It’s been a while, huh? Having returned a couple of days ago to my first Omaha visit off the back of 5 nights in Boulder, CO for the New Year found me full of mucus and lacking energy. It’s nice to be home.

The New Year brought amazing gifts, like meeting my good friends’ child, who just may be the Little Buddha. I’m not kidding. I have never met a more happy, bouncy, smart, calm, fun, loving, joyous, rhythmic kid in my life. In the land of beautiful people with beautiful kids (Boulder, CO), this sweet one-year old stops people in their tracks and creates lines in the airports baggage claim area so that admiring passengers can meet her. No joke. Kinda crazy, really. Look:

Although I am about nine days late on a New Years mantra, I have been thinking about this next year a bunch. 2008 will be an incredibly significant year for me. I will get married. I will hopefully find meaningful work where I can apply my knowledge of sustainable building practices. I will likely relocate in order to do so. (and to keep my sanity). I will see my friends more often, and gather them all together for a grand celebration of love in September by Mt. Rainier National Park. I will make my health a huge priority, hopefully exercising more, eating better, and meditating often. I will use my time more wisely. I will work on staying more positive. I’ll dance more, and create more with my hands. And if the stars are aligned and I track down the courage I lost, I will have the strength to follow my bliss.

2008 will also be the year that we have some much needed change politically in this country, and let us all work towards it being the right change.

Happy 2008, ya’ll!

I think this is a Winterberry bush (a.k.a. Teaberry bush.) I can’t positively identify it, though. Anyway, instead of getting a tree this year, I cut some branches from our bush outside and voila! I love the organic shapes and bulbous berries.

This is the mackeral David and I caught while in Florida over Thanksgiving. It’s been frozen since the day we caught it, and still tasted so fresh. I blackened it and finished it with some soy mustard sauce and a buerre blanc. Served with baked sweet potato and some blanched hericot vert almondine.

No points for plating, but the fact that I timed everything well was my goal. No Iron Chef just yet, either, but I’m working to refine. Bon Appetit!

This post is inspired by the ultra-talented and amazing Bohemian Girl. She is posting photo’s for the month of December, thereby taking one more “task” off her list in these busy times by eliminating the sometimes overwhelming feeling of needing to write a blog post. Funny, because I don’t have a job (she does), and this woman gets more done in a day than I do in a week. There are just those people in the world, nudging us to all stretch a little bit further…

Thanks, BG!