point to the adopted hometown

Friday's "home is better" post requires a bit of an addendum... There are a lot of great things about being at one's childhood home for a while, but my adopted hometown is far better in at least one way (aside from having my hubby!): late February weather. My departure from Michigan was delayed for a few hours Friday by this:

My brother was quite pleased to have his first snow day of the year; I was rather displeased to have seen this much snow this year. Cincinnati has (delightfully!) had almost zero, and despite finally getting to experience the all-weather features of the Subaru and the new boots I purchased for dog walking this winter, I was completely fine with not seeing more than an inch of snow this year. I'm mentally moved on to spring, and so are my daffodils...

See the difference? All it took was a 6-hour drive south, and dog walking became a bit more pleasant - sunny, 55 degrees, no socks or coat required!

5 things Friday: home is better edition

My grandpa has a famous saying - so famous, in fact, that we have it printed on t-shirts and often just use the shortened version, "HIB" -  in our family: "I've been home, and I've been away; home is better." (If you're a homebody like me, you know this needs no further explanation...) After a week at my parents', I'm on my way back to my Ohio home and my hubby today, but for this Friday, five ways that being at your childhood home is just better:

1. Girl time: my mom and I did nails (love all her color selections!) after soaking in the hot tub - so much better than the average Wednesday night.

2. Getting a little spoiled: Louise, the family dog, had the cadillac of dog beds, and now that she's gone Ginger has taken over with gusto. She spent most of the week on this bed (alternately curled up and sprawled) along with the toys my parents bought her and was clearly loving it.

3. Hanging out with your double: my mom and I spent a good chunk of the week with our laptops side-by-side, scheming blog design ideas and getting sidetracked by the same stuff on Pinterest. We also shared swoons over the new Martha Stewart line at Staples.

4. Special treats: in the evening, my dad serves up perfect scoops of his homemade vanilla ice cream in the cutest little bowl. Yum.

5. Hair time: even though I now live 6 hours away, I'm still not quite ready to have to switch stylists yet - so this week's visit meant I could go see Cassie and got a spruce up haircut and my once-a-year highlights. Feeling fancy.

Emily, Alone

Emily, Alone is one of those kind of books where not all that much actually happens, but I enjoyed it so much that I wanted it to keep going on longer. Emily is an 80ish widow who lives a quiet life, listening to classical music on public radio while she does crossword puzzles; it's really quite an ordinary life, but I loved her - self-assured but sometimes lonely, opinionated and a tiny bit crochety, funny. Her character was so well-formed and became so real to me that a few times I while going about my day I found myself wondering what Emily and her sister-in-law Arlene would be up to next and had to remind myself that (1) I was done reading the book and (2) she's not a real person.

This book is also an excellent example of fiction's ability to make you completely feel what another person does - sometimes to amusing effect (sympathizing with an 80-year-old's fastidious redistribution of tissue boxes around the house a little strange for someone my age, perhaps) and sometimes to heartbreaking effect (the piercing sadness Emily feels when deciding to donate the suitcase set monogrammed with her late husband's initials and hers; the panic she feels when her dog - and only companion at home - becomes seriously ill).

I've never read anything by Stewart O'Nan, but his writing in this one (there were some particularly lovely turns of phrase that we took turns sharing at book club) got me interested in checking out his other books, especially the previous book about Emily, Wish You Were Here, which I learned about after someone picked this one for book club. I've got it on order now, and in the meantime everyone else should read Emily, Alone (it's short and goes quickly!) because I want to talk about it some more...

weekend: some favorite bits

Peter's still working nights, and I'm still not quite used to this complete schedule switch - but what I could completely get used to is his having every weekend off. (Not a permanent tradeoff I'm willing to make, but we'll take what we can get in the meantime.) Also, it always amazes me to think about how much stuff one can do in the span of time Peter would be away from home for a Saturday on call. We did photos 3, 4, 5, and 6, plus a whole bunch of other things not pictured - sleeping in, lunch, haircut for Peter, walking with Ginger, shopping for new sheets, catching up on the DVR, reading (oh, and a whole night of sleep plus more sleeping in) - and he'd still be working that whole time! Gives you a new appreciation for a free Saturday, doesn't it?

