Answers!

OK, so answers... (Thanks, Laurie, for humoring me!)

What are you reading now, and would you recommend anything you've read lately?

Right now I am finishing up Bossypants by Tina Fey. Very funny. I also recently read Suite Francaise, which was written by a French woman (Irene Nemirovsky) about the German occupation of France during WWII as these events were occurring, up until she was deported to a concentration camp. She died and her manuscripts were lost for 50 years only to be discovered and recently published. She only completed two parts of what was meant to be a five part story. The background behind the novel (which is really two little novellas) makes it really interesting. The stories themselves are written in an older, classic style that I would liken to that of Russians like Dostoevsky, so they are a bit dense and take some time getting into. But if you like WWII history and/or France, I think you would enjoy it.

Another recent favorite, which it seems like just about everyone has read and loved, was The Help. I think the movie is coming out later this month. It's about relationships between African American maids and the women they served in Mississippi at the dawn of the Civil Rights movement. Pretty fascinating stuff and great characters.

What are some little goals you're working on?

Unfortunately, I'm not really good at "little goals." I tend to go big or not at all. I would like to say that I'm actively working on keeping our home more organized and tidy, which is always a goal, but I tend to approach that one with kind of a binge and purge mentality. I may clean for 4 hours one weekend, resulting in a perfect, spotless house. But then by the next weekend there are piles of unfolded laundry all over the place, dirty dishes in the sink, and overflowing recycling containers in our pantry. So I don't think that really counts.

One of my "big goals" is to find a way to transition my job into something that is more writing oriented. Again, I go through spurts of effort where I do a lot of research and make strides in the right direction, and then suddenly weeks go by where the only writing I do are a few spotty blog postings. So perhaps my goal should be to be more consistent in pursuing my goals, even if it means lots of little baby steps. Maybe I should avoid the big goals (which can easily seem overwhelming) and make more of the little goals you asked about above.

Are you watching The Bachelorette?

Um, is today a day that ends in "y"? Yes, I am watching the train wreck that is Ashley H. looking for love. I can't seem to pull myself away (and let's be honest, I never try very hard anyway!) I hope she finds a great guy, although I realize the odds of that happening are extremely low. The whole Bentley fiasco was hard to watch. That was definitely a low point in Bachelor/Bachelorette history. I'm still shocked Chris Harrison didn't pull her aside and clue her in. Hopefully there are better things in store for our intrepid bachelorette.

Busy Bee

It's been a little while since I posted last... what's been going on? To start, we had our friends Anne & Gregg up from San Antonio to run the half marathon (them, not us) the weekend before last. I headed out bright and early on Sunday morning to cheer them on and thought I might end up running a mile or two with Anne if I managed to pick her out of the huge crowd of runners. I did find her... and then proceeded to run the whole rest of the half marathon with her! That was a 5 mile workout I hadn't planned on, but it was a beautiful day and so much fun to be out amidst the crowds and race day excitement. It made me kinda wish I had a big race on the agenda (until my knees started killing a few hours later, at which point I promptly nixed any race plans.) After the race, we fulfilled their request for HopDoddy burgers and I felt no guilt indulging in my Llano Poblano burger. Mmmm.

Monday and Tuesday of last week I headed to Atlanta for meetings with a new client, and then we had a few fun plans later in the week. I've been meeting with a group of girlfriends each Wednesday night to watch (and dissect) The Bachelor on DVR. Some are old veterans like me, and others are new to The Bachelor, but I think we can all agree that a.) Brad is super awkward; and b.) Emily seems way to good to be on this show. I hope he picks her, but also sort of hope he doesn't because I think she could probably find someone so much better. Time will tell... only a few weeks to go!

On Friday night, we participated in the annual MBA Big Lebowski Bowling Tournament. Costumes mandatory. Our team's performance was pretty poor, but we all picked it up on the second game, and I managed to bowl a 110, which may be my best ever. I beat J in both games. (Yes, we are terrible.)

J & I in our costumes (80s workout chick for me, random Big Lebowski dude for him)

The rest of our team, minus JH.

And, the winners-- including our good friends Joe, Dan, Andy, and Cassie. (Unfortunately I didn't get a full length picture-- you could have marvelled at the guys' super sexy cut off jeans.)

We just stayed in and relaxed the rest of the weekend. It was low-key, but one of those weekends where I managed to accomplish a lot and get caught up on a bunch of things (6 loads of laundry come to mind...) J made me dinner on Saturday night, which was a huge treat since I do 99% of the food planning, purchasing, and preparation in our household (although he does do the dishes regularly.) Here's my manly chef:

Hope you had a good weekend, too!

Guilty Pleasure

If I'm being totally honest, I have to admit that I've always had a pretty healthy appetite for totally trashy television. Exhibit A: I have seen every single episode of every season of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, except for the season with Jesse the football player and the Air Force guy. That's 19 seasons combined, people. (And, yes, I totally looked that up on Wikipedia.) Since I'm freely admitting what most people would be mortified to share with the entire World Wide Web, you'd think I lack any shame regarding my TV viewing habits.

Not true.

