#94

Hair brings one’s self-image into focus; it is vanity’s proving ground.  Hair is terribly personal, a tangle of mysterious prejudices.
– Shana Alexander

Finally, after more than 18 months, I got a hair cut!

She cut at least two inches off, and it will look even shorter when I let it dry naturally, since I have curly hair.  I let her blow dry it and straighten it today. though, since David and I have our make-up date tonight.  I”m so pleased with it – it was really at the point where I either always wore it in a ponytail or it just hung down too heavily and wouldn’t really be curly anymore, so it was way past time to get a cut.

Seeing Red

The rose is a flower of love.  The world has acclaimed it for centuries.  Pink roses are for love hopeful and expectant.  White roses are for love dead or forsaken, but the red roses, ah the red roses are for love triumphant.
– Unknown

So this weekend is the anniversary of the Best Weekend Ever.  We had reservations to go back to the Spanish restaurant tonight, but David is sick and I twisted my ankle pretty good, so I can’t wear heels, so we’re postponing until next weekend.  Plus, David had to work today (boo – they don’t pay him enough to work as much as he does) and is exhausted, so it’s unfortunate, but it’s for the best.

But, he just came home with these,

which are gorgeous, and which I wasn’t even expecting, and a sweet card.  We just put wine in the fridge for later, and we’ve got Sopranos and Barletts and plenty of movies to choose from, so we’re good to go.  Who knows what we’ll do for dinner, though.  It won’t be tapas, but it won’t matter, as long as the seat next to me on the couch is filled by my baby.

Michigan and #16

California is beautiful to look at, but you can’t be a part of it like you can in Michigan.
– Gov. Jennifer Granholm

Our weekend in Michigan was low-key, relaxing, and wonderful.  The Eagle Court ceremony was really nice, but seeing all the teenage boys made me glad I’m not a teenager anymore.  I had forgotten how awkward the teen years can be.

The weather was gorgeous, and we kept driving by all of these adorable little houses, many of which were for sale, and I imagined that I might actually like to live there one day.  Then David reminded me that winter in Michigan is a lot like winter in Buffalo, with which I have a passing familiarity, and that idea was promptly set aside.  Still, I love to imagine where our life together might take us, and you never know where you’ll end up.

I really enjoyed spending time with David’s family; they are lovely people, truly.  And we hung out with his friends and barbequed Saturday night, and while I mostly read once the activities turned to Rock Band, that was fine by me, because he was having a good time with people he doesn’t get to see very often.  It made me happy that he was happy.

Oh, also, I got an adorable new bag at Meijer for under $5!  It’s perfect!

That’s not a great picture, but it’s purple and gray, and I love it!  It holds everything I need with plenty of room to spare and it’s totally comfortable to carry.  Yay!

Also, in 101 in 1001 news, I’m pleased to announce I’ve accomplished my first task, #16: Yelp! Fat Matt’s.  See my review here!  Only 100 more to go!  I think the next thing to tackle is the letter to myself (#95) and putting my recipes into a binder (#29).

Follow the Rules

I remembered my secular father’s only strong spiritual directive:  Don’t be an asshole, and make sure everybody eats.
– from Grace (Eventually): Further Thoughts on Faith, by Anne Lamott

Five more posts, including this one, and my NaBloPoMo experiment will be a success.  Good thing, too, because I’m running out of ideas!

Here’s one thing I’ve been thinking about, though:  Are there any rules you had growing up that you hated or thought were stupid, but which were so ingrained in you that you still follow them now?

This came to mind this weekend, when I set my alarm for 9AM even though I really wanted to go to bed without setting it at all and just sleep as long as I pleased on Saturday morning.  Growing up, mostly when my brother and I were teenagers or home from college for the summer, my mom’s rule was that we couldn’t sleep past 10 in the morning.  In her words, any later and “you’re wasting the day.”

And as much as I hated it then, I’ve come to really believe that my mother was right.  You can accomplish so much before 10AM – gym, errands, laundry – and then you have the whole day free to do whatever else you want to do.  Since moving in with David, I don’t get up as early as I used to on the weekends (8 or 8:30), but I do usually still get up by 10.  It’s just pathological; I feel bad about wasting the day if I stay in bed any later.

So what about you?

