What's Making Me Happy

// In order to achieve a maintenance dose of allergy shot in as little time I'm receiving four doses a week; a [set of shots, wait thirty minutes, second set, wait thirty minutes] two days apart each week. This means when my schedule is accommodating I spend about two hours a week in the allergy clinic. Protected reading time! (What am I allergic to? Grasses, trees, mites, the phrase 'birth experience', screamy cable news)

// This sunscreen is the best! Just the right texture. Perfect for everyday wear and great under makeup.

//  Visiting with friends this week. Hi Tom! I miss my people so much.

// Sprite and orange sherbet, the only known cures for FOOD POISONING, which I developed Sunday night. Six hours til onset, six hours duration, two days of feeling zonked, you know the story. Luckily I was the only one sickened. All of my weekday holiday plans were dashed but on the upside we started watching Twin Peaks (never seen it, no spoilers please!) Another upside: I will probably never eat smoked sausage again (though that wasn't the culprit - fairly certain it was the coleslaw or salad dressing).

// // I've been following this blog for a while and the author was on All Things Considered yesterday. Read this wonderful letter below or even better, hear the blog author read it aloud here.

Dear Sir,

I like words. I like fat, buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, gluttonous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, precuneus, valedictory. I like spurious, black-as-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demimonde. I like suave V words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty. I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land's-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon. I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip. I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp. I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around. I have just returned and I still like words. May I have a few with you?

Robert Pirosh.

Just Us Girls

or, the photos in my phone with captions.

Date night at Gruene Hall. Here we are with the opener Nikki Lane. We have the same Sam Edelman leopard booties but unfortunately/fortunately not the same leather hot pants. Jenny Lewis was the headliner and wow was it a great show.

With Luke out of town for two nights, I had to fend for myself with the wolf cubs. On Saturday morning we went to the Y and then Central Market for lunch. After naps at home:

[I read this with keen interest because crinkles are my very favorite Christmas cookie. Can ATK make them better?! Will report back.]

We were off* to the botanical garden for a stroll. Several sound checks were progress for an event that evening.

*if you are getting the feeling that I hate being in my home with my children, you are correct

I pushed the stroller and had C on her leash. I AM IMPERVIOUS TO YOUR JUDGMENT.

When she fatigued (our goal for this outing), I popped her in the Ergo. I love carrying my little child around - it makes me feel like a primate in the very coolest way. 

Dinner at Pei Wei (inexplicably).

The hi/bye committee:

Spring rolls, summer rolls, tuna rolls, thigh rolls.

She turned up her nose at the kid's lo mein (I was shocked) but did eat the seared slabs of tofu.

Next door for better-received chocolate hazelnut gelato.

C was tuckered out and fell right asleep; Josie, who had been biding her time all day for her two-hour bottle, cooed in my arms while we watched Top Chef. Her first word will be 'Hulu'.

Cool and overcast Sunday - perfect. Farmers' market for an iced coffee, two spaghetti squash, a small pan de muerto, and bao from Ming's Thing.

Riverwalk. C walked from Pearl to the museum stretch - pretty far. 

Watching a park police boat:

DUHs! 

'Do you want to take a picture?' 'Noooo.'

Stopping for a bottle. See, darling, being out with both cubs is easy. C was only pulling my hair medium-hard.

'Hulu'.

What's Making Me Happy / 3

What's making me happy this week...

// Giorgio Armani Sí perfume. Haven't bought new perfume in years (in fact the only other one I own is Chanel Allure Sensuelle love it love it love it always and forever) and I smelled Sí on a strip in a magazine and went for it! I feel so elegant.


// This blurb from Robert Duvall's interview in the New York Times Magazine. Miller Lyte?! Sometimes I think we have too much freedom in America.

// Amal Alamuddin's style. The new Mrs Clooney (by the way, the old Mrs. Clooney plays Roger's ex-wife on Mad Men opposite her real-life husband John Slattery - yes, you want me on your Trivial Pursuit team for those pink pieces) wears weird haute couture man shoes and also ball gowns and that cream jumpsuit with a hat! Perfection. Outta the way, George, you're ruining the pictures of Amal.

// 'Look at this!' I said on Monday, showing Luke NPR's Instagram animation of the lunar eclipse (screen shot here). 'So cool!' ... 'What is it?' he asked. 'A description of the lunar eclipse.' I replied.

'Oh... I thought you were showing me some weird graph of your period*....

Like your umbra was bleeding and your penumbra was revitalizing.'

*something I would do and probably have done now that I think about it

That man makes me laugh. Have a great day everybody! Did you see the eclipse this morning? I got up at 5:15 to see it and take a slow jog around the neighborhood. The morning was muggy and warm and cloudy but at last the clouds parted and I was able to see it for a few minutes. It was magical. My penumbra is revitalized.

The clouds covered the moon again and I jogged on, asking the other early morning joggers like the good little hall monitor that I am, 'DID YOU SEE THE ECLIPSE?!'

photo edited a bit, too dark otherwise. Not taken from prison, this is the high school stadium fence.

Uncooking

Lately I'm uncooking. This weekend I tried to prepare all of the vegetables in the house because they are the last things to be eaten and then sometimes frequently they go bad and it's such a waste. Enter, uncooking.

1. Spaghetti squash. Never eaten it before but it's all over paleo recipes. Because my knives are never that sharp and prepping squash is treacherous, I roasted the squash whole at 400 degrees for one hour. After cooling a bit, I cut it in half, scraped out the seeds, and raked out the flesh, which is very noodle-like. Stirred in a spoonful of pesto from the fridge -- a revelation! So tasty. The squash retained its crunch after a day in the fridge and reheating. How much are spaghetti squash? I'm going to be eating a lot of them.

