There's nothing like having female friends who like to cook.  Tonight Heather Bell (who goes by both names since we also have a good friend named Heather Graves -- you just have to pronounce it quickly like it's one name, and it'll make sense) cooked up a yummy stir-fry of various veggies and hosted us in her teeny apartment.  She's amazing at maximizing space.  She manages to fit an oversized sofa and loveseat, a keyboard on a stand, a bookcase, several lamps and fountains, a coffee table, her laptop and entire DVD collection in one very small apartment-sized living room.  It never feels cramped, just cozy.  I don't know how she does it.  She's absolutely gifted, with a great sense of spatial design.  I think she's European at heart.

I brought over a chocolate mousse from one of my Nigella cookbooks.  I love Nigella's recipes, and this is one of the few that doesn't rely on bacon.  But it does rely on an overdose of sugar-laden foods, so she makes up for her usual meat-based decadence in other ways.

On the workfront, I've got very good news.  I've been tapped to take over the summer Paris program beginning this upcoming academic year.  I really hope it comes to fruition.  It's such a random inheritance but also very much what I've wanted all along through academia.  This means I'll be doing admin and going to Paris for 4 weeks at a stretch during the summers.  In other news, Loyola is also opening a new line of hire, tenure track, that I'm encouraged to apply for this coming academic year.  Now my big hurdle is to finish my diss.  So I'm writing, writing away -- but it's so scary all the while!