Wrap-Up

You need three things in the theater – the play, the actors, and the audience – and each must give you something.
– Kenneth Haigh

I’m really pushing it today to get this in under the wire.  As it is, my posts on Reader make it look like I missed a day and posted twice on the 24th, but I swear that’s Reader’s fault for not updating in a timely manner and not mine!

Today, we finally got to go see Second City’s Barack Stars.  There was a snafu with the tickets last weekend and we didn’t get to see it then, but we got it all worked out for today.  The theater was quite small – intimate, I believe is the proper term – and every seat was filled.  The show – the parts I could understand – was great.  But there was a lot of fast talking and dropped punchlines (you know, how sometimes you lower your voice at the end of a joke to make it sound funnier?), and, of course, laughter that obscured some lines, so it was enjoyable, frustrating, and sad for me all at once.  David, though, was cracking up the whole time, and he’s been having such a crappy, busy time at work the last month or so, so it was so great to see him smile and laugh for two hours straight.   The best line of the show?  “Honey, what do you think about this abortion bill?”  “Pay it.”

At the end, after the show, the actors – there were six of them – came back on stage to do a little improv exercise.  They sent two of them (one man, one woman) out of the room, and the others asked the audience for three words – we came up with bodacious, legerdemain, and conjugate.  The other two came back in, and in teams of three (men v. women), the two that had heard us choose the words had to act out each of the three words.  It was like the very best game of charades I’ve ever seen.  A lot of fun to watch.

We just got back from playing putt-putt at the hardest course I’ve ever played.  Remember back in September, I planned a date weekend for me and David that included miniature golf?  And remember how I won, and David kept insisting I cheated (because he’s a sore loser – though he’s totally teasing)?  So this was a rematch, and man, did I ever tank.  Though I was, again, the only one of us to score a hole in one (and I got to yell “Get in the hole” like the spectators do at real live golf events), I still lost by eleven strokes.  I’m not even kidding.  But David was happy so that was good.  I’ve been kicking his behind at tennis for three weeks running (10-4, 10-8, 6-4) and on the way home tonight he said, “Finally, I beat you at something besides thumb wrestling.”  Hee.  For the record, he also beats me at arm wrestling and checkers.   Like, kicks my ass at checkers so badly it makes me cry.

Anyway, it’s bedtime now.  Maybe I’ll get some reading in.  I’m reading My Sister’s Keeper by Jodie Picoult because I want to see the movie and I know the movie ends differently from the book, so I want to be able to compare them.  Have a great Monday, everyone – see you tomorrow!

Heavenly

If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.
– Robert Browning

Today, I pulled all of these ripe tomatoes from our tomato plants:

(There’s a sixth one hiding under there somewhere.)  What to do with my bounty?  David, despite being the primary caretaker of the tomatoes, does not like them (except in ketchup and tomato sauce), so the tomato-eating duties fall to me.  What a shame.

I decided to make what is probably my all-time favorite food, one that takes me back to my time in Spain in high school and college, and one that could almost not be any easier: pa amb tomàquet (in Catalan) or pan con tomate (in Spanish) or tomato bread (in English – duh).

Here’s all you need: a baguette or peasant bread, some tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper.  That’s it.

Here’s how you do it:

Slice the baguette in half lengthwise (or slice the peasant bread in thick slices). (P.S. This baguette was still warm from Panera’s oven when I cut into it this afternoon.  Don’t be jealous.)

Slice a tomato in half (not lengthwise – you want the top to be one half and the bottom to be the other half) like this:

Then take one half of the tomato and rub it – firmly – over one side of the cut baguette.  Repeat with other tomato half and other baguette half.  Don’t be afraid to really squeeze the tomato – you want all of its insides on your bread.  Depending on how juicy your tomatoes are, you may need more than one for this step.

Then, if you want (and I did, since this tomato was so fresh), slice up the mutilated tomato and eat it!

Next, drizzle some olive oil over each side of the bread – for this size slices, I used about a teaspoon per slice.

Finally, sprinkle some salt (and pepper if you like – fresh ground is best, but powdered will do) on each slice.

If you try this, an optional step is to toast the bread (or put it under the broiler for a few minutes until it’s crusty) and then rub raw garlic over it before the tomato step.  I like it that way as well, but I’m really more of a purist when it comes to this.  Also, be careful – a little bit of raw garlic on the toasted bread goes a loooong way.

Then eat.  I will not be responsible for any swooning, drooling, fainting, etc, that may occur upon your first taste of this little bit of heaven.  I added some thick slices of Swiss cheese on the side (not really what we would have in Spain, but still a great addition), and a little bit of Sangria because, why not?

Cocktails

If you were to ask me if I’d ever had the bad luck to miss my daily cocktail, I’d have to say that I doubt it; where certain things are concerned, I plan ahead.
– Luis Buñuel

What’s your favorite?  Right now I’m drinking a Greyhound, which is just vodka and grapefruit juice, since that’s what I have in the house; when I’m at a wedding or somewhere else with an open bar, I usually opt for a screwdriver.  But my two favorite mixed drinks are mojitos and Malibu Bay Breezes.   Yum.

Sunday, SUNday, SUNDAY

Sunday is a golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Only 11 days to go – after today – til the end of NaBloPoMo.  I won’t lie, this is hard work.  But it’s been nice getting back into the habit of writing again.

Today was a good day.  My mom was here overnight with her Little Sister.  They spent the day in D.C. yesterday and met us for dinner tlast night.  This morning we all went to breakfast, and then they headed back into the District to go to the aquarium.  I went to the pool and swam laps and then laid out for a while. On the way to the pool, I saw a little boy, no more than four, running crazily down the sidewalk laughing, and he was wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt.  Made me smile.

After, I came home and watched the end of the British Open with David – what a heartbreaker for Tom Watson.  Then the Tigers game was on, so we watched that, though I fell asleep for a bit towards the end.  The Tigers fell to the Evil Empire while I napped.  Boo.  By the time I woke up, it was nearly time for the Braves game, but I had to go grocery shopping, so David paused the game for me (ahh, the magic of TiVo).  Worked out well for him, since he was in the middle of a golf game on Wii.

I went to the store and stocked up on lots of goodies.  I’m really trying to get myself back under control food-wise, so I bought plenty of fruits and veggies and stuff to make and freeze for lunches during the week.  When I got home, I started cooking three meals at once – two for lunches, and our dinner for tonight.  It was a little crazy there for a while, but I managed to get everything done, and the last dish is in the oven as we speak.  It makes me feel good to know that I’ve made it possible for me to be successful this week by planning ahead and taking the time to get things prepared.  I’ve been wildly off program as far as Weight Watchers in concerned over the last year (which may be the subject of its own post here soon), so I’m trying to slowly get myself back into the right mindset.

We had dinner – pork chops a la Emeril, one of our favorites – and a salad with fresh cucumber from our balcony garden.  Yum.  Now we’re relaxing, finishing up Season 3 of the Sopranos (we broke down and bought the complete season a few weeks ago at CostCo – we had a coupon for $50 off!).  All in all, a nice end to a nice, relaxing weekend.

Dimming of the Day

I don’t know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets.
– John Glenn

Not much time today, so I thought I’d share this Richmond sunset with you, as David and I head off to see Second City tonight.  My mom called this morning to tell us she’d be in town today with her Little Sister (from the Big Brothers Big Sisters program – and she’s been a part of my family for longer than I’ve been hearing impaired), so we’re going to meet up with them for dinner after the show.  Have a great Saturday night!

The Princess Turns 5

May you live all the days of your life.
– Johnathan Swift

And she’s as princess-y as ever, let me tell you.  Here she is, decked out in her birthday finery:

It’s the shoes that kill me.

There was trampoline fun for everyone!

There was a piñata – princess-themed of course.

David suggested I appreciated the irony of beating the princess-themed piñata to pieces (I’m anti-princesses).  He wasn’t entirely wrong.

There was a cook out and cake.  Before I say anything else, let me once again commend Molly on her cake craftiness.  She asked the Princess what kind of cake she wanted, and she made it happen.  That said:

Hannah Montana?  When did my sweet, innocent, princess-loving niece discover Hannah effing Montana?  God help us.

When I asked Nate if the Princess wanted anything special for her birthday, he told me that when he asked her, she said “Flip-flops,” so I headed to the flip-flop extravaganza that is Old Navy and picked out two pairs.  I knew which ones she’d love most, and I was right.  Here she is, modeling both her new dress from her other aunt, and her new favorite flip-flops:

I wish I’d taken video of this – she was sashaying back and forth in the living room like a model, flipping her hair, with her little hand on her hip like that.  I was dying.  She is too grown.  God, I love her.