african miniaturized hedgehog

DWE and I took a little roadtrip this weekend. We had no plan or intended destination, so we just sort of drove and stopped in places that seemed interesting. We spent the first night in Marysville and the second night in Chico (yes, we drove through Stevie's hometown, Paradise). It was a wonderfully aimless and relaxing trip. DWE is a big fan of back roads, so it took us over six hours to get back to the city today (and we drove on a dirt road for almost thirty miles), but the scenery was incredible. Lots of really beautiful valleys, a couple lakes (one of which we stopped at and I learned how to skip a rock over water), old farms, fields of wildflowers, tree-lined roads, wine country, etc. I made DWE play the guessing game with me (one person thinks of something, the other person asks yes or no questions until he or she guesses it). DWE is terrible at the game because it's almost impossible to get him to think of anything other than Scott Bakula (I'd explain why, but it's a long, nonsensical story). We had the following conversation no less than five times:

"Okay, I thought of something."
"Is it an animal?"
"Yes."
"Is it a human?"
"Yes."
"Is it Scott Bakula?"
"Yes. You're so good at this game."
"Stop picking Scott Bakula!"

When it was his turn to guess, he'd always ask me if something was smaller than an African Miniaturized Hedgehog, which is apparently about the size of a fist.

Up in the mountains past Paradise, we ended up on a dirt road that didn't really go anywhere, and encountered some people from the tiny town several miles downhill that had a flat tire. We drove the mom and the daughter back into town to get their other truck, and she was telling us about how they let thier ten-year-old and eight-year-old sons drive sometimes up on the little dirt roads, and it's so funny because the eight-year-old doesn't really get the concept of letting go of the clutch after he changes gears so they just keep stalling, and I'm thinking, you let your eight-year-old drive?! In Chico I had a fun drunken bathroom bonding moment with a girl in the next stall who needed some TP, and then asked my opinion about her hairstyle. It was very cute. I also had a salad with a really, really good vinagrette dressing (good enough that I feel the need to tell you about it).

So now I'm back in SF and I'm tired and I have a ton of work to do. I did get my federal taxes done on Friday before we left, which is nice, especially since I got to file for free online and since I'm getting an $817 refund (student loans don't count as income, and I only made $5000 as a TA last year, so I get all the taxes I paid refunded, plus I qualify for the EITC). But the much more important April 15th deadline is my thesis being due, and although I've made decent progress with running all my regressions, I really need to get a lot done this week.