Ever since the beautiful new Minneapolis Central Library opened downtown, I've made it a point to walk down the the library once every week or two... when it's not winter. The walk across the river is far too windy and brutal during the cold months, so it's been ages since my last visit.

Today I took my first library trip of the season and it has cheered me unmeasurably.

I'm slowly emerging from my funk. I've just been incredibly negative lately and I don't have any good reasons to be negative. I'm far too hard on myself when it comes to pretty much everything. Add to that the monotony of winter and a big bad funk is born.

At least I'm aware of my issues, right?

It's not that nothing good has happened for me lately. I mean, I am going to Ireland. Ireland! I've never been farther afield than Vancouver or Cancun. Neither has Brad. Our trip is now less than a month away and we have everything planned and budgeted. I've been reading up on Irish writers and Irish history and getting ever more excited to go.

And in an attempt to save money for the trip and also to be more healthy, Brad and I have drastically curtailed our eating-out habit over the last month. This has had the result of not only saving us a significant amount of money, but I've also lost some weight and learned that I actually enjoy cooking on a regular basis. As a vegetarian, it turns out it's more satisfying to cook whatever I want than to go out to a restaurant and choose between one or two menu choices that don't really look that appealing anyway. Why didn't I think of that earlier?

I really should be posting some of the recipes I've come across lately because we've been having lots of culinary successes. And did I mention I can finally fit into my pants again? This is doing wonders for my ability to breathe. And my self-esteem.

So, anyway. Spring is around the corner and I think I'll survive that long.