But the highlight of the trip was the bowl of peanuts and anchovies we purchased on a lark.

I’d never had the dish before — didn’t even know it existed — but I was pleasantly surprised. The fishy saltiness (or is that salty fishiness?) of the anchovies mingled nicely with the peanuts, and it was all complemented by a slightly spicy chili sauce. I found it pretty addictive, but others in the office stayed away, perhaps intimidated by the anchovy heads swimming among the peanuts in the plastic bowl.

I felt like I’d made a good culinary choice, though, especially since I’ve been obsessed with eating small fish like anchovies and sardines, egged on by increased warnings about the safety and sustainability of both farmed and wild big fish like salmon and tuna.

Turns out sardines and other small fish occupying the lower echelons of the oceanic food chain are super high in Omega-3 fatty acids, contain very low levels of mercury, and aren’t in danger of becoming extinct. Maybe it’s time to start a sardine diet.

The older I get, the more I think that one of the keys to happiness—or at least one of the signs of happiness—is getting to some kind of place where time seems to be passing at the right speed.

That’s a good goal, I think.

But seriously folks, I hear that Obama received a grand reception at AIPAC, where, according to a source, he has “100%” of their support. In other words, he didn’t stray from script of standard American support for Israel as it’s been practiced for the last 30 years, including a call for a united Jerusalem.

Is Obama sincere? His history suggest so, as he’s stayed pretty consistent on Israel ever since entering public life.

While this may be good tactical move — 85 year old bubbes in West Palm Beach will be heartened by the news — what does it mean for those of us who sit to the left of AIPAC at the political seder table, and are inclined to support organizations like the newly-sprung up J Street? Despite my support for Obama, I’m disappointed that either he really holds hawkish views on Israel or that he believe he must hew to the center-right if he wants to be President.

Instead, I’ve been conducting 10 or more phone interviews a day, working hard to find the right folks to fill Change.org’s new blogging positions. I’ve gone from interfacing with a text editor and browser for three or more hours every day to actually talking to human beings all day long. I miss the blogging, but damn, those humans can be cuddly.

You tell yourself that you’ll keep up with tasks and patterns that emerged from the rigid structure of a job; but when those structures fade away, or get replaced by new structures, it’s as if those old patterns never existed. The human mind. So malleable, so forgetful.

I wonder if the relative ease of my transition has to do with the way Google has altered my mind. I’d look into that more, but there’s another blog post I have to read…

It’s an exciting move. I get to work with Ben Rattray and co. to build up a social action blog network (and to help define what the heck that means), and to work on a project that I’ve admired from the start. It’s a bittersweet move from the PdF world, but I know I’ll be in close contact with those folks.

And to help celebrate, Sarah Stirland at Wired wrote a profile of the switch! It includes this pullout quote: