a screenshot a day

24 degrees cooler here than it is in Houston right now = happy Claire. 

a photo a day

on monday night i had excellent thai food with my friend elliot and his brother…and then i convinced them (it didn't take much convincing) to pop next door to a place called chez beignet, where i ordered, with great enthusiasm, a raspberry filled beignet…and then the woman working there gave us three.  "i wanted you to be able to try all the flavors!"  omg look at the joy on my face and the huge beignets in front of me:

elliot's brother tried a little bit of all three and proclaimed the chocolate one his favorite.  i downed the raspberry one…and then the chocolate one (oops).  vanilla was fine, but the raspberry one - oh it was amazing.  i need to find an excuse to go back there again soon…it's a bit out of the way, but that beignet is enough reason to find my way back to that neighborhood.

the book i'm reading right now - a land more kind than home, by wiley cash, a new southern writer - begins with this epigraph, from which the book gets its title.  a beautiful few lines that i hadn't read before:

something has spoken to me in the night…and told me i shall die, i know not where.  saying:
"[death is] to lose the earth you know, for greater knowing; to lose the life you have, for greater life; to leave the friends you loved, for greater loving; to find a land more kind than home, more large than earth."
--thomas wolfe, you can't go home again

i went on an adventure!  well, really i was just stir-crazy and googled "hikes in houston" and this appeared and i went with it.  a 30 minute drive to the other side of town, and i found cullen park, with a 6.5 mile long paved trail that is mostly in the shade (this is the ONLY way to walk outside in houston in july).  i saw a dozen or so people walking and biking while i was there, but otherwise had the trail to myself.  just me and my ipod and my sweat.  i only walked 3.5 of the miles, but in the 90 degree heat and humidity, this was a good enough workout for me.

the best part is that the path goes by a 19th century cemetery!

one of these guys fought in the "indian wars"!

excellent adventure.  now i will stay inside for days on end until i forget about how truly hot it was and venture out again.

a ruby a day

1. ribbons are ruby's favorite toy - i think they must look like an animal's tail when i slither them around on the ground, and ruby loves to stalk and pounce on them.

2. when your cat is this cute and smart, you have to let the whole world know.

a screenshot a day

Houston's 10 day forecast = GRIM.

optimism aside.  optimism for another post.  visiting someone in prison inherently sucks.  up at 5am, 3 hour drive, stand in line outside for 2 hours and 15 minutes.  outside.  july.  louisiana.  85 degrees, sun beating down.  old people, babies, a man with a cane, a woman with what i assume is cerebral palsy.  i can't complain too much about the heat, the sweat pouring off of me, because they are doing it, too.  met a woman who drives up from miami.  15 hours.  met a couple who drive in from west texas.  9 hours.  almost everyone is middle class at best.  there is shade by the building, but we don't wait there.  we wait where they tell us to, in the middle of the parking lot.  every half hour or so, the call from the building "10 more!" "15 more!" "6 more!"  we trudge up, finally, to present our IDs and our loved one's prisoner number.  go through a metal detector.  leave behind whatever they deem problematic (the kroger card attached to my keys?  problematic.).  finally into the visitor's room, four hours with the person we've come to see.  everywhere you look, someone's private moments on display.  arbitrary rules.  stories of the guards cracking down after the prison escapes in new york and mexico.  i can't begin to comprehend what being in prison is like, but my little taste is enough to know it's not good.  they did this to themselves, of course.  to their families and friends.  i'm mad at them for that.  furious that they have made these loved ones sacrifice to see them.  that they are loved despite it.  even though i care for my friend despite it.  it's hard not to.  all these people in the visitor's room…and these are the ones whose loved ones come.  the lucky ones?  i don't know any more.  3 hours back home, mentally exhausted.  take out food, tv, cat who doesn't want to snuggle.  icing the heat rash i've acquired on my legs from those 2 hours and 15 minutes outside, the sunburn along the hemlines that the sunscreen didn't quite get.  i'm a lucky one; i get to leave.  i'm a lucky one; it's not my dad or brother or husband or child's father who has been left behind until the next visit.  i stayed until the end and couldn't watch the other goodbyes.  had to turn away from the reality of the goodbyes.  pit in my stomach.  he may just be my friend.  but it's still really hard.

