For those of you wondering who won the $5,000 Intel Tech Makeovers, we announced the winners over here. When we started out, three makeovers seemed like so much, but if you read any of the entries you know how many deserving folks threw their hats in the ring. Even if you didn’t win, I hope entering the contest gave you the oomph you needed to find another way to make your dreams go. I’m still rooting for you.

I have an on-off switch with money. If I’m feeling flush, I buy what I want. If I’m feeling pinched, I don’t buy anything at all. Of course, there is a happy medium between being loaded and being bang-broke. Here’s to the little pick-me-ups.

A few months back, I was sitting in the coffee shop where I often work, and looked up to see one of my Morning News editors standing in line for the bathroom.

This wouldn’t have been odd, except Rosecrans was living in Paris at the time, and I hadn’t heard anything about him coming to town. My brain kept insisting that it couldn’t be him.

Turns out he was there for a whirlwind work trip, filming an ad campaign for Louis Vuitton. They were trying to capture Francis Ford Coppola’s San Francisco, and I ended up in the campaign.

Because of all the JavaScripty madness, there’s no way to direct link (boo!), but a full five percent of you should be able to reach it by following these painstaking instructions:

Go to Louis Vuitton Journeys
Click “USA”
Click “San Francisco with Francis F. Coppola”
Wait for the street video to stop playing and a mosaic of photos to appear
Mouse over the center photo in the center row until you see text
Click on the center photo that reads “The Mission Now, Bohemia”
Click on the photo of the blue sweater and coffee cup (that’s my sweater)
Mouse over the larger photo of the sweater and hit the play button

That’s all there is to it!

For those of you who aren’t related to me, and therefore won’t have to pretend to have seen this at the next family reunion, it’s enough for you to know that I am shockingly eloquent. I guess you’ll just have to trust me on that.

When I had Hank, I obsessed a little over the hospital bag. When he came a week early, I was glad I had. If you remember nothing else, toss in a couple of comfortable knit dresses to wear as nightgowns. Half the cost of maternity PJs, and you’ll be cute for all the photos. The rest of our ideas are over here:

Bryan’s grandmother passed away unexpectedly, so we’re currently in Illinois for the funeral. We took a red-eye to get here in time, a flight I like to call the Happy-Birthday!-No-One-Sleep-for-48-Hours-Cross-Country Spectacular.

Yesterday, I turned 33. I consider this an auspicious number, and expect to have a very good year. However, for one week, all of us are going to pretend that never happened. Let’s meet back here at the same time next week and discuss birthday stuff in more celebratory detail.

For now, we’re enjoying time with Bryan’s family, acquainting Hank with extended family, and celebrating Grandma Mason — who was a very good grandma indeed.