a photo a day

New crazy yoga pants + homemade iced chai tea + snuggly cat + winter break = happy Claire.

a ruby a day

what can i say: my cat is brilliant.


moments after this video was taken she unabashedly stole a ravioli from the colander on the countertop.  when i took it from her, she attempted to eat an uncooked piece of penne pasta she found on the floor.  when i took that away, she pouted on the stairs.  very motivated by food, this kitty.

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
—Martin Luther

a photo a day

Puzzling with Mama! I love doing a puzzle at Christmas; this one is a Charley Harper forest scene.

Hilarious - a doctor weighs in on the Home Alone burglars' injuries. (I love this movie!)

http://theweek.com/article/index/238037/diagnosing-the-home-alone-burglars-injuries-a-professional-weighs-in

a photo a day

Merry Christmas! An excellent excuse to make Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls (they were a hit!). 

To the guy at Local Foods who gave me a free soda with my take out sandwich order: you rock. It's the little things!

Onward to North Carolina!

a photo a day

I love my local farmer's market - when I go, my first stop is always for a green smoothie from this booth - so. good. Today I also bought some beautiful Swiss chard. Year-round farmer's markets = a great thing about Texas!

a Ruby a day

Winter break begins...now! I plan to spend the rest of the day snoozing and watching tv and I couldn't be happier. Ruby has joined me on the couch. Bliss.

a Ruby a day

Forcing Ruby to wear a festive Christmas bow: it has become a yearly tradition.

P.S. she hates it and showed her distaste by refusing to move and giving me mad eyes.  This may be a good quality if I decide to try this:

if one eats an oatmeal raisin cookie for breakfast, does the oatmeal and raisins counteract the butter and sugar, making it a breakfast food?

i decided it did.

a Ruby a day

This kit-cat loves the sun!

i love this - 51 of the most beautiful sentences in literature.  i can't even pick a favorite.

i have been bad at blogging this fall…really, this year.  i'm going to attempt to ease my way back into a daily ritual of blogging by giving you more pictures or documenting more little moments, and do it on a more regular basis.

the truth #1: sometimes the last thing i want to do when i get home from a day spent in front of the computer at work is to be in front of the computer at home.

the truth #2: but i love documenting and sharing my life this way.

the truth #3: so i will try.  and we will see!

(bundt cake got a chocolate glaze poured over the top and was a big hit at my work christmas party.  hooray!)

a photo a day

It came out of the pan in one piece! It's like I know what I'm doing or something!

To the little girl attempting "jingle bells" while spinning in a circle with a magazine in each hand: thank you for making this line at the post office a little more entertaining. 

a ruby a day

If the choice is between lying on the boring floor and lying on an exciting empty purse, empty purse wins every time. 

november: 27, 28, and 29

i cancelled cable this month and read a bit more than normal…though that was probably also due to the thanksgiving holiday and some good lying-around-and-reading time.  this month i read one monster book and two quick ones:

edge of eternity, by ken follett (monster book - 1100 pages - the third in the series.  i liked this one (and got teary at the end), but the last 300 pages or so i was just ready for it to be done.  i'd recommend the series, for sure, but after reading this i was ready for some shorter books.)

the rosie project, by graeme simsion (this was recommended to me by two coworkers and i bought it with a gift certificate a student gave me to the book fair our school puts on.  i loved it!  it was described to me as a book about sheldon from the big bang theory attempting to date.  the narrator's voice was great and it was funny and sweet and i was eager to see what was going to happen next.  i forced it on my sister when she was here to visit.  i'd definitely recommend it!)

the truth about alice, by jennifer mathieu (our school librarian is running a young adult book club for faculty members this semester, and this is our december pick.  the author is a teacher at another independent school in houston, and she is coming to our next meeting, which will be really cool.  i liked this book but didn't love it…it was a quick read…had some common young adult themes…i wouldn't hurry out and buy it, but i liked it just fine.)

a photo a day

Thanksgiving shopping list - it's my first time hosting! I finished my shopping yesterday and am so glad I don't have to battle the crowds any more. 

3 hours until Thanksgiving break!

what i'm listening to right now

"take me to church," by hozier:

i love the beat and the chorus of this song…and this music video is telling a whole different (disturbing) story than i imagined.  actually, i don't know what i imagined.  but this was not it.

a Ruby a day

Sunday morning with Miss Ruby and a good book. Heaven. 

october: 25 & 26

i'm posting this on november 23rd?!  who have i become?  answer: a bad blogger.

in october, i read:

outlander, by diana gabaldon (jenny had been telling me to read this book for years, and i finally did it after watch the first two episodes of the TV show that's based on the book. um, this book was totally entertaining.  historical fiction, quasi-romance-novel-y, but a totally compelling story line and a quick read.  i will certainly be reading more books in this series.)

drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us, by daniel h. pink (this was a book that lots of people were talking about in my grad school program and i finally got around to read it.  pink's premise is that motivation comes from autonomy over your job, the potential for mastery, and believing in the purpose.  now you don't need to read the book. :)  but you should!  it's well written and intuitive, but not overly simplistic.  i enjoyed it.)

a Ruby a day

Someone is cuter than the baguette pan that was originally in this box. 

