Hello there. It’s hot & muggy as all get out this week and thanks to those french doors that lead from the dining room to the sunroom still in need of serious love and therefore, not installed, I can’t close the house up and turn on the AC. That task is on the to-do list for week after next. In between now & then, I have a few canning classes & demonstrations lined up, a few articles due to editors here & there, a kid to pack up and drop off at camp, some girls nights and date nights to attend to. I’m also organizing a swap next Saturday, July 27. Continue reading
Category: another day in the life
Summering.
I’m taking a wee break from watching paint dry (as I type this, the dining room ceiling is DONE and the first coat of Parakeet Green on the lower half of the walls is drying) to say hello out there. We have thoroughly immersed ourselves in summer here, with sleeping in, long days at the pool and late dinners at the picnic table. The garden has suddenly gone gangbusters, which has not gone unnoticed by the squirrels, who are knocking on the back door looking for handouts again. Bugs helped themselves to an entire row of kale, much to my horror and Edie’s delight. (Apparently I’ve been serving a few too many greens lately). Saturday I swapped some of my strawberry jam for things like Stephanie’s Green Bean Relish and Hunter’s Lemon, Onion & Oregano Jam. Those treats will be served up for dinner one night soon along with bread & cheese. I love summer dinner. I love summer. Those lazy days where sometimes the best thing you can do is just hit the pool with a good book in hand and a bag full of treats to nibble on all day long……
We are definitely soaking it up.
In which Clara got on a boat.
Progress on the dining room was interrupted this weekend for a stop on the annual ‘summer by the water’ tour. This one was particularly glorious as it was a girls’ weekend with some of my college gals at Andrea’s St. Michael’s house. This is what Friday night looked like:
Wine & cheese and a sunset on the dock, just me & Andrea.
Breakfast was coffee & a big bowl of cherries while I sat outside reading.
It was one of those picture perfect June mornings – clear, just warm enough but not hot, with a gentle breeze to keep the bugs away. I had no cell reception, there’s no internet, no land line, no TV. Nothing to do but sit and read a book.
That was the sky. Divine, isn’t it?
After Andrea woke up, we puttered in the yard some – as she & her family are moving to San Francisco, this house is going on the market. After she met with the realtor and we filled in a hole left by the digging of the new well, Clara & Sheilah showed up. Which meant it was beer time.
On the dock again of course.
Because when you have access to something like that, I believe you take full advantage of it. Then again, we all know how obsessed I am with spending my summer by the water.
Eventually, it was decided we’d get cleaned up and head into town for something to eat. And that’s when the fun really began.
After wandering around the streets of St. Michael’s, we eventually made our way to the waterfront and found a place to eat. We had to wait at the bar for a table, which was fine with us. Us being us, we engaged everyone around us in conversation, including most of the staff. We were sitting by the door they use to go in & out of, as well as near the hostess station.
I have noted here before that as a group, we are loud and foul mouthed – Andrea & I especially. We call each other names – terms of endearment to each other, but we’ve realized others can be slightly offended at how we speak to each other.
Some might say we are badly behaved, but really, Andrea & I just don’t care. It’s the defining quality we share along with the ability to make the saltiest sailor blush with our language. If you knew us in college when we were practically inseparable, then the way we behave when we get together as forty-something soccer moms doesn’t phase you. It actually makes perfect sense, unless of course you thought certainly we’d have grown out of that by now.
We haven’t. In fact, it may have gotten worse.
When our table was ready, our bar tab was handed to us. We couldn’t help but notice the name the staff had put our tab under:
Which thrilled us to no end. Clearly, they got us. And appreciated us, as we had half the staff stopping to chat with us. A woman at the bar holding her crying toddler in one hand and a beverage in the other looked at us and sighed, “I’m having my girls weekend next weekend”.
I snapped this shot and posted it on facebook, tagging the girls at their request. We were all taken aback by the comments of friends who thought the staff should be fired – not at all. We were completely in on it. As someone who still works as a server, it’s always nice when you have a group or table that’s fun & easy, as I know we were. Well, other than the loudness factor. And the name calling. And the language. When we sat down at our table, there was a family with two small girls behind us that we tried out best to behave around, but well, they were at least quite understanding…
We discovered this little guy and he proceeded to hang out around us all night long. We took that as a good sign. We might be loud and obnoxious, but hey, we have good karma.
