Catching Up at a Turtle's Pace

Unlike previous instances of blog negligence, I've been jotting down things in a notebook. Unfortunately, this means that I haven't been anxious about forgetting things, which may have decreased my need for posting. It's really no excuse, though and I will try to keep you all updated more regularly.

Almost a month ago, I went to various graduation events and talked to various people. Free food. At the East Campus lawn reception, I mostly ate spanakopita and fruit. The food used to be so good at that reception. While I always enjoy good spanakopita, I still miss the little ham biscuits, decent kool aid based punch and the royal blue petit fours. My parents still reminisce about the bacon wrapped shrimp at my mom's graduation. That Sunday, I also went to the computer science reception and got to talk to several of my old professors. Fares Hanna, owner of Twinnie's and Blue Express, on campus, did the catering and while it was all good, I particularly liked their three bean salad.

We had a lot of storms that weekend, including a tornado warning for Hillsborough. The power was out in our neighborhood for 45 minutes and my new generator kicked in automatically, exactly as planned. We also had hail twice that Sunday, including marble sized chunks. It took several hours for it to all melt. I also made my pasta with shrimp, bacon, garlic and wine dish for my mom, for Mother's Day.

The next week, HC started working at CIT, so that was exciting. I also checked out my first book from the library. That was surprisingly exciting to me. It was Getting to Yes by Fisher and Ury, recommended by my boss for improving my negotiation skills. That night, my parents and I saw the HBR Motorsport team at Casa Ibarra. They are Austrians who do formula BMW racing.

That Tuesday, we celebrated HC's and SA's arrival at the Loop. NC and I both had milkshakes, but I made the mistake of also getting fries. The fries were fine, but it was just a little much.


That evening we had the most important arrival, Hook! Hook is the fourth brother of the three yellow bellied sliders that we released in my parents' pond almost two years ago. We released him as soon as we got back to the pond, unlike his brothers, who spent the night in my garage.
Note that the house pictured in the distance above is the one between my house and my parents'.