a Ruby a day

In my house, you cannot be this cute/ridiculous and expect to get away with it without me taking at least four pictures. Miss Ruby discovered two shirts that needed to go to the dry cleaners (and now REALLY need to go to the dry cleaners) and made them her bed for a little morning nap. Never mind that they are on top of shoes and can't possibly be comfortable; I have learned in two years of being a cat mama that you shouldn't try to tell your cat what is comfortable. 

i knew a fair amount of this (the first five minutes or so), but was slightly clueless beyond that.  this video from bloomberg business really helped bring clarity - it's worth your time!

i have been practicing yoga, by my calculations, for nine years.  a long time!  it has ranged from yoga three times a week (during vacations from work) to yoga twice a week (when i'm in a good rhythm) to yoga once a week (when work gets crazy) to yoga once in a blue moon (when i forget how good it is for me)…and back and forth and in between.  as it is summer, i'm in the three times a week phase, hoping to stay in the twice a week rhythm even when work gets into full swing.

nine years, and sometimes - like monday - i feel so powerful.  my breathing aligns with my movements, i know sun salutation A and B like the back of my hand, and i'm going through it with no verbal cues.  i could do a hundred of them (well, my brain thinks it could), can sit so low in chair pose, my balance is perfect in tree pose, i kick up into a handstand, the instructor picks the perfect chest opener and i stretch all my issues away.  that was yesterday.  that was nine years of yoga practice paying off.

sometimes - like today - i fall out of my handstand and am frustrated that others pop into it so easily, my mat is too firm and my towel too slippery, the poses selected strengthen my quads too much and stretch out my hamstrings not enough, the music is off, and the supine leg twists at the end barely redeem it all.  and that is nine years of yoga practice, too.  and i will feel great afterwards either way.  and i will go back and it will be better next time.

a Ruby a day

Peaceful dozing on the windowsill.

a ruby a day

A certain kitty seems to have picked up a cold at her boarding place - she's been sneezing up a storm for the past few days (though is otherwise acting normal). If you need us, we'll be on the couch watching Bloodline. 

nine lives

my cousin robin (a fellow cat lover) sent me this link and OMG THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT ISTANBUL IS LIKE and i cannot wait to see this documentary.

in honor of that, i think you all need to see a slow-mo video of me loving on a stray cat in istanbul (yes, i know i got bitten by a stray cat this fall but i clearly cannot help myself):

a ruby a day

I am lying on the couch. I get up to get a drink and find Ruby snuggled up to a DOOR STOP. She picked a door stop over me on the couch. I can't even.

june: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17

so much reading in my first month of summer - and all really fantastic books!  i'm checking books out of the library at school and crossing them off my endless "to read" list at a good clip.  this month's reading includes no books that i was obligated to read - july will be quite different, with two books to read for school and one to read for a conference i'm going to.  but we can worry about that later!

this month i read:

orphan train, by christina baker kline (i actually read this in may [i thought may's numbers looked low!] - and somehow forgot it until after posting about may's books.  this is a fictional account of a real life event - orphans from new york city being sent to the midwest by train to be adopted in the early 1900s.  in the book we get the story of one such orphan alongside the story of a modern day girl in the foster care system.  it was an easy read, and i love historical fiction.  i'd recommend it!)

a god in ruins, by kate atkinson (remember when i told you about the morning edition book club?  this is their pick from may, and since i really enjoyed life after life when i read it two years ago, i doubly wanted to read this one.  and it was fantastic!  it's the story of the brother teddy from life after life [though you don't need to read that book to understand this one], told at various times in his life.  you jump from old age to WWII [which is the real focus of the book] to becoming a parent and around again.  i got a lot out of listening to NPR's interview with atkinson after i read the book, so i'd recommend that you do that, too.  the bottom line is: if you haven't read a kate atkinson book, you are really missing out.  i love the way she tells stories and i love her "voice"!)

the road from gap creek, by robert morgan (this is the sequel to an earlier book by morgan - this one follows the children of the characters in the original book.  it takes place in the mountains of north carolina - my favorite setting - in the 1940s.  it's sad but well written, and i'm glad i read it.)

