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!

trip to charlotte

a few weekends ago i went to charlotte to spend the weekend with my atlanta friends, who are now spread all over.

on the plane i won 2048!  an auspicious sign for the weekend.

i took selfies with my two favorite 9 month olds - ryan, who cooperated nicely:

and emma, who did not (but i like her anyway):

we made a cake to celebrate Q's graduation (two layers, with chopped up reese's peanut butter eggs between the layers and making a "Q" on the top - so. good.):

mike and kelly's neighbors built a bonfire - so fun!

the group (minus anderson, who took the photo), waiting for the kentucky derby to start (note: mint juleps are gross):

this is such an important group of friends for me, and it was WONDERFUL to spend time with them!  i miss them every day!

In Houston, in May, this is what everyone calls a cold front.

And you better believe I'm excited about it! Last week it got to 90 every day and we know more of the same is right around the corner. 

comfort foods

i really enjoyed this piece by mark bittman about comfort foods, which includes this line:

"Every family, every ethnic group and every person can talk about their cravings. The comfort food of others rarely appeals to us; it’s our own that matters."

the comfort foods i grew up on?  my mama's gingerbread cookies, made-from-scratch yeast rolls, fettuccine alfredo (made with angel hair pasta, of course), and a huge block of cheddar cheese sitting on the top shelf of the fridge and carved up bit by bit.  probably nothing special to anyone else, but they scream of home to me.

belated happy mother's day to my mama!  i love you!

a Ruby a day

This is the cutest cat in the universe and no one can tell me otherwise.

a photo a day

Some exotic tropical locale? Nope - taken two blocks from my house after lunch with friends. Houston has palm trees everywhere...which I guess is what you get in a city with (fun fact!) 360 frost-free days a day.

cat lady musings

on tuesday of last week, a little grey cat came up on my porch and talked to ruby through the window.

on sunday the cat said hi to me outside my apartment door.  i reached down to pet her (him?) and felt ribs under the fur.  skinny kitty!  i put a handful of food outside, which she ate up.

yesterday, skinny kitty followed me from the parking lot up to my apartment.  actually - led the way.  she knows where i live.  another handful of food.  how could i not?

today she appeared again.  yet another handful of food.

true or false: i'm in trouble.

(does skinny kitty have a home or not?  does she have a lot of friends who are putting out handfuls of food, or am i the only one?  is this the first fatal step toward becoming skinny kitty's mama?  i certainly don't need skinny kitty, but i can't let her go hungry!)

a cat on a mission

two ruby posts in one day?  when you see this video, you'll understand why you needed another dose of ruby tonight:

a ruby a day

I haven't had a lazy Sunday at home in a while. This afternoon: knitting a new critter now, yoga later. I've missed lazy Sundays, and clearly so has Ruby. Love this girl.

breaking news alert

i love this.

i love that the winner was an american (yay america!), but i love even more that he is an immigrant.  how appropriate - to be reminded that one can be american and be an immigrant, when the accused bombers, too, were american and immigrants.

what i'm listening to right now

i bought sara bareilles' new album, and it is every bit as awesome as i'd hoped it would be.  i love this song - "chasing the sun":

10 year duke reunion!

duke was as gorgeous as ever.  we felt old, but not too old.  we laughed a LOT.  we drank an appropriate amount.  we ate burritos at 2:30am.  we got a noise complaint at the hotel.  we reminisced.  we made new memories.  i am so so lucky to have these friends, to have attended this school.

and i came home to this, which isn't half bad either.

what i'm listening to right now

where "right now" = "in an airport waiting for my flight home from duke reunion weekend and grading papers even though i really don't want to."

