Once again, work is getting in the way of life.

How bad do I want to stay home tomorrow and watch Dr.Phil lay into the Octo-mom? Pretty bad. And no, I don't have Tivo. I have a combo DVD VCR, but the DVD player is broken. So I have a tiny, sleek DVD player sitting on top of the huge monolith DVD VCR. Just so I can watch the few VHS tapes I own and occasionally tape something with the VHS tape I've had since college. It was purchased when some friends and I bought Tae Bo off an infomercial, taped it and then sent it back. We were a wild bunch. That wasn't nearly as wild as when the shirts came off and we worked out with Billy Blanks in our sports bras in the dorm. Lovely. So yeah, I want to watch. Somebody fill me in.

a sad day

Although I am so lucky to have many lifelong friends from my hometown, none of them can claim the title of my first friend in Potsdam. And now she's gone. My heart breaks for the people closest to her, especially her husband, little girl and the baby who will never know his mom. Nothing much else to say, some things don't and will never make sense. Guess I just wanted to mark the day.

hi!

Ugh, the last couple of months have been so busy, I have been a blog-slacker. Not to mention the weekends have been just as busy as the workweek. Very little downtime. Not to mention that I CRIED AT WORK yesterday, the cardinal sin / most-dreaded-thing that can happen at work. So needless to say I'm glad it's the weekend and I have no Friday night plans. 

During all this business, I have been thinking about what I might blog about when the time came. And I know it's late, but I wanted to comment a little on 2008, twas a great year. So here is my Top Ten list for 2008, 2 months late.

1. I fell in love!! Yay, who doesn't love love? I am a very lucky girl. Brett and I had our one year anniversary in January, we are very happy.

2. I ran a marathon! Can't believe that happened. I mean, I can believe it, but I can't believe I ran the whole deal and that I didn't slack on training. And now I'm planning number two.

3. I made lots of new friends and strengthened a lot of existing friendships in Atlanta. I actually have a group of girlfriends here now! This year we need to work on couple friends, a much more daunting endeavor.

4. I picked a few hobbies I am into and focused energy on those. This doesn't sound all that important but when you really sit and think about what makes you you and concentrate on being the best version of yourself, it is rewarding. 

5. I exorcised some personal demons that had been following me around for years. Combine that with learn to ask for help and it's like 2 accomplishments in one.

6. I perfected a go-to dinner party recipe. 

7. Decided it is stupid to wait until I'm married to have nice things and bought gorgeous stemless wine glasses. I love them feel like a grownup when I use them! I also made a few other really nice home decor purchases. But waited a few days to decide I really wanted them. 

8. I learned to say no (nicely). At work, at home, at play. Not that I do this all the time, but a lot of the time. I just learned that I am an adult and I don't have to feel uncomfortable in any situation.

9. I took up mountain biking and extended this hobby to a foreign country. And I went running every where I travelled. Such a great way to see the world. 

10. Met 4 professional athletes! Still don't understand football though.

11. Professional success! I had a good, learning year at work. This year isn't looking like a repeat so far (hence the aforementioned crying episode).

12. I think I'm nicer and more tolerant after 2008. 

So that was twelve. I told you, 2008 was great! Sorry, 2009. You should pretty much just stop trying now. Except, you do have the darling Obama daughters in their inauguration coats going for you.

Fast. Cheap. Healthy.

We made three yummy salads for dinner that are also nice and light for this post-holiday-binge (this applies to food and money) time of year.

Chickpea Salad

Three ingredients. This might sound gross, but it is delish. I modified my friend Jen's recipe to make this. 

2 cans garbanzos, rinsed and drained

2 or 3 tablespoons of light mayo

2 or 3 tablespoons of medium salsa, the chunkier the better

Combine all ingredients, adding more salsa and mayo to suit yourself, and add some S & P. Bet this would be good mashed up a bit and smeared on crusty bread!

Healthy Tuna Salad

Just replace the mayo in your usual tuna salad with Sabra hummus. Have you tried Sabra hummus? It is the best, good for so many things beyond just dip. I use it as the base for many salad dressings in place of oil. I smear it on sandwiches and bagels. Mmmm. Tuna with a few crackers is one of my comfort foods.

Spicy Thai Cucumber Salad

This is dressing pretty healthy actually. I mean, I guess it is salty, but it is low in fat. Brett said his dad would be a fan of this, and I take that as a compliment because his dad is one of those hot and spicy food freaks.

Chili Paste (I use the Hokan brand)

Juice of half a lime 

Soy Sauce (Trader Joe's has a great soy sauce, it tastes just like the stuff at restaurants, unlike LaChoy, which was always a huge disappointment growing up when I'd put it on an eggroll. Gross.)

Little brown sugar

Combine a few tablespoons of the chili paste and soy sauce with the other ingredients. This is excellent with cucumbers and would be great on a salad with grilled steak. I try not to eat beef, but sometimes I crave it and this salad is so good!

You might be thinking that these are three foods that you normally would not eat together, but we were kind of in a weird mood and it actually worked! And was a good distraction from something I have been dreading: Sunday night after vacation. I have worked a few days these past two weeks, but the thought of a five day work week on the other side of this night just fills me with dread. I think it's that I have no travel planned and I always have travel planned! Nothing to look forward to right now. Sigh. 

Check it out!

A Goody book that I designed a few months ago is featured on a cool design blog! I always hate everything I do at the time, mostly because I get sick of looking at the photos and reading the copy, scrutinizing everything, etc. but how fun to see this a few months later during the actual season for which it was intended. Enjoy!

giftguide.styleitonline.com/2603412

Bah humbug, hipsters!

Today we were shopping in the Little 5 Points neighborhood in Atlanta. It is sort of Haigt-Ashbury meets London, in a hippie meets punk sort of way, with a little Rastafarian flavor thrown in for good measure. Anyway, from that description you can probably infer that Brett and I are not your typical L5P patrons, but we can usually fake our way through pretty well. Or at least drive through on our way to Target without issue.

Today we were on our way back from a Target run (hey-I'm not gonna lie, come on, yuppies unite!) and decided to stop there to go to a skate shop (not ice skates, skateboards) to buy some skinny jeans for Brett's 14 year-old little brother, James. I should add that he is part of the Big Brother Big Sister program and that his biological little brother is 26. Gosh, there are a lot of tangents in this post! So we go into this lovely little shop and inquire politely about some skater brand James likes and the dude "working" there is all, "that is not a skate board brand. You might find that at the mall but not here." Then he proceeds to lecture us about how it's really hard to buy jeans for teenagers and it's really like finding a needle in a haystack (he really said that. How's that for slick hipster jargon?), all in a very snotty way. Um, I have very little retail experience, but normally when a potential customer enters your store eagerly trying to make a purchase, you ENCOURAGE it, maybe even go for the upsell. "Sorry, guys, I'm not familiar with that brand, but check out these great shirts, the kids love 'em. We also have a rad selection of trucker hats and some sweet new DG shoes... " Something like that. 

Um, thanks. We'll try Pac Sun. 

Too pooped to blog

I am too tired to do justice to our Costa Rican vacation today, so let's just say we enjoyed it con mucho gusto. That really means "you're welcome" but it literally translates to "with much pleasure" so as bad as my Spanish is, I think I'm going to take license to use it here. 

More to come but here we are soaking in some pura vida (okay, and maybe some tequila), never wanting to come home.

Yes, that's one of my many bikinis... and a not so sexy tanline from running all summer.