Agh! I’ve been away. I should have mentioned it, but I thought I would have time to return to this space and post updates. At minimum I hoped to keep up with the photo challenge. So what happened? A lovely friend visited from Colorado with her 4-month-old babe. We are working on a project together and it kept us busy. When we weren’t working we were playing with a fabulous little, itty-bitty baby. It was bittersweet.

My friend left on Friday, and we then took off for Pasadena to see the Nebraska/UCLA game. It was a debacle. A shit show. A travesty. Obviously we lost. To quote my all-time favorite comment from delightful Sunny, “No Big Red!”

Without further ado, here are my catch-up photo challenge photos:

4. School

I mentioned previously that I love school and I miss school. Well, I found a way to continue my education. There are a lot of free online courses through websites like Coursera, EdX, or even through a variety of university websites. Open Culture has a list of over 500 free courses. It is awesome. I’m currently signed up for several refresher statistics courses. Math: you use it or lose it. I’m also taking a political philosophy course because it fills a gap in my education. Fun!

5. Pure

We spent the night in Pasadena and went to the Huntington Library on Sunday. Beautiful grounds, beautiful exhibits, hot as hell. The Library has a large expanse of ground and they have 15+ gardens ie Japanese, Chinese, sub-tropical, Australian, etc. The photo is a bit over-exposed, but it was the best I could do with my iPhone while squinting through rivulets of sweat. Did I mention it was hot? What better symbolizes purity than a a snow-white lily?

6. Book

Ah, another distraction. A compelling reason why I could not find my way to this blog. Gone Girl. Do you read? You should read this book. Pure awesomeness. I couldn’t put this book down. It was gritty, compelling, and sheer fun. It is the best book I’ve read in a long time. I picked it up from the library at 5 pm on Friday and finished it on Sunday at 3 pm. Amazing. Read it!

7. Golden

After the game in Pasadena we retired to a small pizzeria to lick our wounds. Lo and behold, the pizzeria had a platter of golden, chocoloate chip cookies up for grabs for pizza patrons. It may look unassuming in this photo but that cookie was amazing. Buttery, salty goodness. They even had coarse sea salt sprinkled on the top of the cookie. It was amazing.

9. Honey & 10. Morning

I thought I would kill two birds with one stone: honey and morning. What you see here is my morning staple: coffee and greek yogurt. I like my greek yogurt plain with walnuts, fruit and honey. It is a little bit of deliciousness.

Speaking of catch-up, I will update soon on my appointment with my RE, plus some of the answers to the questions I posed in consideration of an IUI.