Blanket Update

My brother pulled out all the stops for my birthday this year. He asked what I wanted, so I sent him links to some fluffy socks and a pillow made by Manda.

He responded by sending me a Casio Exilim digital camera (pink!), because I had 'admired his when I was home and he thought I'd like my own.' My jaw hit the floor when it arrived - I had absolutely no idea that he was sending something so awesome. I haven't taken many pictures yet because Amazon is being slow with the memory card, but here are two that I took yesterday on the walk into town.

My 4-year-old Canon digital Elph has served me very well - it's the reason I hadn't upgraded cameras before - despite the postage stamp viewing screen and 4 megapixel-ness, it's always taken fantastic pictures and I've used it so much it's like an extension of my arm. Ed and I were talking yesterday on Skype about it - we both realized that we'd had our own cameras when we were 10. I see a gently used Elph in James' future...

The hot air balloon is from Virgin Balloon flights - they run launches from the big playing field in Stowmarket.





These are from the blanket that I've been knitting for a while. I just finished the red wool yesterday, and started in on the cream. It's going to look great on the brown corduroy backing. All I have to do is knit 23 1/2 more squares and then I'm done!

Keep it together, man!

Phew, what a week. We had a crazy long day on Monday, and then I was out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. John was a fab hubby last night and cooked paella for dinner, which hit the table about 3 minutes after I rolled in (at 8:30) with the 'Hi honey, I'm home!' It was delicious - the chorizo was spicy and the saffron was meaty and the mushrooms and seafood were really good.

This morning, I went to the optometrist. I've been having mondo headaches and eye strain, and was worried that it was something to do with my eyes. About a year ago, I got new glasses with 'prism' in them, which correct my optical equivalent of duck feet. The optician went through my (rather long) history of glasses/contacts/glasses again, and basically said that I have three options. My eyes, when at rest, point in different directions. Apparently everybody's do, but mine are worse than most. He thinks that I was over-corrected at some point (which has been verified by other eye docs), which exacerbated a previously existing condition. Oh, bother.

1. I can carry on getting glasses with progressively stronger prism, until my eyes are pointing in totally different directions.

2. I can have surgery to correct it.

3. I can do 'exercises' that involve shifting focus on a pen in front of my eyes. Basically I have to keep the pen from splitting into two pens (which happens if things get closer than about 10 inches).

We're going to go with option 3, for obvious reasons, but the exercises crack me up. All I can think of is the line in Monsters Inc., where one of the monsters says in a stoner voice to his partner, "Keep it together, man!" I'm working on it, at least.

The good news in all this is that I get to go back to my previous pair of glasses, which I love. They're the same strength as the ones I've been wearing, but without the prism. My eyes are tired today, though.

Blog Action Day

It's Blog Action Day, and the theme this year is 'The Environment'. I've got a recap of the things we've done in the last year that make a difference - none of them are hard!

1. Eat seasonally and eat less meat.
Yeah, I know - I'm always on about cooking. We're getting much better at buying things in season - they're cheaper, tastier, and generally better. Can't lose, really.

2. Be a Nalgenie
I'm a little bit mad about my Nalgene bottles - I have my big 'I'm a college student' one and a dinky little one that's much more...er...acceptable to carry around. They go in the dishwasher once a week or so and make me v. happy.

3. Hang out the laundry
Ok, this one is mostly because we don't have a dryer. But I haven't had a dryer in 2 years and I don't really miss it. We use eco washing liquid, too - it gets most things clean, although if we're doing a particularly grubby load, I cave and use the Fairy tablets.

4. Get a Mooncup (or a DivaCup).
I've been through this one...check it out!

5. Compost and recycle
We've been doing these for a while - I'm psyched for our happy compost to dig the plants into in the spring.

Famine -> Feast

Remember how I said yesterday that I had no books to read? Well, now I have a zillion.

On my list are...

From the library:
1. The Tenth Circle (Jodi Picoult)
2. Dream Angus (Alexander McCall Smith)
3. The Vegetarian Slow Cooker

From my M-i-L:
4 & 5. Two Maeve Binchy books
6 & 7. Two other books that are downstairs that I'm too lazy to go get.
8. A French cookbook from Shoppi

From the book store (with my book tokens - thanks, M!):
9. Seasonal Cooking
10. Suffolk Walks with Kids

Now my problem has become "What to read first?" I think it'll be the library ones, since they have an expiration date. John's going to watch 'The Mummy Returns" tonight - I'm going to dive in to the books!

Cooking and booking

I made Carrot & Lentil soup for dinner last night - it's not for the faint-hearted. There was NO doubt that the soup consisted entirely of carrots, lentils, veggie stock and spices. It was good, although very orange (to be expected, really).