what i'm listening to right now

"comin' home," by robert ellis:


what i love about one of my local country music radio stations is that it plays all the hits and then occasionally plays music i've never heard but really enjoy, like this one.  thank you, texas.

a ruby a day

self-portrait: 5:30pm on almost every weekday, moments after walking in the door.

a ruby a day

when your dog friend winston leaves after visiting for the weekend, you want to be as close to your mama as possible now that a dog isn't stealing all her attention.  it is especially awesome if she leaves a sweater on the table for you to turn into a bed.

miss claire's november recommendations

i really like telling other people about things that i like.  the podcast serial?  i cannot stop telling people about it.  so, blog readers, whether you like it or not, you're going to get a monthly installment of recommendations big and small from me.  i have to tell someone or i'll burst.

this month miss claire recommends:

1. serial.  duh.

2. trader joe's mini ginger pumpkin ice cream mouthfuls.  i like a tiny amount of something sweet after dinner (big bowl of ice cream?  no way.  three or four bites of something?  yes please.), and this is perfection.  i may have more than one box in the freezer because i got worried that they would sell out.

3. i'm in love with two new beers: buffalo bayou cucumber wit (yes, i just said cucumber, and it totally has hints of cucumber! this is a local houston beer and sadly may not be available where you are…) and  dogfish head namaste (nora and nigel introduced this to me in october and i love it…it's another wheat beer, because that's the way into my heart…and this one is sold nationally).

what i'm listening to right now

"blank space," by taylor swift:


part of me doesn't want to like her, but the songs on this album are so SINGABLE.  do it, taylor.

my sister and winston the dog are coming to visit for my birthday weekend!  it is shaping up to be the best. weekend. ever. !!!

your internet procrastination for the day:

baby + dog in the same costumes = adorable

brooklyn magazine thinks these are the best books to represent each state - i love it!  i've read 19 of them, which makes me think i should become best friends with the author of this piece, since we have similar taste in books.  i'm adding a few from this list into my amazon wishlist!

“The cure for anything is salt water - tears, sweat, or the sea. ”
—Isak Dinesen

a photo a day

i'm a traveling girl…the weekend after my trip to florida, i went to DC to see my TIP friends…and took exactly zero pictures of my TIP friends.  i am bad at this whole documenting-the-fun business.  but suffice it to say that we wore yoga pants all day every day, played with a little kitten, played tons of board games, caught up on each others' lives, entertained an almost-two-year-old, and cooked and ate delicious food.  i have some really special groups of friends in my life, and this is another group that i wish lived closer together.

i did take some pictures one night while i was there - when my cousin sara and her baby nico came to dinner!  this baby has style (he also has a fedora!):

my TIP-friend eric's two year old, nora, loves babies.  and she insisted on holding nico.  i was like, "they are almost the same size.  how is she going to hold him?"  eric explained that this is what she meant - HA.  nico was happy to comply:

a photo a day

last weekend i went to florida with some of my duke friends!  it was awesome.  we ate and drank and sat on the beach and played games and caught up, and the weekend ended far too quickly.  i took exactly one picture - shortly after chauffeur Q picked me up at the airport and drove me back to our condo - and this is it:

i wish i lived close to these friends every day of the year!

my new obsession: a new podcast called serial.  it's made by the producers of this american life, which i love, and the premise is familiar in tv but not in modern radio…their website says, "Serial is a podcast where we unfold one nonfiction story, week by week, over the course of a season."  this first season is about a murder of a high school girl in baltimore in 1999.  her ex-boyfriend (also a high school student) was found guilty of murder and has spent the last 15 years in prison.  but did he do it?  episode 1 covers the suspect's alibi.  episode 2, his break up with the victim.  episode 3, the location where the body was found.  it's really high quality, really personal, and I AM HOOKED.  you must listen.

i found this article fascinating - who knew i would want to read all the way to the end of a long-ish article about bananas? how the global banana industry is killing the world's favorite fruit

October 2nd + 90 degrees = dislike. Fall - where are you??

september: 23 & 24

it's october?!  of course, a month ago i was saying it's september?!  where the heck is the time going.

this month i read:

winter of the world, by ken follett (the second in the series…didn't love it QUITE as much as the first one, but i was still reading at full speed to find out what happened.  the third book was just published, but i think i need to wait another month or two before i read it.  have to spread out the enjoyment.  i highly recommend this series if you like historical fiction!)

eleanor & park, by rainbow rowell (omg this book was awesome.  it's a young adult novel, and another one where i was reading frantically to find out what would happen.  i loved the author's voice and found the characters totally endearing.  when i finished, i immediately texted a friend from work who also read the book to debate what the ending meant.  it's another one that i would highly recommend!)

archeology is amazing: richard III really ate (and drank) like a king

a ruby a day

sunday night:


yes, this amazon.com box has been transformed into a toy by cutting holes in it and putting a treat inside.  miss ruby likes to hunt for treats and try to open cabinets, so this seemed like a good thing for her little brain.  turns out it was a really HARD toy, though, because ruby was unsuccessful in getting the treat, even after putting in a good hour of work at 3am.  so...i made the holes a little larger, and the larger hole was made big enough for her head to get inside (turns out, not having opposable thumbs is a problem when scooping treats out).  and then she got her head stuck.  so i made that hole even bigger, and now the toy is fun and the goal is achievable.  whew.

sunday night cat lady fun!

a ruby a day

82 degrees seemed like a good enough break in the heat to spend some time with Ruby on the balcony. Ruby thinks otherwise and would prefer to survey the world from the safety of the indoors. Silly girl. 

really interesting, and something i hadn't thought of: the cold, hard truth about the ice bucket challenge

what i'm listening to right now

yes, my musical tastes sometimes mirror a teenage girl.

