today: the checked off items.

• Sleep until 9:30am. Become crabby and disgusted by my own slothfulness. Vow never to sleep this late again.
  
  
• Review and reprioritize to-do list while watching Tyra Show episode about the perils of smoking while pregnant. (Embarrassing.)
  
  
• Swing by the office to check work e-mail and make use of laminating machine.
  
  
• Wind up giggling over co-worker's strange mail-order catalog full of bra extenders and hooting lawn owls. Decide I'm the least professional girl ever.
  
  
• Head to The Livery (above) for hilarious lunch with co-worker--a former lifeguard. Learn all kinds of frightening stories about waterpark hygiene. Make the difficult decision to never swim in public water again. People are animals!
  
  
• Visit Sam's Club for the fifth time this week. Chat with uber friendly check-out girl.
  
  
• Target escapade numbero quatro for the week. Lemons, olive oil and picture frames.
  
  
• Attempt to hang twinkly party lights in parent's backyard. Climb over "jungle gym" garage full of filth in attempt to plug light strand into an outlet...discover plan is flawed. Crawl back over filth...curse like a sailor.
  
  
• Discover, over cutting boards full of tomatoes and mozzarella, that grandma and I share same disdain for double dippers and general lack of food etiquette at parties. Discuss acceptable alternative dipping options.
  
  
• Indulge in a wine cooler. Freak a little about giant to-do list for tomorrow.
  
  
• Indulge further in said wine cooler. Call it a night.

Hope your weekend is shaping up to be tops! :)

all in a day.

Vacation day one is drawing to a close. It was beautiful...but busy. If I possessed serious magical powers, and could have created an accurate to do list last night for the things I'd do today, here's what it would have looked like:

• Sleep until 8am. Note that I would be the friendliest person alive if every day started this way.
• Actually run a curling iron through my mane.
• Finish whipping up ten tablecloths for anniversary party.
• Stop by the office to take care of a five minute task...end up socializing.
• Go out with co-workers for an incredible pizza buffet.
• Realize that I may be slightly pathetic for hanging out at work on my first day off. Decide not to care.
• Mold sister's hair into some sort of updo for a rehearsal dinner. SHALACK with hairspray.
• Run to the store to buy groceries for party...awkwardly dodge several people I don't have time/want to talk to. (Yes. I'm one of those people.)
• Fill entire living room with Martha Stewart pom-poms. Swear off pom-pom-making for all eternity.
• Watch Never Been Kissed for the second time this week.
• Swoon over Michael Vartan and incredible kiss with Drew at the pitcher's mound. Wonder if any kiss in real life looks that good.
• Give up on to-do list. Promise to recommit myself to checking off its remnants with an unstoppable zeal tomorrow AM.

turn out the light.

As I crawl into bed tonight, I can't help but feel thankful. When I awake in the morning, eleven glorious days of vacation lie ahead of me. A vast expanse of time that I'm sure will go all-too-quickly, but sitting here right now it feels like forever. Days that will be filled with (somehow) pulling off a 25th anniversary party for my parents, two years of best pal catch-up, and perhaps (finally) washing my car.

Ah. This is living.

just a little monday dreaminess...

(photo via one love photo)

Someday, if and when I tie the knot...I would be ecstatic if my photos exhibited even the tiniest sliver of this caliber of dreaminess.

Goodness gracious, girls. Follow that link for a little Monday pick-me-up!

And, if you're in the mood for a little romantic "there's-still-hope-for-the-world" story, read this sweet tear-jerker about a 90 year old couple and their lost wedding ring...the last line just got me. So sweet.

peony love.

A trip to the market this morning made for a fabulous opportunity to snatch up a few summery blooms to spruce up my place. This perky pink peony smells incredible, and is therefore my favorite of the bunch!

My very, very best pal will be in town in a week, and it's been nearly two years since we've seen each other. I am SO JAZZED! But, I'm in overdrive to get my place spruced and sweet. I know she's required to love me whether I live in a box or a palace, but somehow I think that friendship agreement is null and void if she arrives and the dishes are overflowing, the laundry is waiting to be washed and there's a pasta salad from two weeks ago lurking in my fridge. (Um, I can't believe I just shared that with you.)

Happy weekending!

back on the ground.

(At the top of Cana Island Lighthouse.)