I haven't had a chance to go to the library in almost 2 weeks, which has led to me being 'between books'. I can't even think of the last time that I wasn't reading something, with something else sitting on my nightstand, pushing me forwards. I feel kind of lost, honestly. I have books that I've reserved at the library but they're not in yet. I've also got some book tokens (birthday present from Michelle!!), which I'm going to hang on to until I find something that I REALLY want. I have a bizarre relationship with books - I almost never buy them. I get nearly everything I read from the library. My theory is that if I buy it and like it (like the most recent McCall Smith), I feel compelled to share it with someone else, who then passes it on to someone else, and I never see it again. If I hate it and/or don't finish it, it sits on my shelf reminding me of my failure as a reader and the fact that I wasted how ever many pounds on it. Hmm...I have issues.

My mom sent me a package this week - my (long-lost) horn mouthpiece, the trousers that I bought for John that were the wrong size, and a really funny little book called "Sky My Husband!" It's a book of French idioms translated directly into English (with the real translation underneath) and it's very funny. She's not sure where she got it, but it kind of has 'Grandma' written all over it. My grandparents lived in France for several years around the time that my mom was born, and she kept up with the language for the rest of her life. It's definitely the kind of thing that she would have had. In the words of the book, "C'est vachement chouette." [It is cow-ly owl]. Translation: "It's very cool." Erm, yeah.

The History of Love

I read Nicole Krauss' The History Of Love after reading about it on Alice's blog. I have to admit, I wasn't sure about it, but I wanted to give it a shot. The reviews that I read of it were almost universally positive, with reviewers praising its genius and the 'heartbreaking' and 'perfect' ending. It's basically a novel-within-a-novel about and old Jewish man and a young girl living in New York.

I finished it this afternoon after reading it over the weekend. And I thought it was the most anti-climactic book, with the possible exception of Atonement (another book that everyone ELSE raves about).

When I initially finished it, my first thought was "Ok, how thick am I that I didn't get that at all?" And then I read this review in the New York Times and felt a bit better. Although the reviewer does seems to at least 'get' it, which I didn't.

The best thing I can say about it? That I'm glad I didn't have to read it for a class - there's no way I'd be able to pass a quiz on it.

Moose goes to London

Went to London for the weekend - I was v. productive. On Saturday morning, I went to Paxman Horns, in Southwark. They're one of the world's major french horn manufacturers - here's their showroom.


I loved it. Especially this room with all of their used horns. It felt like they were all sitting there in anticipation of being discovered by 'their' players. The guy in the store also had a great idea about what to do with my horn and the case that's eating the lacquer. We'll see if it works.



Then it was off to Borough Market for lunch with a friend - we wandered around and admired all the food (and ate greek pitta-lamb things for lunch), and then walked over to Tower Hill for the start of our London Walk. This little guy was SO funny - he was just standing there, squalking at us. He obviously had a lot to say.


While our walk was interesting, it wasn't as good as the other one I went on (the Little Venice walk). The subject was Anglo-Saxon and Medieval London, and it was a little scattered. Granted, it's a huge chunk of time to cover and there's not a whole lot left! These two were near the end of the walk - it's the square where the Mayor basically runs London, and it's been the seat of the city's government, with a virtually unchanged format, for centuries. I loved the juxtaposition of the old and new buildings.





Moose and Tiger made the trek with us (and hubby has decided that he's a Fen Tiger - get it, Dad?). Here they are with their snack on Saturday afternoon. They were feeling a little peckish.

Cards!

I hit the ripe old age of 26 today - yikes! I've had a really great day - John woke me up this morning with some grapefruit juice and birthday cards and presents. I think this year is my best card year ever.

First, from Mom & Dad, this beachy one:



Then, from C, another of the great Curly Girl Design cards (the Tiara one that I have is framed and ready for my wall at work):



John got me a really funny one:



Inside? "So - you thought one of them was attractive... Happy Birthday!" Hahahaha.

Toot!

We picked up a movie last night: The Last Mimzy. We watched it with James (it's a kids' movie), and boy, was it weird. I've seen some trippy ones in my time but this one took the cake. The kids find a stuffed rabbit from the future who says the world's going to end unless they send it back to the future and save the universe. Yeah. It actually doesn't sound that bad when I describe it like that, but it was really strange.

We did our usual butcher/baker/farmer's market shopping today (when did we turn into such hippies?), and made the lamb/tomato/zucchini thing for dinner. It was funny - it was the first time I made it that it wasn't for guests.

We gave James a solar car kit for his birthday - he and I built it today and played with it out on the sidewalk. Once we found a big mirror and used the regular sunlight AND the reflected sunlight, it was really moving along. He was pretty impressed, and then a cloud went over the sun and the whole thing screeched to a halt.

Oh, and his mum announced this week that he was starting music lessons. More specifically: trumpet lessons. I mentioned that 'Uncle Ed' played the trumpet all through middle school and that I played the french horn and trumpet in high school and college (and taught the trumpet to kids his age at an after-school program for 2 years).