"amnesia," by 5 seconds of summer:

it may be fall in other parts of the country, but it was 91 in houston today.  and my air conditioning broke.  and the AC repairman couldn't fix it today, but gave me a few-hours-on, one-hour-off scheme to keep me semi-cool, which is actually working, and my apartment is no longer 85 degrees.  more like 80.  but i have a fan, and if (when) i get through the night the repairman is coming back tomorrow to fix me up for real.  ruby spent the day being semi-happy (purring when petted) but not moving from the cooler parts of the apartment where she lay sprawled out.  good kitty.

oh, the fun of living in houston.  fall starts on tuesday, huh?

how to tell someone's age when all you know is her name

fivethirtyeight hits it out of the park with this one - i love it!  statistics + pop culture = awesome.

i am…

…feeling sad about dropping ruby off at the boarding place for a few days while i go to a conference.  but the new lady there is persevering and making ruby be her friend even after ruby was a BITCH to her the first time they met.  i'm glad the new lady isn't holding it against her.  at least while i'm around.

…feeling victorious at beating my friend josh at fantasy football this week.  and though i do not care one lick about the NFL, i have found myself discussing recent events more than once in my government class.  my attempts at deep conversation ("why would a woman stay with a man who abuses her?" "what's the difference between punishing your child and child abuse?") have gone…okay…in my class.  even if they aren't thinking as critically as i want them to, i hope some of our conversations are sticking with them.

…feeling so excited to see two groups of fantastic friends in october, even though one of the plane tickets cost about $200 more than i wanted to pay.  pennies may need to be slightly pinched this month, but it will be totally worth it to spend two long weekends in a row with good good friends.

what i'm listening to right now

"the boxer," by jerry douglas, featuring mumford & sons and paul simon:


this is such a beautiful rendition of one of my all-time favorite songs.  i love everything about this version, not least the dobro in the background.

the NFL has a bigger problem than i thought: what the numbers show about NFL player arrests.  "one NFL player in 40 is arrested in a given year"?!

a Ruby a day

Lazy Sunday with Miss Ruby! I love it. Now I have to peel her off of me so I can go to yoga...

doctor.

this is a poignant mini-memoir of the author's mother.  sad and beautiful and absolutely worth a read.

what i'm listening to right now

when i went to boarding school in 11th grade, the girls on my hall were this amazing group of young women who were funny and goofy and sweet and smart and we had great adventures together.  i had been the "smart kid" at my old high school, but here i was an average kid, and i loved that - loved being surrounded by other smart kids and fitting in in a way i hadn't at my old school.  in a life where i am incredibly lucky to have made special special friends in many places, these friends were perhaps my first special friends.

this boarding school had a ton of homework, and my life was school and homework and soccer and hanging out with friends in our dorm rooms and occasional forays into town for a cheap burrito.  my memory of 11th grade also includes a LOT of time spent in front of my hand-me-down desktop computer, playing heroes of might and magic with my friend sara, with katie occasionally sprawled out on the bed next to us offering her critique of the situation.  tracy chapman's self-titled album played on the CD player perched on the shelf above the computer, and if the game was particularly good we would have to push play again when the album ended.  this sounds like the smallest pleasure in life, but it was awesome.

this morning i heard sam smith's version of "fast car" on the radio and fell in love with that song all over again.


you know those songs that take you immediately back to a specific time and place?  this one takes me to 2C in 1999 and to the friends who surrounded me there.

with the help of my friend kate ("personal shopper" should be on her business card!), i bought my bridesmaid's dress for my sister's wedding!  becky is letting all of us choose whatever navy dress we want…and half an hour at nordstrom yielded a great one.  hooray!  it feels good to check that off the list.

Texas high school Friday night football FAIL:

Me: "woah! The opposing team's cheerleaders have on cowboy boots and cowboy hats!"

Real Texan: "um, that's the drill team. The cheerleaders are over there."

