I still haven't bound the quilt, because I get bored just thinking of hand stitching the binding. But perhaps I will bring that to my parents' tomorrow and finish it while we watch the Viking's game.

We were talking about my house at lunch today, and I said that I've been having 'nightmares' this past week about people coming over to visit. The house is so far from its norm, due to this whole overhaul process, and I haven't bothered to take my mop bucket downstairs (it's in the bathroom), because I keep meaning to try out the new floor polish I got (fancy!). See, I can't clean, because I have to clean first. Here's another item for my list of 'Things That Wouldn't Have Occurred If I Weren't a Home-Owner': dreaming that I'm wearing ice skates in the house and thinking, 'Oh, this can't be good for the hard wood floors!'