He was SO excited about bringing his trumpet to our house so he could play. I was mean, though - his idea of playing is 'taking a huge breath and blowing as hard as he can to make a honking noise and then giggling.' Granted, this is pretty much what anybody would do with a trumpet, but it's not the best way to learn to play.

I made him do some breathing and then he buzzed on the mouthpiece and THEN he played a few notes. He reminded me of myself at that age, trying to learn something. He wants to do it ALL and he wants to do it NOW and he doesn't want to bother with stupid stuff like breathing right or playing real notes. He gets frustrated pretty quickly (like I always did), and he's had asthma his whole life, so the breathing exercises generated some tears. I reminded him that if he learned to breath the brass-player's way, his asthma would get a lot better and he'd be able to breathe more easily anyway.

It was totally bringing back memories of my college horn teacher, who I have to say was one of the best teachers I've ever had. She was a kindergarten music teacher when she wasn't teaching horn, and she used the same techniques on her college students as she used on her little kids. We LOVED it and really learned a lot. I think James was a little bit mystified when I made him lie on his back on the floor with a cookbook on his stomach (it's to get him to breathe with his diaphragm), but it definitely helps.

I'm hopefully going to get to the Paxman store in London next weekend (it's a horn mecca), since my mouthpiece is somewhere in New Ro and my horn is in Stowmarket. I kind of need them both to play, so I'm going to suck it up and buy a new one. It feels a little bit sacrilegious - I've only ever had the one mouthpiece and I can't really imagine playing with a different one. But until I (or mom) figure out where it is, I'm going to have to get a spare. Like Edward's blankie when he was 6. I guess the good news is be that when I find it, I'll have two. And until then, I'll have my own brass instrument to make noises on so James won't get icked out by sharing his mouthpiece with me.

Nigella & James

Rachel Ray is kind of a polarizing figure in the world of American food TV. People either love her or hate her (I'm in the love camp). Having had our first taste of Nigella tonight, I can only assume that she's equally polarizing. She has the same bubbly Faux-talian as Rachel, with a lot of the same ideas about shortcuts. However, she is NOT Rachel. She's bloody annoying. At least in my opinion, anyway.

Good thing there's so much other good Brit food TV to watch.

Oh, and today the small boy whose title for me includes the word 'mother' turns 10. EEK. Happy birthday, kiddo.

Indian Summer

We're having gorgeous weather here - it's making up (a little) for the fact that we had such a cold, wet summer.

I'm such an overachiever - I cooked two new recipes today. Both from the October Good Food magazine. Sadly, it means that neither of them will be on the GF website until next week. First: apple streusel. Kind of like apple pie/crumble. It had a pastry base, apples with lemon (I used lime), cinnamon and nutmeg in the middle, and a brown-sugar crumble on top. YUM. I never bake, but we had friends coming over for coffee so I figured I'd give it a shot. Both John and Kosta had seconds - there's only one small piece left that John and I will have to fight over tomorrow.

We took them to the farm market (they were v. impressed), and we bought some eggplant and leeks and carrots and other fall-y things. So I made a Moroccan eggplant thing with tomato sauce for dinner - John and I were both really surprised at how it turned out. We were originally just planning to make pasta sauce but someone in the neighborhood was roasting a chicken during the afternoon and the smell drove me to do some serious cooking. The eggplant was really tender and not at all bitter. It's definitely a keeper.

I'm almost finished with Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, about her year of local and seasonal eating with her family. It was a little dry at first but I love her novels and it's really made me think about what we eat. Her family has given up all commercially farmed (i.e. not free-range) meat products, which I think is a VERY good idea. John and I eat relatively little meat as it is - I'm quite happy to pay a premium for happy cows/chickens/lamb etc. We're also making a conscious effort to eat seasonally - NOT to eat leeks in July and strawberries in November. We've been pretty good about it, for the most part. It all just TASTES so much better when it's in season, and it's cheaper. My mom fed us a lot of seasonal stuff when I was a kid - tomatoes in the summer and squashes and stews in the winter. My dad loves a good steak, though. I've been CRAVING steak for a few days - I think John and I are going to splurge on some this week. I haven't had it in ages and I think I must be low on some vitamins or something - I can't get it out of my head.

My First Invented Recipe

I'd seen a recipe for zucchini & mushroom risotto somewhere, but I can't find it. I've searched the web and come up with nothing. So I tried to make my own recipe. We ate it last night - it was really good!

Zucchini & Mushroom Risotto. by StowmarKate

Ingredients
olive oil
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tbs Herbes De Provence
1 tsp mild chili powder
5 small zucchini, cubed
2 handfulls sliced mushrooms (I used buttons and portobellinis)
1 1/2 cups Risotto
3 cups Vegetable stock

Sautee the onions and garlic in olive oil, adding the HDP and chili powder when they're starting to soften and brown. Stir until you can smell the HDP, then add the risotto, and stir to coat in the olive oil. Add 1 cup (ish) of the veggie stock, then simmer for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and zucchini and the rest of the stock, leaving the veg on top of the rice/onion mixture so that they steam. Cook for 15 more minutes, then stir everything together. As soon as the rice is done (should be around now - if it's not, add more stock), serve!

