Thursday 13: Mid-Spring snapshot(s)

Life post-dissertation has been strange and glorious. I’m finishing up revisions, applying for jobs, and reconnecting with my usual Spring pursuits–organizing, gardening, piling up donations for Goodwill. This year, I’ve also done a fair amount of celebrating. A bit of travel, a bit more blogging (thank gawd), a lot of reading, plenty of Netflix marathoning (more on Downton Abbey later). Like I said, glorious.

For this Thursday 13, some of the highlights:

1. A recent photo:

Disney magic with my sisters!

2. Latest obsession:

My she-devil friend Heather introduced me to this absolutely terrible gelato. I will never forgive her because now I’m confident my pants will never ever fit again.

3. Victory:

The day I defended my dissertation and became Dr. Blue Muse.

4. Victory steak:

A Redden tradition- Victory steak. All hail Mr. T’s filet preparation skills.

5. Celebrations:

Nothing better than crazy screaming on roller coasters.

6. Recent reads:

Post-defense I’m DELIGHTED to be reading something other than my dissertation drafts. Lately, I’m listening to Harry Potter and reading Arlie Hochschild’s “The Outsourced Self.” Next week, I get to see Dr. Hochschild speak about her work. So exciting!

7. Quintessential Spring:

Someone give me a gardening gold star. I grew these ranunculus blooms from scratch! And tulips, too. Sigh.

8. Down memory lane:

All hail the Malvini sisters’ incredible fashion sense. Cleaning out the garage has generated not only laughs, but a new blog series: Flashback Fridays.

9. The most expensive pooch on the planet:

We took Goliath in for a teeth cleaning last week and he came home with only four teeth. Poor pup contracted a bad infection and the vet yanked most of his chompers out. Luckily, he’s doing just fine and will be back on dry food soon. Sadly, this dog mom’s bank account is nearly as empty as G’s mouth.

10. Christmas tree status:

Gulp, still UP.

11. Travels:

A lovely Spring day overlooking Donner Lake.

12. True love:

In choosing seedlings for my veggie garden, I deigned, for the first time ever, to plant yellow squash. Ickle yellow squash that my dear Mr. T adores. That is true love, people.

13. An experiment:

Yours truly is HELL BENT on getting a good crop of tomatoes this year. Sadly my backyard garden is too shady to produce bumper crops of these beauties, so I’m bringing ’em out front. I planted the tomatoes with crushed egg shells, bone meal and fish emulsion. If that doesn’t work, I give up!

xoxo,
shawna