If This Was on a Post-it It Would be One of the Little Square Ones. In Pink.

Busy, busy weekend. In fact, today I will be tempted, when people ask "How was your weekend?" to say, "What weekend"?

It was my god-daughter Kiki's baptism weekend. That meant a seminar in the morning. Then Kiki's mom, Suzanne, and I went and got our toes did. Then I took her to a salon to get her bangs did. Then I took her home. Then I got home at 4 and had to borrow champagn-ya flutes from The Neighbor and start cooking and oh, yeah, clean my house and there were 2 separate trips to the grocery store and we didn't eat dinner until 10pm (and aren't I just very thankful for a) a patient family and 2) Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken in a bag).

Then I got up early on Sunday to see if I could get the house a little cleaner, which didn't go exactly as I'd hoped but I also reached that point where you go "Screw 'em" in reference to anyone who may be attending the party who may care strongly about cleanliness levels and then it was off to church for the sacrament (which was soooo lovely) and then back to the house for a party (which was very fine and no one said a thing about the dust) and by the time it was all over all I could do was sit in front of my computer for a few hours and play Sims2 until The Spouse served a glorious bistro dinner of Steak au Poivre and pomme frittes.

And now I just looked at the clock and have to be at work in 35 minutes and since 10 of those are spent driving I'd better go, huh?

This is my beautiful god-daughter at the party yesterday.

What If Leonard Nimoy was Your Dad?

I've played this before. But it's a delightful little tune and a delightful little video and I feel delightful today.

This week I've been getting up earlier and it's really changing my outlook on things. It's amazing the difference that extra half hour can make. I'm getting done more of the home related things, which allows me to fully focus on work because I'm not feeling as guilty and overwhelmed and it's making the evenings more mellow because I don't feel like I'm scrambling around until bedtime. You can't have it all and it's true that working wives/moms are often caught in a place between guilt and frustration. But each person has to figure out what's going to work for her and I think I'm onto a strategy for myself. Even if it means falling asleep before "30 Rock" is over.

I'm looking forward to a delightful weekend, possibly doin' nothing. Hope yours is the same.




The Bangels "Goin' Down to Liverpool"

This and That

I spent most of the weekend in bed with a cold. I could have functioned but I have this crazy belief that if you don't feel well you shouldn't try to ignore it, thus allowing your body the time it needs to heal. I feel nearly human this morning.

I watched a lot of TV. I'm all caught up on "John and Kate Plus 8", know everything you could possibly need to know in order to successfully flip a house and discovered that Mike Huckabee has a talk show on FOX. That's hilarious.

I've settled down a little since the election although whenever I hear the words "President-elect Obama" I start grinning like an idiot. On Tuesday night I was obsessively snapping photos of my TV. It seems kinda silly now but what else was I going to do? History was being made, I was a part of it, you record history, even if it's being played out on a screen. Here are some of my favorite shots of that night:
It's almost like I was there.

Well, That Was a Productive Weekend

As if the arrival of Joshua Dale wasn't enough, there were some other pretty awesome things that happened this weekend.

First, I found my cell phone. I was getting ready for church, pulled on a skirt, stuck my hands in the pockets and voila!. Funny thing is, just about every day for the last couple of weeks I've thought to wear that skirt to work and then decided not to. It was like St. Anthony was nudging me toward the answer to my "lost things" prayer.

Anyway, the replacement phone hasn't yet arrived and hopefully it won't be that big a deal to send it back (you know how I am about mailing things).

Then yesterday afternoon The Child and I went to the U district to pick up still more textbooks for her (I swear by all things academic it is always something) and then to the Apple store to see if they could explain why her iPod has died. Except the Apple store is being remodeled. So we went to Johnny Rocket's and ate hamburgers. Then I wanted to go to Barnes and Noble to spend my birthday gift card and what should be parked outside the store but a Humane Society bus? And what should be in one of the windows of that bus but a kitten who looked just like Phoebe? So we went into the bus. In the cubby next to the kitten was another young cat, who immediately put her paw out to The Child. When she bent close to talk to the cat it immediately began to lick her face. Well, sure; she probably still smelled of hamburger but it was the cutest thing ever.

