Officially Spring

Waking up at 9:30 was beyond amazing this morning. It’s my first official day on “vacation” and I started things off with a short 2.25-mile run on the treadmill. My plans were to also get in a Jillian DVD, but with the weather being so nice out (58 degrees!), it just seemed like so much more fun to make a cup of coffee and sit outside while reading the newspaper.

One story actually made me laugh, which is pretty rare for a newspaper. Apparently there was a woman in Florida who was fed up wit her son’s ~1.5 GPA in school. She forced him to go onto a busy street and hold a sign that said, “Honk if I need an education.” Now, investigators are looking into whether her behavior could be held against her, I guess. She didn’t seem to care though because people honked, and she seems to have gotten her point across. Pretty random, but pretty funny.

Most of the other news was depressing, as usual. But if I don’t read the newspaper every single morning I feel oddly out of sorts. I think that’s the journalism student in me talking.

Now, television, newspapers and Web sites are being dominated by the tragedy in Japan and the potential war between the Allies and Libya. I don’t want to put a damper on anyone’s day, but I’ve been thinking about both issues a lot lately. I’ve decided to donate some money to the Red Cross to support Japan. Though it will probably only be around $20.00, I believe that everyone can do just a little bit to help the Japanese overcome this horrible tragedy. I’m praying for the safety of everyone in Japan right now.

Paul came over during the afternoon, and instead of going for a walk, which was what we originally planned to do, we played Scrabble in my backyard.

Scrabble fever!

Three games later, Paul had beaten me 2-1. Wah wah.

Though my backyard is usually pretty peaceful, it was very noisy during all three Scrabble games. I kept hearing garbage trucks, lots and lots of birds chirping, random noises and a wild cat meowing. This cat was pretty creepy. It stared at us for a while, and then crept away. It looked like it was homeless because of the crazy beard it had. Seriously this was a jungle cat. Of course, I didn’t get a picture of it, but I did sneak up on a bird.

The rest of my day was filled with eating! Lunch was beyond delicious, thanks to muenster cheese.

Lunch at home

I melted two slices of muenster cheese on an everything bagel thin and then had some red pepper and sun-dried tomatoes on the side.

For dinner, Paul and I used a Groupon for the Greek restaurant Psistaria five minutes from my house. We ordered the kalamari to begin with because we both love squid. I ended up getting the roasted red peppers filled with a spicy feta sauce and a bowl of egg lemon soup. Both were so yummy, and the spicy feta sauce had a delicious bite to it. Yum!

I’m so stuffed right now, I feel like I could burst! I think that means that I need to lay in bed and get some reading done, no?

Has spring arrived for you yet? Any fun plans for the week? What’s your favorite thing to order at Greek restaurants?