I've been AWOL for awhile and I'm sorry for that. I've been devoting my literary efforts to my weekly (sort of, so far) column over at Blue House. Every Sunday I write about food, or cooking, and try to keep the profanity to the lowest level I'm capable of.

I just saw a Rastafarian guy walk by with a little white rat sitting on his shoulder. Holy shit. This is both the reason I hate it when it gets warm and the reason I love it--all the people start coming outside again.

It's definitely nice out. All of a sudden, there are cherry trees blooming and daffodils in peoples' front yards. Also, my plants are all growing! I have a big plot to grow things in this year, so I've gotten a lot of seeds started, including pumpkins, squash, collard greens, a lot of different herbs, carrots, and rhubarb (for next spring). I think, since I'm a little more experienced with it this year, that things will turn out nicely. My space also has a lot more sunlight than my previous one. I'm going to have big rows of corn and sunflowers!

I just saw the hottest girl ever ride by on a really nice old-school GT BMX bike.

Speaking of bikes, riding is amazing right now. It was good in the winter too, but the act of getting on the bike and going somewhere is much less of a project at this point, since I can leave about ten pounds of clothing at home. Also, my Brooks is finally broken in and perfectly adjusted. It's like riding a bicycle on a tiny leather couch, all the time.

Right now I'm actually taking a break from spring cleaning. Today I bought (at my most favorite store, Home Depot) a real mop (just had one of those stupid TV commercial rag on a stick things before) and a bucket, a scrub brush, lots of chemicals, and a new shelf to put up in the kitchen. I've done the shelf and the bathroom floor so far, but I haven't gotten to the hardwood yet, which I have a big jug of Murphy's oil soap for. I guess I'm in the middle of one of those phases where I realize I actually have a really nice place, and it looks even nicer when you can see the true color of the tile on the floor...

Just saw somebody stall at the light, and a bunch of people wearing yarmulkes pushed her car off the road.