Thursday Recipe

It's happy hour! Or Thirsty Thursday. Whichever you prefer. This week's recipe is for one of my favorite beverages - sangria. My mom and my aunts are fans too and since I am eagerly anticipating my trip home in a few weeks, this one is for them.

Vodka Sangria

Ingredients
1 (750 ml) bottle rose wine
6 ounces vodka
3 ounces Grand Marnier
2 ounces white grape juice
2 ounces lemon juice
2 ounces simple syrup
3 ounces pomegranate juice
3 ounces orange juice (no pulp)
4 ounces club soda
1 pint blackberries or raspberries

Directions
1. Pour rose wine, vodka, Grand Marnier, white grape juice, lemon juice, simple syrup, pomegranate juice, and strained orange juice in a large pitcher half filled with ice (entire mixture should be light pink).

2. Place a small amount of ice into serving glasses. Pour the wine mixture over the ice, top each glass with about 1/2 oz. of club soda; garnish with blackberries or raspberries.

Accepted

I am in! I received my letter of acceptance from NCSU yesterday. Starting in Fall 2009, I will be a doctoral student in Higher Education Administration. And another red school. All of the schools I have received degrees in have had a shade of red as their school color. Its not intentional, but a fun coincidence nonetheless. I am very excited about going back to school and have some trepidations as well. I'm super nervous about writing my dissertation. There are a couple of reasons for this: 1) I have no idea what I am going to research; and 2) that is a lot of writing. The longest thing I've ever written academically (and non-academically) was 45 pages. A dissertation is about three times as long, at least. I need to put that out of my head for now. Fall registration is right around the corner and I am swamped at work. I can't lose my head worrying about school when I haven't even started yet. For now, I am going to revel in the excitement of being accepted.

Birthday Wishes for Jack

My darling Jack is 4 years old today. I remember when he was a wee kitten with big paws. I lived in Boston then and he would sit on top of my old CRT monitor and spend hours watching the birds and the cars on the Fenway. He has been a great pet and I love him to pieces. Happy Birthday Little Man.

Lazy Weekend

The weather here in North Carolina is absolutely gorgeous. I am taking full advantage of not having a gosh darn thing to do this weekend. I went out yesterday morning and bought a chair for my balcony so I could sit outside and soak it all in. And I did. It was a perfect 78 degrees with a light breeze. Today is supposed to be even warmer. I've gotten all of the house cleaning and errands out of the way so I can enjoy another afternoon out in the sun. The kitties are enjoying it too. I've opened all the windows and they are pleased as punch to sit in the window sills and soak up the sunshine. Jack has always loved sitting in the window. Katie is now discovering it too. I wish my apartment had a screened in balcony so they could sit out there with me.

For the moment, I am going to enjoy the America's Next Top Model marathon. I have a little bit of work to do, so I'm going to get that taken care of. After lunch, the sunshine beckons...