I realize that Feb. 26 is probably a little too early to be wishing (asking/begging) for the end of snow storms. But a girl has to have hope!

Wouldn't it be lovely if this was the last snow of the season?
It doesn't even have to be warm - I'll take a snowless 33 degrees for a couple of weeks!
But I'm really tired of the snow and wish it would just go away!

Wedding planning is going slowly.
There are so many things I just don't care about
I just want to get married - not worry about ribbons for the favors!
But this piece was just the thing to brighten my day.
Excerpt posted here for my future reference/benefit!

Pretty much everything in the world is unnecessary. I'm tempted to say everything in this world is unnecessary, but I'll wait to the end to say that.

For starters, pork loin in a tomatillo & chipotle sauce is unnecessary. So are pine cones. Golf is unnecessary. Golf really is unnecessary. The accordian is unnecessary. Churches sitting on the edge of a hill overlooking a bay of water are unnecessary. Panes of glass reaching 20 feet into the air. Black and white photography. An Armani suit. An Ethiopian gold cross. Medieval chanting in Latin. All unnecessary.

You know what else is unnecessary? The 1662 Book of Common Prayer. It's nice, but not necessary. Not really. Seriously. We appreciate it. It helps us, but ultimately unnecessary. And priests? They're not necessary either--not to formalize a marriage vow. That only happened post Council of Trent.

The Celtic goose and the paisley design and a 10 Year-Old Tawny port are unnecessary. John Keble's poetry is unnecessary and he lived from 1792-1866, so he should know. China is definitely unnecessary--both kinds.

The cha-cha-cha is ridiculous. Nobody needs cha-cha-cha. Nobody would ever die if cha-cha-cha never existed. And I hate to say this, ladies, but chocolote is thoroughly unnecessary. Not milk, not white, not dark, not bitter, not any frufy kind of it, none of it. Deal with it.

All the flowers in this world are categorically unnecessary. They don't need us, we don't need them. I wish them gone.

Small talk is out. Trucks should never have been invented in the first place. And calligraphy is for people who can't handle the straight truth.

Glitter is for sissies.

And every single thing I've mentioned here is a part of our wedding. None of it is necessary, not a lick of it.

You may think I'm exaggerating but I'm not. I'm dead serious. You know the only thing we need to be wedded? It's this: I stand in front of Phaedra, she in front of me, and we say, "Do you want to get married? Yes." And we're married. That's it. Two people witness it and we're through. Worked for the first family east of Eden, works for us.

We don't need colors, we don't need fancy sounds, we don't need tasty foods, we don't need special movement, we don't need flowers that smell good. We don't need art. We don't.

And we don't need frolicking underwear.
That was bonus.

Read the Rest

My Beloved and I made (and then ate) these fries last night.
And they were yummy!
You should try it out RIGHT NOW

4 medium potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried marjoram
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Cut the potatoes into long strips, about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch on each side. Toss with olive oil. Add seasoning and toss again to coat.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, tossing several times during the cooking process. The fries are done when they are a light brown, cooked through and a bit crispy on the outside.

If you find your working relationships deteriorate as the day wears on, take a nap. In a study yet to be published, Matt Walker from the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues showed people pictures of faces expressing different emotions, including fear, anger, sadness and happiness, and asked them to rate how emotional they thought these faces were. They did this at midday and again at 6 pm. Participants were significantly more sensitive to angry and fearful faces at the second session. However, this change did not happen if volunteers were allowed a 90-minute lunchtime nap during which they managed to achieve REM sleep. What's more, these people also became more receptive to happy faces. Walker concludes that REM sleep refreshes our civilising emotional reactions. "Sleep is essentially changing the magnetic north of your emotional compass, in a good way," he says. Full Article

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to ,ake us love one another"
- Jonathan Swift

This weekend the temperatures (and wind chills!) were above freezing.
AND fresh ripe strawberries were on sale at the grocery store

I know this seems little and insignificant - but having lots of sunlight, and the "springy smell" of melting snow, and the juicy taste of fresh strawberries (in February!) make for a happy Julie.

There's still a long way to go until spring. But tody was a refreshing break from winter that made me happy!

And thus concludes this mundane tale.