What a Catch!

Yes, it's an impressive fish, but I'm talking about the guy who caught it!

Today is Nate's 30th birthday!

He's a little hesitant to enter his 30's with too much excitement, but I think these coming years are going to be the best yet. I'm not going to be too cheezy and list my top 30 favorite reasons Nate IS a great catch, but here are just few (feel free to add your own in the comments section!):

* He still loves Kraft mac and cheese.
* He sings an impressive version of "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid.
* He gets annoyed at the person who gave me a parking ticket instead of being upset with me.
* He's been known to blow bubbles in his drink when he's got a straw.
* He loves the Cosby Show as much as I do.

Happy birthday Nate!

Nate = Love

Can’t let a day focused on L-O-V-E go by without giving a shout out to my truly fabulous husband. It just keeps getting better and better!

I hope everybody has a love-filled day!

Pancakes! Get your pancakes!

So there's a lesser known holiday this week that you may be unaware of and definitely deserves attention, at least if you're a bit of a foodie like I pretend to be.
Did you know that Tuesday is National Pancake Day? It's relatively new news to me, but I can't say it's going to go unnoticed. Actually, to be totally honest, it was really last Tuesday on the 5th to coincide with Shrove Tuesday (according to legend, families would try to use all of their dairy products before the Lenten fast, and I guess making pancakes was a good way to do it), but apparently it got crowded out by Super Tuesday's elections and pushed back a week. Leave it to politics to crowd out a worthwhile celebration.
Both Nate and I are breakfast lovers. In fact, this book Pancakes for Supper is one of my favorites, and I'm definitely pulling it off the shelf for Tuesday.
What's that? You don't feel like making pancakes? Well, you're in luck! The genius in the States behind National Pancake Day is IHOP and to celebrate they're giving every visitor FREE pancakes on Tuesday. That's right. All you have to to is walk in and a short stack of three pancakes is yours at no charge. If you decide that you just can't take something for absolutely nothing, you're invited to make a donation to the Children's Miracle Network. And that's not a bad idea either! Last year, IHOP gave away almost 1.1 million pancakes which, according to the experts at IHOP, would be an 8.5 mile high stack. All those pancakes helped raise quite a bit of cash for charities as well.
I'm pretty sure I'll be ordering pancakes for one (although I'm making them myself!) since it's that time of the year when accountants don't eat dinner at home much. Whether you don't know what to fix for dinner or you just don't want to fix dinner, I've got a suggestion: PANCAKES...and be generous with the maple syrup. (I love to pour it on my bacon too!)
In honor of the occasion, here are links to a few of my favorite pancake recipes:
Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
Favorite Oatmeal Pancakes
Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes