So I've come back ... to announce I won't be posting again for a few days. I'm going back up to the SF area this weekend for the wedding of an old friend. Well, not for the wedding, exactly; the invitation, which I got from her mother, is for a party "in honor of the newlyweds." I get the feeling this is a compromise of sorts between the couple wanting to have a small wedding and the mom wanting to throw a huge wingding.

How huge a wingding it is is suggested by the fact that a long-lost, far-flung friend like me got invited. I met the bride when we were in kindergarten. It was actually a fairly tenacious friendship for that age. It survived my skipping first grade and her not skipping, so we were no longer sharing classes; it even survived her family moving out to the boondocks of West Marin. It did not, however, survive puberty. There was no falling-out; it was just that one time when our family came to visit hers, we said hello, and didn't have much to talk about.

Still, I'm looking forward to seeing her, and finding out what she's been doing all this time. When I get back I'll post on Mark 3. I don't want to start another discussion now, when I'm about to take off. Thank you for your patience, and stay tuned!