As we sat at dinner on the patio of the restuarant on the waterfront, Clara saw some boats for hire coming back into dock. “I want to get on a boat”. Bless Andrea’s heart, she whipped out her phone and made a few calls, trying to get Clara on a boat. Everything was booked, but we assured her, she’d get on a boat before she left.
And so, after dinner, we wandered around the marina. We came across a lively group sitting on their boat that we engaged in conversation. Next thing you know, they invited us to come aboard for a drink. Seeing this as how we were going to get Clara on a boat, I hopped aboard. When everyone else realized I wasn’t coming ashore until I finished my Coors Light, they all came aboard too.
The text I sent to my husband at about this point of the evening was “Made new friends. We’re on a boat. Not sure who’s boat, but we’re on a boat”.
His reply? “Woo-hoo! Glad you’re having fun!”
Love that man.
Meanwhile, Sheilah here was our sober driver and herder. She did it with much grace & style, as she has always done. Yes, that’s a bird on her shoulder, because when you storm a boat, isn’t there supposed to be a bird on someone’s shoulder?
We eventually made our way back to the house where the fun & games continued with late night swimming in the river, improvised ladders and glow in the dark jelly fish. As we drove home on Sunday, Andrea noted that every time we get together, we have some sort of adventure. Perhaps that is what binds us together after all these years. That and the name calling, the foul language and the fact that we just don’t give a shit what you think of us.
So far this week.
I bought beets at market last Saturday. I roasted them in a foil packet in just a wee bit of water at 375 for just over an hour. I let them cool, peeled them, tossed with with salad greens, goat’s milk feta cheese, salt & pepper, olive oil & red wine vinegar. We liked them. So much so I bought more beets at market this Saturday and when I suggested making that salad again today, Edie said okay. Which means she likes them I think. Dare I say we are starting to like beets? Continue reading
Down at Market.
I totally meant to write this post earlier in the week, but one thing after another popped up and next thing you know, it’s a week later and one realizes oh, that never happened. And then, because I’m one of those people who believes that if you do something and you’re going to blog about it, you should do it in a timely manner, ie, just after it happens, I started debating whether to do it at all. Sitting here on a Sunday morning where the sun can’t quite decide if it’s coming out or not, realizing that until this stinking dining room gets done, getting this house clean and decluttered is just not an option and I really should get myself geared up just a little bit more before jumping back into that dining room project, it seemed like I should write about it. Continue reading
Her mother’s daughter.
We went out of town for the latter part of Memorial Day weekend, to help the Smiley’s with their addition. Pat spent Sunday & Monday painting, Edie spent it playing with Abigail & Owen and I spent it snuggling baby Walker, cleaning Mollie’s kitchen, making strawberry jam and feeding everyone. Pretty much the same things we’d do here, only we were there. We got back late Monday night and all three of us just went straight to bed.
I worked Tuesday (teaching at The Happy Cook), Wednesday & Thursday (at l’etoile) evenings. Edie had been mentioning hosting a slumber party sometime, but given my schedule for the week, it didn’t really get discussed much. I just nodded every time it came up, while I was knee deep in other things – like making sure they had dinner prepped or Edie had a ride home from soccer practice – you know, those sorts of distracting mom things. Thursday night when I got home from work, there was an email from Clare’s mom asking if it was true we were having a party the next day – which is how I found out it was a go and Clare was on the invite list. Apparently Elodie was in charge of making invites but breaking her arm sort of interfered in that plan, so not everyone got a handwritten invite, which was the plan. Also in the plan was for everyone to come home with Edie from school. And that they were sleeping outside. It was requested I serve pizza for dinner, but breakfast was wide open.
Really, that’s all I knew of the plan. I was kept on a need-to-know basis, a quality Edie has been described by her friends as having. Which she comes by completely honestly. Ahem. So I couldn’t quibble with her in the least on this. In fact, while talking about it with Pat Thursday night, I admitted that I’ve done the exact same thing to her so many times over the years – springing an impromptu party – that I probably deserved it. Pat agreed, saying “We just need to make sure this does not become a habit”, but as the words were coming out of his mouth, I could tell, he knew we had no hope of that. In fact, everyone I’ve talked to about this has given me pretty much the same look. Uhm, hello? Last minute pinata?
