Happy Summer! (almost summer? mine starts when school ends!)

Hello, hello, little blog!

I’m sorry to have left you alone, but I just finished my semester, started my summer internships, blah, blah and—if you’ll forgive me—I would love to share.

The busiest semester of my life went well, and I’m glad because I think the final year of my master's program is going to be at about the same speed, if not a little faster. But that’s okay!

Normally, this is the part where I would tell you about the projects I’ve been working on (hoping that you’d forgive me for my absence with understanding), BUT I won’t do that today. Work is everywhere; why would you want to hear about work?

INSTEAD, how about I share the strictly non-work projects?

1. The herb garden: So I mentioned in the last post that Matt and I were moving. Well, we did! We love our new place. It’s a very… cozy apartment, and by that I of course mean that it’s too small. But it’s better priced, everything in it is newer, the community is better, the gym is cooler, the pool is nicer—it’s a winner, so the space thing is no biggie. Unfortunately, the smaller-scaled apartment comes with a smaller-scale porch. But no worries! There is a porch, and so I decided we needed herbs to “spice” up our life (ha! ‘lil parsley pun for ya). I don’t remember to water like I should but I’m getting better, so hopefully the little guys will last the summer. I mean, to call it a garden is a grand overstatement for sure... but I’ve got parsley, oregano, and sweet basil. Recipe ideas for fresh garden herbs, anyone? 

2. Kitchen Adventures: I’ve really been trying lately, and a year of screwing up food is really starting to pay off. This week I made a really good beef stew, all month I’ve been experimenting with scones (sooo good for those summer strawberries), I’m trying to perfect the chicken salad (I’m finding lemon juice can really lighten the mayonnaise, scallions and crushed red pepper add subtle taste differences, and walnuts really add a lot of fun texture to the dish. Any other ideas?), and I am determined to bake more pies. I made my stepmom a Key Lime Pie for Mother’s Day and she swears it was a winner. So I’m going to keep on with that and then maybe graduate to a couple others… with Joy of Cooking's help, of course.
3. Bowling: We have officially joined a bowling league, and now make up half of the “Raleigh Cannonballers” team. Every Tuesday, I amaze Matt by slowly improving my 72 average… luckily, the league is based on handicap scores, so as long as I continuously improve, our team isn’t held back by my serious lack of bowling skill. Just last week I FINALLY broke 100 for the first time EVER… and we’ve got like 10 weeks or something left in the league, so don’t give up on me yet!

4. Golf: We’ve been going to the driving range at least once a week, and last month I even participated in the IBM Team Building Golf Tournament! The best part of my golf game is still my “great attitude” (and when people tell me that, they’re basically saying—it’s amazing that you can stay so positive when you suck so bad! I’m taking it as a compliment). I’m having a LOT of fun and I think I will ask for a set of clubs for Christmas/Birthday. But, the real golf fun is Matt's game.  He is getting really into it, and-- even better-- he's really pretty good! Since his boss is golf obsessed and most financial professionals are kinda expected to be little Phils and Tigers, I'm okay with him being better than me for now (that's right--for now! I said it! Guess I'll have to keep practicing...). He’s great about helping to teach me to play and is really encouraging.

So there's a small update on my life... I wish I could make grand promises about updating the blog more and checking out what some of my blog friends are doing (I wonder if Google Reader can explode...), but with a busy schedule ahead I don't think I'll make any of those promises.  But I will post when I can and keep looking at your recipes / craft ideas / life adventures.

Also, in the comments of my last post, asked about how I develop video tutorials.  You may remember that I mentioned how I was developing them for school and work projects? That's actually a really fun and useful tool for everyone to learn how to do (we've ALL shown someone how to do something on the comptuer!), so I'm thinking about a long post for that this summer. Stay tuned!

Your remembering-the-sunscreen,
scone-chompin, Tuesday-bowlin
New Girl Blogger