Sorry I disappeared for awhile with posts. Here's a peek at what I've been up to...

Reading

I've been swept away with the Hunger Games. Those of you who have read the series know what I'm talking about. I mean holy cow this series is good. It like Harry Potter all over again; I just can't put the book down. It's serious a problem. I'll be working and then find myself thinking about the book.

I actually thought I wouldn't like the books. I read the synopsis a few times since I've heard people say its good. But really, a books that takes place in the aftermath of a wasted North America? Sounded lame to me, but my friend highly recommended it so I thought why not. At the Orange County airport after Christmas and on our way home, I downloaded the first book to my new Kindle (my big xmas gift). As soon as I started, I was hooked. Now I'm on the third and final book and already half way down. I can't believe I've managed to stop reading to write this post - must have serious guilt for not writing.

If you're feeling lazy, or you can't really take on another book at the moment, you can always just go see the movie in March. I know I am!

Soup

I've been spending a fair amount of time in the kitchen lately. Since the year started, ever Sunday I've made a soup. I'm going to try and keep it up too and have a little Sunday tradition. The past three Sundays we've had Chicken & Dumpling soup, Butternut Squash Chowder soup, and Vegetable-Salad soup. The inspiration for all this? A book Don & Nada spent me for my Kindle called Mr. Sunday Soups. The favorite so far is the Butternut Squash Chowder soup. Yum.

Organization

I'm generally an organized person, however, I always have this desire to be even more organized (oh, and the little fact that I married an unorganized person). As I was reading my Better Homes magazine, I came across an article on home organization called In-Box Rx. It's a system that helps you organize all the paper that comes into the home--mail, receipts, bills. The article suggests setting up a Paper Processing Center. Sounds right up my ally. So last weekend, we stopped off at Storables (a secret favorite store of mine) and bought a few items to create this system.

How's it work? Well you made a main inbox and you put any incoming papers into it. The everyday (or so) you go through this pile and sort it into one of three piles: Do Now, Do Later, or Pending. Then you go through Do Now every couple of days, the Do Later every week, and Pending once a month. The last been something to file away (which is another project for me--a filing cabinet organizer).

So far, it's been working out. Check with me in a few months.

Dinner & Movies

A favorite thing Josh and I do on weekends is go get dinner and watch a movie whether it been at home or in the theaters. The other weekend we saw Tin Tin in 3D at the theaters. It was cute and fun. We both agreed the 3D effects were pretty cool and made the movie. Otherwise the plot is pretty predictable, but hey it's really a kids movie. I haven't seen too much in 3D so it was fun and a nice change for the norm.

As for dining, we've been trying some new places. The restaurant that sticks out the most is Ocho in Ballard. It's a tiny restaurant and really only meant for parties of two (three max), but it makes for a great and delicious date night. We shared yummy tapas with my favorite being goat cheese balls fried with roasted pepper almond sauce. Josh's favorite was the trout ( I can't remember the preparation, sorry). Oh and the sherries mushrooms. Mouth is watering.

With my friend Beth, I've also tried the Back Door at Roxy's which had tasty but reasonably priced drinks and food. Oh, and the Leary Traveler which was a fun, pub-like place. Good food. Good times.

Farmer's Market

Yes, we still love to go to the farmer's markets. If you attended the wedding, you may recall the caramel favors we had from Jon Boy. These were from our farmer's market adventures. This time we bought some new items (new to us, that is):

Jam - I recently got on an English muffin kick (had one over xmas at the Brown's house). But with two crucial ingredients on top: butter and jam. We ran out of jam (probably from all my muffin eating), so we got some blueberry jam. The verdict: it's delicious with butter on muffins.
Pasta & Sauce - This was actally a new stand at the market, so we had to try it. Everyone was crowding around. I finally got a taster and thought, "this would be excellent on pasta." So we bought some. And we also bought some pasta at another booth (pasta not picured, it was in the freezer).
Mushrooms - Just a booth on mushrooms. We love mushrooms, so we bought some (and that's how we roll).
Toffee - This was deliciousness. They had several kinds, but we ended up with the scrap box. It's all the crumbs that the place gets sold in a box. I put it in some chocolate chip cookies - uhh, yum. And Josh has enjoyed it on ice cream.

That's really not ALL that I've been doing, but it's a good preview. Well, actually, this is a rather long post so maybe we have been doing a lot. I take all that back.

Maybe next weekend we'll doing something exciting and I can blog about it (Josh needs to stop working weekends!).