Friday!

For your Friday enjoyment - a favorite Greg Brown song. 

(Don't mind the video's random visuals...)

Talkin' Rainy May Blues

Hi there. I don't really have the blues, but am listening to the blues and tried to be creative about the title of this post. Also, it has been raining and cloudy for more than a week. I heard my weatherman of choice say that the temperature has been below average 3 out of 4 days for the past 2 months. Egads! It is a wonder we don't just sleep through this sad Spring. Even complaining about the weather is getting old.

On that note, let's move on. We got our first CSA box yesterday - it was pretty measly, due to the late start of the season, but we did make a delicious sesame quinoa salad with asparagus and garlic chives from our first box. Now to find a purpose for the rhubarb... I have found it difficult to find a "healthy" use for it in my brief recipe search so far - everything is a pie or a crumble. I've seen a few chutneys, compotes, sauces, etc. - perhaps I'll try to go that route. Anyway, although our goodies were few this week, I feel great about the fact that our membership in the CSA is insurance for an awesome local organic farm. I mean, we help make this season still work for them - we've made the investment and take the risk of a bad season along with them. It is a great way to support local agriculture. Woot.

In other news, SB and I made a significant purchase yesterday - our rings! We decided to get more-or-less matching rings - they are only slightly different. Mine fit in the store and didn't need to be ordered, and Sean's is ordered and being custom-made in Ireland for delivery at the end of June. It was great to get the rings at the Irish shop down the street, and I did relatively well at silencing my frugal self so that we could just focus on getting what we love.

Sean's ring looks just like this only instead of having prominent, raised edges it has more subtle, rounded edges.  Mine is just like the one pictured, only instead of being a solid band, it actually has tiny openings in the design part of the ring, showing through to my finger, if that makes sense.

Joys

I am lucky to have remarkable women as friends. In the last week I found out that one is beginning a journey into motherhood, one is packing up to start a new chapter of life halfway across the country, and one has begun a new job assignment doing cool global health work with the CDC. It is a pleasure to watch others grow, and to share in growing together. And soon I will be going through a transition of my own - into married life. Life is a whirlwind. "...the joy, the thrill, the whirl!" as Melville said.

On a less profound note, I made the decision to buy new glasses yesterday. I currently have great coverage on glasses, so I took the plunge while I'm still insured, and in light of the upcoming wedding. While the glasses aren't incredibly different from my old pair, they will take some getting used to! It is amazing to think that my last pair were on my face every day for the past three years or so...more than 1,000 straight days. Hope the new ones suit me well.

the new glasses

On a final note, I have now seen all but one of last year's Academy Award Best Picture nominees (I haven't seen Zero Dark Thirty). While I liked a lot of them on a relatively equal level, I would have to say that the best of them, to me, was Life of Pi. The first part of the movie is quirky and fun, almost like a Wes Anderson movie in a way, and then the broader arc of the rest of the movie is simply gorgeous and magical and sad but hopeful. And in the end, the message may be overstated in a "hit you over the head" kind of way, but I really valued the message and felt inspired by it. If you haven't seen it - get out to a red box or netflix or wherever else you can still find movies these days!