esprit de l'escalier

Other people's pets

Some photos of other people's dogs from my trip to Oregon last month. Mostly my sister's dogs, Stella and Tana.

Polenta party

Midweek last week, I read this post on The Kitchn about a polenta party and I was completely inspired. I wanted to throw a party, or at the very least attend one. My current apartment is just not condusive to such a gathering, so I threw a gauntlet to my friends Cristina and Guilia (who are sisters and Italian and have a habit of throwing excellent parties at their parents' beautiful mid-century home). Little did I realize that Guilia would run with it and throw a party on Friday. Due to work, I couldn't help out ahead of time, but I feel like this was the dress rehearsal for many future polenta parties. We also didn't have a beautiful wooden polenta board, as they did on The Kitchen, but made due with using wax paper. It sounds like there are schemes of getting something more permanent, though. I look forward to more of these parties!

I don't have any of the recipes, but our toppings were a sliced beef in a tomato sauce, sauteed kale, sauteed mushrooms, and a gorgonzola sauce. We also had appetizers, a delicious cesar salad, and zabaglione for dessert. I  am now completely and totally obsessed with zabaglione. Cristina said that she'd have me over to her parents' sometime and her mom will teach us how to make it. It looks fairly straightforward (based on the recipes I've looked at online), but if this happens, I will document and share.

Here are other photos of our meal. The photo above is of my plate. I'm going to start with dessert below, because it is so damn good. (Also, I had brought my good camera with me to document our meal, only to get there and realize that the batteries were dead. Amateur hour. All photos are courtesy of my phone.)

Three photos

These three photos were in a roll of film I picked up today. It's been in my Pentax since just after Christmas. They do not really relate, except that they make me smile. Here is them in the reverse order in which they were taken.

Instant Saturday

Saturday was such a glorious day. A break in the cold, crappy March weather with sunshine and warm temperatures. My friend Rachel hosted a potluck brunch at the Iuka House. The excellent food was followed by a sing-a-long. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning and early afternoon.

I brought along some cameras, including my trusty Polaroid SX-70. My photo of my beautiful friend Meg and the one she took of me turned out well. Later the kittens seemed to find the best light and posed for me like little pros. Atta girls. (More photos from my K1000, should I ever finish the roll...)

Oh and as a bonus, here is the rad Miss Winnie. I had brunch with her and Rachel the first weekend in February. She is fabulous.

Kitten adventures

If you follow me on instagram (did you know you can see all my instagram shots here?) or twitter, you may know that last Saturday I adopted a pair of kittens. Seen above, Lulu on the left and Minnie on the right. The first couple of days they spent more or less under my bed, which has remained a favorite, secure spot for them. Slowly they have been venturing out. Miss Lulu is the braver of the two and now regularly comes up for pets and playing around. When Minnie does come out, she all she really wants is pets.

I adopted them from my flickr/twitter friend Jess. Her husband found and took in a young mother cat who had kittens and had taken up residence on their woodpile. He started blogging about his foster kittens and I fell in love. (Here is his blog, The Kitty Charmer.) It has been almost a year and a half since Frank died and after I fostered Leo this summer, I have been thinking more and more about being a pet owner again. So I worked out adopting the two sister kittens from Jess and her husband and met them halfway between our homes last weekend. (My friends Esther and Laura came along for the ride.)

Expect more kitten stories and photos as the ladies and I get used to each other. Aren't they sweet?

People I wish I was near more frequently

A visit to Rockmill

I've been feeling rather blue this week. It's a combination of things in my life conspiring to make me feel low and I needed something to snap me out of my funk. Luckily my grad school lady friends and I had planned a trip to Rockmill Brewery for Saturday. We piled into one of our minivans (your thirties mean that at least one of your friends now has a mom van), and brought along a couple of husbands for good measure. There is nothing like spending a beautiful afternoon with some good friends, good beer, lots of laughs, and a huge spread of cheese, bread, meat, and fruit. In fact, we had so much fun, I was convinced to cancel the rest of my plans for the night and continue drinking beer with all of them.