"sex on fire," by kings of leon:

“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal.”
--Rumi (1207-1273), Persian poet

a ruby a day

ruby supervises me while i make dinner - from a location that is close enough to the action for her liking but not close enough to get yelled at.  good kitty.

a photo a day

last night i made a carrot cake for a coworker's birthday, and this is what the pan looked like after our party/staff meeting today.  no sight could make a baker happier!  it was an awesome recipe and the cake turned out really moist and the frosting the perfect amount of sweet (i used less sugar than was called for, which was a good move).  baking success!

march: 4, 5, 6, & 7

2014 started out as a slow year in books, but i picked up my pace this month!  in march i read:

me before you, by jojo moyes (thomas gave me this book for christmas, and i really liked it.  the basic premise is that a woman gets hired as the personal assistant for a young man who is a paraplegic.  it's one of those books where both of the main characters are changed by their interactions with one another, but the book is well written and not nearly as cheesy as i just made it sound.  it was a quick and interesting read and i'd recommend it!  would be perfect for spring break or a long weekend without work.)

what the dog saw, by malcolm gladwell (okay, so i listened to this audiobook in the car, but i'm counting it because this is my blog and you can't stop me.  people!  this book is awesome.  it's a bunch of essays that gladwell wrote for the new yorker over the years, so the topics are varied and all quite interesting and well-researched, as all of gladwell's stuff is.  my friend jenny LOVES audiobooks, but i haven't had great experiences with them in the past because i don't concentrate well enough on them (while driving) to follow plot lines in fiction books.  but!  turns out non-fiction is the perfect thing to listen to while driving.  i'm midway through another non-fiction audiobook, and loving it, too.  i think i have been converted.)

the maid's version, by daniel woodrell (mama bought this for me for christmas, and it was another great book this month.  the author wrote winter's bone (which became a pre-hunger games jennifer lawrence movie), and this too is a story about the ozark mountains.  his writing style is really different from most of what i read - sort of faulkner-esque, in that you don't exactly know what he's writing about for a while - but as the story came together it was fascinating.  i definitely want to re-read this book at some point, because i imagine the beginning of the story will be more meaningful now that i understand where it's going, but either way, this was a good read.)

the ocean at the end of the lane, by neil gaiman (womp womp.  it was my month to pick books for my book club - when it is "your" month, you pick 5 or so books and the rest of the members vote on which book to read, and this book won.  i had never read any neil gaiman before and, um, i didn't really like this.  i read on amazon.com that this book started out as a short story, and i think it should have stayed that way.  there some some magical realism - not my favorite - and the book just wasn't what i was expecting in general.  i read it, but i wouldn't necessary recommend this to anyone.  neil gaiman seems like a cool author if you are slightly nerdy, though, so i wanted to like this.  it just didn't happen.  sorry to let you down, book club.)

gorgeous aerial photos from around the world - such a cool new perspective!

my cable box stopped working on friday, so AT&T is shipping me a new one.  i went online to track the shipment and found this:

no amount of explaining can make this make sense, but at least the cable box is in texas (again).

a ruby a day

While trying to find a new hiding spot for treats in my small apartment, I might have gotten a little too ambitious. Never fear: nothing can stop a Ruby on a mission.

i've started to do this thing - which the vet tech recommended a long time ago, actually - which is designed to alleviate boredom for ruby and has the added bonus of entertaining me.  the game: i hide four treats around the apartment and wait for ruby to happen upon them and get excited.  or at least that's how it worked on the first day.  now ruby goes hunting for them!  there are only a handful of good hiding locations in my apartment - on the stairs up to the loft, on top of the refrigerator, on various window sills.  she just found one treat that i hid a few minutes ago and now is ON THE PROWL to all the usual hiding spots in the apartment to see if more treats are there.  it's pretty adorable.

cats: not smart enough to know you are hiding the treats, but smart enough to find them later.

insert obligatory cute ruby photo here.

("those papers you graded?  they're mine now.")

what i'm listening to right now

people, coming back from spring break hit me like a ton of bricks.  monday was a teacher workday, but anyone who works in schools knows that it was jam packed with meetings.  i had research papers to finish grading,  a week of lesson planning to finalize, some things that had to be done in preparation for AP exams (i am the AP coordinator for my school, which is a scary job because if i forget to do something and we have problems on exam day it is a VERY VERY BAD THING), and we started meeting with rising 9th grade families this week to plan their kid's schedule for next year.  eek!  on monday i was drowning, but i'm back on top (for now).  and this song is a good one for calming myself down.

