I don’t mean to get all “Ross Ross Ross” on you this week, but I kind of have to because

a) it’s his 25th birthday tomorrow! Hooray for a quarter century of having successfully not died!

b) He got no love from the University of Washington in Seattle this afternoon, and even though neither of us minds taking it off the list of possibilities that much (9 months of grey every year? Boo!) I’m sure he’s at least a little sad about it considering that Ethan lives there and it was the closest school to my lovely parents-in-law Barb and David. Still, Ethan, Barb, and David are probably all much more cut up about it than we are, because the University of Chicago is still on the list and today when I was listening to the latest episode of This American Life I suddenly got very excited about that option because HEY! Did you know that the bridges of Chicago smell like chocolate? Well, they DO. Ira Glass told me so, and I am helpless but to believe every word that man says. (Sadly, Chicago does not smell as much like sweet nostalgia as it used to, but once again, Mr. Glass says the breezes of the Windy City still blow enough of those delicious cocoa particles through the atmosphere for you to get a good sniff of ambrosial air when you’re walking down the street, and are you really gonna be the one to tell me he’s wrong?)

c) That picture of Ross is the one I chose to kick off my 10 Things guest post—possibly the most fun writing assignment I have ever had (it’s definitely the most fun thing I did last week), so you should definitely go and read it. 10 Things is run in part by the lovely Stephanie, who is currently jaunting about the neighborhoods of Seoul evilly filling the minds of unsuspecting Korean children with lots of American propaganda (um I mean nobly teaching them very useful rules of English grammar). At any rate, she makes a mean website. Go see!

d) Ross Ross Ross!

P.S. That whole salmon thing was just a joke. . .

. . . or was it?