Happy Easter! We had a quiet day filled with work, grading, cooking and a few long walks. This photo is of the giant pot of beef stew that we cooked up this afternoon -- so dang delicious! In fact, here's the recipe. You should make this before it gets all warm and summer-like.For my internet share today, I'm pulling something from deep in the archives. See, I recently had to move my Google Reader to Feedly, since Google's getting rid of their service. I happily made the switch a few weeks back, and I was looking through old blog posts that I had saved in Google because I loved them, and this was one of my keepers. It's a wedding photographed from Luxembourg by the über talented Sean Flanigan. LOVELY.

Today started with the best food in town, a cuban breakfast from Victor's with my friend Stacy. I had the Cuban Hash, which includes seasoned ground beef simmered in creole sauce with green olives, raisins, capers plus two eggs and sweet plantains. And then I also had fresh Guava juice. I mean really, how could it get any better? YUM.And for the internet share of the day, I'm sending you over to see The Battle We Didn't Choose. This is not uplifting, I'm not gonna lie. But it's a reminder to tell every person that you love how you feel and hold those dear to you tight. You never know what's around the corner. Click on the first image, and then through the slideshow.

So this right here? This is what made that Kansas loss easier to swallow. I was waiting for this band, FIDLAR, to come on stage when the KU game went into overtime. Oh wait. Pause.How did I know the game went into OT? Because I was watching the whole game, live, ON MY PHONE, at a concert. People, let's relish how we live in the future, shall we? Because that right there was awesome. I mean, I was at my favorite venue, in my favorite spot, with my camera in one hand and a band about to hit the stage in front of me and the basketball game being viewed in my other hand. It's like the Jetsons over here. Except that if it were TOTALLY awesome, we would have won. Ahem.But, back to the show. So we lost the game during the first song, and while that was WILDLY upsetting, I simply chugged a beer from my buddy Kyle (yeah, I know beer has grains and I don't eat those and trust me, I will pay for it) and enjoyed one of the best rock'n'roll shows I've seen... in the past two weeks. Because while this was probably one of the best shows I've seen in Minneapolis (top 20 anyway), I did just get back from sxsw, so let's be real.Anyway! Doesn't it look like fun? When the lead singer crawls out on top of the crowd and hangs from the rafters, I am a happy, happy girl.For your internet share of the day, I'm going to share a fun song of theirs that the crowd went wild for. So turn it up and go dance around the kitchen, will you?Also, I'll post a full set tomorrow. Be patient. I'm sleepy.

It was a long day at work for both of us, so we treated ourselves to dinner at our favorite French spot, Barbette. They have the best steak in town, without a doubt. We were trying to analyze what makes the sauce and juices of this steak so good, and we are thinking it's either the massive amounts of wine or the massive amount of butter. Or both. Regardless, it's divine.Today's internet share of the day will take you to some gorgeous flower photography. Trust me, it's not what you're expecting.

Aaaaand we're back to Way Back Wednesdays. I really should have done a fresh shot today, since it's Merlin's 10th birthday. Can you believe my boy is ten years old!? But I didn't get home until after dark, and it's supposed to be 60 degrees this weekend (I KNOW! SIXTY DEGREES! I MIGHT RUN AROUND OUTSIDE IN MY SKIVVIES!) (Ok, not really.) and I thought I would likely take photos of him outside in the sunshine then instead.But I am just itching for the warm sun, and this morning I was thinking back to our last visit to Calilfornia for my niece's high school graduation. And then I was remembering the farmer's market there, which was by far one of the best farmer's markets I've ever been to, and I wanted to run a photo from that. And then I found this parrot! I shot him sitting on his owner's shoulder at the farmer's market that day. Pretty, eh?Oh man, you guys. I am so ready for summer and warmth and sandals and ice cream.And now for your internet hookup for the day, which I spaced out yesterday. Yeah, sorry about that. Anyway! This is a photo that made me laugh. I found it through the lovely Margaret, and while I really try not to be too politial on this blog, this photo does capture my feelings on the current supreme court case pretty darn well.

Man, today was a great day. Seriously!I woke up to a few wonderful emails full of good news and happy thoughts and good ideas, and then I headed into work, which was fantastic. Yup. You read that right.Some days lately, I've felt that my entire job is made up of really menial tasks -- fixing templates, aligning photos, just really basic tasks -- you know, getting the new computer system to work as well as the old one did. Today? Today I felt like I was actually doing my job.I finished designing a bunch of pages, scheduled a photo shoot in Los Angeles and worked on a model casting call for an upcoming shoot. In other words, I got stuff done. And that's what makes me happy. The photo above is from the casting call. All the girls that came were at least 5'9" and check out those heels! I felt like a shrimp next to them! I never feel tiny like this. Pretty funny.

After work tonight, Jamie and I ran over to Best Buy to pick up some Jawbone Ups. We've been pondering this for awhile, thinking of Fitbits and such, and I finally read such good reviews about the Up, that I decided to give it a shot. For those of you that don't know what it is, it's a bracelet that you wear all day and night and it measures how many steps you take, how active you are and how you sleep. It tracks your deep sleep, light sleep and how many times you wake up a night, as well as little things like vibrations to alert you when you've been sitting still for too long or the such. In other words, it's motivation to keep you active. We'll see how it goes.While I'm sure it will be much more motivating to move and walk more (which is awesome), personally I'm most interested in my sleep patterns. I wake up a lot at night with really graphic nightmares, and I'm curious how this thing tracks my sleep. How gruesome you ask? Last night I was being held down on a street corner in broad daylight while someone used a scalpel to dismemeber me hand by hand, then my feet and then they were cutting into my torso when I gathered the strength to try to wrestle the blade out of their hands with my mouth, which was getting shredded in the process and I could taste my own blood.Oh, I'm sorry. Is that too gruesome for breakfast? Yeah. I've been dealing with such nightmares my whole life, and this little device also tracks how well you sleep and compares it to locations and weather, so I'm highly interested.As for my internet share for the day, I'm going to send you over to NPR which is doing a "First Listen" on an artist I love named Telekenisis. The start of the album is a touch shakey, so please don't turn it off until you hit 1:15. That's when the power kicks in and everything gets happy :). It's the best I can do to erase that nightmare above from your memory (and mine).