Tomorrow is a jeans day at work. Somehow that restores my desire to go to work tomorrow. We had an evening parent program on Wednesday night and I'm dragging because of it...but getting to wear jeans tomorrow will make up for it. (Not sure how that math works out, but it does. I am hugely jealous of any of you who can wear jeans to work daily!) Come on weekend! Hurry up and get here!

august: 20, 21, & 22

this month i read:

salt: a world history, by mark kurlansky (this is a book i bought last fall when i was teaching world history and wanted to do some professional development reading.  the book goes chronologically through world history and talks about the significance of salt to different civilizations.  parts of this book are fascinating, and i learned a great deal.  but i discovered that i only care about 150 pages worth of information about salt, and this book is 450 pages long.  so.  i actually wouldn't recommend this unless you have a passion for salt and/or for random-ish world history.  i definitely did some skimming as i got to the end...)

moonwalking with einstein, by joshua foer (i loved this book!  it was recommend to me by my grad school friend dominique, and it is a super quick read.  the author explains how normal human memory works and also how to expand your working memory, all while recounting how he trained for and competed in the US memory championships.  but the book isn't so much a step-by-step summary of what he does while training - it's much better than that.  and, i mean, this book has a pretty awesome title, so that's just one more reason why you should read it.)

cavedweller, by dorothy allison (thank god this book is over.  okay, i don't really mean that.  but i had fond memories of reading bastard out of carolina, by the same author, and i had this on my bookshelf so i picked it up.  there's nothing wrong with this book, but the pace is slow and this isn't a book that was on my hundreds-of-books-long "to read" list - it's just a book i owned, so i felt some obligation to read it.  does this happen to you guys?  inner monologue: "i should read cavedweller - which i own - instead of buying the book i really want to read (winter of the world, the second book in a ken follett series)."  well, people, the moment i finished cavedweller i bought winter of the world and it is so good and totally worth the money.  so: this was not a review of cavedweller, but that is okay.  this is instead permission to read the books you really want to read.  practicality be damned.)

the appeal of unhappy cities

more proof that the south is an awesome place to live.

what i'm listening to right now

"leave the night on," by sam hunt:


country music loves a good pun.

a Ruby a day

Ruby has learned how to open a drawer in my bathroom...the drawer where her toys are stored. On Saturday she made quite a ruckus at 6am, and upon investigating I found her standing on the trash can, halfway in the drawer, retrieving a toy and then carrying it from the bathroom into my bedroom. So that was day one: two feather toys removed from the drawer. Yesterday in the wee hours of the morning she removed a third feather toy and a glittery green ball. Today, a ball with feathers attached.

What will tomorrow bring?!? I told Mom about this and she was like "don't put them away! She worked so hard to get them out!" (This is why I love my mom.) So right now the bathroom floor is littered with toys that Ruby selected for some MacGyver-like task...or because she is obsessed with the feather toys.

a Ruby a day

"Please wake up from your nap. It is my dinner time."

i am playing fantasy football this year.

you can start laughing whenever you want.

texas musings

things i had never heard of before moving to texas?

farm to market roads - abbreviated FM roads.  these are secondary roads off of larger highways, and i love the name, because it tells you exactly what they were used for.  they are everywhere.

charro beans, which i don't order because i have assumed (and now confirmed) that they are stewed with bacon.  every mexican restaurant in texas that is worthy of its name has them as a side item, and they were served in our school cafeteria today.

ice houses (this article gives some information on how ice houses evolved in texas, and the one they reference is just down the street from me!), which are awesome open-air bars where you shouldn't order wine or a cocktail - it's a BEER place.  my local ice house has picnic tables and a basketball hoop and a ping pong table and a few outdoor TVs; people bring their dogs and their kids and buy tacos from the taco truck across the street.  it's a casual drinking spot for people from all walks of life, and i love it.

i may only have a short window left to remember all these unique texas things before they start to seem normal and i forget how different some aspects of houston are from any other place i've lived.  i now can sing along (and know when to clap!) when "deep in the heart of texas" is played, so i've clearly made some progress since moving here!

eyebrows, why

i found this article super interesting.  let me say that the best $8 i spend every month is for a digital subscription to the new york times (discounted because i am a teacher yessssss).  they have a relatively new app called NYT Now, which in addition to linking you to lots of great new york times stories, links you to awesome stories that the editors like from OTHER websites.  i have read so many fantastic articles this way - it is like having a smart, awesome friend email you links to stories you should read - and they have a very easy "save" feature so you can peruse headlines with one eye open as you're waking up, but read them at some later date.  everyone should get a subscription.  huge props to the people running the new york times mobile app.

what i'm listening to right now

"last love song," by zz ward:


her voice at the beginning of this song has a very old-timey-music vibe, and i love that.

i do not know all the words, but that does not stop me from singing what i can at top volume when this comes on the radio.

cautionary cat lady tale

Don't attempt to rescue the kitten who is meowing pitifully at school while you are there opening the doors for an event. In addition to making you abandon your post where you are checking kids in, the kitten will be feral and it will bite you. Then instead of going to yoga, which you are dressed for, you will go to the ER, where the doctor will tell you that there has not been a reported case of rabies in Harris County in 40 years, but you need to get a tetanus shot and the first in a series of four rabies shots anyway.  Since you don't want to die you decide that you are okay with this.  You will also ponder (a) how it is possible that every doctor in the ER is attractive enough to be on Grey's Anatomy (seriously.  it was awesome.) and (b) how much this visit could possibly be costing you.  Then a 22 year old guy will get put in the bed next to you. Because there is zero privacy in the ER, you will find out without trying that he lives 90 miles away and accidentally (?) got shot in the abdomen last week and was life flighted in and had two surgeries and oh, yes, there are the entry and exit wounds being uncovered in front of you, and now he has a fever and they are running more tests and HE HAS NO INSURANCE.  And you will stop worrying about what this is costing you and focus on the fact that modern medicine is preventing you from getting a fatal disease that you most certainly don't have to begin with, and thank goodness you have a good job and health insurance and weren't shot in the abdomen last week.

my 14-hour search for the end of TGI Friday's endless appetizers

i might have laughed so hard while reading this in bed that ruby had to give me a mean look and hop off the bed to sleep in peace.  i want to be friends with the girl who wrote this.

