Good morning, and happy Thursday! Welcome to the home stretch before the weekend — which is unquestionably the best part of the workweek. As if that weren’t enough, I have an awesome evening planned: my friend Holly and I are having dinner at a restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try for ages, and then we’re going to see a talk by Sheryl Sandberg (of Facebook fame). I can’t wait!

I’ve been intrigued and amused by various bloggers’ By the Numbers posts, so Imma do one myself. Anyways, without further ado, this week by the numbers:

5 – scented candles purchased. My stockpile is growing! Muuuahahahahaha!

3 – Mediterranean countries/regions that have inspired this week’s dinner menu. Morocco, southern France, and Italy can really dish up the awesomeness, so this week’s menu has featured two chicken dishes (made with red wine and basil…insert excessive drooling here) from Provence, a Moroccan chicken tagine, and spinach and feta turkey burgers with loads of garlic and Italian herbs. Deliciousness has ensued.

2 - Days when I’ve looked at the weather forecast, seen that it’s calling for rain, and proceeded to say “Screw it, I’m not doing my hair.” Humidity wrecks my attempts to beat my hair into submission, and the lengthy process of drying and straightening it just isn’t worth it if I’m going to walk outside and have it get frizzy within minutes. So, I went for the sloppy bun approach:

Like this, only less model-y…by which I mean not the least bit model-y. (Image source: http://www.hairpediaclub.com

2 – Meals spent in the fabulous company of my junior high bestie, who was visiting DC from Colorado this weekend. I hadn’t seen her since 1999 (no joke), and it was beyond wonderful to reunite with her. I feel incredibly grateful to have people like her in my life!

1 – Pair of workout pants purchased. They’re super cute (pink waist band, flare leg), and I bought them at Costco for $20 — seriously, Costco FTW.

3 – Times when I’ve abandoned my usual two cups of coffee in favor of one giant, enormous, frickin’ huuuuuuuuge mug of coffee. Efficiency is key, right?!

To give you a sense of scale, this mug is almost as big as my face. SO MUCH COFFEEZ.

1 – Brilliant design idea: I have a sari that I wore for a friend’s wedding a couple of years ago, but I know that a) I’m probably not going to have another occasion for which I need to wear a sari, and b) even if I did, I’d be totally flummoxed by how to wrap it. So, the probability of me wearing it again is just about nil — but it’s beautiful, and I absolutely love it. I’d been taking with my mother-in-law about ways to re-purpose it, and on Tuesday morning I had a revelation: we need a new bedspread for the bed in the guest room, so why not incorporate the sari into that? My MIL is impressively talented when it comes to all things design — including sewing. She’s made bedspreads, clothes, and all sorts of awesome stuff, so a new bedspread is totally doable. Not gonna lie: I’m seriously excited about this.

12 – Ideas for blog posts and articles that are bouncing around inside my head. I’ve written out the ideas and some key bullet points for each, but I haven’t had enough time to deal with any of them.

9 – Hours that I think I’d need in order to do intensive writing and get all these posts and articles written.

Image source: Pinterest. Obvi.

1 – Realization that since I basically need a full work day to do all this, it’s time to finally take the day-long writing sabbatical I’ve been dreaming about for the last few months.

1 – Day of annual leave scheduled so I can focus on writing! Wahoo! March 25: here’s lookin’ at you, kid.

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!