"i choose you," by sara bareilles:


what a fantastic voice.  i thought i had more of her music, but i only own a couple songs.  i'm about to correct that on itunes!

more genius from jimmy fallon - this time with billy joel!

30 vegetables update

30 vegetables challenge is on a temporary hiatus while i am a little sick (i feel okay, just not great, so don't you worry too much about me).  i am eating relatively boring foods, but i did get one new veggie in:

day #16: dinner was half an amy's frozen pizza (my favorite frozen pizza brand - the crust is un-cardboard-like, which one cannot say about all frozen pizzas) with mushrooms, red peppers, and 23. artichokes on it.

also: while waiting for a doctor's appointment today, i discovered this game - 2048 - which is very fun and totally additive.  you should be playing it!  like, NOW.

a ruby a day

remember back in december when ruby learned how to open cabinet doors?  well a couple weeks ago she learned how to open the cabinet doors above the kitchen counter, too…because i was hiding her treats in there and ruby will stop at nothing to get a treat.  i was initially putting the treats on the bottom shelf, but when she learned how to open the cabinet door (and thus eat those treats), i moved them up a shelf. tonight ruby took her exploring for treats to a new level.


needless to say, the treats have been moved into the pantry, where there is a door that shuts.  if she starts to open actual doors we will be in real trouble.

(seriously folks: this video is proof that i have the cutest and smartest kitty everrrrrr.)

what i'm listening to right now

this was going to be a post where i told you that i'm listening to "let it go," by idina menzel on youtube a lot…but then it won the oscar for best song and now everybody knows how awesome it is.  and the songwriter became an EGOT winner!*  so instead, i will give you this version from the jimmy fallon show (but you should listen to the original version first if you haven't heard it yet!):




*which makes me think of tracy jordan EGOTing on 30 rock and thus makes me giggle...

buzzfeed, you are spot on (and thus hilarious): things cats do that would be creepy if you did them

a photo a day

rivalry!

my department chair's daughter goes to syracuse, and we've had an ongoing fun rivalry this year.  i teach in his classroom, so we switch places for two hours a day - he sits in my office and does work while i'm in his classroom.  on monday i had printed out the ACC tournament schedule and it was lying on my desk.  i came back after class and he had vandalized it!

except, because he is the nicest guy ever, he made a copy before he vandalized it, so i still have an unadulterated version for following the tournament.  (can i just say - leaving the syracuse bracket on my desk was awesome, and not ruining my one copy was even more awesome.)

go duke!!

30 vegetables update

day #11: i had 18. eggplant curry for dinner at an indian restaurant in austin - delicious!  it was laurie's first time eating indian food, and she loved the samosas and chicken tikka masala that she had.

day #12: lunch in the cafeteria included roasted vegetables: carrots, 19. parsnips (something i would never eat on purpose, so this was a good thing for my challenge), and 20. beets.

day #13: i made pasta with garlicky broccoli rabe for dinner, and i'd never bought 21. broccoli rabe before (it is a leafy green that is also called rapini.  do not be fooled in the grocery store when it is called rapini and you have to google whether those things are the same.).  this recipe is so good!  garlicky and a little spicy and the broccoli rabe is delish in it, though i quasi-halved the recipe and ended up with not enough broccoli rabe for the amount of pasta i made.  so, if anything, up the broccoli rabe.  this will definitely go into my recipe rotation!  love smitten kitchen recipes.

day #14: after work i had a one-woman happy hour on my patio: a beer and a little 22. seaweed salad from kroger.  ruby watched the goings-on and we both enjoyed the 70 degree weather.

it is harder and harder to eat vegetables i haven't yet had this month!  i have some brussels sprouts in my fridge…but after that, i may have to start trying a little harder to get to #30.