A few errands during Peter's Friday afternoon nap - and oh, Target, 

how you make me want to spend all my money with all your good new stuff.

This week's Groupon dinner date - $30 for 1 sushi roll (a fancy one topped with spicy

sauce and crab meat, even), 2 entrees (teriyaki chicken and red snapper), and 1 dessert (fried ice cream) at Dancing Wasabi. 2 giant bottles of Kirin not included but worth it...

Gorgeous Saturday morning for a run - no need for gloves or headband, even!

 

We went glasses shopping for Peter, but I kept getting distracted. 

Don't these make me look smart?

 

Mixed up a yummy new falafel recipe (from MJ) for dinner; 

at our house, the chef gets to sample the wine before the meal.

Sunday morning brunch at the local diner, one of our favorite weekend off activities.

On our way to Michigan with lots of precious cargo.

A chunk of my Sunday was spent driving to Michigan; Ginger and I are here to have fun with family for a few days and arrived just in time for Sunday night BLTs and, of course, Downton Abbey. We also brought a car full of requests from Crate & Barrel and Ikea for my mom; I happily do delivery service to save you on shipping, but I charge an outing to Costco in return!

five things friday: sentimental edition

I like to keep an organized house (and rather enjoy cleaning out closets and cupboards), so I'm not one to keep a lot of items for sentimental reasons - but I certainly do have a few, and a couple weeks ago I got to thinking about nostalgia after reading this post from Life of a Doctor's Wife; milestones like anniversaries get one thinking about memories too... so this Friday, 5 special-to-me things:

1. I was going to reorganize the closet in my office, but I got sidetracked by the box of special treasures stored in there - some old tapes, special letters we've received, drawings from young cousins and siblings, fun things to spark memories like that.

2. I would love mini daffodils for their cuteness anyway, but I have a special fondness for them because Peter gave me some on the first Valentine's Day we were dating those many years ago (and it still lives!). So for $2.50 at Trader Joe's, a little sentimental spring for the living room.

3. Our recent anniversary date called for dressing up, which also called for a fancy coat - so I pulled out this one of my great grandma's that I was given after her funeral. I also have a couple of her jackets, including the one she wore to my wedding; she was always dressed just so.

4. I haven't worn them a lot in the last few years (not sure why), but for our anniversary dinner I also got out my wedding pearl earrings, and I've been wearing them ever since. These were a "something new" on the wedding day, and my "something old" was a pearl necklace from a long strand my grandma had made into necklaces for her granddaughters.

5. And one more piece of "something new" jewelry that will become a sentimental piece: a couple months ago I mentioned that I might like an anniversary band to wear in place of my engagement ring (sometimes, especially in glove weather, you don't want to wear something that sticks up and catches on things, right?). I had kind of forgotten about it until Peter sweetly suggested some jewelery shopping - "didn't you know the 6th anniversary is the one when you get jewelry?" And now I have something special we picked out together - and something long-lasting (as all my jewelry, aside from wedding-related stuff, is of the fake but fun variety...).

insta-DC weekend

Another work trip this weekend, this time a couple of days in Washington, DC, for a meeting. The trip had an auspicious start - I thought my frequent flyer perks had run out, but apparently not, as I got an email confirming my upgrade to first class, where there's loads of room, snacks, and even real glasses for your soda.

And even better, I ended up having the whole afternoon free when I arrived on Thursday, so I marched myself immediately over to the National Gallery (a 10 minute walk away) for a few hours of browsing. I could have spent many hours more, of course, but I had to get back to the hotel to meet colleagues for dinner. I'll be back to the same hotel for about a week this summer for our annual conference, so I started a list of things to get back to see more of...

Madame Picasso and I were practically outfit twins - love her fur collar

 Up close and personal with Monet's Rouen Cathedral

First page of the menu at Zaytinya - fabulous Eastern Mediterranean 

restaurant; I've seen the chef on Top Chef!

Friday I actually had to work all day - various meetings - but I fit in a little run along the mall before our four-course Italian dinner (good thing!). I loved having such a scenic route, even if it was slightly rainy. It helped the time pass quickly, and I've already come up with several other routes to try out when I'm back this summer.

