"Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit." -- Oscar Wilde

There strawberries are divine.

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Stoppers to keep hot drinks from spilling in the drink carrier. Why didn't someone think of this sooner?!

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1. Finally found my camera cord. Woo! Here are some photos of my organized-by-color bookshelves. I have another bookshelf full of books in my bedroom that didn't get mixed in. Basically I forgot about that entire shelf. Oh well. Here's what I ended up with:

2. I saw that a few of you commented on my dad's photography a few posts ago. In case you're interested, he does sell his work, and trust me -- it's gorgeous. If you're interested, let me know, or you can email him directly. Here are a few of my favorites:

3. Growing up, my family used to eat this particular bread. It was English Muffin Bread. It wasn't English Muffins themselves, but bread that tasted like English Muffins but was shaped like a normal loaf of bread. It was even better with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. I mean, I loved this toast. My mom and I remember this bread like we ate it yesterday. My brother, on the other hand, has no memory of this bread. He thinks we're making it up.

Does anyone have any memory of this bread? I think it was by a brand called Northridge, although I can't find anything about it on the Internet. It's like it doesn't exist, like my brother thinks. But it DID exist, and I would appreciate it if someone out there in Vox Land could affirm that this delicious bread existed at one point.

I'm late again.

Things I love:

• The government giving me $600 today. I'm a bad American and immediately transferred it to my savings account. I'll spend it someday, Economy, I promise.
• Beautiful weather -- it's 75 out! Gorgeous!
• Chik-Fil-A.
• Organizing my books by color (photos to come later).
• Having a really, really, really clean apartment. I mean, I bleached the grout in my kitchen. It's clean.
• Thinking about all the things that I want for my new house.
• Slow days at work that give me time to research celing fans online, and to find out how to strip and refinish wood furniture.

Things I loathe:

• Allergies.
• Blisters on my heels and how they keep me from exercising.
• Learning that my landlords will only let me out of my lease if they have someone to rent the place to.
• Deciding it's about time for me to go through and change all my passwords to something new. I do every so often, and it's a pain. But I feel safer.

Living Room

Now that I've gone and purchased myself a home, I'm all about decorating it. Yes, I realize that it's mostly decorated already, but once they remove all the gargantuan art, I'm going to be left with walls. Big walls. Big, empty walls.

One wall in particular I've been thinking about is the wall that spans the living room and dining room. This is a Big Wall. Twenty feet wide, perhaps? Twenty five? Right now, it is painted a lovely teal color, with brown circles (see the photo to the left). The brown circles are kind of cool, and originally I was planning on leaving them, but the more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to paint over them. They are just so...decorator-y. They work really well with the big art that's in there now, but I have nothing of that magnitude. I think all my smaller art might compete with the circles. Then again, my small art is going to look extra small on that wall no matter what.

Like this, but twenty feet wide.

So I have come up with a plan. I think I am going to paint that wall a similar teal color. I like the color, and it matches my things. Then I am going to buy/build two looooong shelves that will go along the wall, much like the photo to the right, but a lot longer. Then I can lean all of my smaller art and photos to create one big long piece of art.

I already have a lot of small pieces that I love, including this one from my Vox neighbor girl wonder. I'm also mildly obsessed with smaller art for sale on Etsy (it's about time I finally learned of the Joy of Etsy). I have quite a few of my dad's wonderful photographs as well. But since it's all relatively small, I think it would be really awesome to do something that makes a big impact. I'll keep the other walls relatively simply adorned.

What do you all think? Do you like it? Totally hate it? Think it's too much? Do you think the teal will work as a background color, or should I opt for something more neutral? Your input and advice would be much appreciated.  

Now I just need to figure out how to build some really long shelves. Hey Carter Oosterhouse. Call me.

Allergies.

And by "awesome" I mean "totally crappy."

And you know what else is awesome?

The weekend.

And I actually mean awesome in this context.

HEY YOU. Yeah you! You who does not understand the logistics of driving downtown. You who does not get that the lights downtown are TIMED and if you do not go the speed limit, YOU MISS THE LIGHTS. Therefore, I am stuck behind you, stopping at EVERY LIGHT. Is it that hard to go 30 MPH instead of 28 MPH? IS IT?

SHENANIGANS!

* * *

Ahem.

Mmmm

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I thought I should write a bit about my lovely birthday dinner the other night. Seven of my closest friends (brother, Amy, Hannah, Isaac, Robert, Nolan, and Carolyn) and I went downtown to my favorite British pub for dinner and had a super duper time. I had fish and chips for dinner, and a yummy cider. (I had to take a picture of me with my cider because my boss didn't believe that I ever drink or go to pubs. Tada! There I am.) What else? My brother was beating Nolan at darts and then Nolan came back with a bullseye to beat him! It was awesome. A few of us did Irish Carbombs and that left me even happier (I really don't drink all that often -- I'm a super lightweight). Afterward, we went to Rick's Dessert Diner, where, obviously, we had dessert. A huge slice of devil's food cake. Mmm. All in all, a fantastic evening. My friends rock my face off.

I told myself that I had to finish up the three half-read books sitting on my nightstand before I could start my book club book, Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. Unfortunately, one of those books is due back to the library today, so I jotted down my page number of First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde and will contiunue it when it's published in paperback and I can buy it to add to my nice little Fforde collection (which has created, along with the Bridget Jones books, a very obvious neon orange square of Penguin spines on my shelf. So orange!).

But I did finish the other two books, plus I finished a DailyLit.com book (one that comes in short snippets to my email every day). So, I'm counting that as my three books so I can get started on Devil in the White City tonight.

