I love flowers. They’re bright and happy and cheerful. Even the ones that aren’t bright are still cheerful. This week, I’m thankful for beautiful flowers that brighten up your day and add a small touch of beauty to your life.

This is the beach in Miami, Florida. I’m here for a business trip and it is truly heavenly.

Wish you were here!

This Thursday I’m thankful for business trips – mostly because it’s the only way I’m getting to travel these days. Since I’ve been working  at my current position, I’ve taken my first flights and I’ve travelled to Denver, CO (I think I’m in love with this city) and Washington, DC to participate in large public health conferences.

As a housewarming gift our awesome Realtors gave us a gift certificate to Magnolia Grill, a converted grocery store on the corner of 9th and Knox streets in the heart of Durham.  After heading over on a Monday only to find they were closed, we were finally able to make use of our gift last Tuesday.

Upon entering the place is very unassuming with simple tables and chairs set up with a main dining room to the right and a raised bar area to the left.  Behind the dining room is what looks like a more private reserved room and behind the bar is an open view of the kitchen.  We sat closest to the kitchen in the bar area and had a great view of seeing the final prep of all the dishes being served.

Nick met our new neighbor the other night.

He and his roommate actually moved in to the house next door on the same weekend we moved into our house, but we hadn’t even seen them until Monday night when, to make a long story short, the one roommate came to notify us that ADT contacted the previous owner, John, because the alarm had been going off. [Side note: He is friends with the previous owner, so previous owner called to him to make sure everything was alright. In our defense, previous owner didn’t leave any instructions about the ADT system and therefore we did not have an access code. We didn’t even know it was still connected.]