So what was the loot, you ask? Fairly low-key and absolutely perfect: a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble, and a year's subscription to Harper's. My family knows me way too well. (They also know where to find my Amazon Wishlist.) The best part was just being around my whole famiy at once, getting wrestled with by my two older nieces, chocolate cupcakes, and general silliness. The activity of the day was creating self-portraits by tracing each other on butcher paper and then decorating our paper selves. This activity has just confirmed for me once again the correctness of my decision to go for a multidisciplinary Creative Arts degree rather than going into studio art—it's clear that drawing is not one of my gifts.

So, a nice weekend so far. I get to spend tomorrow setting up my Mom's new (my old) laptop, and then hop across the water for dinner with the Bro, the Sis-in-law, and Charlie's Angels, aka my nieces. And then, oh then, dear reader, I get very few hours sleep and fly back to San Jo Monday morning and go straight to work. And while that sentence does leave me feeling a bit tired, the phrase "straight to work" has such a nice ring right now that I'm just going to let it pass for now and go to bed.