Just a Minute: July 2013

I've been back at work for a month now. I'm enjoying being back for the most part, but coming up with a work/home life balance is next to impossible. I suspect that if you ever hear someone say they've got it down, then it's probably the husband of a woman going to bed at midnight each night, getting up at the crack of dawn, and eating the crackers she found at the bottom of her purse for lunch.

reading...Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. I thought it was great (many others did too, as it won a host of prestigious awards like the Man Booker Prize). It spans the period during Henry VIII's reign where he was married to Ann Boleyn, "the Great Pretender," and then looking to Thomas Cromwell to arrange a way out of the marriage so he can marry Jane Seymour. I really enjoyed Cromwell as the narrator, a man who is normally portrayed as a bad guy. Here he was very likable (apparently he's even more likable in the first book in the series, Wolf Hall, which I didn't read first). I haven't read Wolf Hall yet, but didn't need to for this book to be good.

listening...My current favorite song, Walking Blind by Aiden Hawken, has been running nonstop through my head this week.

Photo by Melissa Mai, friend of bride and wedding DJ

celebrating...I have a new Brother-in-Law! As of last weekend, my sister-in-law, Jenny, married her new hubby, Brandon, in a lovely and very personal outdoor wedding ceremony at a winery in Michigan. Among the items on the registry, the couple requested a kit of 20 essential Nintendo accessories in their wedding accent color (purple).

Photo by Ben Dearnley, Taste.com

cooking…I've been planning to make a Apricot Crostata for a couple weeks now. It's going to happen this week for sure though. Love the crostata because I don't have to have a pretty crust edge. I can rock the rustic look.