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!)