What a perfect weekend. It was so entirely tough to come home. We spent a fair chunk of time strategizing ways we could get out of returning to work on Monday (we eloped!...no, too manipulative...we've both contracted food poisoning!...too obvious...), but in the end found ourselves on the way back to little Eau Claire by Sunday night. In between podcasts and playlists, we engaged in some very deep (note the hint of sarcasm) conversation:

Me: Isn't it weird that of all the places in the world, we live in Wisconsin?

Gabe: It's weird that I live in Wisconsin. I moved here. From CALI-FORN-IA.

Me: I know. Wisconsin is such a nerd state. Like...we live here.

Gabe: and....

Me: When we tell people where we're from, they probably think we're farmers.

Gabe: .....

Me: I just feel like we're so much cooler than that.

Gabe: You're a state snob.

Maybe I have tendencies to state snob, but I don't mean to indulge in them. It just strikes me every time I return home from traveling...my family and friends, my job, most of my memories...in short, nearly my entire life exists between exit 59 and exit 70 off a silly old Wisconsin Interstate. A place that 95% of the world couldn't find on a map. It always feels so small.

But truthfully. At the beginning of my twenty third year, I'm becoming comfortable with this. In time, I'll leave this place...so now I need to enjoy the uncomplicated time when practically everything and everyone I love is tucked away in a land of farms, fields and barns. Safe and sound...here in this beautiful bubble. :)

enchanted.

I was right...DOOR COUNTY! I've only been in Door County for a little over 12 hours, but I'm already gaga for it. Here are a few snaps I took last night:

This is the view from our hotel...white picket fence and all. I swear to you, I have never seen a more beautiful sky in all my life! Yesterday it was perfectly cerulean blue with the softest cottonesque clouds you can imagine.

It was so tough to choose a restaurant for dinner; there are an abundance of options here, but we wound up at Harbor Landing. It's actually an old house converted into a restaurant, and it was so, so charming. All of their ingredients are local and as organic as possible...our waiter knew where practically everything on our plates had originated. So fascinating! They serve fresh bread from Sister Bay, a few miles up the peninsula, baked the day before. (Delicious!) Get this: they served it with garlic and scallion butter and...beets. I probably haven't had beets since my mother force fed them to me at age 2. The combo was fabulous, and made me sorry I missed out on beets for the last 20 years....

Gabe ordered the Bacon Encrusted Catfish, and devoured it in no time. Typically, the smell of fish makes me yak, but this looked and smelled incredible. While we were dining, we discovered that our waiter spoke fluent German, which we witnessed as he conversed with the sweetest elderly couple traveling abroad from Germany. I wanted to hug them all.

For dessert (which we never splurge for, but did here!), I picked out the Berry Tart, served with fresh homemade blueberry and ginger ice cream. These berries were, like, fresh off the plant. Isn't it funny how you can taste freshness? Overall dining experience: incredible, charming, delicious and filling. In short--flawless.

We ran down to the bay after paying our bill as quickly as possible to catch the little sliver of sunset that was left. It only lasted about 10 minutes, but it was gorgeous.

We're hoping the rain holds tonight, so we can watch the fiery pink sun slide behind the cool bay. Hope your weekend is tops. :)

whisked away...

(door county harbor photo via here)

Gabe has a tradition of opting out of your typical boxed birthday gifts in favor of an experience or day trip of my choice...I love this tradition. But Gabe has taken the reigns this time, and the only clues I've been given are that I needed to take Friday off of work, prepare for a drive of between 3-10 hours (?) and plan to be gone until Sunday evening.

...I think it's going to be Door County, WI, the sweetest little peninsula on Lake Michigan. And if it is, I will be so jazzed. I've been wanting to go for ages, but have never made the trip. I've been not-so-secretly dropping hints about the following places:

This wacky Swedish restaurant...

(photo via here)

Yes, that is a goat on the roof. Goats. Eat. On. The. Roof. This blows my mind, and I might just be the happiest girl on the planet if I got to experience this.

The Cana Island Lighthouse...

(photo via here)

...and its fabulous old winding staircase. The website states that if climbing to the top of this bad boy, open toed shoes are 'strongly discouraged'. 

Every finger is crossed that we'll be heading east to Lake Michigan, but regardless of where we wind up, it's going to be a memorable time. Gabe is a romantic, silly and thoughtful fellow, and I'm excited to see what is in store!

Several of my friends and co-workers are convinced that Gabe is going to get down on one knee this weekend, which makes me laugh. I told them I'd pay them each fifty dollars if it happened...because I am 110% confident this will not happen. However, if it did happen, I'd be up you-know-what-creek without a paddle. I would probably have to pawn the ring to pay off my friendly gambling debts...