The thing is, Edie is one of those people who like to have things planned. She likes to know ahead of time, like way ahead of time, what all the details are. Her favorite thing about school is structure -and she never misses an opportunity to tell us that it’s because we (me) fail to provide structure. I was raised by the seat of my pants – you’d go to sleep in your own bed, but you weren’t always guaranteed to wake up there. The adventures I had growing up would make Edie’s head spin. Most people, upon hearing the tales of my childhood, think I should write a book. They also wonder that I’m as stable as I am. No, really. My parents were the sort who thought it fun to break into their friend’s homes at 5 am and surprise them with breakfast. Deciding to go camping after dark and waking up at the business end of a shotgun after setting up camp overnight in a not-so-friendly stranger’s yard was also a regular occurrence. A few pieces of the puzzle just fell into place for some of you, didn’t it?
So this party and keeping us on a need-to-know-basis? Makes my heart swell. She’s learning to let go and roll with the punches, which is really sort of key in life I think.
And so, Friday afternoon when school dismissed, there was a roar heard coming down the street. The neighbor moving in across the street stood on her porch, listened, saw them headed down our front walk and ran in, slamming the door. They walked in, dumped their gear, creating a wall of little girl gear right there in the living room and proceeded to roam the neighborhood, walking over to McIntire Park to watch baseball before coming home to sit up most of the night chatting & giggling in a tent in our back yard.
I’m fairly sure a good time was had by all and I’m fairly sure they are planning on doing this sort of thing a few more times this summer. I made them pizza for dinner – even buying a pack of pepperoni per Edie’s instructions, which was applauded by my girl. I knocked it out of the park at breakfast with Julie’s Lemon Cheesecake Morning Buns – I cannot recommend this recipe enough. It’s easy peasy, yummy and all you have to do in the morning is throw them in the oven and whip up a very quick glaze. In fact, that breakfast alone may have sealed our summer party hosting fate, as I heard at least one girl saying if that’s how we ate around here, she definitely needed to come over more often.
Bookends.
At 7 am, the kids that live across the street came bounding into my house, ready for school, with close to an hour to kill before bus time. Heading back toward’s Edie’s room to play piano, Li paused to take in the pile of blue dresses thrown on top of the wing chair. When informed they were all possible costumes for Edie’s role in the school drama club’s version of “Beauty & The Beast”, Li’s eyes grew wide and she asked with awe, “Is she the princess?”. As I answered in the affirmative, she went running into Edie’s room, with congratulations and adulation that only the little girl who lives across the street who understands the importance of having your royalness acknowledged can give you. Continue reading
Start.
When we made the offer on the house, we swore the first thing we were going to do was the dining room, especially since we had nothing to put in there. Upon moving in, we suddenly ended up with my grandparent’s dining room furniture, which of course went directly into the dining room and there it has ever been ever since.
Last Minute Pinata.
We’ve been on the fence for the last few months about The Party. We’ve been getting inquiries about it since the Christmas party season. For real. We deliberately kept the first weekend in May open, but couldn’t bring ourselves to committing to hosting anything. We had conversations over the months about changes needed to be made to the party – we needed to cut the guest list or we needed to hire staff to help with the party or both. We weren’t quite sure how to politely cut the guest list and at the same time, we knew for every cut we made, we’d end up adding two. We talked about slashing the guest list to the absolute bone, inviting only what we termed our ‘everyday people’. That list got written up about two months ago. We dillied, we dallied. We couldn’t quite decide and everywhere we went, people inquired about what our Cinco de Mayo plans were.
About a week ago, we made the call. We weren’t having a party, just a few friends over. We verbally invited just about everyone, but waited until late Wednesday, 3 days before the actual party date, to issue any formal invitations. Which read:
We’re not having ‘the party’,
we’re just having a few select friends over for Watermelon Margs.
And Lemonade for the kids.
No pinata though. Continue reading
An Evening of Culture.
A few weeks ago, my friend Susan called and asked if I would help her put together an evening for her culture club. She explained that the culture club sprung out of her book club – at some point, they realized that they really weren’t reading or discussing the books, but they still enjoyed getting together and doing things. And thus, their culture club began.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 