On my very first day of teaching, in New Hampshire in 2004, I was in the copy room before my first class started and I was apparently looking a little nervous. A veteran teacher, close to retirement, grey-haired and slightly hunch-backed, leaned over to me and said, "I still get nervous on the first day of school, too."  His words were calming. 

Tomorrow I begin my 10th year of teaching. I'm a lot less nervous, but the nerves haven't gone away entirely. I'm also so excited to welcome 18 kiddos into my government classroom! 

I feel incredibly lucky to have had some great teachers and mentors and coworkers and students along the way that have made this job into a career that I love. Hooray for 10 years!

file this under "things i didn't know about before moving to texas": hatch chiles.  they are from new mexico and they are in season right now, which means they are everywhere.  grocery stores have huge hatch chile displays (and one grocery store chain has a hatch chile festival), and today i bought hatch chile cheddar cheese (it is, as you won't be surprised to hear, DELICIOUS - a little spice, but nothing crazy).  i love tasting all these new southwest flavors!

what i'm listening to right now

from the secret life of walter mitty soundtrack, which kate gave me a copy of after it was on in her car and i kept saying "i love this song!": "stay alive," by jose gonzalez:

a Ruby a day

Morning snuggles with Ruby, aka my furry scarf. (This kitty will only snuggle on her terms, but she is a professional cuddler when she wants to be.) You may not be able to tell from this photo, but her diet is working. She is down from 10.0 to 9.8 pounds. Woo hoo!

30 pieces of street art that cleverly interact with nature

love this!

what i'm listening to right now

"see the world," by gomez:


i love the beat of this; it's hard not to want to dance to this song!

“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received - only what you have given: a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.”
—Saint Francis of Assisi

I love Chicago!

…when it is 75 degrees and sunny, and I am with good friends who plan fun things! So maybe I only love Chicago on August 9th.

[Not pictured: Melanie (the hostess with the mostess) and her husband Pat (who made me the best breakfast burrito of my life), Grant Park, live blues music at noon, live jazz music at 2am, beers, Chicago-style pizza, Garrett's Chicago mix popcorn (caramel and cheddar together in the same bag - genius!), my joy at the temperature and humidity levels.]

a photo a day

An hour delay for lightening storms wasn't so fun, but the resulting sunset I saw from the plane was incredible. I know sunset pictures are annoying because sunsets are always better in person, but you're getting one anyway!

Have a great weekend!

july: 15, 16, 17, 18, & 19

july has traditionally been a prolific month for me in this book challenge, and this july did not disappoint!  i'm a little behind my pace from last year, but this helped me catch up a bit.  i read four nonfiction books this month, which hasn't been the norm for me - this month i read:

outliers, by malcolm gladwell (this is the all-school summer reading for the school where i work, and the only major gladwell book i HADN'T read, so it was a good excuse to get a free copy and read it. a lot of gladwell's most famous stories are here - the 10,000 hours needed to become an expert and why NHL players are all born in january - but there's definitely more here than that. it was a quick read, and a good one! if you're somehow a person on this planet who hasn't read something by malcolm gladwell, you should definitely correct that.  pronto.)

blood done sign my name, by timothy tyson (an amazing memoir-history; the author grew up in a small town in north carolina, and was a child when a black man was killed in public by a white man (for making a comment to the white man's wife), and the white man was found not guilty of the murder.  this was not in the early 1900s but in 1970.  the book is a retelling of the crime and the trial, but also the history of the small town in north carolina and a look at the role of religion in the civil rights movement (the author's father was a progressive methodist minister in the town).  fascinating read, and it complicates our understanding of the history of the civil rights movement.  i can't recommend it highly enough.  i cried reading the acknowledgements at the end of the book.  THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.  who am i?)

as i lay dying, by william faulkner (a re-read - i took a faulkner course in college and this was one of my favorites from that class.  when re-reading my college copy, i was impressed by all my margin notes, and enjoyed the story and faulkner's writing style the second time around.  in high school i imagined faulkner to be IMPOSSIBLE TO READ, but an instructor in the 20th century american lit class i took at duke put a faulkner book in the syllabus, and i loved it.  that led me to take the semester-of-faulkner and enjoy the class immensely.  this is one of those IMPORTANT AMERICAN AUTHORS that SMART PEOPLE LOVE who is, in fact, worth loving.)

the warmth of other suns, by isabel wilkerson (i listened to the audiobook of this one, which is (wait for it) 19 CDs long.  it took weeks of driving around town and two long road trips to make it through the book.  my aunt monica recommended this book to me: it's the story of the great migration, interwoven with the oral histories of three people who participated in the great migration - one in the 1930s, one in the 1940s, and one in the 1950s…one to new york, one to chicago, one to LA…one who became a doctor, one who worked for the railroad, one who worked in a factory - three lives to symbolize the various experiences that blacks had of the great migration.  a plus, the audiobook narrator on this book did a great job (she did great voices for each of the characters, none of them cheesy), which is crucial.  a long book, but very worth reading!)

