This is why I love him.

Backing up: 
  About a month ago, my husband and I went to the zoo.  And afterwards, I asked him, like I do after any event, movie, thing we do, "What was your favorite...?"  [What was your favorite song, who was your favorite character, what was your favorite part, etc..]  I asked him, "What was your favorite animal?"  And he said, "The puffins."  And he was right;-).  He and I could have stood there and watched the puffins forever.  They are these black and white, short in stature, orange beaked birds that live in cold places.  And they love water.  And they were crazy hilarious.  You could watch them dive underwater---they were their own show.  You never knew what they were going to do.  They were wiggly, tumbl-y, funny, so silly and such a good part of our time at the zoo.

Backing up even further: 
  My husband can mimic squirrels like he's one of them.  In fact, I tell him, when he comes back in his next life, he'll come back as a squirrel.  He enjoys watching them, monitoring their behaviour, and telling me about it.  When he was deployed in Iraq a few years ago, I would occasionally send him pictures of a squirrel because I was pretty sure he wasn't seeing his furry friend's there.  I'd still like to get him a t-shirt with a squirrel on it.

Okay, fast forward, present day, yesterday:
  We were inside REI looking at walking poles when I spot a bin full of stuffed animals.  These stuffed animals were all created so if you pushed a button in their belly's they would make their sound.  Birds singing, etc..  Well, inside the bin was the squirrel;-).  I pushed his belly and Ess Gee answered back.  No, I'm just kidding, but I show and tell the stuffed squirrel to my husband.  I peruse through the bin some more, and I ask Ess Gee, "Who would I be?"  And he answers, without a pause, (and while there were not any of these in the bin)---"A puffin."
And oh, my goodness, that is one of the reasons of why I love him:-).

And just for good measure, I picked up some tasty cereal at Trader Joes in cinnamon flavor...it's called Puffins:-).  With puffin facts on the back of the box.  Okay, okay, I know, I know, enough already!

Confession

Raleigh, Raleigh, Raleigh.
  I don't know what it is about this area that attracts musical acts from the 90's to wanna flock here like seagulls to a shoreline, but, geez, we've got 'em coming in in droves!  And, seriously, if I had just some extra money to spend, there would be a lot of me wanting to purchase tickets to:

Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
or
Better Than Ezra
or
The Goo Goo Dolls

for the sole purpose of people watching.  Who's with me on that?  I'm super afraid that the people who attend these concerts were the same people who say that high school was some of the best years of their lives.  I really am afraid of that.  I'm not kidding.

Self-care in a funny and fun way.

I just did something that I have been wanting to do for the past three years and had yet to do it.  It's going to sound ridiculous, but I finally put up mini-blinds in our main bathroom.  Now, we have had a sheer white curtain up in there since the weekend we moved in, and while our backyard is seemingly really private, it still is a sheer white curtain.  So today, I put up some blinds.  And three weeks ago I put up a curtain on our windowed kitchen door---another thing that had been bugging me since we had moved in.  (Obviously not bugged me enough, right?) I say this a lot to those who see me regularly, "You never know how much things have bothered you until you answer them/until you fix them/until you do them", because I feel sooo relieved that those blinds and curtains are up.  The cocoon coziness of my house has just been raised 10 fold.
  The reason I even bother with the blog today is this:  This week the challenge is to go do something that has been on your plate to do for a long time and do it.  On any level.  Be it you've wanted a pedicure, but hadn't wanted to fork out the money for the past three years to do it...well, today is your day.  Have you been wanting to go check out the new Contemporary Art museum downtown?  Yep, get on your way.  Your bathroom really needs a new paint color--grab a roll brush.  Start saving for that cruise.  Submit that college application, volunteer at the animal shelter, try out that new church.  You will never feel as good as you will in having it done! 

10 Guilty Pleasures

1.  An all ready piece of sliced chocolate cake with chocolate icing purchased at any grocery store, and then eaten in the car:-).

2.  When I need to take a break from books like The Attentive Life by Leighton Ford or The Liar's Club by Mary Karr I read John Grisham anything.

3.  Stationary, particularly postcards.  Be it purchased on-line, found in thrift stores, found in catalogs, seen in bookstores, if I like it, I buy it.

4.  Ribbon, especially for parties.  I tie bows around pitcher handles, the stem of any lamp, hand towel rings, vases,  and cloth napkins.

5.  Country roads.  Somedays I do not care that to fill up my tank it takes a full day's wages, I need a country road---even if it is the long way home.

6.  Naps.  Around 3pm.  One hour perfection.

7.  Pajamas, worn, all day.

8.  A year long House Beautiful magazine subscription.  I LOVE the interviews held with the architects and interior designers--What inspired them?  How did they bring the vision to surface?  How did they interpret their clients desires into something to live in?  All of it, I love it!

9.  Modernist Houses, touring them, all throughout North Carolina.  I am soon to become a member of www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.  I have travelled quite a few times over an hour to take part in photo cataloguing these homes.  It's just one way to preserve these amazing works of light and art. 

10.  An occasional season of The Bachelor.  Not so much The Bachelorette, but The Bachelor.  I think women are much more interesting and horrifically entertaining to watch cooped up in a house together, then a bunch of guy hard bodies walking around bumping into each other.

Beer Tasting

My hubs and I went beer tasting last week at, of all places, Whole Foods.  We had so much fun!  For 5 bucks each we got to taste 10 different beers, mainly summery brews.  Paired with the various beers were two types of cheeses and a crisp nut and fruit bread, that ate more like a cracker.  The gentleman leading the group of about 15 of us said that cheese was made less for wines and more for beers.  And I think I agree after our evening.
  We had a sheet before us that broke down each  beer by: appearance, smell, taste, mouth-feel, and overall drinkability.  I'm putting this post out there because I thought some of Ess Gee's descriptions were great--and truly his own.
  On one beer he described the smell like--"Lemon Pledge":-).
  On another beer smell he writes, "Like a humid morning".  (I'm like, what?  That's a good one!)
For our last beer we tasted, he described the appearance as "cappuccino" and the smell as "roasted".
We got such an education along with some really great flavors.  The only true beer that can ever be labeled as "Trappist" beer is a beer created within the walls of the monastery.  Not inside, not Trappist:-). 
Random facts of useless knowledge is sometimes the best way to spend an evening.  We would definitely do this again.