my sister and winston the dog are coming to visit for my birthday weekend!  it is shaping up to be the best. weekend. ever. !!!

your internet procrastination for the day:

baby + dog in the same costumes = adorable

brooklyn magazine thinks these are the best books to represent each state - i love it!  i've read 19 of them, which makes me think i should become best friends with the author of this piece, since we have similar taste in books.  i'm adding a few from this list into my amazon wishlist!

“The cure for anything is salt water - tears, sweat, or the sea. ”
—Isak Dinesen

a photo a day

i'm a traveling girl…the weekend after my trip to florida, i went to DC to see my TIP friends…and took exactly zero pictures of my TIP friends.  i am bad at this whole documenting-the-fun business.  but suffice it to say that we wore yoga pants all day every day, played with a little kitten, played tons of board games, caught up on each others' lives, entertained an almost-two-year-old, and cooked and ate delicious food.  i have some really special groups of friends in my life, and this is another group that i wish lived closer together.

i did take some pictures one night while i was there - when my cousin sara and her baby nico came to dinner!  this baby has style (he also has a fedora!):

my TIP-friend eric's two year old, nora, loves babies.  and she insisted on holding nico.  i was like, "they are almost the same size.  how is she going to hold him?"  eric explained that this is what she meant - HA.  nico was happy to comply:

a photo a day

last weekend i went to florida with some of my duke friends!  it was awesome.  we ate and drank and sat on the beach and played games and caught up, and the weekend ended far too quickly.  i took exactly one picture - shortly after chauffeur Q picked me up at the airport and drove me back to our condo - and this is it:

i wish i lived close to these friends every day of the year!

my new obsession: a new podcast called serial.  it's made by the producers of this american life, which i love, and the premise is familiar in tv but not in modern radio…their website says, "Serial is a podcast where we unfold one nonfiction story, week by week, over the course of a season."  this first season is about a murder of a high school girl in baltimore in 1999.  her ex-boyfriend (also a high school student) was found guilty of murder and has spent the last 15 years in prison.  but did he do it?  episode 1 covers the suspect's alibi.  episode 2, his break up with the victim.  episode 3, the location where the body was found.  it's really high quality, really personal, and I AM HOOKED.  you must listen.

i found this article fascinating - who knew i would want to read all the way to the end of a long-ish article about bananas? how the global banana industry is killing the world's favorite fruit

October 2nd + 90 degrees = dislike. Fall - where are you??

september: 23 & 24

it's october?!  of course, a month ago i was saying it's september?!  where the heck is the time going.

this month i read:

winter of the world, by ken follett (the second in the series…didn't love it QUITE as much as the first one, but i was still reading at full speed to find out what happened.  the third book was just published, but i think i need to wait another month or two before i read it.  have to spread out the enjoyment.  i highly recommend this series if you like historical fiction!)

eleanor & park, by rainbow rowell (omg this book was awesome.  it's a young adult novel, and another one where i was reading frantically to find out what would happen.  i loved the author's voice and found the characters totally endearing.  when i finished, i immediately texted a friend from work who also read the book to debate what the ending meant.  it's another one that i would highly recommend!)