What I've Been Up To

• Stressing over the whole home buying process and wishing I could go on vacation until its all over with.
• Posting lots of pretties over at So Sweet & So Cold.
• Racing home to get pictures taken of vintage finds for the Miriam and Eleanor shop before the sunshine stops coming in my window. (Rather unsuccessfully - however the new home will have lots more light and space for this sort of thing.)
• Wandering through one of the prettiest places near me and smelling the flowers and even seeing a barred owl. That was pretty amazing.
• Pondering what to spend my etsy earnings on. Lately I'm leaning towards a camera of my very own.
• Planning a naked lady party for tomorrow.
• Already compiling ideas for a mid-summer evening of unpredictability inspired by The Mad Ones.
• Sending packages to loved ones all over the place - partly cause I adore them and partly cause I need to get the stuff I've collected for them out of the house before moving day.
• Signing up for the daring bakers - cause life isn't busy enough already apparently.
• Wandering myspace and downloading pictures of friends and family cause my photo albums are frightfully out of date.
• Visiting all the home supply stores and actually being interested in formally boring things like fridges and pipes and countertops.
• Feeling strangely restless and moody and ready to burst outta my skin.
• Pondering a new fitness routine (or any routine at all at this point really). New routine shall involve more walks at Antrim and yardwork and biking).
• Trying to balance the thoughtfullness of everyone's home advice with being aggravated at their thoughtlessness and pushyness. (Seriously, all the ominous tales of how everything could go wrong are not appreciated as well as the looking askance at me when I mention what changes we want to make. I appreciate advice, but we're the one's paying for it, thank you very much.

Yep, that's life right now.

Dinner party daydreams

You know that game when you choose who you'd invite to your dream dinner party? Well Tom Waits is definitely on my list. Just to listen to that gravelly voice and knock back a few with him.




Other contenders for those seats? Tony Bourdain, Jim Henson, Julia Child and David Attenborough. Hey for my dream dinner party, those passed on are allowed to come back.

Mmmmmm...wine....

Guess who scored some very cool green wine glasses at a garage sale last Saturday? Me! I've wanted new wine glasses for a very very long time. All mine were presents from other people and, while they were pretty, they were never me. These ones are way more me. $2 for a set of four. Another reason to buy more wine.

News!

We made an offer on a house! And after a few bargainings, we have made a deal on the price. We think its a terrific price. Now there's just the home inspection tomorrow morning. So please send good mental beams my way so we won't discover the house is haunted by bunnies or infested with weevils or some such awful thing.

I'm not liking the stress level at all. I've had nasty stomach cramps for the last 3 days cause no doubt by stress. And of course, once the inspection is over there's still more to be done. Choosing appliances, ripping out carpets, dealing with pushy family members, and general worrying about being responsible for an actual house. Ack! I need a drink! And a vacation!

If all goes well, I'll share some pictures soon.

Lots of nonfiction happening here

House Lust was a breezey and light look at America's obsession with homes. Covering everything from HGTV to McMansions to time shares, it was a quick read and very interesting as a (hopefully) soon-to-be-homeowner.

The Worst Hard Time was a more difficult read but very fascinating. All about the Dust Bowl of the 30's and how people survived. I learned way more about tumbleweed than I thought possible. You can learn more about it here. Its really remarkable and scary learning how government agencies misled and lied to people to get them to move to the Great Plains. It very much made me think of the government's refusal to beieve in global warming because admitting to such a thing would not help their interests.

I also watched a lone documentary this wee. The Devil's Miner is about two little boys who work long hours in a mine in Bolivia. The work is hard and long and dangerous, but the boys have to work in order to be able to afford to go to school. Watching this made me vow to complain a lot less about the petty annoyances of my job. It was very sweet to see how these boys were so serious about their school and their work, but they'd still find time to just be kids and play soccer or

all night you drove me wild with your equations

Love this song:

Enough

Another short story I loved from PRI's Selected Shorts. "Enough" by Alice McDermott. I love it more than I can say.

More book and movie reviews

Dirty Wow Wow is a pretty adorable idea. Pictures and descriptions of childhood items loved into oblivion. I particularly loved the feather pillow named Leadball and the various blankets that appear to just be piles of rags anymore. Cute!

In my secret imaginery life, I'm a librarian (or a milliner or gardener or shopkeeper depending on my mood). So I pounced upon Free for All. Its a pretty enlightening look at the life of a librarian - dealing with insane numbers of after school kids or social misfits or con artists getting out of overdue finds. A pretty quick read. I'd love to find more books like this.

The Forgetting Room is another pretty and artsy Nick Bantock book. A good one with a particularly interesting explanation of the creative process.

I liked The Thirteenth Tale. The premise is so unique. A biographer is asked to come and record the life's tale of a famous writer - a writer who has made up a new story every time anyone has asked her about her past. So good and hard to put down.

We watched Death at a Funeral last night. Zany fun and goofyness.

Shop Update

We've done a huge update to our vintage shop over at MiriamandEleanor. I'm so excited about our recent finds!

Now if only I'd get cracking on my other shop.

101 Update!

I have an update for my 101 things in 1,001 days. I tried sushi last night and it was so good! So I'm counting it towards #97 Try 5 different fish dishes I’ve never had before.

We went out with friends who steered me in what to order and I now adore spider rolls, spicy tuna rolls, and some wonderful eel roll that I can't remember the name of.

Yay for progress and deliciousness!

Silver bus

I very much enoyed the short story Towel Season. Hear it here. And thanks to Kristen for turning me onto Selected Shorts.

Blueberries and honey

Last night I was a bit restless so I decided to do some baking. I had a recipe for blueberry honey muffins that I'd printed out forever ago from Food Makes Me Happy.

They were so good! You can't make it out from above, but the key thing is to drizzle them with honey when they're still still hot.

These will come in handy for some wonderful breakfast for the next overnight guests.

Mushrooms!

This article from The Sun Literary Magazine is blowing my mind. Take a look - Going Underground: Paul Satmets on the Vast, Intelligent Network Beneath Our Feet.