how children succeed, by paul tough (my office at work selected this as our office summer reading, so i dutifully read it.  the book is a little more targeted towards people who work with low income students, but there were some important take aways that will translate to our work with mostly privileged kids, too.  a lot of the book was a review of grad school: carol dweck's work on fixed vs. malleable intelligence, the KIPP/riverside character report card.  thank you, grad school, for giving me a basis of educational theory!)

what i'm listening to right now

"everything green," by christine kane (courtesy of a perfect mixed cd that colin made me!):

a year ago today

a year ago today, i got my first look at ruby.

and she got her first look at me.

ruby purred loudly from the moment she was brought into the get-to-know-you room at the animal shelter.  and honestly?  that's what got me.  i knew she was coming home with me.

it is still easy to get ruby to purr, and if anything she's cuter than she was as an 8 week old kitten (she's grown into those ears, for one thing).  she meets me at the door when i get home from work.  she is eager to remind me when it is meal time.  at night she jumps onto my bed once the light is turned off, and she curls up to sleep in the space behind my knees.

i love my little ruby girl; she adds more to my life than i think i could possibly add to hers.  she is a wonderful addition to my little world.

everyone should go out and get a cat.

a Ruby a day

82 degrees in the middle of an August day...in Houston?!? We had to celebrate the unseasonably awesome weather (yes, I now consider 80 to be cool) with some time on the balcony! All week the highs have been in the mid-90s with heat indexes in the 105 range. Lame.

If you need Ruby she will be plotting the demise of every bird in sight. 

what i'm listening to right now

"titanium," by david guetta featuring sia:


i'm late to this party, i know…but i continue to enjoy this song nonetheless.

how to host an artsy friend who likes beer and good food

the second in an occasional series about the fun things to do when people come to visit!  my friend talia visited me in houston in…june.  early june.  but this post is better late than never, right?!  talia is artsy and loves food and good drinks and we became great friends the year i lived in new york, after becoming good friends working together in england for a few summers.

friday night: airport pick up, dinner at torchy's tacos (duh.  every visit to texas must start with tacos.)

saturday: brunch at down house, beers at karbach brewery (photo below! this brewery opens up several times a week for people to just come and drink and hang out.  there are dozens of picnic tables and people were there with board games, cupcakes for birthdays, meals…almost anything you can imagine.  i loved it!), watching 20 feet from stardom in the air-conditioning after sweating outside at karbach (good movie - thank you, netflix), turrell sky space for the sunset show, dinner at pondicheri (because talia and i had an indian food tradition in new york and pondicheri is AWESOME).

sunday: brunch at empire cafe (in the garden out back - such a fun spot), the menil art gallery (eclectic - right up talia's alley - and she knew all these damn artists i'd never heard of - impressive!), coffee at agora, looking at antiques in montrose, barefoot contessa on tv.

it was SO much fun hanging out with talia and showing her my city!  i think houston showed itself to be pretty awesome.  and i offer this key to hosting people in houston in the summer: alternate outside time with air conditioned time.  that air conditioned time is CLUTCH, but the whole trip can't be air conditioned - lots of fun things are outside!

who wants to visit me next?!

while visiting my sister in dallas this week, i made two new pioneer woman recipes that were awesome: rose sangria (subbing in cherries for the peaches, since the peaches at the grocery store weren't ripe - and the wine-soaked cherries were awesome!) and mushrooms stuffed with brie, which were every bit as good as you are imagining.

yum.

i love cooking.

what i'm listening to right now

"peace," by OAR:

 

when you visit a federal prison the line is long.  and there are lots of children in it.  children whose fathers are behind the tall fences covered in barbed wire.  children who catch tiny frogs and show them to you as the line moves slowly forward.

when you visit a federal prison there are a lot of rules you don't understand, so you don't even try.  no capri pants, no underwire bras, no sandals, no paper money, no watches.  you can bring a bag full of quarters.  your license.  your car keys, which could certainly do more damage than your watch.

when you visit a federal prison, there are so many hugs.  it's like baggage claim at an airport, but even more emotional.  people hugging dads and husbands and sons and friends.  big smiles everywhere.  children settle onto their dads' laps, men sit holding women's hands.  there are orders taken (prisoners can't leave their seats once they get in the room), and loved ones crowd the vending machines with their bags of quarters.  cheeseburgers and kit kat bars are purchased, chips poured out on styrofoam plates and shown to the guard to inspect before being delivered to your loved one.

when you visit a federal prison, there is an inmate who will take pictures of prisoners with their loved ones, yet he has no one there to visit him.  there is a man meeting his three month old grandson for the first time.  there are adult women crying.  there are a hundred other people bearing witness to these private moments.

when you visit a federal prison people walk in quickly and walk out slowly.

i'm listening to the audiobook of the warmth of other suns right now, and really enjoying it.  this is the quote from which the author gets the title:

"i was leaving the south to fling myself into the unknown.  i was taking a part of the south to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns, and perhaps to bloom."
--richard wright

those lines struck me as so appropriate for anyone who has moved their life from one place to another.  i love this visual: of growing under a new sun.