2. Butternut squash. I bought a clamshell of cubed butternut squash at Costco without a plan for it - typically a huge $3.99 mistake as it will linger in the fridge/freezer until I forget about it (somehow this doesn't happen with the Costco milk chocolate almonds). I had two red onions on the counter so I googled butternut squash + red onion and followed this but with a much longer oven time because I had much more squash. Somewhere in my googling I came across 'add goat cheese' - always a good idea and I usually have it on hand. After the veggies had cooled a tad I crumbled goat cheese over them and it got all melty and oniony and sweet and savory. Delicious. Would also be great mixed with salad greens or with toasted walnuts for some crunch.

3. Sweet potatoes. Were also lingering on the counter... google google... maple mashed sweet potatoes! No peeling! [This is how I read a potato recipe: 6 lbs potatoes, peel--NO. Do not proceed with reading]. I am lukewarm about sweet potatoes but speaking of Lukes we agreed this was the best sweet potato dish we've had. Now that I've made it once I might slowly back off of the butter and cream a bit. Or not. I used a potato ricer for smooth consistency. Bordered on cooking but the skipped step of peeling made up for that.

All of these required very little to no measuring, no difficult or time consuming prep, and capitalized on seasonal produce. I broiled pork tenderloins and microwaved a bag of brussels sprouts and using the veggies above prepared several individual meals for the week. Hands-on time was less than 30 minutes. Pre-made meals are becoming paramount because when I arrive home with the girls around 5 or 5:30, it's a sprint to get C some dinner, a bath, and to bed by 7. Preparing healthy meals on Sunday - and sitting to eat them, rather than hovering in the kitchen - will hopefully decrease the frantic what's for dinner?! rush and prevent getting takeout or resorting to spoonfuls of peanut butter or bars of EEZ for Clementine (the child loves cheese). So far she has refused the pesto spaghetti squash but I think bolognese spaghetti squash will be approved.

Other uncooking plans: pineapple kebabs and bacon-wrapped butternut squash bites.

This Weekend We...

This weekend we:

Took naps while I went to Costco. (Costco plus yoga, Jeopardy, you're right about us gals!)

Compared Aunt Robin's nose (left) to Josie's nose (right)

Went to Random Beer Garden in Boerne. [You people with your vests and your PSLs and your crisp leaves underfoot! As for me and my family we will sip cider outdoors year round.]

The bar-playground is one of my favorite things about Texas. Just out of the frame is a giant bounce pad and an inflatable slide.

Bottle service before the show:

Ate grilled cheeses:

A glitch in the matrix! The woman walking behind me is wearing the same outfit.

Went to the botanical garden:

Josie was there too.

Lego exhibit.

Watched Colbert.

Refused to perform:

As she told me while shuffling around in these flip flops, BYE-BYE!

Have a great week, everybody!

First Thursday

During First Thursday at the Pearl Brewery complex the shops are open late and there is some sort of live music (this Thursday was a DJ). Pearl is one of my favorite parts of SA because of its pedestrian-friendliness and fabulous stores and restaurants. A hotel is opening there in the spring so if you are planning a trip to SA, I am pre-recommending it (I will scout out when it opens - because I care about you! And, cocktails).

I seized upon this First Thursday as the First Outing Solo with Kids after the First Solo Daycare Pick-Up. (People with two+ kids, I can hear you snort-laughing through the Internet right now). But it's hard! Getting them in car, unfurling unfamiliar stroller, wrangling that stroller through doorways (btw, thanks but no thanks for all of your help, fellow San Antonians. It's not like I ask people for huge favors but hold the door open and help a mother out, huh? Jeez.) Luke is gone more and more now, meaning I have to embrace solo outings because OH HAY-ULL NO we will not be cooped up in the house. Fall and winter are the only reasons to live in SA - so you can eat fish tacos on a patio while your Yankee friends shovel their sidewalks.

We shall sally forth!

This was the debut of the double stroller. The shot in front of the majestic, circular Stable building was good...

But the close-up is much better.

Bakery Lorraine opened today at Pearl. We had a lemon blueberry muffin (mu-ah, Clem said and signed) and a spinach and goat cheese panini that contained 25% cheese and 75% gobs of delicious wilted spinach - yum (but did not get a mu-ah from the tiny diner).

 Space hog.

We strolled around a bit (trying to get those 10,000 steps). Stopped in Twig and had my hands on Lena Dunham's new book, but as I'm trying to downsize, spent a ridiculous whoopsie-daisy amount on hair cut/color/keratin treatment that very morning, and will eventually get it from library (though I'm number 36 in the queue), I couldn't part with another $28.

Assisted waving: C was shouting BYE-BYE! BYE-BYE to people (and cars) and I asked her to 'help Josie say bye-bye'.

Bike World has some great signage.

My beautiful bike from Bike World, in the garage...

Back to car, click into the car seats, fold up stroller, drive home, put Wolf 1 to bed, give Wolf 2 the two-hour bottle while watching Nashville while wondering why I watch Nashville, it's completely unwatchable (I think it's a hate-watch, like Scandal; see also: the Instagram hate-follow). The First Thursday outing was a confidence builder for me.

The stroller reminds me to tell you about my friend and very fine writer Amy George Rush, and the book that she wrote about 9-11 responders, Under One Flag. Buy her book! (She gave me the stroller - thanks Amy!)

Another babely patriot friend, a veteran herself, is featured in the philanthropic Pin-Ups for Vets calendar - she's Miss April and is featured here on the Huffington Post. Go Shannon!