No Post

This is a post to say that I can't do a post tonight.  Because I'm too tired. And my kitchen counter is still covered in the day's detritus, and if I were going to do anything extra tonight, it should be taking care of that.  We had Max's piano recital tonight. (In addition to a complete meltdown from both daughters--separately, of course. One before the recital; one after.)  Then after the recital and kids to bed, Adam and I spent the rest of the evening on Amazon.com (aka "Santa's Little Helper").   Now my electric blanket has been turned on to high and the heat in our house and gone down to low.  So I'm off to bed.  Everything else: tomorrow.

Going Out

Isabel dressed herself in this stylish outfit today. 

Her best pal 'dd' was over to play, and once he found something suitable to wear, they announced they were were "going out." 

Looks like they're getting ready to retire to Florida.

Catching Up: Thanks a Ton (and a half)

It's only a week or so until Christmas, but I'm overdue in recording the early Christmas present my parents gave me during their visit in September.

When we first moved into this house my mom came out to spend a couple of weeks to help us move in and to get a leg up on some house projects.  For those who know my mom, project is her middle name.  Actually, it's really more like her first name, and don't-mind-work is her middle name.  During that  first visit, she took to cleaning parts of the house--armed with a toothbrush, razor blade and ammonia--that I'm sure the previous owners completely managed to avoid ever cleaning in the sixteen years they lived here before we did.  Now I'm sure that the greatest housewarming gift you can give someone is to mop behind the fridge. 

But from the very beginning she singled out the rotting railroad ties being used as a small retaining wall at the top of our driveway and said that she'd like to build a rock wall there.  It's come up on every other visit in the years since, but there have always been other projects at the top of the list instead.

In this year's visit, they once again did not dissappoint. They painted some closet doors, tilled a section of the lawn with compost to amend the soil, pushed the very large aerator over the whole lawn to prep for seeding, dug out/sifted many bucket-fulls of gravel from a French drain, hauled all the dug-up gravel in multiple wheelbarrow trips up the hill, helped with homework assignments, ironed shirts, woke up early to oversee piano practicing, made sandwiches for lunches, and cleaned the bathrooms, etc.  I'm trying to remember what I did besides catch up on my Netflix queue.

Well, earlier in September I had all (and I mean all) of the overgrown landscaping in the front of the house removed.  I should interject here a little pity for poor Adam; it's really unfortunate for him that my love language turned out to be home improvement projects.  The landscaping decision was impulse (not that I regret it), but it left the rotting railroad ties at the top of the driveway completely exposed. So when my mom again suggested building the rock wall, even Adam agreed.  Immediately my mom and I were calling rock suppliers, and soon enough my dad and I were on our way in borrowed a pick-up to buy 3000lbs of field stone.  

When my dad wasn't moving rocks for my mom, he was being pestered by Saul for a walk down the street.

After a few afternoons of work, they did it.  And, wow! The finished product looks pretty fantastic. I invite anyone to come on by anytime; I'll even set up some folding chairs in the driveway so we can sit and admire it. Thanks, Mom and Dad.  We love you too.

According to Isabel

We had another great day in New York.  According to how Isabel would tell it, here's (some of) what we did:

Went to Metro Diner for brekwist with Yeeyian and Madeline
Played Merican Girl Dolls and rode cooters with them
Ate a sam hamwich for lunch
Rode on a  frowded frain
Saw a puppet show about Santa Cwaus
Saw the big Frismas Free (and it is not frooked and is bigger than our free at our house)
Rode on a very frowded frain again
Ate chicken for dinner, but the sauce was too picy!
Had chocwit ice fream for dessert since I ate some vreen beans

A few thoughts while being in NYC tonight

We are in NYC for the weekend.  Adam and I were out tonight, and since I have no pictures to document the evening, here are a few of my thoughts (possibly deep, but most likely not):

1.  New York rocks.  I love it that at 11pm we were out looking for something to do and possibly a snack and there were at least a dozen places in the few blocks that we walked that would have been great.  And all of them were open.  So we settled for sharing a gyro and a red velvet cupcake.

