Whee! What a good day this is shaping up to be!

First off, it's sunny. And it's supposed to be warm-ish: somewhere in the 40s, I think. It's getting so springlike out there that if you're very careful, you can arrange your gaze so that it does not include a snow pile, which is a welcome relief. (I must allow Pessimist Me to surface for a second and point out that I am not entirely unconvinced that we won't get a three-foot April snowfall, but . . . today it seems less likely.)

I am toying with the idea of taking my folding bike down to the bike shop on Shiawassee and getting it tuned up. (Stupid thing feels cheap to me. I should have gotten a Brompton.) I figure I am definitely going to need the folding bike in June, when I go to the Computers and Writing Conference at Stanford . . . I can't imagine a better way to get around that campus.

That trip is really shaping up! Jeff and I more or less finalized plans (well, as final as Jeff can make them after only two discussions) for that last night, when we both had dinner at Martin and Randy's. And what fun that was! That's another reason I'm so cheerful today; Jeff and I haven't really seen much of each other since Emil and I had kids, but we've known each other since we were eighteen (we met working at a Methodist summer camp), and we carried each other through what were, for both of us, tempestuous late-adolescent years. Surprise, surprise, the experience has created one of those bonds that will never go away . . .

Jeff is coming to California at the same time as me, and we're both going to spend a few days with Kevin before my conference (and then the boys will hang out for several days). I am really looking forward to this! Kevin and Jeff also met at the Methodist camp, although Kevin no longer worked there by the time I came along (his presence was still felt, though: he had named the large refrigerators in the kitchen - 'Kate Smith' and 'Toulouse-Lautrec', as I recall; and had also claimed a decrepit, unused, but large building for the 'Kevin J. Trevas Center for the Performing Arts' . . . ). I met Kevin at Michigan State the following fall, when he and Jeff were roommates. We all spent a lot of time together in those years.

So it will be really fun to hang out together again. I am really looking forward to this trip. (Yes, I do seem to function best in "looking-forward-to-vacation" mode, don't I? Oh, well. Why ask why?)

So I should get the bike tuned up.

But not today, because today is Emma's 16th birthday, and after my class I have to rush home and Make Things. Emma has decided to take her father's lead and give up sugar. (What is it about teenaged girls and their fathers' dietary habits?? Steph became a vegetarian at about the same age, as I recall . . . ) So, I am searching for a sugar-free 'shortcake' recipe. I figure, fruit salad on shortcake topped with whipped cream oughta be festive.

Also, she's getting a Conga drum for her birthday, but we have this awful feeling that it may not arrive in time for today's festivities, as it was ordered (in untimely fashion) over the internet. So on the way home I want to get her a novel to be sure she has something to open. I'm taking suggestions from the crowd, here. I can't really pin down her taste, exactly. She liked 'The Namesake,' by Jumpha Lahiri, and she also really liked 'The Time-Traveler's Wife.' She also really likes Wally Lamb and Nicholas Sparks (neither of whom float my boat). She's at that age where she's mostly reading adult fiction, but many of the themes that interest me don't yet resonate with her. (She has no tolerance for Elizabeth Berg or Ann Tyler, for instance.)

So anyway - if anyone has any suggestions, please send 'em along, either in the comments or via emal . . . (my preference would be comments [which I do check . . . *snif*] because your suggestions might jog someone else's memory).

Well, I better scoot off to class . . . hope everyone else is having a good day, too.