fascinating!  i can't stop watching (you can refresh the page and get a new taxi).  when i lived in NYC i took taxis very rarely (they were so expensive compared to the bus or subway, and i was a grad student): to or from the airport about half the time (it was twice as fast as the bus, but literally 10 times as expensive), or sometimes when it was late at night.  nyc taxis: a day in the life.

thoughtful and well written: this is what happened when i drove my mercedes to pick up food stamps

what i'm listening to right now

"halfway down the stairs," performed by amy lee:


nora put this on a recent mixed CD that she made…and in finding this video i discovered that the lyrics are an a.a. milne poem from the 1920s that was used on the original muppet show in the 1970s…and was covered recently by this artist in the 2010s.  this story makes me love the song even more.

a Ruby a day

"New profile pic" edition.

AKA "rolling around in a sunny patch of living room" edition.

blue and red berry ricotta galette

making this twice in 24 hours?  don't mind if i do.  the crust is tender and flavorful and the berries inside are perfect - i used frozen berries, but i don't think you could ever tell.  mixed berry galette yesterday, peach galette today.  you NEED to make this!  smitten kitchen is my jam.

"people are mostly layers of violence and tenderness wrapped like bulbs, and it is difficult to say what makes them onions or hyacinths."
--eudora welty

june: 13 & 14

this month i read:

cat sense, by john bradshaw (yes, i read a book about cats.  i wear the cat lady crown proudly.  this is nonfiction, and describes about the evolution of cats living with humans and i found it really enjoyable.  cats have only lived with humans for 10,000 years, whereas dogs have lived with humans for 40,000 years!  dogs were bred to help hunt or protect the family and lived in close quarters with them; cats were kept to keep mice away, and often lived alone in an outbuilding…hence why cats are seen as more independent or standoffish than dogs.  this was an interesting book, but to be honest: most of the best stuff was described in articles about the book that i'd already read…so i wouldn't urge you to rush out and get this.)

a feast for crows, by george r.r. martin (this is a re-read…as i watch the HBO show, i'm trying to remember what happens in the books so i can be appropriately horrified when the plot deviates or not totally surprised if i don't watch an episode immediately and then hear people talk about it at work.  i didn't love this book when i first read it, and i was again frustrated by the same things (where are my favorite characters?!), but i didn't remember all the plot points, so it was good to re-read it.  all 950 page of it.  i re-read book 3 last summer and will probably re-read book 5 next summer.  and hurry up and finish book 6, GRRM!  i am concerned you will get old and even weirder before this series is done.)

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
—Charles Dickens

iowa wedding

my cousin nate got married in iowa last weekend!  there was eating and drinking and laughing and storytelling and just general happiness at getting the family together.  there was enough time to have quality conversations with almost everyone.  there was this new addition, whom i totally fell in love with:

and i didn't really take any pictures (oops), but my aunt took this one, which i love - cousins in the gardens for post-wedding brunch!

the next family wedding will be my sister's (yay!), where i plan to be the best maid of honor a sister could ask for!

a cat lady a day

today is my last day to snuggle with miss ruby before i leave her at the boarding place in houston for two and a half weeks (just writing that makes me feel like a bad mama) while i go to a conference in nashville and then to visit my parents and friends in north carolina.  sigh.  this cat lady is feeling lots of guilt at leaving her furry girl.

ruby volunteered to come along.

but i had to say no.

i know ruby will be safe and well fed and just fine at the boarding place…but still.  she'll be in a cage most of the day.  and i'll miss her…and i'd like to think that's she'll miss me.

though i WILL enjoy not being woken up in the middle of the night by a cat purring loudly and pawing my face in an attempt to be fed.  pawing someone's face until she gives up on falling back asleep, gets up, and feeds you?  a quite effective strategy, it turns out.

last week i made smitten kitchen's miso sweet potato and broccoli bowl and it was SO. GOOD.  it's definitely going into a regular rotation at my house.  strike that.  it already HAS gone into a regular rotation; i've made the dressing twice more since then and poured it over bowls of wild rice and vegetables.  it is gingery and miso-y and the kind of food i consider a little miraculous because i've only ever had those flavors at restaurants.  but now i own a slowly emptying container of miso and a piece of ginger that lives in the freezer when i'm not making this dressing, and life is better for it.  do it.  buy these kind of weird ingredients and make an awesome dressing.

a photo a day

Texas sky tonight:

i thought this short interview-turned-cartoon of philip seymour hoffman was beautifully drawn and quite poignant!

wild rice salad

For dinner last night I made a salad that I cobbled together from other recipes:

Wild rice

Kale

Tofu

Tomatoes

Avocado

And an improvised tahini dressing (tahini, water, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper)

It was delish!

may: 10, 11, & 12

i am a bit of a book hoarder, buying books that i mean to read but never do. i think some of it stems from a fear of being caught in a situation with nothing to read (what could be worse?!). happily, this month i read two that were already on my shelves (go me!). in may i read:

state of wonder, by ann patchett (okay, so my hoarding was made worse this spring when the library at school gave away a bunch of books that hadn't been checked out in a while, and this is one i grabbed there. it's the first book i've read by ann patchett, and i enjoyed it, though i wouldn't say that i LOVED it. i was interested and entertained, but not so much that i was spreading the gospel about this book.)

