little pink things

This is sushi.  I have had sushi before, but not quite like this.  In my previous sushi-eating experience what you eat is chopped up very small and mixed with other chopped-up-small things so you aren't exactly sure what you are eating.

This time I was very sure that what I was spearing with my chopsticks were hunks of raw fish.  I could tell they were different kinds of fish too.  Not just because of color; they tasted and felt different.

After-picture, because it was tasty.  I'd do it again.

I'm pretty convinced those little pink things are fish eggs.  I normally would finish everything but they tasted sour and salty and something-else and I wasn't quite in the mood.  (Oh, the green dollop is horseradish...didn't finish that either.)

...What would my fifth-graders say if I brought this to lunch?

U.S.S. Constitution with Boston skyline

dead ends

Sometimes dead ends are the right ends.

For instance, when they end at the Atlantic Ocean.

(Manchester-by-the-sea, Massachusetts)

last week

Texas.  (I had never seen palm trees before.  I stood wide-eyed looking at the one in the schoolyard.  The sixth-graders stood looking at me and laughed.)

Oklahoma.  (At my sister's college.  The sun went to bed.  We didn't.  I kept thinking, "How did I do this in college??")

Nebraska.  (Why hullo, spring.)

Hay look -- it's Christmas in March!

the third thing

And I expect this is the only time I will get to post something like this:

I'm engaged!

It is without question the most dramatic surprise I have had.  It is also a classic case of Caroline insisting over and over "NO that will NEVER happen"...and then eventually, "Well actually..."

I am very, very happy:  Not so much about getting married (although that is exciting), but about to whom I'm getting married.  It (he, rather) brings joy and blessing from the Lord.  "My thoughts are not your thoughts," God told Israel.  Seems to be true in this also -- and hurrah for that.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

[intermission]

[Nebraska.  February.]

Dad gave me a fancy phone a few months ago that takes pictures.  So now I have a camera with me wherever I go.  When I am driving someplace, I will suddenly step on the brakes and pull over so I can take pictures.  This keeps happening more and more and it is a time-consuming habit, but I can't seem to get out of it.  Anyway:

This was close to home and I hope no one recognized me.  All the truckers driving past must have wondered why some nicely-dressed girl was hopping around in the ditch in her flats to take pictures of...the roadside??