Here's what I read:

My Man Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

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My Man Jeeves by PG Wodehouse was my DailyLit book. I love PG Wodehouse this much: *stretches arms out as far as they will go*. I think this was one of his earliest books, and it's compilation of short stories. Half or so involve the incomperable Jeeves and Wooster, and the other star Reggie Pepper -- who is similar to Wooster without Jeeves. I definitely prefer the J&W stories, mostly because I'm familiar with the characters. I am fairly certain some of the Reggie Pepper stories were reworked later to be J&W stories. Perhaps whenever I run across that book, I'll know for sure. I must also mention that the new Overlook Press editions of Wodehouse's books are fabulous. The cover art, the feel of the pages, the dustjacket -- everything feels so high-end. I'm slowly collecting the whole set, but it's slow going. Wodehouse has A LOT of books.

My Rating: 6 out of 10 for being my least favorite Wodehouse effort so far (although, still a series of fun little romps), but an excellent book for DailyLit. Short stories lend themselves really well to email format.

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

I've been meaning to read Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott for a while now. I got it from the library a few years ago, but returned it without ever reading it (yeah, it's an ongoing problem). It's been recommended to me a bunch of times, especially because I found Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz to be very interesting. And enjoy it I did. Lamott is in no way a "traditional" Christian. She tells it like it is, doesn't apologize, and doesn't gloss over pain and suffering with a "Jesus loves you." She emphasizes community and support and love above everything else. She cusses and refers to God as He/She. I'm sure the 700 Club loooooves her. *sarcasm* My favorite quote:

"Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there."

My Rating: 7 out of 10 since I tend to be more traditional but I loved being smacked upside the head with something different and refreshing. Like Blue Like Jazz, it made me want to just love on people and be there to support people.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

Well, I'm on a Bill Bryson kick. What a fun guy! His books are so entertaining. After I wrote a blog about the Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, quite a few of my lovely neighbors told me to read a Walk in the Woods. So I did. Because I do everything that you guys tell me to do.

The book was great! My friend Josh hiked the whole(ish) Appalachian Trail last summer and it was cool to read about someone else's view of the same trip. Poor Bill, too. That guy had some tough days out there in the wilderness! He and his foolhardy friend, Katz, were unprepared but quickly got into a groove. He wrote about the hike with a great sense of humor. It actually made me want to go hiking some more (well, not 2000 miles, but maybe 5 or 10 miles). My favorite quote:

"When guys in camouflage pants and hunting hats sat around in the Four Aces Diner talking about fearsome things done out-of-doors, I would no longer have to feel like such a cupcake. I wanted a little of that swagger that comes with being able to gaze at a far horizon through eyes of chipped granite and say with a slow, manly sniff, 'Yeah, I’ve shit in the woods.'"

My Rating: 9 out of 10 because really, it was hilarious and really very interesting and educational. Especially the bit about moose.

In other good news, I locked in my loan this afternoon! Joy and joyness. The house is now officially labeled as SOLD. YAY! Happy birthday to me. Now I just have to make it through escrow and closing. Shouldn't be a problem, but I don't think I'll officially be comfortable until I have the keys in my hand! 

Okay, I am mildly obsessed with the Puli now.

How freaking hilarious and wonderful is that dog? And that final picture makes me laugh SO HARD. It looks like that guy in the background is actual size and that the dog is approximately the size of a mastodon. Like a big Rastafarian Snuffleupagus.

Too bad my new house doesn't have a yard (although...I didn't actually want to have to take care of a yard, so it's not all that bad) so I can't have a dog. Someday!

Birthday Card from Hillary

I thought that 27 was going to be rough, being the first year of my "late twenties." Who knows, it still might be. But I awoke this morning without the trepidation that I thought I would be feeling. In fact, I'm positively peachy today. There but for the grace of God go I.

I am thankful that I have made it to 27 with relatively no hardship. My life has been easy and I recognize this as an incredible blessing. I don't understand this blessing but every single day I give thanks. 

I am thankful for my family, who love and support me so much that when I really sit down and think about it, I want to weep because I am so overwhelmingly blessed. I especially thank my dad, mom, brother, grandma, and Aunt Bonnie.

I am thankful for friends, old and new, who share my joys and my hurts and who always love me no matter what. And who bake me cookies for my birthday.

I am thankful for the opportunity to buy a new home and for those who have helped me make that dream come true.

I am thankful that I have more than enough food on my table every day.

I am thankful that I have a job that I love, especially because I know that most people can't even come close to making that statement.

I am thankful for the opportunities to go to school, so that I could acquire the education I needed to do my job well.

I am thankful for my health and that to date, the worst I've had to deal with is a broken leg and two root canals.

I am thankful for being financially sound and for parents who taught me the value of hard work and saving for the future.

I am thankful for the joy of laughter, of laughing so hard that I'm pretty sure I might stop breathing at any second.

I am thankful that I've been able to travel and see places as far away as India, Taiwan, and Scotland. I pray for more opportunities in the future to travel.

I am thankful to my Vox friends, many of whom I cannot imagine not being in my life. Your support and friendship means the world to me.

I am thankful for my faith, for the One who created me, the One who died for me, and the One who lives in me.

And, I am thankful that although I am not where I thought I might be at this point in my life (namely, a husband, two kids, and a minivan) that I never, ever want to overshadow the other gifts in my life. I am blessed to a degree that I don't understand and the only thing I can think to do is to fall to my knees and thank God for being so incredibly generous and full of mercy and grace.

I hope that this coming year is a time where I can bless others using the blessings that have been so unsparingly given to me.

As a side note, I'm also thankful for this, because it made me almost snort Diet Pepsi out of my nose when I saw it:

I must have this dog.

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