Catchup. Ketchup. Catch up.

Dudes, what have I been up to for the last few weeks? I don't even know. A lot of things. Having people over for dinner, going out to meet people for dinner, basically just stuffing my face with dinner. My brother was here, and we partied down. Tonight I baked chocolate chip cookies instead of packing for my trip this weekend. I feel a little ill now, honestly.

But my trip to Austin! I am pumped! Mike left today, and I join him on Saturday. I get off the plane and go right to our friends' son's first birthday party. How adorable is that? I have never been to the birthday party of a child I was not related to. True Story. And it turns out they're pregnant again! So that is exciting.

Speaking of babies, two other friends in Austin had babies this past Monday. They don't know each other, as far as I know. But their offspring were born at almost exactly the same time, which is weird. Last Sunday we had brunch with friends here in San Francisco who just announced they were pregnant, and it is going to be amazing to watch that kid get raised in this city, by two incredibly hip parents. Oh, and to complete the baby train, my college roommates are pregnant! They have been married for a while and it is not 100% a surprise, but it was still really moving - something about having lived with them, and now they're going to be moms. I'm not going to lie, I'm still in the phase where I'm tearing up when I think about it.

If you fear that I have caught the baby fever, please let me ease your mind. I have not. I have been running regularly and lifting weights and doing all kinds of other things that are good for me, all while drinking as much beer and wine as ever. I don't know exactly what that has to do with not having baby fever, but it does.

I recently bottled an altbier, which was not at all a good idea to do alone. By the time I was done our kitchen was covered in a sticky sheen of beer up to the ceiling, but the brew itself was tasty. I made this label.

Currently in the keg we have an IPA, to be tapped when we're back from SXSW. I am probably getting burned out on hosting parties, but first I feel like I want to throw one for this IPA. Maybe another grilled cheese shindig.

To wrap up other people's news (see: string of baby announcements), my brother got into grad school. He's still waiting to hear back from a few other programs that he might like better, but I'm super pumped for him. As of Monday he is a temporary resident of Las Vegas, where he will spend the next few months alternating between a few days a week lounging by the pool of his apartment and the other days camping in the desert where he is tracking tortoises. So he moved from the Australian rainforest to the frozen tundra of my parents' house in Pennsylvania to the Nevada desert. He is a lot more combobulated than most people would be in his situation.

Music has been much in my life lately. Mike had a show, then we saw Prince (ahhh it was so good!), then the Concretes (fulfilling a college dream), and today I scored us tickets to an Animal Collective show up in Petaluma in April. Not to mention the fact that as of this weekend my life will be completely taken over by SXSW, which means dawn to dusk to dawn live music. Thank god for margaritas.

Ok, enough for now. That's all the gossip that's fit to type.