The evenings are really warm now so on daily walks with Chris and Drew I wear shorts and a t-shirt or sleeveless shirt. The other night I was thinking how crazy it is that in six months I'll be wearing long pants, a puffy down jacket, hat, and maybe even a scarf! (It's possible that I've become quite the wimp since moving to sunny Arizona.) With such big swings in the temperature much of my summer wardrobe doesn't go over well in the winter and vice versa. To keep from having to sort through clothes from all seasons in my... Read more →

Guys, this weekend I had a photo walk FAIL. I went out for my photo walk and took lots of pictures, some that I was pretty excited about. Throughout the walk I was reviewing my photos on playback mode to adjust settings and to see what I had. When I was all done I headed back to my car and looked through all my pictures. I was excited to download them. The next morning I plugged in my memory card and opened Adobe Bridge like I always do and went to download the photos. And then I found taht there... Read more →

On Saturday I officially donated my car to NPR. It's something I've been wanting to do since I bought my Prius. The Volvo will be sold at auction and then NPR will send me documentation of what it sold for (I have no idea what to expect! $200? $1,000? We'll see...) and I can claim that amount as a charitable deduction on my 2012 taxes. I'm very glad to be able to support an organization that is so dear to my heart and frankly it just made getting rid of the car so easy! As my car was being towed... Read more →

I love celebrating the seasons and yesterday was the solstice, which means it's officially summer. It's my fourth Arizona summer - I can't believe it! I suppose I'm getting better at tolerating the heat but I haven't come to love it, as some people say they do. It's not so much the high temperatures (we've already hit over 110 for quite a few days) it's that the heat drags on and on...and on and on. All the way into October. It's like that final mile of my most recent 5K: I have no idea where the finish line is and... Read more →

I aspire to be the kind of person you can count on; when I make a commitment I like to see it through. But I've learned I'm also the kind of person who takes on too much at times and then I become a stress ball because I don't have enough down time with Chris and just on my own. This really became clear to me in graduate school, when I found myself: conducting research for my thesis, taking a full load of classes, serving as the secretary of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, a co-founder of a student... Read more →

A theme is emerging for my organizing projects. Beforehand the closet/cabinet/whatever is the BAIN OF MY EXISTENCE whenever I see it. It causes me to start thinking about all of the organizing and cleaning needed in the house...and then I start feeling overwhelmed. It's silly but true! The hardest part is finding the time to make myself put other (more fun) things aside and get to organizing. But once I finally do start it's really not bad: I put on a few podcasts or my favorite Pandora station (set to The Lumineers), and pull everything out of the bain-of-my-existence space.... Read more →

As you may know, I L-O-V-E my local public library. I just about always have a few books and audiobooks out from the library (sometimes books about pregnancy and babies...ah, my planning heart). Now I can even get Kindle books through my library! But until recently I didn't think about getting cookbooks from the library. I don't know why it didn't occur to me before! Reading a new cookbook is as exciting to me as diving into a great novel. I love reading through ingredients lists and getting ideas of menus and new flavors. Now there's a whole new genre... Read more →

After the 5K on Sunday I was craving something chocolately but wasn't up for a big effort. It was the perfect time to try out a recipe for vegan baked chocolate donuts from (never home)maker that I'd had my eye on for a while. They came together quickly and weren't overly sweet plus are full of good grains and definitely delivered the chocolate I was craving. Exactly what I wanted. Substitutions: In the recipe I substituted the wheat bran for flax meal since that's what I had on hand and I also added 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder plus a... Read more →

Yesterday I ran the second 5K in the Arizona Road Racers Summer Series and - amazingly - was able to make my goal of beating my previous time and moved up in my age group too! I also sported some new gear: visor, sports bra, and shirt. The race course was through a deserty area on a dirt trail and with hundreds of runners there was so much dust in the air, definitely an unpleasant aspect of the race. I remembered to wear my watch this time but got confused because there was one water station, which I assumed was... Read more →

This is what I wear to work! I was inspired by Tracy's High Straightenence post to document what I wear so that I could avoid the "I have nothing to wear!" whine. Now taking a picture of my outfit in the morning is part of my routine. And it really has helped me remember outfits that I put together and would have forgotten about. It also means I have to make the bed everyday - bonus! And usually it's actually Chris who makes the bed - double bonus (he's the sweetest). There's one picture above in which Chris is actually... Read more →