Found things

I'm currently obsessed with Kate Rusby. She's one of the premiere folk singers in the UK - I heard her on the weekly folk program that I listen to on Radio 2. John and I both heard the track "High On A Hill" and reached for our wallets to buy the album. Once we get our heads round this one we'll be buying some more. She has sort of a Joni Mitchell / Emily Saliers sound - I LOVE it.

My first week back at work was a little chaotic - I've never taken 2 weeks off from a job before and I had a v. large pile of email when I got back. My colleague and I also swapped offices with the marketing department this week - there are three of them and two of us and our office was quite a bit bigger. It works out for us - we get REAL (un-recycled, un-filtered) air. We have a an office with a big window and 2 doors. I've made it, I think. :)

My other new discovery (besides Ms. Rusby) is Boden. It's a UK clothing store that I saw an ad for in a magazine and ordered. Every page has something that I'd wear - when I get back down to a reasonable weight, I'm going to treat myself to an outfit from them.

Speaking of weight, it's going reasonably well - I've been making a conscious effort to end every meal a little bit hungry, and we went for an epic walk today and are planning another one tomorrow. I'm RAVENOUS right now, but I've also been drinking a lot more water to fill myself up and I'm feeling a lot better. John made a gorgeous paella for dinner tonight - it had chorizo, squid, shrimp, mushrooms, peas (I even ATE them!), and some other yummy stuff. I'll keep him.

Vacation Roundup: Back To (Escape From?!) New York

After the dentist debacle before I left, my dad made me an appointment with my childhood dentist. He cleaned my teeth (and pronounced them dirty but cavity-free), and sent me on my way. I zipped in to the city for lunch down by NYU with Liz and Kim, and visited them in their office. I hadn't been in the NYU neighborhood for a while - it was kind of a shock to see SO many college students everywhere.

Liz's mom is my favourite book-idea-giver - she reads constantly and has really great opinions. She's just started a book blog: La Bibliofille. I've added it to my RSS feed...and I just need a direct link between the website and my library account!

After puttering around the city and getting my hair cut at Astor Hair (my favourite), I went up to the garment district and got some fabric to make a belt. I also went to Purl Patchwork and got some adorable fabric that's linen-y with intermittent black sheep. SO cute - I'm going to make 6 placemats trimmed in orange with orange napkins. I love it.

Andrea and I crispy-shrimpied ourselves at Yama (mmm...spicy sauce) and then went to Forever 21 where Andrea got some really cute jeans and tops and I got a gorgeous brown sweater. I'm so used to English prices - everything was so cheap and looked so good!



I watched some of the US Open in Madison Sq Park after a cheap Chinese lunch near the office with my buddy Peter - the match was reviewed as 'amateur hour' by the New York Times - needless to say, I didn't stay long. I walked around the city for the rest of the afternoon (it was SO hot) and had Ethiopian food for dinner with Emily. I think I hit all of the major NY food groups - chinese, sushi, deli food and an uber-ethnic.

Speaking of all this food, I also weighed myself when I was home - I'm at an all-time high weight. I know it's the combo of eating too much and not getting enough exercise. So off I go - eating less and moving more. We'll see how it goes. It has to go, since none of my trousers fit.

We had a relaxing family party on Saturday, where my brother subjected his new girlfriend to some quality family time - he must really like her!

Vacation Roundup: Rhode Island

My parents' house in RI is really funny - it has a checkered past. The original owner - long gone - was a felon, so there are some locks in bizarre places (the closet in the loft, for example). It's also a bit of an '80s time capsule - the wallpaper is unbelievable. It has good bones, though, and it's in a great area with a pool and easy access to a long and v. flat bike path. Sign me up.

After the carousel on Monday night, we rode our bikes back down the path to Del's, for their lemonadey-icey stuff. "A Rhode Island Institution," according to them, anyway. Beware - the site has lots of fun sounds... My dad filmed my mom and me eating the Del's - it's hysterical.



After we'd recovered from the lemonade, we went out for seafood. From what we can tell, Rhode Islanders LOVE to eat, and they especially love seafood. I had a big ol' lobster, the likes of which I hadn't seen since Colby. And yes, I will forever be spoiled for lobster having gone to college in Maine. With $9.99 lobster nights at the restaurant down the street...

Here I am...winning.


On Tuesday, my roomie C came to visit - it was GREAT to see her again after her visit to Stowmarket. She recaps the day pretty completely on her blog. I LOVED seeing her and being tourists for the day.


When we were walking through one of the little towns that we visited, we saw these carvings on the porch from across the street. They looked so pretty - but on closer inspection they appeared to ALL be Freemasons' symbols... Who knows.


