These are a few of my favorite things ...

Five of my favorite things right now (yeah, that's right, goin' all Oprah today. I had to counteract the heavy posts from before):

1) Planning trips. I've got one planned already (U.Va. Reunions in June, woohoo!), another in the works (Dallas, Memorial Day weekend - just have to buy the tix), and about three more in the early daydream stages (New York in the fall? Canada ... sometime? Paris 2013, anyone?)

2) Celebrity blogs/tweets. Yeah, I'm late on the bandwagon. But I find it oddly endearing to find out that Shaquille O'Neal really wants to break his diet and go to Dairy Queen (I feel you, Shaq. I feel you). My fave celeb Twitter pages so far: Felicia Day, Michael Ian Black, Wil Wheaton, John Mayer (he's a douche, but he's a funny douche) and Idris Elba (mostly for the sheer number of times he uses "yuh mon" and "fanks." SO British! and he was Stringer Bell!)

3) Pandora radio. This has been a favorite thing of mine for awhile but it deserves a shout-out. My stations are becoming more and more refined -- I do get lots of repetition but it's mostly songs I love, and I'm still finding new and interesting artists. And I listened to romantic piano solos for nearly a whole day earlier this week. So much Chopin and Field and Schumann. So calming and gorgeous. Really made me miss playing the piano.

4) Fug Madness. I really don't care about March Madness, even though almost my whole office has gotten into the thing with the brackets and they have a pool and whatever. The Fug Girls, however (see my link to Go Fug Yourself), have a (to me, anyway) much more entertaining spin on the whole thing. My favorite to win it all is SWINTON. Check it out.

5) Emerald Cocoa Roast almonds. Seriously, these things are addictive. I had to divide them into individual servings in ziploc bags last week so I wouldn't just cram the entire container's worth into my mouth while watching TV. They're roasted almonds, awesomely crunchy, lightly sweetened with a little dark cocoa powder. Excellent 3:30 pm snack - I always want something desserty then, but these babies have protein too. Next project is coming up with recipes in which to include them. I am open to suggestions and I'll certainly post about anything delicious I invent.