Eat, Love and Work?

Based on popular demand (one person counts as "popular demand" I believe) I'm finally getting my act together to post this month. What, Facebook isn't good enough now? Only 26 days in. This month has been jam packed with travel, food, friends and work of course. Perhaps I should start at the beginning.

As a little bit of an early birthday present I got a promotion at work, so that's pretty cool. I'm loving having more responsibility.

The husband and I spent the winter holidays and my birthday back east. Fun fact: I celebrated my 25th birthday and my uncle who I share my birthday with celebrated his 52nd! What are the odds that the first birthday we ever celebrate together is 52-25!?

Shortly after returning home I got a call from a television show I had applied for on a whim which is hosted by Gordon Ramsay, MasterChef. It was completely unexpected and, in fact, technically I had missed the application deadline. There were no open calls in San Francisco so I figured I had just wasted my time. Getting a call in order to come to this try out with an arranged time seemed pretty promising. After some debate, I decided to go ahead and make the trip down to Southern California to give it a go. I was able to fly in and spend the weekend with my parents who let me use their kitchen and then took me to Hollywood for the try out with my dish. I prepared grilled lemon herb marinated chicken thighs over a red quinoa salad with arugula, avocado and Parmesan cheese. Unfortunately, my personality is not as exciting as my dish was and I have not been selected (or they are running really late on telling me). However, the trip was a success as we made a visit to Pink's Hot Dogs, a Hollywood legend. Of course it's always nice to spend time with my parents as well.

After getting a little taste of Hollywood, the following weekend we celebrated our friends' daughter's first birthday. It's a very special thing to be involved and watch a child grow up. Every time we see their baby she's doing new exiting things.

Last weekend we had a gathering with our friends since we hadn't seen most of them since the wedding (and some who weren't able to invite to the wedding). It was a success except that we meant to have people help us drink some of the extra wedding wine and we broke even or gained some. Good to know we at least have generous friends!

This weekend we're going to hopefully see the husband's sister and have a housewarming party to go to on Saturday night. Next weekend we're hosting Superbowl.

Next week I'm starting water polo practices for a masters women's water polo league. I'm really excited about being back in the water, on a team and exercising regularly.

There you have it. The January in brief (so far) update.