can you cook?

So remember once before when I said I had a lot of cookbooks? Tonight I was cleaning my apartment (it's a complete disaster!) and found a stack of new cookbooks that I got for Christmas (so I haven't totally put things away from the holidays...) and I realized that I really have no more room for cookbooks.



Seriously. This is why----

Do you think I have a problem?

Don't answer that :)

Instead, answer this- what is your favorite cookbook AND favorite recipe? Let me know, because I clearly need more of both.

They'll be a winner! Oh yes, another contest! This will be randomly chosen by one of those random integrator things that I see people use (I'll ask someone...) and the lucky winner will win a copy of Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book! No, it won't be the copy that you see on my shelf and is signed by Rachael herself, but a new copy of your very own!

So, get cooking!

you know you love me

Okay, Gossip Girl, let's chat.

1. Blair and Jack? Did I miss something?
2. Jenny, please take your ugly hair and go away. Don't ever come back.
3. Is the sibling actually alive? I am totally confused by that.
4. Blair, forget Manhattan. Move to Georgetown and be my BFF. I'll take you to my favorite crepe place.

xoxo

are you a lurker? lerker? I like lerker better, but it's the wrong one...

So I'm a bit slow and am now realizing that this is National Delurking Week. Considering about seven people read my blog, I don't think I have any lurkers...but if you are, please say hello! Ask a question, make a comment, whatever, just let me know who you are, in case I am missing out on wonderful and fabulous you!


(I don't know how to paste in those nifty pictures everyone else has)

my bulleted life

• I hate the song "I Knew I Loved You" by Savage Garden. I have no idea why. In theory, it's a lovely song, but there is something about it that irks me. A friend wanted to use it as her first dance at her wedding, but then found out that someone else planned to. I was secretly relieved. I know, I'm awful.
• It makes me really sad to see Christmas trees lying on the sidewalk, their glory days being over. I wish they could stay up year-round, I really do!
• Last weekend, we stopped by Mount Vernon (I LOVE Mount Vernon...) and there was a wedding reception there. It was so lovely and beautiful that I wanted to cry. It was one of those perfectly cool and crisp days that wasn't too cold, but cold enough that you knew it was January. The bride had an amazing dress that I may secretly covet for my own, and she had a mink stole around her neck. Really, she was stunning. I'd love to have my wedding there, but since it is unlikely that the entire plantation will be relocated to NH anytime soon, I guess it won't be happening!
• Obama was outside my office building this afternoon and I didn't see him. I'm not particularly upset about not seeing him, but my colleague stood outside for 40 minutes waiting for a glimpse. She saw him, she was happy.
• I have lemon rosemary chicken baking in the oven right now and it's smelling delish.
• I hosted a cookie swap last month and I still have not posted the pictures. It was a lovely afternoon and much fun was had by all (I think!)
• I saw snow flurries for about seven minutes today. Then, poof, like magic, they were gone.
• I love Russian babushka nesting dolls. I have a bit of a collection, including a tea towel and a few ornaments, and they never fail to make me smile.
• There is a rowhouse on 8th St. SE, near Eastern Market that is still decorated so beautifully for Christmas. They had wreaths hanging with red velvet ribbon from each window, and candles in the windows as well. When I walk home from the metro, I go by it every night and think about the sort of people who live there. A little part of me wants to knock on their door and tell them how wonderful their home looks, but I think that might be a little creepy, so I don't; I just walk by and think it to myself.
• I got two new Vera Bradley bags for Christmas and haven't used either of them yet.
• As an impulse, I bought a package of strawberries at Harris Teeter tonight. There were samples out and they were so sweet and juicy that I couldn't resist.

What makes your week random?

busy schedule? fine with me!

I've come to the conclusion that I am happier and more productive when I have a full schedule. Like anyone else, I like my downtime, but too much of it, and I become a lazy blob.

Example. My senior year of college, I was taking six classes (18 credits), was on the equestrian team, babysat twice a week for six hours each day, worked part-time at Bath and Body Works, volunteered on a campaign that fall, was chair of one club on campus and Executive Director of the state chapter of that club and something else that is escaping me. My day planner was a million different colors and I liked it that way. I felt like I accomplished a great deal each day and had a great time doing it.

When I moved to DC, I worked full-time and that was about it (at first, anyway). Two years later, I began the second Master's, at GWU, so I had classes at night and often meetings with people for projects and such. It was a good thing. The thing is, for as much as I complained about how tired I was, and how much work I had to do, I really enjoyed my classes and liked being in school (nerd alert). Now I am missing that. I liked that element of my life; going to class, meeting new people and sharing ideas. I felt so inspired by some of the people I met and hearing about the amazing things that they've done. Now? Not so much. I'm missing that interaction, wishing I was still there. In my heart, I am contemplating what Master's to get next (ha!), though my head knows that a third Master's and another $30K in loans isn't the best way to go.

Trying to find inspiration and passion isn't easy; it is something I feel as though I've struggled with for a long time. There are things I love and things I want to do, but I feel like I lack the ability to get there. Some days, I am not sure how to get there, what steps I need to take. I've begun to do some volunteering in the city. I found the Washington Literacy Council and once a month, have gone to a local elementary school to read with students. I also went to an info session for Greater DC Cares, which has all sorts of different volunteer opportunities, from working in soup kitchens, to reading with students, to working at a horse barn (which I am totally going to do, by the way!) I've also found a pottery studio where you can take classes, so I am thinking about maybe trying that as well.

What do you do to stay busy?

Christmas, New Hampshire style

Somehow during my week at home, I didn't manage to take a picture of the outside of the house or the approximately two feet of snow we had in NH! Oh well...look my mum's snowmen and pretend they are outside!

12 in 12

Happy New Year, all! Hope you had a good evening. Me? I was asleep by 10:30. Seriously. I'm not sure what came over me, but I was exhausted. Frankly, NYE has never been a huge thing to me, so I was okay with that!

With regards to resolutions, I try not to make them- mainly because I always break them! Instead, I've made a list of 12 goals that I'd like to accomplish in 12 months. Some of them will take longer then others, which is why I've given myself a year!

So, here goes---

• eliminate ALL credit card debt- difficult, but can be done if I really work at it
• take a yoga and a quilting class...then maybe stick with one (or both!) of them
• learn to knit and make a scarf and matching mittens
• get hired directly by the agency I work for, rather then continuing with contract I'm currently on
• visit three new countries and six new states that I've never been to
• send three chapters of my book to a publisher- this is something I haven't talked much about...I have a general outline for a book I'd like to write, and it's long been a secret goal of mine, but it needs a lot of work, and I mostly ignore it, but shouldn't
• try and then stick to the Sonoma Diet- I need to be making healthy eating habits...healthy that doesn't include cool ranch doritos! besides, the Sonoma diet includes and encourages drinking wine, so that is a diet that I can enjoy!
• find and attend a church in DC that I love and feel a part of
• buy a small condo for an eventual rental unit- yes, this may be a pipe dream, but it's something that I'd really like to do, if possible
• cook at least three times a week from existing cookbooks- I have way too many that I rarely use!
• stop referring to Steve's ex as a dumb ugly whore (among other things...)- I despise her for various reasons, but they are still friends, so I really should be nicer, right?
• plan a trip to Albania
• give Steve a backrub once a week without him begging (haha, he added that one...)

(yes, that's 13...but I added one, since Steve did, haha)