Redemption in a crepe

For anyone worried about the state of my mental health after the falafel incident, take heart. I have pulled myself up out of the depths of dispair, out of the bottom of the barrel, with the help of breakfast.

With the hot oil burns still on my finger to remind me of my total, complete falafel failure, last night I felt like I really needed to do something that would be fabulous, delicious, and make me feel better about my kitchen prowess. The answer was strawberry crepes with whip cream, home fries and bacon. Homey, comforting, delicious - just what the doctor ordered! And really, it's not possible to go wrong when bacon is in the equation, is it? It came off without a single hiccup. The strawberries marinated in their own juices and sugar, until they sat patiently in their perfectly sweet little bath. The crepes came out exquisitely browned from the skillet. Neil cooked the bacon to absolute perfection and then we used the bacon fat to fry up the potatoes to a delicious, browned crunch, sprinkled with Johny's and some pepper. At the last second, I whipped the cream in the Kitchenaid, with just a hint of sweetness, and we sat down to a perfect meal. It was just what my bruised/burned ego needed.

Neil is in his final week of classes, and as each day gets ticked off the list, I get more and more excited to have him to myself for the entire summer! No more critique deadlines, paper deadlines, gallery deadlines. Three whole months where he will be available on Sundays and Saturdays! Marital bliss will be ours. We have quite a travel agenda lined up - in June we are returning home to Portland for a weekend and a couple of nights out at Cannon Beach with the whole fam (always a good time at Cannon Beach). Then, at the end of June we head to Ottawa, Canada to visit my best friend for a weekend and will day trip to Montreal, as well, which I think feels a lot like a European city. In mid-July, we will road trip back up to Portland again to partake in the festivities at my sister's wedding. And then, at the end of July, we will celebrate our 7th anniversary with a 6-day trip to NYC. We're both really looking forward to that trip - I haven't been since I was little and Neil was there for a weekend while working at Nike, but he was working the whole time. We will thoroughly enjoy being tourists.

In between all the out-of-state travel, I hope we can squeeze in lots of camping trips. We'd like to head back south to Big Sur and camp right on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and explore Hearst Castle. Also we'd like to head back north towards Mendocino and the beautiful scenery up there. And finally, east towards Lake Tahoe - an area we have yet to explore. We can't really go west, as we're about as far west as you can go. :) As you can see, I plan to maximize my time with Neil before he heads back to school in September.

Also, Neil will do some work for the Foundation (where I work) starting next Tuesday, with the possibility of further work after this - which is GREAT news! With the economy the way it is, I figured that I would have an unemployed husband on my hands, which I guess is not much different from his status right now... So - YAY!

My birthday is this weekend - the dreaded 3-0. Or 20-10, as some people like to refer to it (as in... I'm not actually 30, I'm only 20-10). We have a little get-together planned at the meadow at Fort Mason on Sunday. It's a potluck and hopefully we'll have some lawn games - boche ball and whatnot - to play. It should be nice. I really don't have any worries about turning 30, either. When I turned 25, I was totally freaked out about 30, but every year, I worried about it less and less. It's just another year. And I think the 30's will be a great decade - a time for finally settling into life (at some point during the decade) and putting down roots somewhere. Neil and I should both be finished with school forever (hopefully), and ready to really move forward together. For most of our 7 years of marriage, one of us has always been in school, or trying to get into school. It will be nice to put that period behind us. Neil might disagree. :)

Tomorrow is the Farmer's Market where tomatoes (!!) have finally appeared. There's nothing like a fresh tomato. And tomorrow might be the day that I harvest some lettuce from my garden. Exciting times!