Happy happy.

There's a bit about which to be pleased today; let's ruminate on it.

1. These bright diapers make me happy.

Look at those "clementine" colored ones!

We might be coo coo for attempting to cloth diaper but I'm very excited about giving it a try and I adore the various colors we've amassed. Some more are on their way to make this little collection complete for now. I might be changing my tune come seven months or so when little bit is eating some human food and things are getting gross but I suppose that's part of the whole parenting package.
2. When visiting my in-laws this past December I made prudent use of the pink grapefruit juice supply my father-in-law had created thanks to his fruitful orchard {one tree} in the backyard.

When everyone else was enjoying a nightly libation I mixed together club soda, a splash of Sprite {"Spite" as my family calls it}, and the pink juice and ohmygoodness if it wasn't so delicious. 

I hadn't thought about this much since we left but recently Rebecca shared she had concocted something similar and I realized that there's nothing stopping me from doing the same myself, even though I don't have grandpa-to-be's tree, some store-bought juice will make do.

And it was yummy! And really refreshing. I'll  exhaust our ginger ale supply and then maybe buy a wee bottle of Spite and some non-lime club soda and then I may be addicted.

3. I recently contributed to the local girl-scout community.

3.The two on the left are for guests that will be coming into town soon {can't imagine why} and the two on the right are for me.

4. Our child has been active today and though I'll be sad when I no longer get to experience it, I really, really love the way it feels when she's on the move in mah belly. It's an amazing sensation and I am already looking forward to the next time around {but not too soon!}.

5.Tuesday is almost here; isn't that marvelous? I think that it's really just Sunday that gets us all down; once Monday has started it's a cool slide into workday #2.

How YOU doing today Reader? Eating cookies like we are?
xoxo, natty ♥

An offering and a treat.

We had some friends over last night. When people come over Guinness gets really excited and shows off his toys and scarfs down his food...almost as if to show what is his and not anyone else's.
After the initial excitement wears off he then kind of hovers over everyone or lays down in the middle of the group {under the dining table, for example} and just waits for something exciting to happen to him. 
He must have felt neglected last night because when I got out of bed this morning there was an offering/sign left for me. Our bed frame creates a sort of ridge/edge and on it I found one of what I thought was Guinness' favorite things; his rawhide bone. He nurses one of these for about two weeks, slowly consuming it and getting gnarly little bits of it in his beard but perhaps this morning's show was his way of expressing that even his bone can't make him happy when there's a whole apartment full of people not.paying.attention.to.him.

"You can have it."

Poor guy. He's getting plenty of loving today and with my mother coming to visit for two weeks starting tomorrow night he is going to be living high off the hog.
In other news, we discovered a new tasty treat. I ventured off the beaten gastric path at Trader Joe's yesterday and came home with a new find.
I had a couple last night and wasn't feeling thrilled but...tonight! Tonight, my friends, is a different story; they're delicious! Albeit quite sweet with an almost weird flavor to them. But I'm enjoying.

In my last bit of news for this Sunday, I am cautiously ecstatic; I ran FIVE miles this morning. I hadn't run that long since December of last year. Nine months later I'm kind of building up my IT band strength. Yikes. Is this what getting older has to bring?
If so, I'd like to un-check that box on the agreement form! 

But truly, even though I'm staying steady at three miles most days, getting up to five today was a thrill and a pleasure. I'm a bit slower than I used to be and though I know I could go faster {the kick is definitely still there}, the speed seems to aggravate my little-yet-persistent pain. During my miles I meandered through the tony Georgetown neighborhood and absolutely marveled at the quaint brick sidewalks and the ancient {by "new world" standards...or at least to a California girl} homes all the while enjoying the BEAUTIFUL late summer/almost fall weather. It was warm but cool, I wasn't dripping sweat, people were out and about, and it was SO apparent to me what I love about running and I really hope and pray that this five-miler can turn into a daily occurrence and that I can get back to running half and full marathons.
xoxo, natty ♥

Galletas.

That means "cookies" in the Spanish. 
Monday night I made the dough for shortbread cookies. I tried to roll it out but it needed more butter. By virtue of being shortbread cookies, more butter was adding to an already high amount of butter in said dough, but butter is always better. I was using her recipe, by the way. Quick de-railing, a while back I needed some plain cookies and had kind of been thinking of sugar cookies, they being a nice back drop for accoutrement like Nutella. I was perusing PW's cookie recipes since her recipe collection is a go-to one for me and my mind saw "s" and "cookie" so these I made only several months later to realize that they weren't even sugar cookies but they sure are delicious! Yesterday morning I took the dough out of the fridge and tried to roll it out but it was cold, so I worked it a bit with my hands and then it was good but it turned out to be a BOOGER (only figuratively) of a dough to roll. It might have been the extra butter, who knows, but I had a horrible hard time getting the stuff not to stick on the rolling pin and the board I was rolling onto. 

Trouble

It was worth it though because oh-my-gawsh these were DECADENT, buttery, crispy, dreamy...all of the above. 

Getting ready!

They were SO good! 

Then I bagged them up

and we used them as bribes around the neighborhood for signatures of our neighbors so we can get hitched and party it up in their street. The wedding will actually be in the backyard but who's counting? We are so blessed to live with such great people. I already knew most people on the block and that they're so awesome, but our neighbors were so kind and interested last night that I was able to reaffirm my belief that people are good, patient and kind. What a fun way to announce something!
I also made another batch while I had the Kitchen Aid going 

Nom nom nom!

and I thought I'd try to make them hearts too, which wasn't so easy since they're drop-cookies; some came out ♥-like

and others, blob-like.

