Grape Did It

Oh Spring, good God

I realize I can't complain like those people up to the north who might be deluged AGAIN with snow, but BY GOD I CAN STILL COMPLAIN. If I wake up to one more cold, drizzly, gray-ass day, one where the baby hacks and coughs and whines because he, um, can't BREATHE PROPERLY, one where I feel like, "What the hell else do you do with a sick, six month old? Surely you can't drag him to the bar? That's not good for a cold." One where Copper paces in ever increasingly bored circles, one where I keep checking the weather over and over again like some crazy person hoping for a change, I will lose. my. shit.

Oh wait. I'm looking out the window at gray...drizzle...cold. MIS-HA-RA-BLE WEATHER. AGAIN.

Excuse me while I go lose my shit.

Somebody fly me to the Bahamas. Hey, let's all go, shall we? Anyone got a sugar daddy?

I planted tulips this weekend in some vain attempt to hurry spring along, hoping the promise of bright flowers might help. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that the damn things survive this cold snap. 

I have no silver lining, no lemons to lemonade, just a bad mood. So I am going out to the fabric store to look at cheerful fabrics in the hopes of dragging myself up and out. I will share what I find. FOR ALL OF OUR SAKES.

2.9.10

Valentine's Day mother edition

Check it. My early Valentine's Day gift. Looks like a pretty necklace, right? Well, okay, it IS a pretty necklace but it's also BA DA BING! A teething ring! Celebrities wear them too! That is exclusively why I asked for it! Kidding, but only sort of. 

Truett loves it, I love it, I so far have worn it every day. 

It just might become my new, new-mother go-to gift. You can find one here.

2.8.10

2.7.10

2.6.10

2.5.10

Perfect menu

I've neglected a little bit my Happy Book projects or, whatever, can't we call them something else? I mean, I want to give the book credit and all but seriously, I sound like I'm in kindergarten whenever I reference any of these ideas. Come on, help me come up with a better sounding name.

One of the projects I am anxious to work on - ha! work on, because it's SO hard for me to cook and then EAT - is a perfect menu. Start to finish, three courses that will be fun to make, fun to take pictures of and then fun to hork down. 

I decided to go with an Asian-themed menu and I'm not sure why, probably I caught a glimpse of some tasty looking rice noodles or something and I was all, "Aha! Genius!" Or the fact that I just really, really love food from the far east. Do I capitalize Far and East there? I never know.

For the start: Spicy Chicken Soup

My criteria for the dishes was: sounds tasty, has some kind of Asian influence, and finding these ingredients won't necessitate a trip to the bad side of town. Whole Foods I can do. I am a scared yuppie in a bad neighborhood. This dish fit all three. 

Main course: Spicy Sesame Noodles with Chopped Peanuts and Thai Basil

Oops, the first two dishes are both spicy. Is this some kind of culinary faux pas? Probably. Bud likes spicy though and so do I, we'll just be sure to keep plenty of beverages handy. I'm also going to go ahead and admit that I will probably punk out and use American basil. See above bit about bad parts of town. Or even just getting lost in unfamiliar areas. Both of those are bad news for me and both have happened frequently in my life. (Side note to my mother: should I tell them the story about getting lost in Scary Town, DC?). Do I need that period there? God, I should hire an editor. Who knew I majored in English, I only did it for the literature part though.

And lastly, before I lose you to a bunch of unrelated tangents (is that redundant?): Pineapple Orange Sorbet

I have a feeling we will be needing something cool after all of this spiciness. Ella, charmingly, asks before you give her a piece of gum, "Is it PICEY?"

Now to gather ingredients and get organized enough to execute this dinner. Because it has committed a terrible crime. HAAAA.

*Any beverage ideas?

2.4.10

Do it! DO IT NOW!

I have come late to the re-usable bag trend and I think that's mainly because I grew up resisting the hippie label. Of course, the bitch of that being that I turned out to sort of BE a hippie. My hair isn't just long and straight, I also compost. I. compost. Hello, I compost. My name is Hope. I also bring my own bag to the grocery store. But I promise to shower and some other type A qualities.

For Christmas a friend of mine sent me a re-usable bag (Hi Miriam!) which is what finally tottered me over the edge. Up until then I'd sort of meant to get one but had always balked at the ugly supermarket kind. This one though, oh this one had the word HOPE emblazoned on the side so I was all, conservation you lovely thing you. I carried it around town for a few weeks until someone stole it. No, actually I think I left it somewhere or just plain old lost it but it made me feel better for a few seconds to blame it on someone else. (Hey Kerby, didn't you once say something about transfer of blame on a facebook status? The brain, it comes and goes these days.)

EEEEnyway, I finally got me a new one just the other day! It folds into a cute little square that hangs in my kitchen, advertising the fact that Hello my name is Hope and I CARE. MORE THAN YOU. Then it unfolds into a gigantic bag in which you can store things like elephant heads or what not. KIDDING. I would never carry around an elephant head, see above comments about CARING AND STUFF. Whew, this post is totally getting away from me and I swear I'm not drinking. Much.

But what I probably love best about this bag is that it reads as a command. It doesn't ASK you to re-use bags for your shopping trips. Bitch! It TELLS you. (As an aside, my mother and I were just talking about using bad language the other day and I think I referenced how I didn't curse much. Uuuum. At least not out loud. This is my safe, cussing space. Thanks for understanding mom.)