Woohoo! Today my stunningly handsome husband is taking me out on a date! Why? Well, because I need it, and also because I got a new super-cute and sexy dress, so I need an excuse to wear it, of course. :) (Can I just insert a shameless plug for my local Goodwill here?)

See? Bad picture, cute dress. Sexy in a "50's pin-up" kind of way. Funny thing-- I would have NEVER considered wearing something like this, even a year ago. I was much more, shall we say, modest? And now I feel perfectly modest in this dress, although I know others would disagree. But all my lady-bits are covered, it's not some sort of diaphanous material (quite sturdily made, actually!), and most importantly? My husband likes it.

So, on a date we go! I'm going to get my hair did and put on the face paint and everything. All out. (Well, as "all out" as I go, anyway. He likes his lady looking natural, which is a win for me!)

I'm glad to have something to look forward to. I did not sleep well at all last night, and today's a pretty high pain day for me. (Hello, milestones-- my "high pain days" now are what my high-average days were like just a month or two ago!) I know I'll feel better after a shower, and I've got acupuncture + massage this afternoon. It'll be good. I'm just going to take it easy today.

Also? I still trip out sometimes about how awesome it is to actually be able to casually drop the word "husband" into conversation. I freaking love it.

Also also? I made banana-bread muffins last night while tutoring my friend C, and they're all gone this morning. All gone. I gave friend C several to take with her, because she LOVED them, hubby C ate two, and I had a couple for supper. (The recipe didn't quite make a dozen, sadly.) What's amazing is that C liked them, because I'm honestly not the best baker in the world when it comes to allergy-friendly baking (it's really hard, y'all!), and I don't think I've baked a thing yet that he's liked... until now. I did leave them in a bit long, because I wasn't sure what the inner consistency was supposed to be like, but now I have a good recipe to play with and a baseline from which to experiment. I'm very happy about that.

In addition to that, I made a necklace for my yoga teacher/massage therapist, because she's moving away and I've come to really respect her as a mentor and guide, but also to appreciate her as a friend. She was really enthusiastic about and interested in my proposed online store business plan, so I thought it'd be fitting for her to be the first to receive something that I've crafted in that vein. I etched the Ohm symbol into the front of a purple shell pendant, and etched "Namaste" into the side. It's also fitting that it's purple, because we had a discussion yesterday about today being Lupus Awareness Day, and Sunday being Fibromyalgia Awareness day, both of which are represented by the color purple.

She'll be speaking to one of our support groups next week, so I'll give it to her then. I'll be sad that she's moving, but thank goodness for Facebook, eh?

Update: Date was fun. A couple of pictures for proof. 

...just different.

My mantra for Baker S. He's quite different from me, especially when it comes to habits of cleanliness, which I can appreciate (because he works with food professionally), but... it is slightly irksome. I'm always looking over my shoulder to see if he saw that I touched something and didn't wash my hands. I picked up a book he had lying on the table to show us, saw him kinda glance in my direction in a hesitating, do-I-say-something-or-do-I-not way, so I asked, "Can I look at this?"

He replied, "With clean hands. It's a kitchen book."

Right.

He would be absolutely horrified if he knew that I use a spoon to taste test when I'm cooking... and I use it more than once! LOL

So it kinda rubs against my grain, but it's also kinda funny if I can get over myself long enough to see it. Anyway, this is a good time to practice being tolerant of other's differences. :)

I have also realized that I am nowhere near as enthusiastic about baking as I had previously thought. As a matter of fact... it's kinda burdensome. At least, this method is (to me). Oh, well. Maybe God will heal me and I can go back to buying store bread. (On the bright side, I'll soon have breadsticks for the first time in years, and bread for the first time in a month or two.)