Cooking and callouses

Thursday's compressibles test was a fiasco. Taking (and bombing) a test after 8.5 months isn't good for anybody's health.

Rock-climbing yesterday was marvellous. I'm finally getting callouses on my fingers - always a good sign. And the goodness is starting to show - I finished 75% of a route I'd been struggling with for the past couple of weeks. There's a group of rock-climbers that's always present whenever I go - they sound like physics grad students - and usually have lots of interesting conversations about their professors, post-doc-ing, their papers, girls etc - the standard guy-talk.
They were discussing pick-up lines yesterday. Two of their favorites were:
1. Are you a parking ticket? Because you have 'Fine' written all over you!
2. Are you tired? Because you've been running around in my mind all day!

Despite knowing that they were overused and obviously the kind that would never work, I laughed (my sense of humor going haywire probably had something to do with hanging horizontally 9 feet in the air).

Another achievement: I made dal yesterday (for the 2nd time in my life - the first time was an expected calamity) - which amazingly tasted fine. The rice wasn't bad either. All in all, I had the best meal in a long long time (since I returned to Austin in any case). I'm beginning to realize that cooking is a trial-and-luck-and-what-kind-of-a-mood-you're-in process. I still don't have a recipe for anything - I just add and subtract ingredients at random.

Got a chance to listen to live music last night at La Tazza Fresca - it was awesome. The singer had a good voice that carried, although he sang some rather forgettable songs (except the one at the very end). I think I need to go to more live music events.

Nazar, according to statistics, is doing really well. Yay. I just wish I had more time. And more ideas. And no struc D test breathing down my neck.

At least I have my callouses to cheer me up.