A whirl of activity.

Dear 27,
Since January 7th my blog readership has increased about 142%. And while I'm under the weather today- I thought I'd give you the update on just what kind of hullabaloo has been my first 10 days of 2011. (I've been trying to work hullabaloo into a blog post since July. Still not sure I'm working it in correctly. But either way. Hullabaloo.)

There was my return to the kitchen with Tom and Sara that included many gadget failures (the tortilla press was surprisingly fragile, or Tom is remarkably strong.)

So the tortillas we used were made by someone else? We macguyvered up the chicken filling, mixed up some cabbage slaw and a roasted corn+avocado salsa, and played Green Bay dice. (And then the fryer didn't work. We improvised, again.) The end result was a flauta dinner even Imelda would have been proud of.

Then there was the wildly successful #karaokeup that while I was hesitant, surpassed my expectations, was a festive night of new faces and sweet dance moves, and Jenni and I snapped some silly pics.

You remember back in November, or as I called it "Yesvember," when I put together that bonus list-- well this weekend I crossed off a few extra items. (Better late than never...right? Thanks Amy J for keeping me on task!)

The Flying Mango was as tasty as everyone said it'd be- the ambiance, the brisket and the company were splendid.  And, if I didn't get enough of Amy, Justin, Blake and Joanne after dining together (and really, there never is enough), we hit the Science Center for the last week of DaVinci: The Genius on Sunday.

There was a mirror box. And a no-photo policy.

Really though, this man was a genius. He was a brilliant dude: there were inventions (the tank, the bullet, this thing that mowed down people during battle), scandals, long curly hair as depicted in the BBC movie we were able to see, a parachute, masterful paintings (the Mona Lisa room- amazing) and that's just a few things. The man had one hell of a resume.

Mixtape buddies have been sent after hours of emails.

See what I'm sayin? Hullabaloo.
xo-LP