That's Good Stuff.

I feel like we spend a lot of time eating when we have guests in town.  Or, if not eating, then figuring out where we're going to eat next or how many different restaurants we can fit into one day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert....midnight snack?). 

So when my cousin Glenn came down from Cornell a couple of weeks ago, we practically gorged ourselves every day.  I had to remind myself that I was not, in fact, on vacation, and that I should at least try to stick to my normal food intake.  Even with my internal checks-and-balances reminder system, I still ended up feeling uncomfortably full for almost the whole weekend.

I mean, look at those piles of trash in front of us in the photos below.  Man, that was Good Stuff.  Literally.  

I got the toasted marshmallow shake for the first time.  It was (ahem) too overwhelmingly sweet for me.  I know, blasphemy.  I can usually handle my sweets, but this was just too much.  I had to have Glenn finish it for me. 

What I'm really trying to say is: come visit us.  You'd like it.  But be sure to be gastronomically prepared for a food marathon.

Just a little homeless.

Late this past fall we painted our newly windowed and air conditioned den.  These are my painting shorts.

They started out as painting pants last winter.  But then I painted in the spring, got too hot, and took scissors to them (while wearing them, I might add) to turn them into jagged capris.  Then, I painted in the summer and they evolved (again, while wearing them) into the shorts you see here.

I had a bit of a problem when it got chilly again and I had another painting project to do.

Enter the fuzzy socks + slippers.  A combination made in cold-footed heaven and the reason I'm posting this less than attractive photo of myself.

Blake got such a kick out of my fluffy footies that he followed me around the house all evening trying to take paparazzi photos of me in my fuzzy-socked glory.  At the time I saw this footwear as the best solution.  Now, looking at the photo, I agree with Blake.  It is a sartorial malfunction.

I Love DC in the Springtime.

Our choke cherry tree is blooming in all its pink, puffy, heaven-scented glory.  It blooms later in the season than most others.  So, after the downtown blossoms have faded, we get to enjoy these right outside our front door.  The best part?  No tourists.

I should give credit where credit is due: Blake has humored me in taking lots of pictures of our yard and home with his new snazzy camera.  I'll have him post more photos on our house blog when he has a moment.  You'll be impressed with all of the work he's done in the front yard (our fall sidewalk replacement took a real toll on our front lawn) and with the beautiful trees, bushes and flowers that are colorfully popping out all over our yard.  The azaleas and hydrangeas are almost here, and we've already started enjoying our mass of lilacs.   

Add that to the hundreds of double cherrys, dogwoods, rhododendrons, tulips, daffodils and other flowers in our neighborhood, and we've got one of the most pleasant and beautiful evening walks we could ask for.

Goût Français

I bought a large bag of lemons on sale a couple of weeks ago, and didn't end up using as many as I thought I would for salad dressings and drinks.  A couple minutes on the google machine and I'd found my lemon surplus solution:

French lemon curd.

Theses miraculously tasted exactly the same as they do in France.  I doubled the recipe, but it still wasn't enough.  We went through one large tarte and a whole platter of mini tartes au citron in two days. 

I think I've found my new obsession.

Thursday lunch productivity.

Like I've said before, craft circle is really fun.  I get to learn a new skill, eat lunch, and listen to heated debates about knitting v. crochet and cats v. dogs.  Now that I'm getting the hang of this whole knitting thing, I've branched out of the 2 dimensional / rectangular scarf realm and into the world of 3 dimensional oh-so-cute baby booties. 

This has recently turned out to be a surprisingly useful hobby.  Is it just me, or are about a-million-and-seven of my friends pregnant right now?  Well, the jig is up.  You're all getting booties.

An Open Letter

Dear Mr. Senate Majority Leader and Mr. Speaker of the House,

I would like it if you allowed my Blake to keep his job and his salary.

Please stop bickering like petulent children and come to some sort of agreement.  You're beginning to make me feel very unpatriotic.

Signed,
I'm All For Cutting Government Spending, But There's Got To Be A Better Way

I promise I vacuum on a regular basis...

I shed.  I shed a lot.

And every time a hair tumbleweed blows aimlessly across our hardwood floors Blake says, "look! Another one of your hair friends!"

Experimenting with HTML

I'm starting to experiment with html a bit.  I'm sick of the way my photos look against the grey-blue background, so I've changed it to a cleaner, crisper white.  Technology makes my impatience/ need for change a little easier.  Instead of chopping my hair or re-arranging the living room, all I have to do is manipulate my blog background color. 

What do you think?