We are back again with this & that, a round-up of some fun and interesting things on the web! We've been hammering out how we want to format these lists of links, and it's still a work in progress. This week's new development? Breaking the links down into categories. Enjoy! 

around the states:  

• Favorite foods by state calls for a road trip to try some of these for ourselves!

• This has Maria's pregnancy cravings all in a crazy uproar. "Get in my belly!"

• Despite its unappealing name, we can't wait to try it. Call it dessert one night and breakfast the next morning. :) (Apparently the name comes from the veins rippled through the cake after it is cooked.)

• This is so much fun to explore, especially next time you're hosting out-of-towners.

food for thought:

• Immensely interesting and entertaining to read. Maria's take: "Even though she expressly avoids the question, though, my main takeaway is to wonder how I put my modern 'leisure" to good use. As a mom of three littles, I certainly feel busy! - but not with mending and sewing and scrubbing laundry on the washboard and hanging it to dry, that's true. Is it the case that one set of menial labor is solved only to make way for a new kind? Or... do we not notice our leisure because of the great distraction of the internet?"

• Did you, like me, find Belle's dress in the new live action film so...underwhelming? Here's an attempt to explain why.

• Thinking about renovating? Think again. There is nothing wrong with your house.

• This really resonated with Maria. She says: "I'll admit, I'm always a little conflicted by "village" talk. It sounds a little too good-old-days to me. But at the same time, it's true: being at home with little kids is very isolating and lonely. The human race couldn't have survived if mothers felt this way throughout history. It's too crippling!"

just for fun

• This made me a teensy bit squeamish but it's so incredible. Birth is CRAZY.

• It kind of hurts my pride to admit how many of these completely surprised me. Nature is crazy!

• These photos will give you a whopping case of wanderlust

• Blogger Kate Wagner's McMansion Hell is a delightful trip into the complete nonsense of suburban architecture.

• These marbled easter eggs look so cool! Can't wait to give them a try.

• Learn something from this video on the Cheesecake Factory's mass-appeal post-modernism architecture.