Some Relief and…Free Time?!

This past month has been extremely busy, but I experienced some surprise relief last week in class. In between Boise and LA, I had a paper to write and presentation to prepare. I am usually really ahead of everything, timewise, but with all of my travels this month I hadn’t had a chance to begin the paper. In class, the professor announced that she knew we could write and give a presentation, so she scrapped them! The original assignment was going to be to design a research study and present on it, but she changed her mind and asked only for a revised version of our prior paper, which I had gotten great feedback and a great grade on, so I didn’t need to alter much, and the hypotheses for the study we would have designed. And instead of a formal presentation, we’ll just get together (there are only 5 of us!) and chat about our prior paper. Pretty cool! She bought me hours and hours of time! 

Whew! So I have found myself with some free time! I have kind of forgotten what to do with it…but I’ve definitely been enjoying it. Nik and I hosted First Saturday this past weekend–it was fantastic. It was a pretty big gathering–maybe 14 to 16 people–and we had a blast. With that big a group, we generally end up playing games instead of watching a movie, and that’s just what we did. The large group downed several bottles of champagne and wine, went through dozens of beers, and had a great time playing a game called What’s Yours Like? (Natalie’s favorite game!). Nik helped me prepare a big Italian meal–chicken parm, pasta, salad, and garlic bread from scratch. Amy made and brought a huge tiramisu. People stayed pretty late and April and Seth ended up staying over, which I always love. 

In addition to hosting the party, I have watched some movies with Nik, done some shopping, watched some useless and enjoyable television, and cooked a bit. My most recent experiment was a recipe taken from The Newlyweds’ Cookbook, an engagement gift from Memere and Pepere. The recipe is for salmon with parmesean basil butter, but I decided to make the butter early. I had fresh basil that I didn’t want to go to waste before I had time to make the salmon, so I made it to go with some filet mignon that Nik made for us tonight. Very yummy!! I have plenty extra butter to have with the salmon sometime next week. 

Speaking of next week, we’ll be heading to LA! On the agenda: meeting with wedding planner and wedding-related meetings and tastings (INCLUDING CAKE!), dinner with Nana and Nonno at my dad’s house, haircut, cousin Milton’s wedding, Logan’s birthday party, Zena’s birthday party, and Father’s Day!