friday favorites

- Mad Men, and more specifically, Joanie
- Planning elaborate birthday dinners for a special almost-31-year-old
- Wedding planning made easy (err... easier)
- Inspiration at its best
- More and more light each day
- Dreaming about staying here
- Friday payday
- Memories of times like these:

greens

I've (We've) been trying to be better about cooking... using Sunday to meal plan, and making at least two home-cooked meals each week (this may not sound like much, but since we're only two, each recipe usually feeds us for two dinners and sometimes a few lunches as well.) And for lunch today I'm enjoying not one, but two!, varieties of leftovers.

Last week we made Brussels sprouts with bacon, blue cheese and toasted walnuts, and last night we tried a new recipe, asparagus-spinach pesto. The Brussels sprouts got six thumbs up (we had a "dinner guest" that night) and the pesto, though fairly basic, received a decent mark. But I discovered a whole new level of tastiness today when I put those sprouts on top of that green pasta. It looked so healthy that my coworkers were giving me the Hairy Eyeball in the cafe. Little did they know it tasted nothing like Rabbit Food.

If you're into veggies, I'd give both of these a try, though I'd suggest not burning the pine nuts for the pesto, as it gives it a very nutty flavor... unless you're into that, then scorch away.

Also, I didn't take any pictures, because I was too hungry. I'll be better next time.

friday favorites

I just decided (yes, literally this minute... while scrolling through a giant spreadsheet for the seventh hour today) that every Friday I'm going to post my Friday Favorite(s) -- things that are currently making me smile/dance/ponder/laugh/pause... things that I am about to have two free days to enjoy as much as I so please.

And for my first Friday, things I am currently in love with:

- The Tallest Man on Earth, and more specifically, The Gardener
- Sweating out stress in 107 degree yoga rooms
- These Brussels sprouts
- Food blogs
- A newly acquired soft gray shirt
- Style Me Pretty
- The Olympics!
- Weekends

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

plugged in

After seven and a half months of not working, I'm back on the grid... in a very real way. This is good -- productivity, professional growth, paychecks -- all positive things. But I'd by lying if I denied the fact that every afternoon, right around 3pm, I long to be snuggled into The Big Red Couch in the afternoon sunshine, with a book and a snack in my lap, cozy in sweatpants after yoga or a hard run in the cold sunshine. Yes, that is how I spent the entire month of January, and yes, it was amazing.

a much brighter cube

A "Welcome Back to the Working World" surprise from my parents

And an early Valentine's Day treat from that one guy

I'm a lucky girl indeed.

two months

I've been home for exactly two months. And it's been approximately that long since my last post. Not really the grand homecoming I had in mind. I'd pictured endless learnings and insights flowing out of my finger tips; I believed I would need to blog -- that it would have become such a part of my life while I was gone that it would fall some place in between yoga and cheese on my list of Life's Necessities. But it didn't happen that way, and that's okay. I think I just needed some time to reconnect here, to drink in all I had missed, to just be. Be home. Be quiet. Be social. Be engaged. Be back where I belong.

Despite my lack of writing, I think about it all the time. I think about blogging. I think about the thoughts floating around in my head that aren't becoming a part of my written history. I think about the readers I'm losing each day that I don't post. I think about how much I miss writing.

I think part of my hesitation to keep blogging was founded in my fear of how I'd make the transition from Argentinacita to Minneapoliscita. I formed this blog specifically to log my experience in South America; now that I'm back, will people still read? will I still have interesting things to say? Maybe, maybe not. But I've realized that as much as I appreciate those who have continued to check my blog, faithfully, for two straight months without a single word from me (yes, I know who you are), it's not about them. I need this place, this space, these words. So here I am, ready to reclaim them.

There may be some Argentinian anecdotes sprinkled in here and there, but I'm not making any promises. From here on out, you're more likely to read about the three kinds of cheese I ate for dinner last night than you are some strange story about my life in Buenos Aires. If that sounds as delicious to you as it does to me, then stay. And if you only signed up for Argentinacita, that's okay too; thanks for sticking it out as long as you did.

2009 was one hell of a year, and I have a hunch that 2010 just may follow suit.