The Child looked at me. The Cat looked at me. The Cat poked her paw out at me and rolled her little head when I stroked her. We tried to call The Spouse (silly us, that man never has his phone on) and the upshot is yeah, we have a new cat. Her name is Kiera. She is about 18 months old. She has topaz eyes and a caramel and vanilla coat. She is beautiful. She hates the dog (and I have the 3 inch scratch on my hand to prove it...that'll teach me to try and break up a fight) and he is a little bewildered but I expect they will eventually make a separate peace.

I'd show you her picture but I can't find the cord for downloading from my camera. I am apparently only allowed one working small electronic device at a time.

Just a Regular Ol' Weekend

In a few hours Buck will be winging his way back to Chicago. (It's a sad place, what with Lou and the Cubs having been eliminated from the post season. Please tip toe softly when you're over at Iwanski's). Baseball aside, we had a lovely time.

Friday night The Child went to a dance at school, so the grownups ate delicious fajitas and watched "Iron Man". (Terrific movie). Saturday was spent doing lots of shopping all over town for the Autumnal Feast. Here's a picture of Buck at the Market, looking very Seattle-y.
We spent all afternoon cooking. The Spouse called Buck my "kitchen bitch". And a good one he was, too, doing all the sous chef stuff while I concentrated on flavors. Dinner was awesome...I'll tell you all about it as soon as I get the pictures which are sitting on Buck's camera.

Yesterday we went to church and then to breakfast at Saffron. Then we all took naps...the best thing to do of a Sunday afternoon. Then there was a little Speed Scrabble, a little Guitar Hero and then a lovely seafood dinner. The Neighbor joined us for oysters (raw and fried) and some plate cooked salmon.

This is what I do with my people. Eat.

Now, as the whirl of the work week begins, I have one question: has anyone seen my cell phone?

Weekend Update

We had a pleasant weekend, with the right balance of doing and not doing.

The Child had a sleepover here on Friday with 2 friends -twins, as it happens- who were quite delightful, as other-people's-children go. Once, when the 3 were gathered around the piano, singing and laughing, I asked if they'd be back. "Oh yes!" piped one. "You guys are cool".

Kids. So gullible.

Saturday was my errand day. Intellectually I am not yet resolved in this. For many years I've been smug about the fact that my Saturdays were free and not spent erranding with all that 9-5 rabble. But in practise I'm adjusting. The key is starting early and getting a spot in the garage at Trader Joe's. If I can get there before the traffic cop is at the door, I'm good.

I also did Tittlemouse chores and pungled bills, which felt very good. Most exciting of all, I got my wedding ring back from the jeweler's. It is very beautiful.

In the afternoon The Neighbor and I also retrieved my niece Molly. She was in town with her boyfriend but they'd spent all their money and didn't have bus fare to our house. She was wet from walking and sad for leaving her boyfriend so we cheered her up at a Caribbean joint in our 'hood. She had mango lemonade, The Neighb and I had Lemon Drops and we all shared some spicy turnovers with green papaya salad. It was lovely.

Mols joined us for dinner and a movie and then church on Sunday morning. Then we went out to breakfast at Saffron to celebrate the Spouse's and my anniversary. 17 years and I can honestly report I love him more now than ever.

Yesterday afternoon was nearly perfect. The Child, Molly and I all sat in the living room and read for hours. Molly was studying Chinese opera, the Child and I were reading the Twilight series. There was some napping. I also made, and burned, an apple pie. (It's tasty...just stay away from the charred edges). Molly went back to campus and we ate roast beast and Yorkshire pudding. Then The Spouse and I watched the first installment of "Elizabeth"...the HBO one with Helen Mirren. Excellent.

