Back to reality...

Spring Break is drawing to a close, but not before the first cookout of the year, which will take place in our courtyard later today. Charcoal smoke and meat vapors will fill the air, and the hoppy flavors of west coast beers will tickle our tongues, thus signifying the true arrival of Spring. Baseball season is nigh, my thesis is done, and all is right with the world.
The big news in the Arranging Your Lamp household is that we will be leaving the Bay Area for New Jersey this summer. I'll be starting on my Ph.D. at Drew University, so it looks like we'll be there for 5 years or so. We're excited about the move, but currently very anxious about it, as no details have been worked out. While we have already done one cross country move, we do not savor the prospect of another. We'll be less than an hour by train from Manhattan, and back on the East Coast, so we're happy about the location.

K and I returned on Thursday from our Pacific Northwest Spring Break trip. We spent a few days in Seattle, which is a cool town to explore on foot. We tackled the Experience Music Project, where I had a semi-religious experience upon being 3 feet from the guitar Jimi Hendrix, my first musical idol, played at Woodstock. Pike Place Market is actually very cool while retaining its touristy character. We opted not to climb the Space Needle, as the Columbia Center downtown is a) significantly taller and b) free. Our hotel was across the street from the new Seattle library, which is an amazing building. Other Seattle highlights included the Bodies Exhibition (headed to Durham next- check it out if you're there), the Olympic Sculpture Park, the Underground Tour, and some really good beers.


We then took the Victoria Clipper up to Victoria, BC. Victoria is all of 5 miles from the border, but the town feels distinctly Canadian. It's a beautiful city that, while known as the retirement capitol of Canada, also had a decent array of cook restaurants and pubs. We tried poutine, which is a dish that will offend some readers of this blog and delight others. The poutine we got consisted of french fries topped with cheese, bacon, and... wait for it... gravy. Decisively unhealty, but really, really tasty.