Mini-vacation

For our summer vacation, Chef and I went 15 minutes away from our apartment. I volunteered to housesit for a co-worker. I forgot how nice it is to have a house. We grilled out and ate dinner outside. We watered the landscaping and I did laundry until my heart was content. Simple things felt so nice. It made us really think about what we wanted.

"We couldn't live in a big city forever," Chef said. "Like New York or LA. I'd miss having a house and yard."

It's so true though. You never realize the joy being outside and wiggling your toes in the grass until you haven't done it for a while.

Anyway, it was a great vacation. We'll probably go back this week to hang out some more. I would totally volunteer to housesit for people all the time if I could. Perhaps I could make a career out of professionally housesitting. Is there such a thing and if so, where do I sign up?

Not a Morning Person

There are many reasons that I don't get up at 5 a.m. on a regular basis and today at work is just one example. Mostly because I can't function after about noon without at least 7 hours of sleep. That's not necessarily true. If I were just up late and got up at a normal time, that would've been all right. But getting up nearly two hours earlier than normal hurts anyone.

So now I've spent the afternoon alternately sending out emails and intermittently playing games online until a respectable hour to leave. It's now approaching that hour.

Last night I made my first ever loaf of bread. From scratch. I would've been more proud, but Chef brought me back to earth by saying "You realize that people have been baking bread for a long time in history and most without the use of a Kitchenaid mixer." Nonetheless I was still very happy with the results. In fact, I'm craving some carbs right now. I hope to start baking different kinds of breads on a regular basis for practice. If you have any good bread recipes, hook a girl up.

Close but No Cigar

Hmm. Funny how once you title something with a cliche, you begin to think about the cliche. I guess close, but not a winner because you don't get to smoke the celebratory cigar? Anyway, I came in second in about the third job now. I'm so close to landing something great that I can taste it. But I'm not smoking the cigar yet.

However, when I was let down easy at this last job, I was asked to come in to interview for the same position in a different department. I have that this week. We'll see how it goes.

Alas, Chef turned a year older on Sunday. We had a weekend long celebration. I think in the future I'm going to get him one good present to be given the morning after his birthday to help cut the birthday hangover. Because waking up and thinking that'll be 364 more days until your special day is pretty depressing and deserves a treat.

Other than that, I'm just waiting for Paris to get out of jail so that I can have a reason for living again. As Cameron Diaz puts it "When Paris suffers, we all suffer." And so I'm suffering right now. Mostly I just like Cameron Diaz more since then.