On Saturday morning, I drove to Northern Virginia for Melissa's bridal shower, and it was so fun. I've gotten so used to the drive from Roanoke to DC, and it was kind of nice to get all dressed up and spend a couple of hours with the windows down and music playing. It was a gorgeous day for a drive, and although the trip back on the same day wasn't as fun as on the way up, it was totally worth it to be there.

  

  

Thanks to Laura (far right) for the last photo! I swiped it right from Facebook.

   

This weekend Rob and I spent a lot of time with our friend Chad, who is my old friend Patrick's fiance. Patrick is a PICU nurse and works nights a lot of the time, so he woke up around 5:00 PM on Saturday as we were all getting ready to go out to dinner together. Rob hadn't been feeling that great, and Chad and I were really tired, but we went to Mas Tapas, where we met my friend Emma for dinner. Later on, Rob and Chad and I headed to Bang! to meet our other friend Andrew and have some of their amazing martinis (I had the Espresso Tini and it was delicious).

Patrick got home from work around 8:00 AM, so he went to sleep and the rest of us, who were sort of up, just kind of napped the morning away. I finally got up a few hours later and took myself out for some breakfast. We had totally planned to go to all go to lunch together around 2:00, but poor Rob was feeling even worse and Patrick was still so tired, so Chad and I took a walk to get something for all of us and bring it back. It was such a lazy day, but I think we all needed it.

Rob was feeling feverish and not well enough to drive, so he planned to stay one more night and wait it out. I think having a sick significant other is one of the worst parts of being in a long distance relationship, and I hated leaving him like that; but it's so nice to have great friends like Patrick and Chad to watch over him for me when I had to head back.

Even with the flu, spending time with friends who seem more like family is pretty great. 

But I'm going to take some Vitamin C, just in case.

How was your weekend?

My new friend Tony and I have christened 2013 "The Year of DIY."

I'm going to go to Goodwill and have dresses altered and paint things and glue things on things.

With that in mind, I've decided to try my hand at some "How To" posts this year.

Because I am an expert at a large number of very random things.

Let's begin with a Burger Party.

Burger bowls are pretty much my favorite dinner because it's quick and easy and Paleo and absolutely delicious! It's all about the toppings--mushrooms, sauteed onions and spinach, banana peppers, pickled jalapenos, tomato, avocado, lettuce, bacon, perhaps a fried egg! You can add whatever you want to it. Whatever you want!

Maybe I'm a freak, but most of the toppings I already have in my fridge on any given day. So the morning before I had friends over for what quickly became known as The Burger Party Extravaganza, my mom and I cooked the spinach, mushrooms, bacon, and onions so they'd be ready. 

Everything else just needed to be chopped. Then we put them in cute little bowls and covered them with plastic wrap, stuck them in the fridge, drank some coffee, woke up the boys, and went to see Les Miserables! When we got home from the movies, my brother put the burgers together and into the fridge they went, as well. 

(A word about burgers: you could obviously make whatever kind of burger you'd like. Turkey burgers would be good, maybe a crab cake if you don't do meat, and a veggie burger would do just fine, too. Ours are beef and come from my high school cross-country coach's farm just about twenty minutes away.) 

When you're having people over and feeding them, doing as much as possible ahead of time is huge. When my friends arrived that evening, I had a margarita pitcher ready and all that needed to be done was grill burgers!

Once everyone has a drink and is ready for dinner, take everything out of the fridge, grill the burgers, heat up the stuff that needs to be hot (onions, mushrooms, spinach), set it out on a counter! I got buns and cheese for my non-Paleo friends, so I set out both plates and bowls and let everyone DIY!

If I were trendier, I'd have little flags labeling each bowl with washi tape or whatever that stuff is called.

If you end up polishing off two margarita pitchers and end the night with a dance party, you've probably done it right.

Does anyone have a request for a future How To post?