So, is it obvious that I LOVE food?

I love weekends.  I really, really do.  Even when I spend most of them in varying amounts of pain (like this one, pinpoint headache leading into a migraine on Sunday).  There’s just something lovely about having two days to get things done, relax and make plans for the coming week.

The best thing about this weekend had to be our new grill!  Oh, how I love it.  I wasn’t in love with it at all during the assembly process.  What the manual indicated should take less than an hour turned into 4 with tiny little bits and pieces that didn’t necessarily stay together well and drawings in the instructions that made absolutely no sense.  It all came together eventually, despite my burning desire to toss it into the back yard and set it on fire.  So far we’ve grilled some beautiful butterflied shrimp, corn on the cob, chicken breasts, salmon burgers, veggie kabobs and a ribeye steak.  Now we’ve got grilled chicken for the whole week and I can have leftover salmon burgers for lunch.  Tonight I’m planning on making turkey burgers stuffed with blue cheese and some portabello mushroom caps.  I love having leftovers, especially delicious, grilled leftovers.  I also made a big batch of jasmine rice for the week — some of which I’ll probably do with some stir-fried tempeh and veggies and some which will turn into cilantro rice for burritos.  I made some guacamole as well, full of lemon juice and cilantro, with the last of my bag of avocados which were just at the point where they’re no longer good for eating right out of the shell.

We also got a decent pump for our bike tires… I’m looking forward to a lot more evening bike rides around our neighbourhood.

Other than that?  We had an awesome brunch at Sunrise, I watched Jesse play a lot of Red Dead Redemption (and I kinda admit to wanting to try to play it), ran a bunch of errands and bought more stuff for wedding-related DIY projects at Marshalls.  I think I finally figured out what I want to do with the placecards and programs… now to see if my printer at home can handle it.  Thankfully I just need black ink but I need to figure out how to work with awkwardly sized bits of cardstock.

Looking forward to a LONG weekend coming up.  We’re getting out early on Friday and have Monday off.  I think we’re going to drive down to Primm so I can browse for a rehearsal dinner dress at the Neiman Marcus outlet… maybe check out the Williams-Sonoma outlet (dangerous!).  We’ll probably take Sebastian back up to Mt. Charleston on Saturday… I’m really hoping to do Cathedral Rock before it gets too crowded.  It’s been weirdly cool all Spring this year but people will probably start heading for higher ground pretty soon.

75.

I am officially 75 days away from being a married woman.

I’m starting to realize that all of the big things are done.  We have a venue, a (delicious-sounding) menu, a DJ, a fantastic photographer, a wedding party, I have my dress, Jesse has his suit.  I even think I know how I’ll do my make-up (barely, just enough for pictures).  Incidentally, it is very weird to walk into the second bedroom and be confronted with two garment bags containing these things.  It’s like “Oh, huh… a wedding dress… I guess we must be getting close!”

It’s just the hard things left now.  The ceremony.   The vows.  The music.  I am having the hardest time with the music.  It almost makes me wish that music wasn’t so important to me — it’s such an important thing to me, I can assign basically every important moment in my life to an artist, an album, a song, a concerto or even a particular instrument.  Realistically I know it doesn’t have to be perfect… but I am going to try to get it as close to it as possible!

Work is busy.  Class is over.  It’s finally getting to be summer here and I’m hoping for just a little bit of rain before we have to say good-bye to the clouds for months.  I’m trying to do more, read more, enjoy things a little bit more.  I think it’s going to be a pretty amazing summer.

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE’S Sebastian.

I just had to post this picture I got of Sebastian this weekend as I think it nearly perfectly captures his personality.  Next to upload the pictures of him in the snow at Mt. Charleston so I can post them as well.

Goofy puppyface!

I’m really looking forward to training classes with him.  I know we’ve waited a long time but, to be honest, I think the wait was for a good reason.  He is SO much more comfortable with us now, even more than he was a few months ago.  We’ve done a lot of work with him on our own (he’s got Sit, Lie Down, Stay, Paw and a few other commands down) but mostly we’ve been working on making sure that he feels safe and protected and that he trusts us.  I think the hardest part of training will be getting him to focus on us instead of on all the other dogs who will be in his class!