The post on niceness is tomorrow, get excited.

xoxo, natty ♥

Monday, Monday

Well all of that grading didn’t happen as I had planned, but plenty of other things did. I had a lovely time doing some cleaning and reorganizing in our room. The big thing that had been niggling me was my jewelry; it has always kind of languished here and there, in boxes, in piles, in boxes, and so not pretty and organized. I had been meaning to do something about it all and had kind of thought I would go the jewelry hanger option, where you buy something specifically made to hang my jewelry on, but I didn’t particularly love that idea. Instead, I went with the corkboard route. I used one that had been housing just a few random pictures and cards. I sifted through my various boxes and put pieces I don’t wear into my goodwill bag and arranged the rest on the board. Earrings I just pushed in and everything else is hanging on a pin. I love it! This way I can see everything I have and instead of wearing just the two or three things that I always do, I can rotate through things; yay!

On Saturday night we went to that polenta feed that I had mentioned. The food was yummy and my cousin Gretchen brought luck- she won two club level tickets to the SF Giants! On Sunday I did that cleaning/organizing and some laundry and lounged around, then ran 3 miles in the reinstatement of my fitness. I was going quite well from early February but kind of fell off the wagon with the crummy weather that arrived almost two weeks ago and yesterday was a good start. I followed up with 5 more today and though I wanted to go to yoga, still felt really good after the run.

I gave into these cookies from a coworker’s daughters and they arrived in my cubicle this morning to tease me! I left them at work for the night since I had planned on making sugar cookie-Nutella sandwiches and those plus Samoas, Thin Mints, Do-Si-Dos…oh my…would be just too much sweetness in one night; though is that possible?! I already made the dough and will probably just whip them up ASAP, so stay tuned for pictures of only the finished product.

Also, my dad and I ventured down the block to an estate sale where I picked up a lovely addition to my apron and vintage cookbook collections, pictures to follow soon. I’ve never been a person to have collections, but just as I write this I realize that these are two things that I’ve been collecting here and there in the past few years…those and old pyrex! Well, maybe I am more of a “coleccionsta” than I had thought!

Anyway, we’re gonna have a late dinner and I need to finish those cookies (the dough is chilling in the fridge) so bon nuit!

 

PS

Did y’all watch the academies last night? I am so not a fan of Anne Hathaway, which I’m sure is some sin or something, but oh well, I stand firm, but James Franco was dreamy! I’m so glad that “The King’s Speech” won Best Picture; it as such an uplifting and warm film and Colin Firth is cute-as-a-button. Happy Monday Night again!

cookies!!!

← Here's what I ate last night, this and a lovely glass of white wine while we watched ESPN's 30 for 30 (read about it here). I NEVER would have guessed myself a sports fan or ESPN watcher but it happens to be one of M's favorite pass times and despite my best intentions I've become embroiled in the wide world of sports (go Celtics!). 30 for 30 is a documentary series that's actually quite interesting and covers a broad range of topics that happen to relate to sports. Last night was all about the OJ Simpson car chase which I vaguely remember happening but M remembers clearly b/c he and his brother were watching the NBA finals (read: me=not a sports person). The format of this documentary (they vary since there's always a different filmmaker) was pretty neat-o; it had no official commentary, it was just old footage from that time but not just of the OJ chase, it was a juxtaposition of footage from the Stanley Cup final game, Arnold Palmer's final professional tournament, the 1994 World Cup and the NBA finals (with a certain Bob Costas looking the same; does the man not age?). The side-by-side was meant (I think) to showcase how this tragedy and a man's personal downfall stole the world's attention when there were so many other big sports events occurring at the same time; it was pretty riveting and made me wonder if OJ really was guilty. M says that he was, without a doubt; do you remember this event and whether you thought OJ was guilty or not? I guess I don't know what I think, I just feel bad for all of those involved, even though it was quite a while ago, it's still horrific. The filmmaker had a brief commercial blurb where he talked a bit about the whole thing and he talked of how the car chase was an early form of reality TV, which I thought was pretty interesting. I'm definitely a fan of reality TV, but a guilty one; I almost feel embarrassed for the people on most shows and especially for their children and I wonder how the TV experience will shape their childrens' lives. Then again, no one's forcing them so c'est la vie.

Today I took my kids to see a pretty cool (my favorite, I think) sculpture in downtown San Jose. I'll post pictures later since I don't have my USB cord and there is yet to be (as far as I know) wireless camera-to-computer technology. The sculpture is of John Carlos and Tommie Smith who won medals for the USA in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. They famously made quite a political statement by doing a variety of things when on the podium listening to the national anthem: wore no shoes (as a nod to the poverty suffered by African Americans [and others, I suppose]), wore unzipped jackets (sticking it to the man, basically), wearing an Africa-inspired colored necklace (a symbol of lynching suffered by African Americans), carried a picture of olive branches (peace, yo) and looked down while making the "Black Power" hand gesture (fist up). These two men suffered quite a bit as a result of their actions and I think that it's good to remember. I am in NO  way an expert and I think that art is such a personal experience so please take my musings with a grain of salt; I gathered the explanations from an article I read about the sculpture but I believe that everyone has their own right to interpretation. The kids liked it (I hope) and I was glad to be out in the sun.

I'm off to some light lunching, running, LAUNDRY and cleaning so that our apartment can be clean when we get back Sunday night. M drove off this morning for LA since it's his family friends and they're pretty close, so he's taking a couple of days off to hang out which is really good for him since he works very hard and long.  I'm Southwest-ing it down there tomorrow after work and we're going to drive back home together on Sunday. I confess that I love to come home to at least some order after a trip and I find that clean sheets and a made bed is the easiest/most fulfilling in said situation, so that's priority #1, along with the aforementioned laundry and the dreaded dishes...fun times 2010.

Have a great day before Friday!