I had my dream consultation at work today.

The Spanish department (my alma mater–er, alma departmenter) has a new tech coordinator, and it’s a young woman from Spain named Marta.  She came in because she had some questions about setting up their websites.  It was fun because I got to speak Spanish and hear a bit about what was going on over there.

Best of all, she brought her adorable ten-month-old nephew Jorge.  He has long eyelashes and big brown eyes and he was wearing a jaunty hat.

The only downside was it was really hard to concentrate on answering her questions when Jorge was being all precioso over there.  Ay yi yi!

—

To answer Katy’s question from a couple of days ago:

I’ve always enjoyed cooking, and my dad is a good cook (and, more importantly, a good experimenter).  I didn’t really start cooking until I moved into my first apartment in college.  I was living with three roommates, and we all had dinner together once a week, rotating who was the cook.  That gave me the opportunity/impetus to learn to cook things that went beyond my usual repertoire.

After college, when I had a little more money to throw around, I started making an effort to go to good restaurants (I guess I did that and college and previously too, but it was usually as someone’s guest).  I also made friends with some people who have good taste and introduced me to some really innovative restaurants (notably, Trio when Grant Achatz was cooking there, and Martín Berasategui).

I don’t cook/eat extravagantly every day; I don’t have the time or funds or desire to get as chubby as I would if that were the case.  It’s one of my favorite things to do when I have the luxury, though.

I try not to pay too much attention to food trends; apparently crème brulée is out, which is stupid because it’s delicious.  Foie gras is out among P.C. types and in among foodies, but I’ll eat it if it’s legal because it is amazing (yet cruel) stuff.  In fact, Grant Achatz did the best presentation I’ve ever had of foie gras:  he did some magical thing to it that made it look exactly like shredded wheat, but it was all light and melty on your tongue.  One thing that is always in is raw oysters, and I just can’t deal with that.  I was a good sport and tried them in Puerto Rico, but it was…a challenge.