Emily’s Reading: How Not to Invest by Barry Ritholtz

This book just came out! Excited to start it.

People often seek out investment advice on the things they should be doing, but sometimes it’s best to learn what not to do.

I’m also open to book recs 🙂 Send them my way!

Maria’s Reading: 1491

That’s right, everyone - more historical non-fiction from me!

I started 1491 this month and am enthralled with it. The book dives into the Americas pre-European colonization specifically diving into the population density, cultures, and societies of native groups. It’s interesting to think about how different the world would be if groups like the Incas were able to spread their culture, teachings, and philosophy similar to the ancient Greeks or Romans.

Emily’s Eating: Spring Rolls cooking class with Carly

Carly and I took a cooking class with Cooks | Bellecour. We learned how to make spring rolls and peanut sauce.

SO much fun, highly recommend a local cooking class to mix things up!!!

Maria’s Eating: Daisies!

Grabbed a table at Daisies (v hyped Chicago Italian spot) for my birthday dinner and she def lived up to the hype. We each got our own pasta dish + some potted carrots, and a few cocktails 10/10

Emily’s Playing: Sierra Ferrell

I really love Sierra Ferrell and just bought tickets to one of her shows.

Sierra is a Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from West Virginia. Her music blends folk, bluegrass, gypsy jazz, tango, and calypso.

Maria’s Playing: OpenAI image generation

I’ve been single-handedly killing OpenAI’s compute by turning my photos into Studio Ghibli or Lego cartoons. When the image generation models dropped this week - everyone on X was cartooning their photos. I’m curious to see what this means for the future of art, designers, and creators, but for now, I’m just eating up GPUs.

Emily’s Obsessing: new office chair

Finally got a new office chair!!

great cuz i can sit criss-cross or in other weird positions lol. It’s HUGE I love it

Maria’s Obsessing: March Madness

March calls for work on one monitor and games on the other. All of my brackets are def busted, but the parlays are hitting, so I can’t be too mad.

Emily’s Recommending: FreeTaxUSA

It’s tax season!!!

One of the best free tax tools I’ve used is FreeTaxUSA. Their platform is really great and easy to use.

Yes, you can upgrade and pay for professional tax help. But if you don’t need it, you can still file your federal taxes completely free. State returns are $15. Not bad.

If your adjusted gross income (AGI) was $84,000 or less, you might qualify for a free federal return. Browse the IRS trusted partners here. Some partners include a free state tax return while others may charge a fee.

Maria’s Recommending: Partiful

I love Partiful! Anytime I want to get my friends together, they’re getting a Partiful invite. It’s so fun to personalize even the littlest of social gatherings.

Partiful was named Google's App of the Year for 2024, and it’s easy to see why!

Normalize making a Partiful invite for your next dinner, get-together, or yap.

Emily’s Treating: Sweet Martha’s Cookie Dough

If you’re from Minnesota, you probably know Sweet Martha’s cookies. They sell pre-packed cookie dough and this is a great lil treat to keep in our freezer 🙂 

Maria’s Treating: Vintage Shopping

I’ve been very good this year at shopping less and more thoughtfully. I spent a weekend with Emily and we had to hit up Minneapolis’s best vintage shops. I treated myself to a pair of Levi's 550s and a little brown wool cardigan.