It's My Birthday.

Well ... not my birthday, birthday ... but it's the one year anniversary of my life as a blogger.

My first post was June 29, 2006, and I've been going strong ever since. It was pretty neat to take a walk through memory lane, and dance through some of my previous posts. The last year went by so fast, it's nice to have the blog as a testament to my trials and tribulations.

In honour of my anniversary, I decided that I'm going to make some changes to the look of my blog, but slowly and over time, so watch for a new look!

As far as news goes, nothing much to report here. Plugging away at work, no news yet about the transfer, and I'm looking forward to a July long weekend of camping and relaxation (via ATV use, of course).

I've been reading Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel for the first time ... which is funny, since I've almost read it so many times before. Friends of mine in high school LOVED this series, and I could have borrowed the books whenever I wanted, but it's almost like I've been saving them ... until now. And ... I love them. Very different reads ... but I'm really enjoying them. The kind of reading that stays with you throughout the day until you can get back to it and continue the adventure.

Also, I got an Alan Turing biography out of the library, and I'm so excited to start it. I know, it's a little bit high on the embarrassing scale, but I don't care. I no longer have any shame ... so don't even try.

I've really been thinking about the book I've been reading, In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honore. It has really helped me with some of the life decisions that I've had to make lately, and really forced me to think critically about my future, and about how being faithful and honest about priorities is really a good thing.

As a law student, I don't want to fall into the trap of feeling as though I MUST work 20 hour days in order to "get ahead". I don't personally believe this, and I don't ever want to work for a place that would try and make me believe this (a la http://www.anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com/) . Not sure if this is naive, but certainly something that's staying in the front of my mind.

In this book, there's a whole section on slow cooking, which makes me think that Hubs and I have been missing out on an opportunity to really make our meals events ... to really take pleasure in the choice of ingredients and the preparation of our meals, and to turn cooking into a joy rather than a chore. This is something that I must work on.

As a kick start to this, I've added a new blog to the sidebar:

http://definitelynotmartha.blogspot.com/

It's a cuisine blog written by a fellow poster on a forum that I frequent, and I'm looking forward to going through it and trying out a few of her works of art!

We live within walking distance of the Calgary Farmer's market, so I vow to take advantage of this resource ... and branch out a little with my culinary prowess. I'd love to take some cooking lessons (especially with Jason ... how fun). I've taken a vegetarian workshop at the Cookbook Co. Cooks before (which was awesome), but they fill up so fast, and Jason and I are pretty committed to our team sports schedule over the summer months (starting in two weeks I'm doing soccer, ultimate Frisbee, and beach volleyball ... exciting). We'll see how it goes.

Oh ... oooh oooh oooh ... how excited am I about the movie Stardust that is coming out August 10th. I read Neil Gaiman's book (of the same name) back in Saskatoon, and loved it dearly. I'm just starting to hear things about the movie, and they all seem to be pretty good. Really seems to be a star-studded cast, VERY excited. Neil Gaiman has some movie Q&A on his journal, which is fun to read through.

Anyhoo - have a good long weekend everyone. I'll be back on Tuesday, hopefully with some sweet pictures to show you how I'm doing with handling my quad!!!