A Really Good Week

This week was really good. Here's why...

On Monday Callie was in town (so glad to see her), so I went over to the Stark’s house for dinner. Shepards pie, cheese, wine, good conversation, you can’t go wrong. Plus after dinner we took a hike in the arboretum behind campus and then got some delicious ice cream at Mallards. [photo courtesy of google images]

Tuesday, I was back at Callie’s for dinner. Ratatouille, polenta, wine (Malbec!), cheese (smoked gouda!) and lemon polenta cake. So good. Plus, I made some new friends.

Wednesday, Kate and Becca came to visit. First, we went down to Fairhaven and walked to Boulevard Park. It was a beautiful day. [Next three photos courtesy of Kate]

Me and Becca.

Me and Kate.

Me, Becca and Kate.

Then, we decided to splurge for dinner at Hearthfire (also where we met up with Kelly.) Martinis, crab and artichoke dip, steak and prawns and berry shortcake, all while sitting next to the bay. Delicious. I spent my weekly grocery allowance in one night but, delicious.

After dinner, we went to Jamie’s so we could briefly discuss our counseling scenario for Thursday. Jamie and I quickly decided it was barely worth preparing for, so we left. The rest of the night was spent watching old Friends episodes at my apartment and trading back rubs.

Thursday, Jamie, Alicia, Nicole and I went to Red Berry to celebrate finishing our counseling scenarios. [Again, thank you google images]

Friday, skype-date with husband :) We watched two episodes of Angel and planned our honeymoon. Here is a picture of us just for fun.

Saturday, I went to lake padden to lay out in the sun and finish the last 300 ish pages of my book so that I could go see the movie. [I have a policy about seeing the movie before reading the book. Basically, I don’t do it]

I really liked it. The thing about books that land on the NY best-sellers list is that they are usually pretty addicting page-turners. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was no exception. It was intricate, fast-paced, gritty, and my favorite, full of unique, multi-faceted characters.

Today, I caught the last showing of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo at the Pickford Theatre with Maggie. It was fantastic. They left out some layers of plot and changed a few things, but overall it was a faithful adaptation. I really like foreign films, and I was happy to see that they had subtitled it rather than dubbing. My favorite part was how well they cast the part of Lisbeth Salander. She was bad-ass.

Warning, the movie has some violent and graphic scenes in it. It is not rated (since it was made in Sweden) but if it was, it would most definitely be rated R. After the movie was over, the little old lady I walked out with said it all with the following comment.

"Those were some really violent Swedes"

After the movie, Maggie and I went to Henderson Books to look for a copy of the next book in the series, The Girl Who Played With Fire. It was my first time in this particular used bookstore.

I fell in love.

I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did find a pocket-size copy of Machiavelli’s Il Principe in the original italian for four dollars (score!)

Next, we went to Village Books were I successfully purchased book two and signed up for the VB book club. I plan on finishing the book within the week because the movie is coming to the Pickford next weekend.

Anyway, then Maggie and I met up with Sydney and walked to Boulevard Park, pausing briefly en route so Syd could jump into the bay.

At the park, we read and did some people watching.

Then, I went home to whip up another batch of these cookies (the dough is refrigerating as I type) and watch Bones.

In short, my week was filled with close friends, delicious food, an addictive book, and a captivating movie. Which (conveniently) made it easy to ignore all the school bits.

I wish every week could be this good.