summer roadtrip

Nina and I left Princeton on Thursday to start a road trip. On Thursday we drove from New Jerset to spend the night in Madison, Connecticut and had a fabulous time there with some friends. Then on Friday we drove to Harrison, ME to spend two nights at Vacationland Campground with some friends I had in College.  There were almost 20 families and it was so fun to see everyone.  It's amazing how people look exactly the same. 

During the day Saturday we had spent most of our time on the sandy beach by the lake that the campground is on.  It is a truly gorgeous spot and the beach is very shallow so I didn't worry about Nina being in the water--she had a great time and probably was in there splashing around with her friends for at least 3 hours.  The water was warm and my skin and hair felt amazing, as they always do after swimming in lake water.  It had been too long. 

Saturday evening one of the husbands cooked up a whole bunch of chicken and ribs with his own special barbecue sauce and everyone else brought side dishes and desserts.  It was a fantastic feast!

On Saturday night there was a DJ'd toga party and of course everyone (except a few of us) dressed up in a toga and completely embarrassed their children.  One of the highlights of the evening was when one of my friends did the hammer dance to "can't touch this." AMAZING.  The other was when Nina got taken in by a couple of tween girls who danced with her all night and taught her how to do some of the dances.  It was so sweet that my cheeks hurt from smiling.  I finally took Nina to bed at 10 and it was clear that it was one of the best nights of her life, well worth keeping her up way past her bedtime.

Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast, and packed up--I hadn't slept well for the two nights that we camped.  It was much colder than I had thought it would be and we hadn't brought enough blankets.  Nina was warm enough but I was super cold all night both nights.  Add that to my general dislike of camping and I was ready to move on.(Nina wanted to stay, however).
Our destination was our friend Shyla's new house with her lovely man Nik; they live in Belfast. After a lovely afternoon (some other old friends who live in Seattle dropped in for a visit) and delicious dinner of caldo verde cooked by Nik, I slept like a baby.  Nina and I walked around Belfast all day and got back to the house in time to rest before dinner.



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be serious...

Not sure what the context was, but I just overheard this conversation:
Larry: That can't be true.
Nina: It's totally true, Larry, don't goof around.

convergence

When we were at the top of the Empire State Building last weekend I saw this building and was entranced by it.  It's right on the edge of Bryant Park and nobody seemed to know what it was.  I resolved to find out but was too tired when we got home.  The next night Larry and I went to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice and...there is was again, one of the characters lives in the very same building.  Now I had to get the story!  It turns out that it's the Radiator Building, also known as the American Standard Building and now The Bryant Park Hotel, I believe.  I would post a link to the hotel website, but it's super loud and flash driven and says absolutely nothing about the history of the building...stupid.  Anyway, it's interesting how little things in life come together like that.

olives

I love them, the two other people I live with don't.  I really love them on pizza, so when I was making pizza tonight Nina asked me if I was putting Olivers on my personal pizza.  It took me a minute to figure out what she meant.

ya-yas

I was woken the other morning by a stark naked little girl with wild child bed head hair.  Said child was jumping on my bed singing "all my ya-yas are coming out" over and over again.  It was so funny that I didn't mind being woken up.

the newest blogger

Nina is composing her very first blog post with her own picture and text as I'm writing this. It's also the first time she's ever used a computer.  You can see her first post here.

princeton, nj

Larry is working in Princeton for the summer, so Nina and I came along.  We usually stay in an apartment for these longer stays, typically Residence Inn if there is one available.  But we have stayed at the Residence Inn in Princeton, and it's on a busy highway with nothing around to walk to.  So we asked for a house this time.  And boy, did we get one!  It's a Craftsman style, three story house right in the middle of Princeton.  The top floor is the master bedroom/office, second floor has three bedrooms and two baths, and the first floor has kitchen, bathroom, informal eating area, living room, formal dining room, front parlor, and entryway.  The basement is finished and has workout equipment, couches, another bathroom, and tons of storage (also an air hockey table).  It has the pillared, expansive porch that this architectural style is famous for...if only it wasn't sooo hot here!  It has been in the 90s and humid both days I've been here so far.

In short, we have a lovely house, come visit us!  

nina's room...finally!

Nina loves to do arts & crafts, and I love for her to have all the supplies and tools she needs.  Unfortunately, arts & crafts can be super messy and neither Nina nor I are the tidiest people around.  So once I gave her free access to all her supplies her room started to be perpetually knee deep in paper, crayons, etc.  I was at my wits' end because it's not fun or good for the floor to have people skidding across said floor on a piece of a crayon.  Something needed to give but I couldn't figure out a way to make her room bigger.  And then I looked up.  She's a very short person and that means that the space that's 4 feet from the floor to the ceiling was fair game.  I hunted up a bunk bed on Craig's List, put a sheet of plywood on the top (twin size) and moved all of the craft stuff up there (after a quick trip to IKEA for organizational furniture).  Her room has stayed much neater since.  Though not completely neat, which is why it has taken me so long to write about it.  I wanted to wait until the whole thing looked good, which required me to have some free time where she wasn't there to interfere.