 Pocket-sized running map

 Wining and dining - they do prosecco, ravioli, sea bass, and gelato very well...

Saturday morning there were still meetings, but I wasn't required since discussions about the journal were finished, so more free time in the city for me! I started with a (chilly) walk along the mall and down to the Lincoln Memorial, then a visit to the National Archives after breakfast, where I saw the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights documents.

Feeling suitably filled with notions of national history and monuments, I even considered joining the protest at the CPAC convention, but I had a plane to catch (first-class, of course...).

books in paradise

When we go on a relaxing tropical vacation, the first thing I put on the packing list is which books I want to bring - going to the pool doesn't mean swimming or tanning for us, it means reading... Here are the books we read on our Punta Cana trip (and the various nice places around the resort we found for doing the reading!)

#1: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson- a story about the relationship between two widowed people: a very properly British retired army major and the Pakistani shopkeeper in his quaint little English town. It was quite a charming love story but also a deeper story about culture, acceptance, and what really is "proper" behavior. A good vacation read.

#2: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach - Peter got me this one for Christmas. I was intrigued because it takes place at a (fictional) liberal arts college on the shores of Lake Michigan; it follows the college baseball team and the star shortstop who becomes filled with self doubt after a throw goes terribly awry. It wasn't all baseball - there were tidbits of English literature, liberal arts academic life, deep friendships, romances, dreams, redemption... And I was deeply into it enough that when I read #5 below - baseball nonfiction - I kept thinking of characters from this book and their baseball stats. Oops, not real people.

#3: The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean - about an elderly woman with Alzheimers' flashbacks to enduring the siege of Leningrad living in the Hermitage Museum. The art is all packed up to keep it safe during the war, but the book is still filled with beautiful descriptions of the art as Marina makes a "memory palace" of the museum's rooms. Lovely. I liked it a lot.

#4: Eden Close by Anita Shreve - someone at one of my book clubs handed this one to me; it was a good novel to just read - nothing too complicated, but an interesting mystery undercurrent to the plot in which the main character comes back to his childhood home, rediscovers his relationship (and love) with his neighbor, and learns what really happened in a tragic shooting next door 20 years earlier.

#5: I finished up with my fourth book on the second to last day of the trip... so I had to read one of Peter's, which he finished in the first few days - Moneyball by Michael Lewis, which describes how Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's, takes a new approach to putting together a low-budget baseball team that competes with the much higher budgets of teams like the Yankees. I'll read a novel about baseball, but non-fiction...? But it was SO interesting. I loved the (real-life) characters, especially the undervalued baseball players who get their chance at baseball when evaluated in more rational ways (such as having high on base percentage vs looking good in a uniform). Beyond just baseball, it makes you consider what else we make assumptions about or do based on feelings, rather than real analytical, evidence-based practice.

#6: Peter also read Bill Bryson's latest (At Home: A Short History of Private Life). Between his two books, Peter became quite a font of knowledge and had lots of facts to report about baseball statistic keeping and the evolution of domesticity.

anniversary weekend

 anniversary tulips (to match our wedding flowers)

I don't love the night float schedule Peter is on this month, but on the bright side, it does mean that he has weekends off... so it was lovely to have the weekend to enjoy together, and even lovelier that our 6th anniversary was on Saturday, so we had a chance to celebrate. 

my new Everyday Food cookbook

We started the weekend on Friday night by having the other residents in Peter's year over for dinner - it's been so warm out that we just had to grill! I tried out a new sweet potato fry recipe to go with our burgers too. A great evening catching up.

 all dressed up at The Palace

For our anniversary on Saturday, we got to dress up and check another restaurant off the Cincinnati Magazine top 10 list: The Palace Restaurant. Even for a special occasion, we wouldn't have been too likely to go there - but a couple months ago they had a great Groupon offer, so the price became right!