On Wednesday (our last day in RI), we lounged around, went to the pool, and ate. Lots. Fabulous diner food for breakfast, a stuffie (some strange RI twist on the stuffed clam) for lunch, and the most incredible seafood jambalaya for dinner.

Wow - I really did photograph everything I ate over the vacation...




More tomorrow!

Quiet Day

I was trying to decide what to do today, regarding the post. I'm going to hold off on the vacation recap until tomorrow- I still have trouble with things with a date stamp of September 11.

So, today, instead, parts of two songs that the Indigo Girls wrote.

They're sending soldiers to distant places
X's and O's on someone's drawing board
Like green and plastic but with human faces
And they want to tell you it's a merciful sword
But with all the blood newly dried in the desert
Can we not fertilize the land with something else
There is no nation by god exempted
Lay down your weapons and love your neighbor as yourself
-Our Deliverance, 2002

When you march stand up straight.
When you fill the world with hate
Step in time with your kind and
Let it ring

When you speak against me
Would you bring your family
Say it loud pass it down and
Let it ring

Let it ring to Jesus 'cause he sure'd be proud of you
You made fear an institution and it got the best of you
Let it ring in the name of the one that set you free
Let it ring

As I wander through this valley
In the shadow of my doubting
I will not be discounted
So let it ring

You can cite the need for wars
Call us infidels or whores
Either way we'll be your neighbor
So let it ring

Let it ring
in the name of the man that set you free
Let it ring

And the strife will make me stronger
As my maker leads me onward
I'll be marching in that number
So let it ring

I'm gonna let it ring to Jesus
Cause I know he loves me too
And I get down on my knees and I pray the same as you
Let it ring, let it ring
'Cause one day we'll all be free
-Let It Ring (Amy Ray), 2005

Vacation Roundup: Wedding, NYC

I'm back in the UK...I didn't intend to take such a long blogging break but it was tricky to find time and sort out pictures without my Mac.

Anywho, still on my camera from before the trip to NY, a picture of the stepson and my niece rowing a boat. They managed to coordinate enough so that we didn't go in circles, although we were definitely wobbling...


Then, Friday night, our 'drinking club with a reading problem' got together in Andrea's fab new apartment. We hadn't all gotten together in ages, and it was very entertaining. My mom has a tshirt: "What happens with the girlfriends, stays with the girlfriends." Haha.


Then on Sunday I went to the wedding - it was the first one I'd been to for 2 years that I wasn't in (including ours), and I have to say it was SO relaxing. The wedding was great, with lots of fun people and fabulous music and I didn't have to wear anything specific or talk to anyone or be in any pictures or ANYTHING. Not to say that I haven't loved being in weddings, but they're a lot of work! So here was the setting (gorgeous):

And the bride & groom (gorgeous, again!):


Then, on Labor Day, I zipped up to RI to my parents' house, where I had the most relaxing 3 days I can remember. We went to a carousel on the first afternoon, via the bike path behind my parents' house. It's one of the last in the country where you can try and catch the rings as you ride around and then throw them into a target - I had the best time! My dad made a video - I'm not sure if it'll make it on to youtube but if it does, I'll post it.


To be continued...

Travels, Part II

After a fun but exhausting weekend up in Durham, I'm off to NY tomorrow. We did lots of horsey things (riding on the cart, which was AWESOME, watching some cross-country stuff), labrador-y things, and various other stuff. We got home last night, did 3 loads of laundry (thank you, sunny day today), and now I'm all packed for NY.

I'll be there for 10 days - one of my all-time-favourite people is getting married this weekend, and then I'll be in RI for a few days with the 'rents. I'm looking forward to NOT thinking about work, work, or work.

I had two small annoying things today, which put me in a bit of a funk this afternoon. First, our long-awaited dentist appointments arrived (no weekend/late hours, and the practice is near where John used to live, so it's not convenient at ALL). I'd scheduled a cleaning/checkup/handover appointment for both of us. I went up for my appointment, where the doctor made a few notes, asked me a few questions, poked around and counted my teeth, took an x-ray and then said, OK, well if you make yourself another appointment we can sort out giving you a checkup and a cleaning and fitting you for a mouth guard. "Wait a minute," I said, "THIS is my appointment. Please do the cleaning now. I scheduled it during my vacation and arranged flights to NYC around it."

"Oh no, we can't do the cleaning today - you'll need another appointment for that." AAAAAAHHHHHHHH! So John and I have appointments in October (the soonest they could do) and we'll both have to take the day off. Apparently this dentist is an old family friend so I couldn't get annoyed at him. I AM going to mention it to the in-laws, though. NOT cool. We PAY for this shit?

