catching up, randomly

• my neice graduated magna cum laude from smith college a couple of weekends ago. i graduated from a large (~6K students) state school. graduating from a small east coast college is a completely different experience. really different. gloria steinem was the keynote speaker. she totally rocks.
• we celebrated my birthday yesterday by having a nice dinner/bbq with a few families from the neighborhood and a few other friends. it was a thoroughly lovely evening-the weather was great and the bugs didn't get the invite. the girls and their friends and visiting dogs ran around the yard like there was no tomorrow and they all crashed hard last night
• brian gave me a nikon d80 for my birthday. he totally rocks and i can't WAIT for it to arrive. i think i will work at home on thursday just so i can be there when it is delivered. i am obsessively tracking its progress through the fedex website.
• i'm running a half marathon this weekend and the farthest i've run so far is 6 miles. plus i'm suffering from an annoying case of sciatica which occasionally pains me all the way from my hip to my little toe. but i'm going to run anyway. praise advil. i'm doing another half in august and it's a fundraiser. get ready for the begging of donations to begin!
• i finished my april knitting project a couple of days late (may 2) but there is no hope of me finishing a project for may. i'm fairly confident that i can do two for june, but can't be sure. i've got four things on the needles, including my first sweater.
• because i am a geek, i am totally excited that tomorrow i'm saddling up and driving down to WEBS in northampton, mass to see the yarn harlot in person. alas, if i wasn't the driver, i could probably jam on some project in the car on the way down.