fluent in the language of silence

The title should inform you that the esteemed Walter Talbott is in town for a surprise guest appearance. He called me on Friday to ask if he and his lovely fiancee (technically wife on paper, but they haven't had the all-out bash yet) Julia could stay at my place tonight and tomorrow night so that he could show her around his old Stanford/San Francisco stomping grounds before going to Yosemite for a few days of camping. I was delighted, of course; I saw them in the Netherlands last year, but I'm v. appreciative of our new see-each-other-once-a-year trend rather than the two year average lapse that we had before that.

I spent the morning and afternoon crossing more things off of my to-do list. I must be in some sort of weird springtime nesting phase -- my apartment is cleaner than it has ever been. I even took all the shelves out of the fridge and washed them with soap and water, which is something I should have done when I moved in, and now the fridge is sparkly and more well-stocked after my morning trip to the grocery store. But really, there's nothing left to clean (other than continuing to purge my closet), so hopefully later this week and all next weekend I can return to the book.

I talked to my parents for awhile this afternoon, and then did work email for about an hour before Walter and Julia arrived. We spent some quality time in my apartment catching up, and then met up with Adit, Katrina, and two of their friends for dinner at a Moroccan/Tunisian place near me. The food was quite good, particularly their mint tea, but it all paled in comparison to the conversation. Adit is v. good at asking questions and demonstrating interest, which makes for interesting conversation; and the conversation is equally interesting when he diverts from the questioning into pure ridiculousness. Katrina was also in fine form despite still being in recovery mode from some awful illness, and I was particularly pleased when she almost immediately agreed with the possibility that Walter might in fact be the Loch Ness Monster. So, a fun time was had by all, and Julia survived her first night in the city! I consider that a rousing success.

I'm getting ready to go to bed; I'm going to get up early tomorrow so that I can get some stuff done at work and then leave work early to spend more time with Walter and Julia. Have a lovely week, friends!