After getting snowed out the first time we finally had my birthday party yesterday. It was fabulous, possibly the best birthday party I’ve ever had.
Adam and I went into Manhattan early yesterday morning to get our taxes done (hooray for refunds!). We got a hotel in the city so we could stay overnight and not stress about getting the train back. That Priceline pick your price feature is awesome.
Adam and I are definitely foodies, and we’ve been trying to find a balance between sensible home-cooked meals and the more outrageous things I cook (I don’t even want to think about how many calories are in my Mac ‘n Cheese). I’d been talking to my doctor about that when I was in for the flu in January, and she’s also a big foodie who struggles with the same thing. So she suggested we try Cooking Light for some go-to healthy weeknight meals and then splash out on the more decadent things occasionally. So I signed up for a subscription, and this beef dish is the first thing I tried. And it’s really good. It’s 344 calories a serving if prepared exactly the same way as the recipe. Adam and I don’t eat mushrooms, so I just left those out. And since I’m the world’s worst pasta measurer, it’s possible there were some extra egg noodles. But still, this was quick and good.
When I started at this job last September, kindergartners had never checked out library books. I didn’t really understand why they wouldn’t since they are learning to read. Of course they need books! But it was my first year, and by the time I was settled enough to do anything about it February had arrived.
Read more on This Month with Kindergarten: Our First Checkout…
This was the most fun I’ve had at the movies in quite a while.
I was getting really nervous about the film adaptation of one of my absolute favorite children’s novels of recent years. I love all things Percy Jackson, and I’ll go ahead and commit the blasphemy of saying that at times I love him even more than Harry Potter. I am a huge HP fan, too, but sometimes those books (and movies) can be so English that I myself start to feel like I have ADHD. Hermione’s restrained indignation, Snape’s perfectly articulated villainy, Harry and Ron’s wide-eyed, schoolboy senses of humor. Sometimes I want to bury myself in those characters and not come out, and sometimes it all just makes me…itchy. So when Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson, a street-smart New Yorker with a more relaxed, jeans-and-hoodie sense of humor, burst onto the literary scene with The Lightning Thief, it was kind of like exhaling for a Jersey girl like myself. It was funny, quick, mischievous, and with just enough attitude to appeal to me. Percy Jackson is my people. So the film adaptation is a big deal.
Read more on Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief…
I used the gift certificate from The Container Store that my mom gave me for Christmas (plus some extra) to stock up on the non-Christmas wrapping paper to go into my rotation. I love these prints and patterns, and I love the quality of their wrapping paper. So much fun!