a photo a day

this weekend ruby had mixed feelings about her dog friend piper.  she spent portions of the weekend hiding in places where piper couldn't get her, but she could still observe the goings-on:

and portions of the weekend peacefully coexisting.  on the same couch-turned-bed!  without humans to mediate!

they really got along great!  other than the two glasses of water that ruby knocked over in the middle of the night (obviously it was too tempting not to), she was a model guest.  whew.

february: 3

i am delinquent.  the 11th day of the month and i'm just now posting my summary of the book i read in february?  bad claire.

the husband's secret, by liane moriarty (i just read one book this month, and it was for my book club.  i liked it, but wasn't running home to finish reading it.  i would call it one step up from a beach read (where a beach read goes quickly and doesn't require a huge amount of brain power), so if you're looking for a spring break book, this would be a fantastic one.  i'm realizing that this is a relatively luke warm review, and i don't mean for it to be.  i enjoyed reading this book!, but it won't be the best book i read in 2014, i'm sure of that.)

a photo a day

a photo series in which the ladies from this weekend (the dog and cat are both girls, too!) attempt to take a self-portrait that includes all five of us.

think of it as our own little photo booth.

a photo a day

a conundrum i face: when writing a letter to someone in prison, which stamp do i pick to put on the envelope?

by my logic, the only acceptable one is the "equality" one.  or am i over thinking this and no one notices stamps anyway?

i've been following this story for a couple months - SO interesting: early treatment is found to clear HIV in a 2nd baby

laurie

this weekend is the 4th annual reunion of jenny, laurie, and me.  we worked together in atlanta for a few years until jenny moved to idaho and laurie retired and moved to new hampshire.  laurie was a huge mentor to me and jenny, and for the past three years we've gotten together for a weekend (one year in idaho, twice in new hampshire, and now in texas - each with other friends tagging along, but schedules didn't work out for those friends to come this year).  though laurie is at least thirty years older than us, she is a great friend and so easy to spend time with.  she gives incredibly sage advice on our careers in education, saying often throughout our friendship: "when you run your own school…"  we love that - she believes we could run a school one day.

i'm thinking of laurie this week since i know i will see her this weekend, and i realized i've started doing something she does - something i used to consider unthinkable.  laurie said she would always drive to school in the morning in silence - no radio on - just her thoughts to get her ready for her day.  i could never do this, listening to NPR or a podcast or the bits and pieces of music through the talk radio show jabber.  but i've found myself doing it this year - turning the radio off and driving to school in silence once or twice a month, with just the white noise of the car and some time to think.  it's not as bad as i imagined.

a ruby a day

someone likes small spaces!


(don't worry: i saw this coming from a mile away, so there was no danger to miss ruby.)

30 vegetables update

day #4: dinner was vegetable red curry from my neighborhood take out thai restaurant, and included 14. cauliflower, 15. snow peas, and 16. bamboo shoots (i had to google whether that's a vegetable.  it appears to count).

day #5: i went over to a friend's house for her birthday dinner, which was potluck.  people brought such delicious food!  i brought kale salad…there were veggie samosas…two chicken dishes (of which i didn't partake)…and a chickpea and 17. sweet potato curry with naan…then chocolate cupcakes for dessert.  delish!  and great company - it was a fun group of people to spend the evening with.

what i'm listening to right now

"all of me," by john legend:


this is the first song of his in a long time that i've really liked.  gold star, john legend.

30 vegetables update

day #1: my dinner was a burrito with lots of veggies and beans and 11. corn in it.  roasted corn in a burrito is the best thing ever!

day #2: one new vegetable to add to the list - 12. peas in my mutter paneer for dinner.  i tried a new indian restaurant and found it just okay…the search continues for the perfect indian take out in my neighborhood!

day #3: dinner was pasta salad with feta cheese and veggies in it, including one of my favorites: 13. broccoli.  (i'm omitting tomatoes from this 30 vegetable challenge because maybe they're a fruit, huh?)