we are water, by wally lamb (i spread the gospel about this book. you should know about me: if i'm on vacation with you and i love the book i'm reading, i will talk about it all. the. time. i read the majority of this book over memorial day weekend at the bay with elizabeth, kate, maddy, jenny, and rachel. (look! i have friends in texas!) i adore wally lamb's books, and asked for this one for christmas (thanks, thomas!). this book didn't disappoint…it's the story of a divorce, initially told in alternating chapters by the husband and the wife, and then new narrators are added and new parts of the story come to light. it's a book that tells us about the present, but also flashes back to the past a lot. i love that in a book. i'd highly recommend it, though lamb's first two books (i know this much is true and she's come undone) are still his best.)

wild, by cheryl strayed (i listened to this audiobook and really enjoyed it. again - flashbacks to the author's past are interspersed with the present (her hiking the pacific crest trail), plus, it's a memoir. i love a good memoir. my dad hiked the pacific crest trail when he was in his 20s, so it was cool to learn more about it, and cheryl strayed has a really interesting story to tell. it made the miles to and from work go quickly - i'd recommend it! only complaint: she hiked the PCT in the 1990s, yet wrote this book in the 2010s. that makes me skeptical of her memories, since so much time elapsed. perhaps she kept a really detailed journal? she doesn't explain.)

a ruby a day

Saturday afternoon: kitty + tulips.

a photo a day

Happy Memorial Day weekend - welcome to summer!  (I have three more days with students before my summer really begins, but I'll take what I can get.) Five of my Houston/Austin friends and I went to Kate's family's house on the bay south of Houston. It was incredibly relaxing - reading, lying in the sun (or under umbrellas), drinking, talking, laughing, eating. The weather was PERFECT. Low humidity, highs around 90, the evenings so cool I needed a sweater. If only every weekend could be like this!

today was the last day of classes!  where did this year go?

things have calmed down since AP exams ended (aka the bane of my existence for 3 weeks), and i'm back to just my full time job.  another week and a half with students before summer hours start (9-3…very civilized).  i'm trying to do more yoga and be more diligent with this blog, which got ignored a lot over the last month or two.

i'm heading to the beach this weekend with friends - yippee!

in other news, the woman at the thai restaurant where i get take out every few weeks now calls me by name and can tell me my order.  i guess i'm really a houstonian now.

art car parade

last weekend my friend elizabeth and i went to the houston art car parade.  people can enter their "art cars" and drive along this parade route.  it was SO. FUN.  there were tons of people out watching, and the end of the parade route was near elizabeth's house, so we didn't have to fight for parking.  we spent the first 45 minutes in the sun (good for photos, but pretty hot), then moved under an overpass (bad for photos, but glorious in comparison).  some of my favorite cars:

rene magritte art car!  (there's a magritte exhibition at a museum in town, so perhaps they were going along with that theme?)

i think this was the houston opera's car!  dude in the mouth was definitely singing some legit opera music.

telephone car!

and my favorite: chicken car!  (isn't this incredible?  so beautiful.)

such a fun atmosphere, and a great thing to do on a saturday afternoon.  i'll definitely be going again next year.

april: 8 & 9

woah, very belated reading update.  in april i read:

unbroken, by laura hillenbrand (another audiobook, which i LOVED.  seriously - read this book immediately!  it's a true story - an amazing true story - made even better by how great a writer hillenbrand is.  i never read her first book, seabiscuit, because i assumed that i didn't care about a story about a horse.  but this woman could tell me a story about anything and i would love it, i'm pretty sure, so seabiscuit is next on my list.)

the orchardist, by amanda coplin (the parent of one of my students gave me a barnes and noble gift card this fall, and this is one of the books i bought.  it's fiction; the premise: two pregnant girls appear at the house of an old man who owns an orchard.  we learn more about his life story and theirs, and travel another 15 years into the future with the characters.  it's set in washington state around the year 1900, and that setting really comes alive in the book.  the pace is a little slow, but not necessarily in a bad way.  i'd definitely recommend this book!)

a Ruby a day

This girl got lots of snuggles and tons of extra treats today, because she turned 1! Happy birthday, Ruby girl! I'm sorry I didn't let you do what you really wanted, which was to chew on my hair at 2am.

super Q

my friend Q just graduated from an EdD program (a PhD in education).  it was three long years of weekend classes, presentations, and tons of papers, but he did it, and i'm so proud of him.  for his graduation present i knitted him a superhero version of himself: super Q.

introducing super Q:

i modified a pattern in one of my knitting books, and was pretty pleased with how it came out.  super Q is wearing black shorts and has a rainbow shirt and cape.  he also has a "Q" charm around his neck, which i don't think i'd put on when i took the picture above.  i tried to mimic real Q's hair, too.

ruby inspected it and found it acceptable.

when i was in charlotte, i gave super Q to real Q.  they posed for a picture together:

and Q took super Q to his graduation!  i was so honored.  apparently super Q even walked across the stage (in real Q's pocket)!

congrats, Q!  we love you and are so proud of you!