Seasons Greetings, ya'll!

I just felt the urge to channel my inner Paula Deen. :-)

Hello out there blogger buddies, and happy holidays!!! Whatever you celebrated this week, I hope it was filled with love, laughter, good people, and all-around fabulousness. :-) I had a wonderful Christmas, and from the looks of it, you all did too!

Aside from all the festivities and celebrations, I've spent a large part of my time off from work being a leisurely Leslie. :-) AM workouts, relaxing afternoons, reading, writing, some errands, but nothing too strenuous. Exactly how I wanted to spend my time off! And I still have another week of it- woo-hoo! You know, for not doing all that much, it sure does seem to be flying by.... LOL. Tomorrow my sister is coming over to hang out and spend the night, and our exciting plans include going to Target (Target!!!!), going to Wegmans, making personal pizzas for dinner using Flat-Out Wraps (which, I've recently learned, the Giant near my apartment carries, which was very exciting to discover, because Wegmans stopped carrying them and that was very upsetting to me... at least now I know that I can get them nearby!), and watch Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, which I ordered off Netflix at her request. I've actually never seen this movie, and my sister says I just have to see it. It's on Comedy Central all the time, but I never want to watch movies I've never seen for the first time on basic cable, because they edit everything and cut stuff. So I don't get the full experience of the film. Anyway, so I rented that, and that'll be our evening! Aren't we exciting! And possibly a trip to Barnes and Noble the next day, because, well, we love books. And I'm looking for a specific book that was pilfered from my collection and I don't anticipate getting it back (long drama-filled story, not worth going into), and I still have a balance on a gift card, so I'm hoping to get another copy. It's SUCH a great book, one of my faves: The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures: 1001 Things You Hate to Love. It's hysterical!

Hey, so I went to Trader Joe's today and picked up two new products that I'm excited to try:

It's organic multigrain hot cereal/oatmeal (according to the package, it's both): its only four ingredients are rye, barley, oats, and wheat. It's my new work oatmeal. I've been lacking decent oatmeal at work- I had these nasty sugar-free instant oatmeal packets, and they were awful and not at all filling, so I was looking for a more substantial, tasty, and healthy oatmeal. Hopefully this is it! I do have to work on Wednesday, so I'll bring it with me and make a bowl and report back with my opinion. :-)

I also bought this:

Believe it or not, I've never had artichokes by themselves! I've had them in dishes, of course, and who doesn't love spinach and artichoke dip, but I've never had them by themselves. I'm not even really sure how to eat them or what to do with them, but I'm creative, I'll figure it out. :-) I'll take any suggestions though!

So quick book update- The Second Stage was boring. Not fun. I just wasn't feeling it. I think it was because I kind of felt like it was this political rant, and political feminism just isn't my cup of coffee... you know? The writer just seemed really angry at, well, everyone. She was very into "movements", LOL. I just wasn't into it at all. Which is a shame because I ordinarily love books of this nature. Oh well... they can't all be winners, right? :-) I might come back to it at some point, I might not. I know that my roommate had expressed interest in reading it, so I'll see if she wants to read it.

I didn't want to keep reading it, so I pulled out another title at random:

Sixteen: Stories about that Sweet and Bitter Birthday. It's a compilation of stories written by various authors about- you guessed it- being sixteen. I'm already halfway through it, and it's pretty good! I skipped/skimmed over a few stories that I couldn't really get into, but other than that, it's cute. What was being sixteen like for you? Did anyone out there actually ENJOY being sixteen, or was it just universally awkward for all of us? LOL.

Okay, time to gift-wrap my sister's presents. I am a notoriously awful gift-wrapper. But I do try... I don't try and copout with gift bags. :-)

Hope you're all enjoying your post-Christmas weekends!!!! :-)