Thumbs up

A quick check-in to share three things I'm loving this week:

1) Parks and Recreation. I'm late to the party on this one by at least a couple of years, but in the language I would use with friends, it's totes hilar.  I am a major Amy Poehler fan and am just beginning to appreciate the talent that is Aziz Ansari.  Sometimes Josh and I pile up under a bunch of blankets (well, I do, anyway) and watch Hulu on the laptop. We discovered Parks and Recreation this week, and it's even more fun because each episode is just 21 minutes long!  I have numerous TV shows I wish I watched (30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, The Good Wife, and so on) but maybe my new friend Hulu will help me chip away at the list. Hulu's cousin, DVR, is also good for this.

2) My home's new cast iron skillet, courtesy of Josh.  We were catching up on Sandwich King, a show I'll have no trouble staying ahead of because my boyfriend is completely enamored by it.  The host is making these delightful steak sandwiches, and I can practically see the wheels turning in Josh's head.  We found ourselves staring at a cast iron skillet later in the day at a large store for $20.  He wanted to buy it. "That's cheap," I insisted out loud.  "Cast iron should cost much more than that.  Don't buy that." The next day he conducted internet research and sent me link after link to demonstrate many cast iron skillets in that price range.  I conceded that he might be right.

He mentioned that if he could get out of work early enough, he'd cook dinner. That night, I came home from running club totally wiped out despite my fab new shoes.  I opened the door to our building and smelled someone cooking a wonderful dinner.  Do you ever do that and hold an inkling of hope that it's someone in your apartment cooking that wonderful meal?  I walked into my apartment, and it was mine!  Steak and onions were sizzling away on the cast iron, en route to becoming heavenly steak sandwiches. I could eat cast iron onion bits all day long.

Major kudos to my boyfriend, this recipe, and cast iron in general.  Worth every penny.

3) To be honest, I'm normally sort of a Facebook hater.  (I was going to rant briefly about oversharing but then realized that you'd be reading said rant on my personal blog.  Irony recognized.) But this week, Facebook is getting a thumbs-up from me.  I wanted to buy a new book for my Kindle to take on my flights this weekend, but felt utterly adrift, without any good direction and any good ideas.  I ventured to Facebook and posted a status update requesting book recommendations, and I got the coolest mash-up of recs from the weirdest mash-up of people.  I might do this exercise once every few months, just to see which long-lost character drops out of the woodwork with a great recommendation.

I'm still compiling the list, by the way, so the recommendation window is still open.  Share away!