i am on a beach.

I woke up yesterday to this - and I had to fight my way to school through six to nine inches of snow. /joy.

While Liz and I were out walking in the bitter cold the other night she started repeating the phrase "I'm on a beach," as an example of mind over matter. I realized that it's only a mere 77 days til I'm literally on a beach in Thailand, a tropical climate where I have been told it will be sticky, sweaty hot at all times. Except of course, when it's raining.

The only trouble is that I don't much handle heat well, I tend to get cranky and irritable in extreme heat. This is the only part of my trip to Thailand that gives me pause. Sometimes I think that once I'm sweating my brains out, I'll look back at this photo and long to be this cold. Then again I think not, I think I've had enough winter for a long while.

44 garlic clove soup. vampires keep away.

My mother occasionally buys peeled garlic in bulk from Sam's. So when I was looking around for a recipe on a cold winter day, this 44 clove garlic soup from smitten kitchen fit the bill perfectly.

For the record, I used all peeled garlic and I left the garlic in the oven a little bit too long. Still worked out amazingly. I wasn't really sure what flavor this soup would have when I started out, but I was very surprised and I'm definitely planning on making this again.