Occasionally, I get a spam comment, and I’m reminded I have one of these.

So what’s new? First, the trip to San Diego with Rachel was really great. Highlights include:

• I got to see Pure Yellow Colour not once, but twice, including a fantastic rendition of the St. Urho’s Day song that I requested be written, which also featured Josh on the toy accordion and Rachel, Robyn, and me on percussion. We rocked. Not as much as Pure Yel and Low Colour, but that’s not surprising.
• The conference’s opening night party was on the USS Midway, a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the San Diego harbor. There was food from the areas around the Midway’s old ports of call (Asia, Mediterranean Sea, and San Diego), and we were able to find a decent amount of veggie options, plus a far more extensive collection of desserts. When I was living in San Diego, I hadn’t been aware of the Midway’s existence, so it was a fun surprise.
• Conference amenities at the Hyatt were awesome. And not just because they were free (but of course that helped). The food was yummy. There was a bit of a problem with the staff not knowing the vegetarianity (shut up, that’s totally a word!) of the salad dressing and otherwise not recognizing our little vegetarian cards as meaning “don’t give us meat”, but otherwise the vegetarian entrees were great. It wasn’t just the meat dishes without the meat. Mmm, it makes me hungry just to think about it all. It also made for some interesting table conversation with the meat-eaters, ranging from looks of panic that came when they thought they’d have to eat what we were eating to people who had dated or been married to vegetarians in the past.
• Mmmm, yummy dining out. We had a fantastic dinner at Spread, who call their food “nouveau comfort food” (and don’t you dare ask me to explain “nouveau” to you). It’s all vegetarian/vegan food, made with fresh ingredients found at local farmer’s markets. We had a Thai pizza, vegetarian tacos, and yellow curry oatmeal. All delicious, but that oatmeal was just amazingly good. Mmmmm. Spread is known for their peanut butters (they have 100+ varieties), so the dessert was a chocolate peanut butter with fruit and bread to dip. And they have a bubble chair. San Diego people who are not afraid of non-standard foods, you must eat there. Which may have just ruled out anyone who might read this. Sad. We also went to Pokez, which has some cheap and tasty vegetarian Mexican food, and Royal India, which made us one of the few people eating Indian food on St. Patrick’s Day. Rachel is a pro at finding good places to eat.
• We also got to see a bunch of people who I hadn’t seen in a while (or, in the case of Sean, who I hadn’t seen in a while when I made the plans, but then saw two days before I left for San Diego), which is always fun.
• Pictures!

As for what else has been going on, I’ll tell you later, since this has been half-written for way too long. See, Kathy? An update.

Happy St. Urho’s Day!