And now a new week begins, which should be awesome because a) I love my job and 2) my birthday is this week and you know how I am about birthdays (even without the gigantic hooha and fuss of last year).

Happy Monday.

TGIM

It's not often that the weekend makes you wish for Monday but this was pretty much the kind that can. Not that it was monumentally horrible. The front-end was too loaded with running around plus there's some ambient stress in the household that, shall we say, wasn't managed in the best possible way. On Saturday morning I was having coffee with The Neighbor and asked, "Is it Monday yet?"

But there were some highlights. Working backwards, the season finale of "Battlestar Galactica" was swell. I'll never hear "All Along the Watchtower" in quite the same way again.



Bob Dylan is a cylon!

I made a terrific pork tenderloin thing for dinner last night, oven roasted with an orange marmalade-ginger glaze. I cooked down the pan juices & glaze & enriched it with a blob of butter to make a sauce. Accompanied by couscous with lemon, mint & chives and some asparagus, it was a very lovely springtime supper.

Not that the weather around here has been remotely springlike. March is a stupid month. We're ready for spring, it is spring but we had borderline torrential rain all weekend. And while it is actually clear this morning, there was ice on the car again. I digress.

The best thing about the weekend was that The Spouse and I got to attend the Seattle premiere screening of ""Fortune Hunters" the film he worked on last summer. It was terrific.

With a run time of only 21 minutes, it is a sweet little film about a Chinese-American guy, played by Kelvin Yu, who writes fortunes at his dad's cookie factory. His girlfriend is planning to go to China for a year so he decides to break up with her. After realizing what an idiot move that was, he writes her, begging for another chance. He unknowingly sends the message to the fortune printer and mayhem ensues.

The movie is charming, funny, well-acted and beautifully lit (which, of course, owes almost entirely to The Spouse. Just saying). The film has been screened at a couple of film festivals and they've entered it in SIFF, the Seattle International Film Festival. Given that this is in fact one of the biggest festivals in the world, it would be huge if they get in. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, the film just begs to be a feature. Writer/director Thom Harp and Mike Standish, who produced and co-wrote the show, are working on the full-length script as we speak and plan to shoot in Seattle, with as many of the crew who are available. The Spouse told Thom he'd do what he could.

You'll remember that The Spouse had a terrific time making this movie. Part of the reason for that had to owe to the fact that everyone involved in the production was just as nice as can be. I didn't have a ton of behind-the-scenes experiences during the time that he was making movies for a "living". But based on what I did, it always seemed like the crew were totally awesome, fun people but that the farther up the echelon you got, not always so much. Thom and Mike are truly lovely people, not at all pretentious and really super funny. There was a little Q&A after the screening and I kept imagining the two of them in tuxes, accepting the Oscar. Oh. Wait. Oscars rarely go to comedies. More's the pity. They deserve it.

If you have a chance to see this little number at a film festival near you, please go. You won't be sorry. And Seattlites, if it gets into SIFF you gotta go see it.

Before the movie started, The Spouse was talking to some folks and called me over to meet them. I'd met Neil Holcomb, the cinematographer, on the set. There was some lad who I totally forgot already (sorry) and a cute little thing who reminds one of Goldie Hawn. The Spouse introduced her with a "And this is Jessica, who did something on the show". She was only the female lead.

After the screening I went up to congratulate her and said, "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, would you mind giving me your autograph?" I told her about The Child and her new-found love of acting and thought it might be very cool for her to have an autograph from a real live actress. Jessica was so cute...I think it might have been the first time anyone asked for her autograph. She gave it to me, adding "Break a leg" to her signature. I'm going to frame it for The Child.

The other cool thing about the screening was seeing The Spouse get a credit. He's worked on a lot of stuff but his name didn't always make it onto the credits. Seeing it on "Fortune Hunters", especially when he so enjoyed the experience of making it, was really superfantastic. Way to pad that IMdb profile, sweetie!