My husband soon owned one too and now we have owned many iPods over the years – mini (first one), classic, and nano (several generations due to loss of them over time).  We just recently finished getting all of our cds into iTunes and hope to be able to use it as a juke box of sorts soon.

My next step into the iLife was the purchase of a MacBook.  I had again himmed and hawed over whether or not to purchase one.  I coveted a black one for a while.  When I received a bonus, I used it towards the purchase of my very own MacBook (black of course) – love it!

We had checked out the iPad last summer as we thought it would be a fun, but also thought it would be too pricey for a fun gadget.  I attended a conference and entered my business card for an iPad drawing.  We went away on vacation and when I got back, I read my email to discover that I had won an iPad.  I did not believe the woman that sent me the email at first as the winning announcement was at the very end.  And, yes it really is worth it, because you don’t really need a computer for everything.

I started eyeing the iPhone many moons ago, but it was not available on my favorite carrier Verizon.  When the Droid came out, I started there, but always had my eye on the iPhone.  I debated whether to stick it out with the Droid, but my hubby gave me a beautiful iPhone 4S for my birthday last year – love it too!

And, so there you have my iLife.  Feel pretty lucky since I won several of my first Apple products.

She also encouraged us to dream.  A regular game of ours was to call out houses or cars as “mine.”  As in, we really wish that was ours and the more beautiful, the better!

As an adult, I have kept this sense of dreaming.  By all accounts, I lead what I consider to be a comfortable life, but in my mind it never hurts to dream.  I enjoy looking at cars and dreaming both of cars that I are for another lifetime (simply outrageously priced) and cars on my wish list (so cute and fun).

Here are a few of my favorites:

In another life
Porsche 911 (I am my father’s daughter)
Ferrari (I am my father-in-law’s daughter )
Jaguar Parkinson Special

On my wish list (in no particular order)
Fiat 500
BMW 1 Series Convertible (this dream was perpetuated when the nice service lady at Peter Pan BMW gave me this as a loaner when my husband’s car was being service.  yes, it really is that fun to drive)
BMW 328i wagon
BMW X3
Toyota Highlander (the new model)
Acura TSX sport wagon

My current car
Toyota Highlander (2007 model)

Last week as I exercised patience, I was reminded that having a goal sometimes helps.  I decided to sign up for another San Francisco half-marathon this summer when my husband challenges himself to his third full marathon.  I have lost count of how many I have run, but I think I must be getting close to 10.   My goal is to break 2 hours.

I have gotten darn close to this goal in the past (2:00:19).  A few people even tried to convince me was actually close enough to my goal since the temperatures were hovering above 80, the humidity was high, and my best friend and I got matching sunburns to go with the fact that we wore matching tops, but no those 19 seconds don’t make that sub 2 hours even under those conditions.

Hal Higdon‘s training plan here I come starting May 6th….time to get back to working out more religiously again.

The mini-prep that my mom had given me many moons ago was on its last leg, so it was time for an update as I wanted to be able to whip up simple sauces and dips quickly.

I made a delicious Lemon Parmesan & Parsley Pasta using this nifty new gadget.  I added a bit of sauteed Italian chicken sausage to the pasta for some extra protein.

All the pesto ingredients ready for a whirl

Voila! Easy as that!

Delicious bowl of pasta ready for dinner.

Vegan cake.

So awhile back I made several baked goods when working at my last office job.  As with most baked goods, they contained dairy products, which meant that one of the team was never able to enjoy them.  One day, someone asked me if I knew of a recipe that she could enjoy.  Thankfully rooming with 3 vegetarians in college gave me just the recipe I needed.  This is a favorite recipe of a childhood friend of mine as well.

Ready to give vegan cooking a whirl?  Here is the recipe from Moosewood.  It is so delicious and moist, you will not miss the dairy.  I may try to make this cake gluten free.

This week was a lesson in patience.  It is simply not possible to will something to happen as fast as you envision it happening.  I experienced that two fold this week.  What I thought I would find out last Friday stretched until Tuesday and now hopefully it will happen tomorrow.  Fingers and toes crossed as going through another weekend not knowing will not be nerve wracking, but I can handle it.  The other lesson is still unfolding, but this week I was clearly reminded that there is a power greater than us.

My sister shared a great quote this week, which I think encompasses both patience and acceptance.

“Acceptance of the moment is allowing the moment to live, which, indeed, is another way of saying that it is to allow life to live, to be what it is. Thus to allow this moment of experience and all that it contains freedom to be as it is, to come in its own time and to go in its own time, this is to allow the moment, which is what we are now, to set us free; it is to realize that life, as expressed in the moment, has always been setting us free from the very beginning, whereas we have chosen to ignore it and tried to achieve that freedom by ourselves.”- Alan Watts

After a meeting in Palo Alto, I was heading to my favorite mexican place, Lulu’s. Then I remembered that there was a new hole in the wall across the way, so I decided to give it a try.

The food was delicious and different at Asian Box.

I enjoyed brown rice, chicken, spiced veggies, all the toppings, and miss jone’s sriracha sauce.

A great new find at Town and Country in Palo Alto. Next I want to try the new Indian place.

What a surprise to get to the end of a project only to realize that there were not enough wood posts to finish.

Thankfully Home Depot was still open on Sunday evening and I was able find wood dowels to finish the project. Sandpaper was the finishing trick to get the posts to be just right.

Bonus, completing the project on Monday morning before 8am.

I learned a lesson a few months ago. When a recipe calls for making a simple stock from the shells of shrimp or lobster, just do it. It really makes a difference in the flavor of a dish than using say chicken broth.

This pasta was really easy to make and could almost be called a one pot dish. The flavored melded perfectly in the oven. I could not find the ditalini pasta, so I made a simple substitution with mini penne.

Buon appetito!