And the big news here today is...(the world waits breathlessly)... I'm making banana muffins. This feels astonishingly comforting. I just got back from a miserable slog through pitch blackness and rain, dragging Nika all the way. (It's so ironic when I take her out in horrible weather solely for her sake, and then she spends the whole time begging to be taken back home! Maybe parents feel like this sometimes.) (There would seem to be a simple solution--Go Home!--but when Nika doesn't get her exercise, she's restless and noisy all night, and we don't sleep.) Wind and rain buffeted us, drenched my jeans, froze my face, and nearly blinded me as we pushed out way back up the hill towards home. But it's warm and bright inside, Karina Sumner-Smith kindly sent me her recipe for banana muffins (which also appears on her blog), and baking seems like the perfect rainy night activity. Warm muffins, their smell wrapping through the house....Sounds good to me, anyway. And that's all the excitement I need, right now.