“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
—Charles Dickens
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Sunday, June 22, 2014
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!
Saturday, June 21, 2014
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.
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.
Friday, June 20, 2014
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.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
i thought this short interview-turned-cartoon of philip seymour hoffman was beautifully drawn and quite poignant!
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
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!
Monday, June 2, 2014
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.)
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.)
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