Rockmill has quickly become one of my favorite spots in central Ohio. (This was my third visit since October.) It's a quick drive outside of Columbus and the brewery's tasting room and grounds are gorgeous. It's located on an old horse farm, with the main barn now the tasting room, and some smaller barns where they brew. The perfect place to spend an afternoon with a picnic and friends. You really can't beat their beers, some divine Belgian ales. If you're in the area, it's worth a visit. Here are some photos from our visit yesterday, while we roamed the grounds.

Hi Esther

I got a new lens for my digital camera today and took a couple of photos of my friend Esther. She just freshened up her hair color. Doesn't it look good? (Of course I post the giggling photo instead of the more serious one. Could be worse.) My dye project, for weaving class, did not turn out so well. Hopefully my instructor and I will be able to re-dye things and get a better result.

This weekend I'm headed to DC to celebrate my friend Ginny's birthday (we're going on a hike and then out for drinks). I used to go to DC every MLK weekend and help her celebrate, but since I moved back to Ohio, that habit dropped off. And it's the Inauguration! Oh, and I'm going to take some engagement photos for my dear friends Bertie and Clay. I'm nervous and excited about that. I hope I get some good photos! We are in agreement to not get too cutesy. I did buy a reflector, though. I'm not sure if I'll be able to use it without an assistant though. I feel a little like I'm jumping in the deep end, but it's with two people I adore, I think it will be fine.

I'm currently watching the Daily Show and journalist Bob Schieffer just came on. It has been a while since I have seen someone look so excited to be anywhere. Adorable. Giant grin. Hilarious anecdote about the first inauguration he covered. Oh, it just veered and got super serious about gun control. (If I was ever on the Daily Show, I think my grin would give his grin a run for its money.) Good night folks!

Thoughts on wet hair in winter

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Do you think that I was foolish enough to get rid of my flannel sheets? This is a question I'm pondering, because I can't find my set and not having them sort of ruins the cuddly plan I had for my night. It started this morning, around 7 am, when my alarm clock went off. I looked at my phone for the temperature, which said 10 degrees.

Now, I had had fair warning of a cold morning, because at midnight I got a text from my landlord telling me to drip my faucets to prevent freezing. But at 7, when I should have been getting up and showered, it seemed a bit much. Immediately I ruled out a shower. The thought of having wet hair as I drove to work (drove because wet hair means no walking) seemed just too much. Instead I hit snooze and rolled over and wished I could sleep through the day.

This leads me to now. Sitting on my couch, wet hair, blanketed, wondering where my flannel sheets have gone off to. My idea was that I'd come home from dinner, throw my flannel sheets in the dryer, hop in the shower, and then have one blissed out sleep. Part of this is just not meant to be. I am thankful for all the things that have gone right in that sentence, but a flannel sheeted warmth coccoon is not in my cards tonight.

Hello hello

Good grief. It has been two months since I last visited this space. I didn't mean to step back for so long, but here we are, at the beginning of the new year. I'm writing from my friend Natasha's apartment. The new year has started off sunny here, and I am happy to be amongst some dear friends. Yesterday I drove from Erie, PA where I was visiting with some dear old friends, Mariah and Matt, who just had a baby. Mariah and I were talking about how we make sacrifices to spend time with the people who are important to us, because, as she said, isn't that what life is about? The moments that make life worth living are the ones we spend surrounded with the people we love. I think it was appropriate to be reminded of that at the start of a new year.

I found 2012 to be long, full of ups and downs, and I'm excited to start 2013. There are many things I am looking forward to and I'm optimistic for a good year. I hope to be in this space more. I hope to be writing and sharing photos and doing more creating in this coming year. I will share more of my adventures. I hope you share yours with me too.

These photos are a little old. Actually, they were taken soon after my last blog post. My friends Elaine and George and their growing family visited and this is from a hike we took with the littles and some friends of mine.

I wish you all the best in 2013!