I’ve been quiet on my blog for the past few weeks for two critical reasons. First, my wife and I are closing on a house, and the bank has made us miserable with their exhaustive and ill-composed requests for information. Second, I’ve had to work on a crazy assignment for the state of California. My group tries to stay out of the papers, but you might read about my work in the next few weeks without even realizing it. It’s been stressful. Now that spring is here, though, I feel much more optimistic and productive.