2.  Pretty much all cupcakes are overrated.  Certainly overpriced.  Of course this isn't just exclusive to NYC.  I have yet to fully figure out why people get so crazy excited people get over a cupcake.  Maybe I'm the last person to say this, but I should have been the first considering that I've been thinking it for the last ten years since my first way-over-anticipated trip to try out the much-hyped Buttercup Bake Shop. And back then we had to schlep all the way over to the East Side to go to Buttercup. The best I can come up with is that the people who love them are people who grew up without ever having cake that wasn't from a mix and that there was no other frosting than the kind found in a little plastic tub.  I guess I can understand how this happens considering that until I was an adult I didn't know that garlic came in cloves and not in powder form.  But as for the frosting, at least I can thank my mom for a proper education in buttercream.

3.  Paper or plastic?  I'm now questioning the proper kind of tree to get for Christmas.  While I love a good, fresh tree (and so far it's the only kind we've had), while out tonight we walked by several sidewalk tree "lots" and a couple of large flatbed semi-trucks filled to capacity with more cut trees to stock the sellers. Suddenly the trees looked less like holiday decoration and more like the result of a brutal massacre.  So many trees!  And then we just throw them away!  And then my mind cycloned (just me?) into thinking about every tree in every lot in every city....  But, is the alternative plastic? Certainly that can't be right. So now I'm all confused.  Maybe next year I just let each child make a giant cookie in the shape of a tree that at the end of December they can just eat.  That's what I call both festive and pragmatic.

4.  In NYC, money is relative.  While on one hand I'll hardly think twice about spending $3.75 on a mediocre cupcake, on the other I insisted that Adam and I walk the 30 blocks from 65th up Broadway in 30 degree weather to save the $5 that we would have spent on a train ride home.  Hey, but, if we hadn't walked then we wouldn't have seen that there is now a Two Boots location on the Upper West Side.  And the $3.79 for the slice of shrimp pizza was well worth it.

5.  I'll happily choose a late-night date with Adam that doesn't involve any leaves.

P.S.  Regarding cupcakes: I did think that Georgetown Cupcake in DC had cupcakes worth the 20 minute line and even a repeat visit.  But maybe that's because growing up I didn't even know about the existence of ganache.

Leaf Harvest



Call us crazy, but we've finally figured out how to somewhat enjoy raking the millions of leaves that fall every year in our backyard.  It's called, the late-night date of raking leaves together--with our his and hers headlamps, some new lightweight rakes, a large tarp we fill with leaves and carry together, and plenty of time to talk with no interruptions.  No, seriously. Even though I am especially skilled at complaining about my house and the various chores involved in home ownership, it's at least one way to make lemonade from our yard full of lemons.

Catching Up: Girl's Weekend Out / Another DC Weekend

I have many wonderful gifts in life.  Among them, I have a fabulous husband that made arrangements in his schedule for me to have another October weekend away in DC.
Lucky me. 

And this time, it was a weekend away with some of the most fabulous women that I know. Women I've known since third grade, but who continue to amaze and inspire me with the kind of wives, mothers, and just good people that they are. Another phenomenal gift.
Lucky, lucky me. 

We spent a few days together touring DC: beautiful weather, a hotel, museums, monuments, shopping, sight-seeing, late night conversations, and eating absolutely fantastic food.  I had such a phenomenal time doing all of it without kids, it was like I'd never been to DC before.  But we decided that could have gone anywhere for a weekend away, because the favorite activity by far was talking.--all we needed was a table to sit at all together and we were good for hours of coversation.  And, when I came home, I was truly rejuvenated.

 Old Town Alexandria (and eating at LaMadeleine)

Our hotel was near the Capitol. 

Anna and I went out for early-morning runs (well, I did more walking than running)

on the Mall  for our fitness challenge requirements. 

 Visiting the National Gallery and getting a serious case of the giggles--while today's vogue is to have your family portrait taken in a fruit orchard, please observe the family portrait with the Virgin Mary.
 

 Julia Child's kitchen in the Museum of American History

Michelle Obama's inagural gown

The original Star Spangled Banner

Cupcakes at Georgetown Cupcake.  Divine!

 Cute Poppy

 Touring the monuments

Thanks dear friends!  I hope that it's not two years before we can do this again.