the storied life of a.j. fikry, by gabrielle zevin (this is a super quick read about a bookstore owner, with chapters titled and themed by books.  this isn't the most profound book in the universe, but i really enjoyed it and it would be a great book to bring along on vacation!)

the buried giant, by kazuo ishiguro (i LOVED never let me go, and was excited to read the newest book by ishiguro.  this book is so different in tone - but not in a bad way - and the story is intriguing, the setting described so vividly, and i didn't know where the adventure was going but i was excited to go on it alongside the characters.  this is a book where i kept thinking the author was doing something deeper than i was fully grasping, but i think i understood this book on the 80% level, which i'll take.  ishiguro is a beautiful writer, and i am glad i read this book.)

deep down dark, by hector tobar (this was the morning edition book club pick from december - so now i am fully caught up on my morning edition reading and can't WAIT for them to tell me what to read next!  ann patchett chose this book, which she said was one of only a few books in her life that made her cry.  when she talked about it with others, she realized that they had all cried at different parts of the book.  i listened to this audiobook in the car, and it was the kind of book that i was telling EVERYONE about, unsolicited, during the month or so while i was listening to it.  i knew the story - that 33 miners were trapped underground in chile in 2010 for 69 days - and i knew they were found and made it out alive.  but i'll be damned if i didn't cry when the drill found them on day 17.  and then again when the first miner made it to the surface 52 days later.  and i think that tells you so much about this book - you know how it will end and it is incredibly moving and captivating anyway.  the author is the only person authorized to tell the miners' story, and he does an amazing job taking us between the surface, where the miners' families wait, and below ground where the miners wait.  i cannot recommend this book highly enough. you should be reading it RIGHT NOW.)

station eleven, by emily st. john mandel (i love a post-apocalyptic story, and this one takes place immediately before and then 20 years after a plague kills 99% of people on earth.  the plot revolves around a group of classical musicians / shakespearean actors who travel around the great lakes region performing to the remaining people in the remaining towns.  the dust jacket proclaimed that this would be a book that i didn't even know i needed to read, and it was shockingly kind of right.  i really liked the premise and the story line was richly described - it was a book where i had no trouble visualizing the setting or the characters on their travels.  i read it quickly and would highly recommend it!)

more cooking fun

i'm back at home for a day before heading back to houston tomorrow night.  there were five nearly-dead bananas on the kitchen table, so i went to smitten kitchen again for advice, and she told me to make jacked-up banana bread (on the left - it's your basic banana bread recipe, though presumably extra delicious) and double chocolate banana bread (on the right - which was really just single chocolate banana bread when i made it - only cocoa powder - no chocolate chips).

we put the regular banana bread in the freezer and are halfway through the chocolate one.  delish!  it's super moist and dessert-y without being overly sweet.  and there are bananas in it, so it's obviously good for us.  duh.

a photo a day

Yesterday:

12noon: hanging out with Doc Watson in downtown Boone!

1pm: eating what I proclaimed to be the best sandwich of my life, from my favorite sandwich shop in Boone. 

4:30-10pm: throwing up every hour on the hour in what was the most sick I've been since 1999 (this kind of sick - you remember this kind of sick).  Was it the best sandwich of my life or a bug that a friend brought with her?!?  We may never know. 

Thank god yesterday is over. 

more farm cooking

i hate yellow squash, which is why making squash soup for my parents' freezer was so perfect, because i was getting rid of squash but i didn't have to eat it myself YAY.  but there is SO MUCH SQUASH in the garden, so i tried another smitten kitchen recipe (i heart that woman and her cooking) for herbed summer squash pasta bake and we had it for dinner last night and omg i actually liked it.  i think i liked it because the squash was cooked on high heat and thus scorched and not mushy (mushy squash is my enemy).  the sauce isn't like mac and cheese sauce - it's more subtle - and the parmesan on top made it crunchy and perfect.  good job once again, smitten kitchen!

stocking the freezer before i leave the hip replacement patient!

both are smitten kitchen recipes - zucchini fritters:

and summer squash soup:

so.  many.  squash.  in.  the.  garden.