Oh, and my second setback? The long-awaited tomatoes that have been green since April have ripened and turned red. Fabulous, right? NO. They taste like winter tomatoes from the supermarket. You know, all dry and mealy and completely flavorless. Ugh. I don't know what's the matter with them, but there are hundreds that are just about to ripen and if they taste like the ones I had today they're going straight in the compost bin. They're 'bush' tomatoes, rather than the stalky kind, but that shouldn't have made any difference. I've never tasted a home-grown tomato that was anything other than delicious - I don't know what's happened.

OK, rant over. I need a vacation.

Vacation!

Well, it's official - I know have 2 weeks off from work. Eek. I realized that I've never taken two whole weeks at once before - it's always been a week here or a few days there. I'm sure they'll be fine without me - I'm not one of those people who compulsively checks email or leaves rambling auto-responses giving details of their cell phone(s), personal emails, Skype names (!? - I had one of those today), other phones, and a detailed itinerary. Nope. If they need to find me, they will.

My dad has been scanning a lot of slides from his epic collection - here's a picture of me at the piano. Who knew that I'd end up in the music biz? (Well, maybe my parents did...)


We're going to see John's brother for a few days - it's always nice to just get away from stuff and veg at their house. Hopefully the sun will come out for at least part of the time we're there - it's been raining and COLD here for a solid week. Ugh.

John made a gorgeous dinner tonight - fresh cherry tomatoes from his mom's garden, roasted with garlic, onion and a chili, and then he added mushrooms and courgettes and some oregano and paprika. We had it over pasta and it was SO GOOD. I'll miss it when we go back to work and I don't have a full-time chef...

I heard a really funny term on the radio tonight while I was driving home (yes, the car is back!). It refers to someone who is slavishly devoted to their GPS (or Sat-Nav as it's known here), to the exclusion of all rational thought and external stimuli. The term? SatChav. I love it. Travis (my F-i-L) is the poster child SatChav.

My personal chef

The hubby is on vacation this week (I'm off next week and the week after) and he's been cooking every night. We also have the small boy, so John's been making reasonably adventurous stuff but nothing too crazy. Monday night - a glorious chickpea curry from *scratch* - not even the curry paste that I use. He mixed all the spices and started from there. It was SO good. Last night we had roasted veggies with penne, and tonight he made paella. I could get used to having a house-husband! I think tomorrow he's making veggie chili and has planned some extravagant potato-bake thing for Friday. Mmm.

I've been having some transportation adventures this week, as our car was out of commission for a few days (it's back as of this afternoon). As the Brits will know, the weather here has been absolutely appalling - gray, cold and rainy. Ugh. So getting up at 5:30 to walk to the 7:08 train (in the rain) and then walk up-hill for half an hour (still raining) in Bury hasn't exactly been my favourite thing. Then more rainy walks back in the other direction, although at least once I get home I can take a hot shower and put on my fleece pants (YES, in August) and a hoodie. Brrrr. Fred & George (the duck slippers) have been getting a lot of use this summer - they're usually in the closet from May through September.

Woah, I've nearly made it 'til 10pm - I've been in bed at 9 all week. ::yawn:: Ok, I'm not going to be a hero. At least I've only got 2 more days of the train (and house-husband is DRIVING me to the station tomorrow morning - what decadence)!

Phew

It's been an insane week. John left on Sunday afternoon for a business trip and came back on Wednesday. I've been going flat-out at work - 8 to 6 every day with half an hour at lunch to inhale my sandwich. Things are starting to get under control, which is a relief. It's funny...when I started the new job 3 weeks ago, I didn't give myself the same 'new job allowance' - where I expect to be tired all the time, really frustrated at all the new info, etc - because I was still sitting in the same office. Different desk, but the same room. Then it hit me this week - it's still a NEW job, filled with things that I don't know. My mom always maintains that it takes a month to get to the point where you can pretty much do stuff and 6 months to get good at all of it. A month puts me at the end of next week, at which point I'm going on vacation for 2 weeks. Seemed like a good idea when I was planning it - not so much now.

Last Saturday I got a package from Kristen. John and I had helped her with her website (mostly proof-reading and stuff). She's selling really clever wine tags - check them out at Tag-it.biz. She's also the one who made the notebooks that I gave Andrea and my mom for their birthdays. I'd been meaning to order one for myself but I have kind of a notebook fetish and have some unwritten-in-ones that I kept thinking I should use up first. Anyway, she mentioned that she'd send me 'a little something' as a thank-you.

'A little something' included this:


And these (pardon the picture - ick):


And, best of all, my very own mini-Taylor book.


With a starfish clasp:


It's gorgeous. I'm almost done with my current moleskine and then I'm going to transfer all the important stuff over to the new book and carry on. I can't wait - I keep thinking of things that don't really need to go in the moleskine, just so I can finish it and start on the new book.

I'm also obsessed with the wine tags on 'tag-it' - I think they're SO clever and we're always bringing bottles of wine to people. The only problem now is that when I BRING the wine, I'm so excited about the tags that I have to tell everyone about them. Oh, and there were more that were in the original package but I gave a pack to my friend Sandy, who has similar wine-giving requirements. She got all excited...woohoo!

