After a month-long absence, fanlain is finally home! I drove over to Bloomington airport to pick her up from her much-delayed flight. (In retrospect, it would in fact have been faster for her to take the shuttle from Chicago, but I didn't think that through when buying her tickets.) Then it was home for a reunion with Soba, who was excited to see her, and who still remembers her name, though "go to fanlain" doesn't work as well as it used to.

We celebrated by going out to Yellowfin Restaurant — a new Japanese place in town. One of their distinction is the presentation of their fancy rolls, so I decided to order the Champaign roll, which was baked spicy snapper around crab and cucumber. The roll was disappointing because it turns out they bake the whole thing, so you get something that tastes very little like sushi (rather than, say unagi, which is baked separately before being added to the roll). Plus the supposedly spicy sauce was more sweet than spicy. But everything else we had was quite good, so I think I might try going again sometime (when our budget allows) and try something more conventional.

fanlain is thinking she should start spending more time in Iowa, if you catch my drift. What do y'all think?