It's already over, but this is how I felt on Saturday...

IT'S THE WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WEEEEEEEEEKEEEEEEEEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoa... sorry... didn't mean to shout like that. I get a little bit excited about weekends... That doesn't, however, mean I'm not still a bit tired from the previous week. For instance, I was just flipping through my latest issue of Cooking Light, and misread a recipe for Eggplant Crostini as "Elegant Crostini." ("What makes it elegant?" I thought to myself. "Is it the vibrant colors? The multigrain baguette? The fresh mint leaves? Perhaps it's the eggplant... Oh, wait... EGGPLANT...")

And unfortunately, the weekend is almost over... sigh... why do they go by so quickly?? (UPDATE: The weekend is now officially over. Yes, I started writing this post two days ago and only succeeded in finishing seven lines. All hail Lisa, Queen of the Unfinished Blog Posts...)

Anyway... busy week ahead. Someone's birthday is coming up (okay, it's MINE), and Rick and I went by Whole Foods on Saturday so I could pick up some baking supplies -- I love to bake, but I don't do it very often because I have a hard time moderating my cake and cookie intake. (One of the best pieces of advice I can give to someone who has a problem with binging on junk food: DO NOT keep it in the house! Just don't. Save the calories for a night out or a special occasion -- like a birthday... :)) My department at work has a simple solution for the "what do we do for everyone's birthday?" question -- when it's YOUR birthday, you just do whatever you want. If you want a catered affair complete with two-tier cake, a bouncy house and a guy who makes balloon animals, go for it (as long as you're paying for it...). If you want to stop by Wal-Mart on the way to work and pick up a box of Chips Ahoy, you can do that, too. If you want to be weird and set out a platter of celery and carrot sticks, fine by me.

I decided to take the "bake something with Oreos" route. Okay, that's not actually true -- since we went to Whole Foods, we couldn't pick up Oreos. Whole Foods does not condone the consumption of Oreos. They DO, however, condone the consumption of "Newman-Os," which is the Paul Newman-endorsed version of an Oreo. And can I just say -- YUUUUM!!!! Those Newman-Os are GOOD... in fact, Rick and I think they might even be SLIGHTLY better than good ol' Oreos. Maybe it's the lack of high fructose corn syrup, or the fact that there's no artificial flavor... but whatever the reason, those things are seriously addicting. Good thing I'm using most of them for baking...

I'm also busy this week because Thursday evening we're taking a weekend trip up to Chicago!! Sooooooo excited about that -- we haven't been to Chicago since Christmas. I'm looking forward to walking down the street and arriving at my destination with an unfrozen face. I'm also looking forward to Ghirardelli. And Argo tea. And walking around downtown. And maybe checking out the Lincoln Park Zoo. Oh, and I suppose seeing Eric and Rachel would be nice, too... you know, sort of. (I can't wait to see Eric and Rachel!!!!! :))

So I have a million things to do in the next few days -- most of which revolve around laundry and packing. In fact, I should probably make a list, lest I forget to pack something. (Yes, it's a lest list...)

Maybe, if you're really, really lucky, I'll get a chance to blog while I'm in Chicago and post a picture of two. We shall see. In the meantime, I'm off to keep myself busy with my millions of tasks and my lest list...

Have a good week!