amuse-bouche

 

 winter vegetable salad

And we were so glad we tried it. Amazing. Our table was kind of tucked away in a funny area, which was quiet but didn't really allow us to get much of a feel for the restaurant - but the food was the show anyway. After watching so much Top Chef, it was kind of thrilling to be handed an amuse-bouche from the chef. Then we had the salad of winter vegetables with goat cheese and crispy country ham (i.e., best bacon ever), followed by the braised lamb with olive oil whipped potatoes, mirepoix vegetables, meyer lemon, and lamb jus for Peter and the roasted salmon with chorizo, green beans, cauliflower, marcona almonds, and romesco sauce for me. It was all beautiful and absolutely delicious.

braised lamb

roasted salmon

 

If I were a Top Chef judge, I would definitely pick my salmon as the winner of the night - the fish was cooked perfectly (as the judges always say), and the chorizo added such a nice smoky and salty dimension. Combined with all that, the green beans were also the best we've ever had, we decided. We spent the rest of the weekend saying "remember that great dinner?!" to each other.

On the way home we picked up a movie and some ice cream to round out the night - after reading Moneyball on vacation, it was time to watch it. The movie was good, but the book was better (so it goes).

On Sunday, we had a bit of a church fail: unbeknown to us (since we were gone the last couple weeks), they were having only one combined service - so we showed up at 11, just as it was wrapping up. So we had some very enjoyable fellowship at the coffee shop down the street instead.

And then Peter started his work week early evening Sunday while Ginger and I watched the Puppy Bowl (who needs football when there's cute puppy overload!).

fear not

The final prompt in Kayla's challenge: wear something that scares you. At first I couldn't come up with anything, since I feel like I've done a pretty good job expanding my horizons with these various challenges to things I wouldn't have tried on my own - lipstick, colored tights, hats. But then I looked through my closet for something to wear and remembered I still have a couple hang-ups. Kind of silly ones, really.

 jeans: Loft; top: JCrew Outlet; shoes: Target; necklace: F21

First one: heels with skinny jeans. Looks great with a lot of people's outfits, but somehow I feel slightly like a hussy if I try it. I think part of the issue is that it's pretty rare for me to wear heels, so when I do, I feel over-the-top. Or over dressed. So I gave it another try today, and while I did switch to flats for grocery shopping (I've got a running regimen to keep up here - can't have sore feet!), I decided that black heels + black jeans does nice things for a girl's legs, so even though I still feel a little over-the-top, I think the combination just might make an appearance for tomorrow's anniversary dinner date.

Second one: super simple outfits. Another thing I love seeing on other people, and something I actually gravitate toward with my own style. But somehow I can think "chic" or "classic" when it's on someone else (or a JCrew model), but on me my thoughts run more along the lines of "boring" or "plain." I still wear pretty simple outfits, but I seriously hesitate before clicking "publish post."

Thinking about these issues today, I realized the first way to overcome them is, of course, confidence. Walk tall in heels, and march around with the confidence that my simple outfit is indeed classic, chic, and pulled together. I think the other key with my second issue is to make sure the simple elements are special: avoid flimsy/cheap materials, have nice textures and fabrics and a little jewelry shine. And with that, I felt kind of fabulous in this one and will most definitely be repeating it. Just maybe without the heels...

open to interpretation: telecommuter style

Today's challenge was to interpret this inspiration photo:

I would totally wear this same outfit to work if: (1) I had a green pencil skirt and (2) I actually had to go to work. While I suppose I could wear skirts and heels to my home office, my work days usually include some extras like dog walking and laundry, so casual is just more practical.

Here's my work-from-home version using the elements of sweater, button-down, and green/teal bottoms (and yes, those are indeed my slippers, a staple of my daily telecommuter wear):

cords and sweater: Loft; button-down: JCrew via consignment shop; 

necklace: Target; slippers: Payless; office furniture: Ikea

my office mate is soooooo lazy

A good outfit to be productive in - which is good as January and February tend to be heavy workload months for me, with catching up after the holidays (and a whole week of vacation on which I didn't take my computer... rare), two trips out of town for meetings plus the prep work that goes with them, and lots of annual projects like best paper awards to deal with this time of year. So I've been busy, busy.

And for Peter, February again brings a month of working the night shift... it's a hard schedule to adjust to - for both of us - but it at least means that he has a whole month of not having to work the weekends!