So after the zany, care-package-filled week, we went over to our friends' house for dinner last night and had a bbq. American wife, brit (tech-y) husband. Just like us. It was great to see them and catch up.

And this morning, I was so inspired by how pretty my breakfast looked that I had to take a picture. Lucky you.

Reading in the back yard

Baby StowmarKate

My dad has been scanning lots of old photos - here's one he sent me from when I was v. little. We always called these 'swimmies'...most of the kids that I know now call them 'floaties'. I definitely was more in the swimming than the floating camp...



I somehow got myself roped into editing the Bury Bach Choir newsletter and I've been completely avoiding it. I sent out a mass email soliciting submissions and I've had quite a few, which is good news. The bad news is that I'm creating it in Scribus, which is an open-source program for linux. Not only do I not really know how to edit a newsletter, the only designing I've done until now has been in Microsoft Publisher. Lovely. Supposedly Scribus is 'a lot like Quark', which doesn't really help me. I need an open-source publishing app for non-designers like me. Or, I need to stop saying yes to things that I don't really know how to do. Either one would work.

Colliding worlds

My roomie C found this:

Not only is it the HP trio, but Rupert Grint's tshirt is the same as the poster that we have in our living room (still waiting to be hung on the wall, though). ::swooon::

Oh, and this is StowmarKate a la Simpson.

BBQ fiend

I'm a bbq fiend - I attended not 1 but 2 yesterday. The first one was for the boys, at our house - John's buddies came round for the day and I made them lunch. We fired up the grill with some organic charcoal from the farm shop (it burns really well and has an awesome flavor) and made red curry chicken kebabs. I had some Thai Chili sauce as well - it really improved it. Oh, and I used low-fat coconut milk instead because I can't stand the regular stuff - it's always so gloopy.

Here's the BBC Good Food's pic - ours didn't have the individual grill marks on the piece of chicken - my personal food stylist is on vacation. Otherwise, that was pretty much it.


On to the second bbq, at a friend's house - there were some work-y people and lots (more) fab food. We all sat outside the whole time - it's finally starting to feel like summer.

Google maps

We live out in the country. I'm not disputing that. Suffolk is a v. rural county and is known for sausages and sheep. But really, Google Earth needs to do some updating. Why, you ask?

Well, our house is new. But not THAT new. And we're not the only ones up here. But when you type our postcode into google maps, what image do you get?


Maybe that's why my garden is doing so well...

Growing

The honeysuckle in the backyard (thanks, Mom & Dad!) has been threatening to flower since the weekend, and went I went out after dinner to water the tomatoes (green but getting bigger), I noticed that there were some open flowers. They smell SO good. And there are about 50 more buds on the plant - it's going to smell great this weekend.


Our border plants are also really psyched about life. Here they are the day they were planted:




And here they are now:


Oh, and Freda brought us some lavender from her garden - it's not the best picture but you should be able to imagine how fantastic it smells...

I've been going flat-out at work - one of the women I work with is on vacation and the other has switched departments. My boss is being really supportive, though, and I LOVE having the office to myself. Someone came in yesterday and said I looked lonely, and then said, "But who do you talk to?" Umm...I'm working? And if I really need to talk to someone, I can talk to myself. Besides, there's an office full of people across the hall and my boss is 2 offices down. The days have flown by - I've been super busy and I feel like I'm cramming my brain full of all the new info.

BBQ

Well, the weather held and we had lots of family over on Sunday. John's parents, his brother's wife and daughter, his brother's wife's sister and her family. As my parents would say, the in-laws and the out-laws.

Anyway, we parked the kids outside on the picnic blanket while we had a v. civilized lunch at the kitchen table. And then all went to the playground, where we pushed the kids (boys 9 & 10, girls 11 & 12 - the miracles of cousins!) on the swings. I'm SO sore today - there's a huge seesaw/swing thing that provoked cries of FASTER! HIGHER!!. And now my arms and legs (?!) are sore. But the kids had a rip-roaring time. As did the grownups, I have to say.

It's raining again

Which means we have more rainbows than we know what to do with.

Here are two pictures, taken out the back window, five minutes apart. Crazy English weather. We've truly had the most appalling summer - it's been cold and rainy since mid-May. I haven't worn shorts ONCE and we still have our spring/fall duvet on the bed. And Moose (the stuffed moose) is wearing his antler-muffs still.



I'm still feeling v. calm about Harry Potter, but I'm reluctant to post about it here because I know a lot of people haven't finished yet. So if you want to discuss, email me, otherwise I'll post about it in a few weeks.

It's also looking like my plans to go to NY at Christmas might change, but nothing's final yet so I'm being really cautious. I should know in a couple of days, though.

