At about 12:45 today I started having issues with a big project I was designing for vita.mn. Around 2:30, it got serious enough that I called in some tech help. By 3 pm we had filed a "ticket" with the corporation's IT department in Atlanta. When I left after 8 pm, none of it was resolved, and it looks like I'll probably need to start from scratch when I get into the office tomorrow after class, in the middle of deadline. Hooray! And also there was a big, heated meeting today where we went over our latest union contract at the paper. Always a good time.

So you can bet that when I was about to leave for the day (night?) and I realized a few of my closest friends were having dinner four blocks from my house, I was eager to crash their meal, eat some fries and partake in some wine. BEST DECISION OF THE DAY. Damn I love these people, and just like that everything is OK again. People: Cherish your friendships. They really put things in perspective.

What a day. I was so saddened by the bombings in Boston and so sucked into the news and the photos and man, I am so glad we didn't have twitter or instagram during September 11. I was designing the A section that day, and I was working on the photo spreads. Editing those photos was so tough, and I still think about some of the images I saw. A few of the photos floating around the internet today took me right back there.

So after Jamie got  home from work, we went for a walk to unwind. Sometimes a short stroll with those you love is just what the doctor ordered.

Man, this weather is dreary! Today we had snow, ice and rain -- and it's supposed to be this way all week long. And it's been this way for at least a week. When we booked that trip to the California desert in May, I thought we were booking it too late -- that we wouldn't need the warmth because Minnesota would be toasty and dry by then. It looks like I was completely, one-hundred percent wrong about that.

Most of you know that I prefer gray days to sunny ones, so that part isn't really getting to me. But the slick, wet sidewalks are annoying as I can't walk Merlin as much, and I'm almost all caught up on my TV. So today I went to the bookstore and bought a bunch of European fashion magazines for some inspiration as well as Grace Coddington's memoir. I am super excited to dig into that book.

For the internet share of the day, I'll send you over to Guy Aroch's fashion photography. I drool over these images.

How cute is this little girl? She's an 8-week-old black lab mix we found today at the Humane Society. Wait! Let me be clear. We did not adopt her. (But YOU* can!)

We were running errands right by the Golden Valley Humane Society, and we'd never been there before. We decided to go in and see what they had. We're not looking for a new dog (yet), but sometimes playing with puppies is a treat. Wait, who am I kidding?! Not *sometimes* but ALL THE TIME. Anyway, I'd be surprised if we got a new dog before summer. We're still pretty sad about Memphis, and we don't want a "replacement," if that makes sense.

Anyway, they had three litters of puppies at the humane society, and so we pulled one female out to play for a little bit. I love how enthusiastic pups are and how much fun everything is. This little girl was already retrieving! It was adorable.

After that we had the exciting day of visiting three home improvement stores plus a tile store to pick out some new faucets and tile for our bathroom. It reminded me of this.

*Should you want to adopt this cutie, her name there is Snow White and she's in with the puppies.

Ahhhh, I have finally wrapped up my 62-hour workweek. Sometimes I have weeks like this, and I just have to think of them like finals week in college. It's funny how I am still in that mindset.

Anyway! Today's job was something completely different than my normal day-to-day, in that I was shooting portraits of soccer players all day. Right? It never ceases to amaze me the fun jobs I end up doing. So I worked this morning on portraits of the staff memebers for Minnesota United FC, and this afternoon I shot images of the players. It was really fun in that a) I don't normally shoot something like soccer and b) these players are from all over the world, and it was fun to hear about their home towns. Off the top of my head, I talked to guys from Argentina, Malta, Bosnia, Italy, Brazil and Trinidad. How cool is THAT? And of course they all spoke perfect English. Man, I really need to perfect a second and/or third language.

This was one of my favorite shots of the day. Out of more than 3,700 images I took. Wow.

Hello winter. Again.

We woke up to a bunch of snow (and thunder!) and a *fantastic* commute into work. Since I knew it would take a little while, I left early and went around the lake to capture a few images. These ducks (and geese) were NOT happy about the current conditions. There was a lot of squawking, and really I can't blame them. Not exactly the weather you want to fly north for.

For my Internet share of the day, I'm sending you over to Yes and Yes, where my buddy Sara has written a great post about how to buy cheap clothes but make them look more expensive. Man I adore that girl.

Palm Springs in T minus 28 days, kids.

Yeah. Today kinda sucked! I went to bed last night hearing distant rolling thunder and woke up to SNOW. Like, not just snow falling, but like, no-more-grass-in-the-front-yard-because-it's-covered snow. Not cool, Mother Nature. Not cool at all.

Then I worked for 13 hours and had an ad corrupt my page at the very end of the day. And then I came home and discussed this 6-8 inches of snow we're supposed to get tonight. Let me tell you something: I am not shoveling in April. That's the rule. So it better melt fast, I say. And as we were talking, I kinda spaced out and we started remembering that it was only two years ago that we were in Mexico for my friend Julie's wedding. And we were fantasizing about that beach and those $40 massages and those amazing tacos on the beach. So that's the photo that you get today.

Playa del Carmen: I miss you so much.

Today's internet find (like most of them) came from my favorite Internet Archiologist, Miss Margaret. Check out these Japanese apartment buildings! She titled this "Living in the Matrix," and that is EXACTLY what it looks like to me as well. Plus? Holy cow do I feel over indulgent for my 3-bedroom house at the moment (she says as she skips from room to room dancing to rap music).

Oh! And speaking of me dancing like a fool to rap music, today a video was posted from one of Macklemore's shows in Texas. If you look carefully at about the 3:36 mark, you can see me having the time of my life. But you gotta look close, cuz there's a ton of people jumping around. Good luck :)

Tonight Jamie got to go to an NHL game for work, so I was gonna have the whole house to myself. Now, don't get me wrong. I love coming home each night to my handsome man, but sometimes the idea of having an evening alone to catch up on horrible television while eating takeout sounds marvelous. And this was one of those nights.

Except that I didn't get home from work until after 8:30, so I had about 45 minutes of scarfing down my thai food and watching trash television before Jamie got home (Heart of Dixie for those of you wanting to know just how much guilty pleasure TV I watch). Ah well, it was great to see him and not only was he a sight for sore eyes, but he changed the linens while I showered tonight, so I think I'll keep him.

For my internet share of the day, check out these awesome photo illustrations Margaret showed me! I am such a space nerd. I love these so much.