I still have one very guilty pleasure that I have yet to own up to: The Vampire Diaries. I fully blame my sister, who introduced me to the show last spring. I immediately thought, "Ugh... Yet another story about a teenager in love with a vampire / caught in a vicious love triangle / out to save her unsuspecting town from the undead?" After all, I could barely get through the Twilight series without losing my lunch on several occasions. Of course, no one twisted my arm and made me read all four books in record time, and then see all three movies to date, but I digress.

However, I wrong about The Vampire Diaries. It's dark and twisty and totally addictive. The characters are approximately 11,000 times more likeable and relatable than good ol' Bella and Edward, it's set in the South and so there are all kinds of flashbacks to the Civil War era, which are fun-- albeit totally historically inaccurate, but who's paying attention?--and it's got a kind of O.C. (another one of my favorite teen televisions series of yore) meets True Blood vibe. And now after having caught up on all of season 1 via DVD over the holidays, it's official: I am obsessed. It returns to the CW tonight, and I feel like I should be ashamed to admit it, but I could not be more excited. Elena, Stefan, and Damon: get ready for some Q.T!

Settling back in

We're back! South Africa was amazing... Truly one the most beautiful, unique places I've ever been, and I would highly, highly recommend it as an awesome vacation destination for just about anyone. Of course getting there isn't super easy... over 40 hours each way. Painful. But it was more than worth it! I will be back later this week with a full recap and pictures. I need to go through start organizing and editing our hundreds of shots.

These past few days we've just been busy getting adjusted back to normal life... lots of laundry, grocery shopping, trying to get our bodies used to this time zone, and of course work (yuck.) On Saturday, J moved to Charlotte, NC, for the rest of the summer, where he'll be doing his MBA internship. I've known since we started school that we'd likely be apart for the summer, and I'm really happy and thankful that he found a great internship that will give him more experience in his field of interest (plus the additional income will be kinda nice...), but I was definitely a little sad to drop him off at the airport. The house has been so quiet this weekend, and I'm not used to spending so much alone-- particularly after two weeks of togetherness during out trip.

But I know that two months apart (with a handful of visits in there) is absolutely nothing compared to what military families and so many other couples deal with. So I'm thinking positive and getting excited for all the things I can do with my new found free time... I'm hoping to spend a lot of time with friends, work on my writing, and be super productive around the house so I can wrap up some projects that have been lingering on my to-do list for months.

First up? Crashing in front of The Bachelorette tonight with no judgement. ; )

Jake, Jake, Jake...

Hey Buddy-- I fully respect you for sending home the girls that you know aren't wife material (and not just keeping them around so that you can eventually make out in a hot tub with them), but really? Really? Vienna? I'm not going to go all bizarrely-vindictive-Ali on you regarding Vienna, but I think we both know you are not seriously considering her as your future life partner. Maybe you're keeping her around because you already kinda know who you're going to pledge your undying love to and she'll just make the final decision all that much easier (a la Andrew Firestone in season 3 with Jen and Kirsten-- and, yes, I am embarrassingly well versed in Bachelor history). Or maybe you're contractually obligated to keep a little crazy in the mix up until the end (um, remember that princess chick who wore all the tiaras a few seasons back? I think it was The Bachelor: London Calling)... Only time will tell. But, please, do yourself a favor and don't let her bring you home to meet the fam, 'kay?

Thanks.

Monday Night... whew!

For some reason, I really like Monday nights. Monday night always seems more relaxing than I'd expect... most of my weeknight plans tend to be mid-week, and I'm not yet totally worn out or exhausted by the work week. So I usually have the time and motivation to cook a nice a dinner, and then I have the time to just veg out and relax or watch TV. Plus, there's just kind of this sigh of relief that the day you spent all Sunday dreading is over and the week is moving forward.

Tonight I made a quick chicken saltimbocca-- basically boneless, skinless chicken breasts wrapped in proscuitto and sage, and then pan fried on the stove. Typically it's made with veal, which I'm not a fan of, but this recipe from Everyday Food (one of my best quick and easy cookbooks) called for chicken and looked relatively painless. Usually I'm a little leery of pan frying or sauteeing boneless, skinless chicken breasts, because mine always turn out tough and flavorless. But this recipe worked like a charm. I chalk it up to the delicious proscuitto giving it all that extra flavor and the quick white wine sauce that went with it. Mmmmm. Only 15 minutes to prepare and it's super tasty? This will definitely be going into my regular weeknight recipe rotation.

Now I'm settled in front of The Bachelor. This is totally my guilty pleasure-- so ridiculous, yet so entertaining. Best moment of the night so far: Michelle asking him to kick her off, and then her being surprised when he actually did. I'm also glad he got rid of Elizabeth. She definitely was playing games with him, and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed that his BS radar is as finely tuned as it is. Usually, the bachelor will put up with all kinds of crazy before he finally sees the light and kicks off the chicks that are so obviously not suitable for him. Jake is definitely impressing me more than I expected... what about you? Any Bachelor fanatics out there? Who's in your top 4? My money right now is on Tenley, Ali, Corrie, and Ella.