"This spy-glass is good for nothing."

As I labor through The Savage Detectives, I've also been doing some decidedly lighter reading, including English as She is Spoke--most recently published by McSweeney's but originally published in 1855. It is an English phrasebook for Portuguese students, written by an earnest translator who was eqipped with a Portuguese-to-French phrasebook, a French-to-English dictionary, and had absolutely no understanding of English. This book is absurd and completely endearing. Also! I finally finished A Better Angel by Chris Adrian. I started the short story collection back in December while I was at FSG, but at some point my closet swallowed it and only spat it back out during post-colloquium cleaning. The stories were alive and immediate and both real and completely unreal in ways unlike anything I've read before.

I think I'm coming down with a slight cold, but I've got manuscripts to proofread and many books to keep me company until I go home next week. I'll be happy as long as my apetite stays; I've finally got time to cook again.

Today I made mushroom ravioli and butternut squash salad:

Birthdays

Meg! (click for bigger images)

Duke!

The funniest pictures Claire, Jon and I have ever taken, ever:

Pics from Steph D. and Stephen, respectively.

Colloq'ing on Wed, which is pretty much consuming my life. It has given me a chance to re-read a lot of stuff that I forgot I loved, which I guess is what it's all about. Have been partaking in some internet distractions, though, namely Twitter (see sidebar. join! it'll be fun!), putting up a resume (also see sidebar), and going through the 1000+ items that have built up on my RSS feed. Work is busy and fun, classes are going well, my friends are awesome, and there's not much mental space or time for boy issues. I'm coming home! March 13-19. Then big Jen will be coming out for a week. That's the news I suppose. Love and books.