Friday, March 4, 2011

One Week

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This week started off so lovely.  70s!  Sun!  I am so desperate for Spring to be here.  I had some extra work to do this week – some projects bubbling with BetterNumbers (the nutrition tracking website that’s been brewing for years and is now *live!*) and was not looking forward to spending a good chunk of Sunday buckled down working, but this was suddenly much more tolerable when give the prospect of an outdoor office.

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Buddy and I also took 2 long walks this weekend at a new-to-me greenway path near my house.  It’s a 1.7 mile trail between 2 parking lots, so roundtrip it’s a nice 5k.  It’s way back behind some neighborhoods so the scenery is mostly fields – some horses! – and woods, but both days I was there it was populated with runners, bikers, and family walking.  I liked having the change of scene, and I’m certain Buddy wasn’t sad about the extra mileage either.

Matt worked a lot of afternoon/evening shifts this week, which meant I was up to my own devices most evening.  While this usually means I have popcorn and wine for dinner, I decided to embark on a culinary gift to myself and make…. risotto!  I love risotto.  But it’s so much work!  And Matt doesn’t care for it, so I always talk myself out of making it when it’s just me.  I’m so glad I finally did though.  Oh my word, it is delicious.

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A few sautéed mushrooms mixed in, and it was heaven.  I think risotto is always going to remind me of being at our wine country house in Sonoma with the winos, since Pam cooked it up for us one night and it was the first time I had had it homemade.  If that doesn’t spell a recipe for comfort food – delicious food AND nostalgia – I don’t know what does.  Good thing it takes almost 45 minutes to make. 

I also got crafty one night while Matt was working, and made/repaired some necklaces I’ve had lying around.  The first one was an idea I had gotten MONTHS ago – to use up a whole mish mosh of chains that I had by twisting them all around and weaving a ribbon through them.   I saw something like it at Ann Taylor and felt certain I could do better than their $38 price tag.  When I was home for my Grandma’s funeral in January, I came across the little bauble in a collection of my other Grandma’s jewelry that my mom had at home.  It was the perfect finishing touch.  The owl in the middle also came from my Grandma’s jewelry (my mom’s mom) – she loved owls.  I stole that little guy as soon as I saw him, and he’s been riding around in my purse ever since.  I had been picturing him on a long chain necklace, and that’s right where he ended up.  I adore everything about his ugly beaded eyes, and I think of my Grandma every time I wear it.  The last one was a collection of little charms that I had been gathering for awhile, and looped around another long chain necklace.  I had it on a shorter chain for awhile, but I knew I wanted it to be a long one and finally amended it.  The funny thing is, doing all this only took me about 2 hours, but I’ve had these projects “waiting” for months. 

I do that often.

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Then, because I was on a roll – fueled by risotto and craftiness – I decided to clean out my jewelry box.  I feel like every time I open it, I pull the same things out because they’re right on top and the rest were kind of cluttered.  I actually don’t have a lot of jewelry, and most of it of the costume/Forever 21 type – but I always feel like I never accessorize because I forget about what I have.  I was on a roll, so I dumped everything out, decided what items I really loved and would wear, and put them back into the jewelry box in such a way that I could actually see them.

What a difference.

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I find jewelry to be one of the hardest words in the English language to spell.  Second to desperately.  Both of these words are underlined in red right now as I draft this.   Thank goodness for spell check.

It was a long work week for me.  Not a bad one, but a long one… Friday got here just in the nick of time.

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Thank goodness the steroids are working too, because I needed this little lovey on Thursday. 

Next week I start working 4 10 hour days.  I am so excited about the prospect of the extra day off, although I am truthfully a tad bit nervous about the extra 2 hours at work.  2 more hours means between 2-4 more phone calls a day, and that my friends is a whole lot more coaching in one day.  I’m hoping all the “work hard” will be well balanced out by the extra bit of “play hard” that I will get.

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Otherwise, I’m doomed to look like this every Friday at 8 pm.

How was your week?

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