i had the best dinner ever last night.

a generous co-worker gave me fresh green beans from her garden.
boil about an inch of water in a pot.
drop in green beans with the little curly ends cut off.
boil uncovered to desired tenderness [i left mine pretty crunchy].
drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper.

seriously, i could eat it every day for the rest of my life.

hooray!
for some reason, for about 4 years i have really wanted a pair of boots.
flat, brown boots that you tuck your jeans into, or which look perfect with a skirt.
[granted i never wear skirts, but i have been working on that.]
i have regretted for 4 years not buying the perfect pair of flat, brown eddie bauer boots on sale for $70.
i talked myself out of it with some stupid reason like "i would hardly wear them anyways, so maybe i should spend the money on food."
well...if i am still thinking about them 4 years later, then maybe i should have caved.
so, last fall i spied these in a catalog:



but they were $170.
i was not about to spend 1/3 of my rent on them.
so i google shopped them repeatedly and watched the price drop, but never in my size or at a palatable price.
[and it was really easy to talk myself out of them.]
then they were on sale! for $114! in my size!
but i told myself no, there are better things to spend your money on.
and then they were gone.

and i regretted it.

yesterday i looked them up again, and they were back on the site in my size and i have enough tip money from sailing to afford them [tip money is designated for purchasing special things].

they are on their way.


yesterday i made lemony zucchini goat cheese pizza for dinner.
it was good, but i would not recommend putting half again as much cheese on it just because it comes packaged that way.
and i burnt the heck out of the roof of my mouth.
next up: zucchini bread!

on friday i made the mistake of running 5.5 miles after not running consistently for about 3 months.
i am still regretting it, but i am excited that i can now do the fall river road run without a commute.
i saw a painted turtle on the way down the hill and it made me irrationally happy.
i think the term snout was coined with turtles in mind--their little pokey noses embody everything that the word suggests.

we watched fireworks from the breakwall which is always a treat because they go off literally over you head.
it's like watching them with 3-D glasses [minus the glasses]--they're not flat against the sky, you are essentially inside of them.
fortunately we did not get hit by any falling embers.

i might be going to greece [or some other very pleasant place] this winter for two weeks, all expenses paid.
someone we took sailing wants to employ nathanael and i to charter a boat in some far flung location.
they rationalized that if we went with a 57-foot beneteau it would be perfect because we would each get about 20 feet of boat.
i agreed emphatically.

i made mini soft pretzels on friday, they turned out great.
the only bad part is you have to eat them all within 2-3 days, so i have been subsisting on white flour all weekend.

the first 7-day workweek of the summer and already feeling sleep-deprived, but maybe this will be my year: my legs may just get tanned.