7 Quick Takes Friday

I know it isn't Friday but since it has been a Holiday Weekend and I was travelling on Friday (plus it was a work day for us US employees), I figured you could forgive me just this once:

--- 1 ---

Happy Easter all. My first rant is about the lack of a vacation for Good Friday. I truly do not understand some of the decisions that our lovely friends to the South have made and taking away a Easter Holiday is certainly one of those. Especially Good Friday. Is this not what the foundation of their country was built on? How can you have the celebration of Sunday without the blackness of Friday? Oh well Easter is all about bunnies, painted eggs and chocolate anyways - isn't it?

In all honesty though - I really felt like I missed this Easter. No Good Friday service being reminded of the ultimate sacrifice. No delicious Easter dinner with family and friends. No painted Easter eggs.

As such, it didn't really feel like a holiday weekend at all. I was just conveniently using that as an excuse above.

--- 2 ---

Speaking of travelling on Friday, I did meet a most delightful lady on the flight. She is teaching herself Spanish using the Rosetta Stone program. This is something that Jimmy and I have had on our to do list for a while and so I was interested to hear her take on it. Long and short, she loves it! She supplements some of her learning using an IPad program called Mind Snacks. So last night we downloaded the Mind Snacks app and I have already mastered 50 words. So I can count to 20. I know the months and days. I know my colours and will surely learn more mañana (that's tomorrow - uh huh it is!). Fun!! (p.s. for anyone whose interest is peaked, the app is free and has an initial lesson to try; if you like it you can download all 50 lessons for $4.99 and it will teach you basic conversational phrases)

--- 3 ---

So while I was looking for the Spanish Mind Snacks app, I came across the German Mind Snacks app. I might have downloaded it as well. And I just might have whizzed through the counting. Thanks gramps for prepping me!! I would love to learn German as well so this may be the perfect start. Now I might need to save up for an IPad of my own to use while I am travelling.

--- 4 ---

I have some exciting news! Well at least it is exciting to me - may not be so much exciting to all of you. I do not need to travel this week. The schedule was such that it was up in the air until 'last minute' and so it didn't make economic sense to pay the crazy fare for this week. 

I'm looking forward to making the most of my bonus week at home. Working hard during the day of course but since I am supporting Pittsburgh I am up and at it by 6:00 and then ready to relax by 4:00. Tonight is walk and a coffee with a dear friend. Tomorrow is cooking a yummy dinner for my cute hubby. We have plans to celebrate a friends new job, go visiting and enjoy having a week to catch up a little on that to do list that never seems to be fully complete.

--- 5 ---

I really miss cooking on the road. I try to get a bit of a fix on the weekend but with so much going on, it is often only one really nice meal. When I was home sick a couple of weeks ago, I hadn't eaten a home cooked meal in over 3 weeks. 3 weeks of salad without dressing wears on a girl!

As my week on the road nears the end, I find myself taking a few moments in the evening to peak at a few of my favorite cooking blogs and start to tag those recipes that I hope to try. What's up this week you ask? Butter chicken, stuffed chicken breasts, homemade pizza, sugar cookies using my new lavender vanilla sugar and a yummy couscous salad.

--- 6 ---

Another thing I miss while on the road is my blow dryer. Hotel blow dryers are dangerous and after fighting the odds for a few years I finally succumbed to having my hair caught in the blow dryer. Yes - caught. It's happened to me twice before and is not fun - ugh! The darn air intake on the back sucks in my hair and wraps it around the motor and it has only happened with crappy hotel blow dryers.

Please picture it - there I am bright and early in the morning needing to sacrifice some hair to this dangerous apparatus! It isn't funny people - it is not funny at all!

--- 7 ---

That's okay though, because I got a new pair of glasses. Hopefully that means people are staring at my face and miss the bald spot on the back of my head! It is my first new pair of glasses in 7 - 10 years I think! They are beautiful. They have yellow arms and black rims. I like them a lot! My favorite color is yellow. So they are cute brainy/funky which I hope reflects exactly who I am! Ha!