Oh, and don't forget to oooh and aaaah over the stairs/bookshelf that Larry made in his woodworking class (the bunk bed didn't come with a ladder).






Also? I think I could open a bead shop with all the beads I vacuumed up off of her floor.

two milestones

• Nina can read!  When we play Eloise Monopoly she can read her own "chance" cards.
• Nina has a loose tooth!  It's super wiggly!  We did a happy dance and everything.

hiatus

It's been a long time, I know...so much has happened and changed. But the really important stuff stays the same. Larry loves his job, Nina is as amazing as ever, and I struggle to stay ahead of mundane tasks that seem to come easily to others. Sigh.

Lots has changed too--Nina is just about to finish kindergarten and I have a part time job that I love.

I hope to give more details soon...

an informal race

I have been doing a lot of laundry today, so I took the opportunity to monitor an informal race between Mother Nature and my faithful clothes dryer.  I hung a load of laundry out and came right in and put another in the dryer.  And the winner is...of course, Mother Nature.  The load that was outside was damp but wearable and the load in the dryer wasn't even close.  Now, it is an atypically windy day here (though warm) but I've found similar results on warmer but not as windy days.  Hooray for free laundry drying!

p.s.

I just had another one of these. Still loving them? Yep. Hit the afternoon chocolate crave spot? Yep. Going to order some this month from Frontier? Hell to the yeah.

awesome stuff from expo west #3

Mmmm, cassava crisps (also known as chips on this side of the pond). I got a 30gram bag of Hale & Hearty cassava crisps, Beautifully Barbecued flavor, from this company. I had a yen for something crispy and slightly naughty to eat the other night so I busted this bag open. All I can say is, I'm glad I was alone because I would not have wanted to share. They were not greasy, they were very crispy, and the barbecue flavor was light but still smokey and, well, barbecue enough that I didn't mourn the lack of red weird barbecue coating that other flavorings leave. No weird ingredients, no gluten, lots of wonderful flavor. I'm hopeful that some big company at Expo West picked these up for distribution in the US...if for no other reason than that I want to try this bread mix.

awesome stuff from expo west #2

New from Eco Lips: Dagoba™ Chocolate Lip Balms in three yummy flavors based on popular Dagoba Chocolate bars: Roseberry (chocolate raspberry rosehips), Mint (a delicate blend of chocolate and mint) and Lavender (chocolate lavender blueberry). The one I was given was the lavender. It smells and feels lovely, thanks to Eco Lips for the freebie! The guy who was giving them out clipped it to my purse with the super handy carabiner that it came with. I don't think it's available for sale yet so I couldn't find a stock photo, instead here's one of it clipped to my purse.

natural products expo west

I had meant to attend this last year but let it slip by--this year I was determined to go. Though it was exhausting, I am glad I went, I got to see and try some really cool products and talk to some interesting people. I'll tell you about the people first, since it's a much shorter list. The first was a rep from Host Defense, which is a line of mushroom-based supplements. It's a product line I'd like to be able to offer the co-op I facilitate, and the rep gave me a book and a whole jar of agarikon.

I also got to meet, chat with, (and get kissed on the cheek by) Jason Graham-Nye, whose company, gdiapers, I have been following almost since the beginning. Though their product came out after we had really become very committed to and proficient at using cloth diapers, I have always loved the idea of the company and supported it in any way I can. My interest in Graham-Nye began with the product, continued with his blog, and has continued on facebook, where we both spend much more time than on our blogs. We had a laugh and shared some shame about that. He's much taller than I thought he would be, and he was very gracious and funny. Great experience. And if you don't swoon over the new ruffled little g-pants, you might have yourself checked for a pulse. They are also now making cloth inserts for the little g-pants and are working on training pants.

When Nina, mom, and I drove across country this summer we perched in Denver for a couple of days and in the process discovered udi's gluten free bread. Let me just say that my first reaction was "are you sure this is gluten free?" It's that good and has that much of a bread mouth feel. I had decided to order some online when I walked into Whole Foods one day and there it was. I had been making my own from time to time and it was fine, but obviously gluten free and I had spotty rising and falling results. udi's hits the spot. And when I found their spot yesterday, I couldn't held but gush about the product, which was appropriately appreciated by (Heather?...I think?) the woman who was working it. We talked and laughed for a few minutes, it was nice. I talked to other lovely people too (the lady from Frontier was so nice and hugged and kissed me, so sweet!) but those are the ones who stand out...

And now on to products. I think my most surprising find was also the one I was encouraged to take the most of, what a blessing! Healthy Indulgence dark chocolate calcium supplements (from Hero) are delicious! Every chocolate supplement I have ever tried has been chalky and not chocolatey enough. Not this one, it's richly dark in chocolate and has fantastic mouth feel. Highly recommend. My only complaint is that the chocolate isn't organic, but I'm going to settle. They're that tasty. And available from Frontier...

More later (cross fingers).