Now, with more grumpy!

After the cornmeal mush disaster of this morning (inedible) and the Spanish tortilla disaster of last night (delicious, but thoroughly ugly), I'm glad to say that on this, one of the last mornings cool enough for the undertaking and, coincidentally, one of the last mornings of putting-off-writing-my-Tuesday-lecture, the vegan bran muffins actually turned out beautifully. They were only vegan because I used the last of the eggs on last night's tortilla, but flax seed gel makes a great substitute, and imparts not only important fatty acids, but a nice nutty flavor. Or, as the first Google result for flax seed puts it, "Substitute flax seed mixture for eggs in home baking such as muffin and pancake (1 tbsp milled flax seed, plus 3 tbsp water = 1 egg). Final products will have less volume and taste grumpier."

In other news, this is what happens when you walk the mile to school in your "glamorous" pointy black shoes for the MFA gallery opening and the next day run half of your 10-mile long run on the wooded trail at Winter- garden: blister from the former, dirt sockline from the latter.

It was actually a good run, though, and neither the blisters nor the dirt bothered me. I hadn't run Wintergarden in several weeks, and yesterday was amazed at its transformation. I'd only ever seen those woods in their winter austerity, and the riot of new leaves and wildflowers that heralded the new season, especially illuminated by the cool, filtered sunlight, felt like a miracle.