There's also a lot of crazy stuff going on at work - it seems like one of those months where people are moving all over the place - at our suppliers, with our customers, and within the company. I'll have to ask Michelle (my astrologically inclined buddy) if there's something planetary that's causing all the upheaval.

All done

Well, I've finished the book. Last night at about 9:30, as a matter of fact. I've been trying to ponder what to post here and I'm going to avoid spoilers for a bit.

Apparently I was not the only person annoyed by the HP review in the New York times - they got thousands of letters from angry people. I still think while what they did was technically legal, it was morally wrong. One of the commenters suggested submitting it to Randy Cohen (The Ethicist from the Sunday Times Magazine) - I think it's a great idea.

We went out for a curry with Ian & Caroline on Friday night in Ipswich - we'd reserved our books so we figured that it wouldn't be too bad of a line at Waterstones. Er, yeah, we were wrong. Not only was there a HUGE line of people, going all the way down a v. long block and around several corners, we were only about 150 metres away from the store and we were in line for almost 2 hours after midnight. They only had 3 registers open and it was taking forever. And it was FREEZING cold - I had to put my fleece on over my HP shirt. We were, however, waiting next to a v. nice college student who kept us entertained.

Here they are:


And here's the line:


And here we are WITH OUR BOOKS!


We staggered back to the house, where I read the first chapter and tumbled in to bed. I woke up at 6:30 with the sun streaming in to our room, and started from the beginning again. We left at 9, had the best Little Chef breakfast I've ever had, and then came home, showered, and settled in. John was upstairs on the bed, and I was downstairs on the couch. I had two small interruptions to hang washing on the line, and was about 3/4 of the way through when we left for a bbq at my friend's house.

She's American, married to an Air Force navigator, and we were the only civilians at the party. It was fun, though. We had Bratwurst (she's from Minnesota) and lots of American food from the base. John thought it was all very strange.

We got home about 8, and I read straight through until 9:30. John read until about midnight, and then woke up at 7 this morning to finish.

I thought it was EXTREMELY good, and while I'm definitely feeling HP withdrawal, it's much more of a peaceful feeling than with any of the previous books.

NYT Harry Potter review

Somehow, the New York Times bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at a store in New York City. Not sure how, but whatever.

They then read the book, wrote a review, and posted it. Fine, except nobody's supposed to get the book AT ALL until tomorrow night at midnight. And their review included SPOILERS. Which I read, by accident. And then tried my best to un-read, but it doesn't work like that. I'm not linking to it here - if you desperately want to read it, you'll be able to find it.

I am NOT a happy bunny. They're mean.

Dr Who Cake

The boys brought a tardis cake when they came round tonight - I loved it so much I had to take a picture. And post it.


It's funny, when I was a kid, we never watched Dr. Who. I remember it randomly being on TV and it being WAAY too scary for me, so then when I arrived here I didn't really want to watch it. It actually kicked off when C was here, and I figured it was a v. british thing to do with our Saturday evening. It was the first of a v. compelling 2-parter and that was it. I was sucked in. Now they're on hiatus for the summer (although I missed all the episodes from the autumn, so it's not too bad). I'm going through David Tennant withdrawal.

Random quiz (Wikipedia/IMDB NOT allowed): why ELSE might I find David Tennant compelling? (Other than the fact that he's fab as the Doctor and quite easy on the eyes...)

John's on a business trip tomorrow night, so I'm going to be having artichokes for dinner (he finds them too prickly but I LOVE them). I can't find my mom's recipe for the sauce so I'm going to have to ask her again...oh well.

Curry on a Monday?

As planned, I made this recipe. It was a HUGE hit - both John and I really loved it. It was super easy and I'll definitely be making it again soon.

From BBC Good Food: Prawn Curry In A Hurry

* 2 tbsp curry paste (they recommend Patak's Original Balti curry paste)
* 1 onion, finely sliced
* 200g large raw or cooked prawns, defrosted if frozen
* 400g can chopped tomatoes with garlic (I sauteed the garlic with the onions and just used regular tomatoes)
* large bunch coriander, leaves and stalks chopped

Serves 2
Prep 5 mins
Ready in 15 minutes

Drizzle some oil from the curry paste jar into a wok or large frying pan, gently heat, then add the onion. Sizzle over a low heat for 4 mins until the onion softens, then stir in the paste and cook for a few mins longer. Stir in the prawns and tomatoes, then bring to a simmer. If using raw prawns, simmer until they have changed colour and are cooked through. Season, if you like, then add the coriander just before serving with boiled rice and naan bread.

It was spicy and really tasty. And the rice was done before the dinner was - it was a fast one.

I also finished reading The Friday Night Knitting Club - it was a fun New York chick-lit book that was deeper than I was expecting it to be. Not Shakespeare, but enjoyable. I can't remember whose blog I saw it on, but thanks! Now the big internal struggle is about whether or not I have time to (start and) finish HP6 before Friday night...