Didn’t mean to let the site go slack for so long, but life got busy on me. I’m sure you survived. Meanwhile, much fun cooking here.

However, now that I’m briefly home again, I must first head to the dentist, because the other day a poppy seed challenged one of my molars to a duel, the molar accepted, and the poppy seed promptly kicked the molar’s ass. So I’m down several minor tooth chunks and an aggravated tongue, actually, although that didn’t stop me from some weekend goofiness I’ll write about later today while the novocaine dissipates.

Said goofiness made me feel like a pudu among giraffes for a little while. And, handily enough, when the L.A. Zoo’s docent was leading Team Pudu around the facility (see below), I got a shot which may or may not have depicted that very thing, shown at right.

The pudu would have been just slightly out of frame.

A small festival of gratitude and contentment will likely begin occupying this page for a while. I know the world is a nigh-hopeless mess, yes — I just wrote another book about that, if fact — but kindnesses should be acknowledge, and there have been many in my own life lately.