Ok, back from the hectic hiatus. The last week of May was a bit like a sprint finish after running a marathon. Somewhere in there I finished a big proposal, finished grading, had a birthday, a visit from my friend Micha and a wedding. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Submitted the proposal on my birthday, which was a weirdly nice present. Extremely satisfying sense of accomplishment and extreme entitlement for taking the rest of the day off. And the last hours of polishing and editing are kind of fun; there is the light at the end of the tunnel and the whole thing has finally come together (versus the feeling over the weekend: Crap! Too much! No time!). Micha pulled into town and we spent the rest of the beautiful afternoon on the beach with the BBQ and a bonfire.
Spent the rest of the week getting grades finished and catching up with Micha, which usually means a lot of eating and music. And early June is a beautiful time for California consumables... We made treats for my housemates for salvaging my data; turns out Jonsson/Cooksey care is far better than apple care and you can pay them in baked goods.
(Micha hard at work, enroute to treats; I didn't know it was possible to OD on strawberries, but fortunately the effects wear off in a day or two. When half flats of california's finest are only $15 and the farmer "accidentally" spills an extra basket in our flat, how could we say no? Yes, I realize I'm ruined for wherever I move next.)
(finished products: Itatian fruit tart, vegan carrot cake, some german version of a nectarine tart and a whole lot of strawberries)
(Fish taco treats for ourselves!)
To finish off the self-indulgent week and weekend and to officially say goodbye to spring quarter and hello-oo, summer, Rachel took us all rafting on the American River. A raft guide in her former life, she fearlessly corralled 8 of us yammering grad students into a boat and got us all to follow instructions - really, that is quite a feat.... And looking through the pictures, it seems we spent as much time as possible OUT of the boat. Fresh-water swimming is not an easy thing to come by in Santa Cruz, and we were all waxing poetic about the days when it seemed that all we did was swim. 
