i am full of okra!

georgia! on my mind! it's recently hit me that i am just a month shy of it being a year since i've last been home. i miss gidget so so much, my little tiny baby doggy- she still apparently looks for me in my old room sometimes. sigh. i haven't seen any friends or family, except for my aunt & uncle that i drove up to the catskills with for christmas. i missed my great aunt's (we call her droopy) 90th birthday bash that my aunt organized- i love her so dearly, she's such an amazing sweet funny old lady and i'm really bummed i couldn't arrange/afford to fly in. somewhat of a relief from homesickness, tonight, last minute, i got to see the braves (um, hello, in these amazing free seats ryan snagged via his aunt) beat the phillies! to celebrate i came home and made up some fried okra- i almost never, ever eat it anymore. i've only found it one other time since i've been up here, and it rotted before i found corn meal to bread it with. so that's a good 2+ years without having my favorite childhood food.


speaking of food, ryan and i had a stuffed pepper night the other night! he is really into that wilted spinach/feta orzo i posted a picture of before. we saw trader joe's use little bell peppers as bowls for orzo, so i grilled up some halves and we scooped it in. then we found a "low fat" recipe for jalapeno poppers, that calls for low fat cream cheese, cheese, and baking rather than frying. while we cook a lot more glamorous things (truly, we grill a lot and make stunning kebabs) they were such a cute pair that i couldn't help but take a picture.


(lilly doesn't want to leave! & my excessive packing supplies.)
they've rented out my apartment and i've got a little over two weeks to pack up & move. i'm pretty bummed about it- so so much has changed here, and even though mistie and i technically had our first apartment for six months... i still really consider this my first. it's too expensive for me to renew my lease, so. we move on.


so other things- this has been a really great week. ryan and i went to see ben folds play at drexel for $5 on saturday, totally last minute. yesterday we met up with dan and had a photo adventure around the nicer, greener parts of philadelphia (see above!) then tonight the three of us went to the aforementioned braves' game, in probably the best seats i've ever sat in. this weekend ry has the kanye/lupe/rhianna/NERD tickets for free, i think- so i'm finally moving at my preferred speed again, and feeling really good about it. especially since it's all been virtually free!

wow, this was soooo wordy. i hope everyone else is enjoying their start to the summer- love love.