Well, it's approaching my newly imposed (read before midnight) bed-time here, and I am fighting off my late-night urges towards the mint and chip divinity
that lurks in my freezer. lately, i've been taking to dipping my oreo's in it as well.
but i CAN'T tonight,
for you see my dears...i've already had desert!
the tall lover i call the saint took me on an after-dinner walk.
we somehow ended up at Top Pot donuts.
we split a plain old-fashioned and a cup of drip.
the perfect date night...for only $2.35.
We had to take this aforementioned after-dinner walk
because of the well-timed and well-executed dinner i made for my hard working mister.
i baked a whole fryer chicken (which was covered in olive oil and thyme)
for 1.5 hours.
i then made mashed potatoes
and mom's famous cooked carrots from some beauties we bought at the market yesterday.
i then tossed up a salad with the lettuce and tomato also purchased at the market,
and everything came out on the table as hot as could be
within 10 minutes of joelio walking through the door no less.
though i am no gourmet cook, i can multi-task like a mo fo!
if i would have been a really good wife,
i would have had kelly's famous chocolate cookies baking as well.
but i am not a really good wife.
only a multi-tasking, cleaning, organizing, bill-paying, sexy one.
c'est la vie.
speaking of the market,
i am sitting in front of the most GORGEOUS bouquet of peonies
that i hand-picked from a vendor yesterday.
if only i had my camera,
you could see them too!
they are bursting open, 6 whites and 3 deep pink.
speaking of my camera,
you will be happy to know that the saint purchased me a new one.
i shouldn't complain, because at least we had the money
but i had to use savings and that savings was going towards this:
i do not regret it.
because i was seriously missing an appendage without my wee point and shoot,
but STILLLLLLL.
sigh.
it should arrive in 5 more business days.
speaking of sigh,
my sweet kitty has decided that our bed (even with me in it)
is the new place for her to use the restroom.
she did this once when we were out of town, and now we cannot really get the smell out of the mattress.
consequently, she keeps going back to that same spot
despite all our creative best efforts to redirect her.
i have washed both pair of my sheets 3 times each in the last month.
and now, to make sure it stops...
we need a new mattress.
SIGH.
the matress we have now is a $1ooo mattress
(donated to us when we were first married).
DOUBLE SIGH.
so
for now,
kitty is banned from the bedroom.
this makes me sad because i love to cuddle with her in the mornings when she
walks on me and lays right in the crick of my neck and purrs her little heart out.
but her walking on me
the other night
did not produce such cute results.
today is not lost, however.
i had a lovely lunch with devon - who made me a wonderful meal and escorted my soul
around her lovely garden.
today also marks the launch of my new little project,
in case you didn't have enough of my writing as represented in three blogs.
my fourth one can be found by clicking on the picture to the right, up top, to the right of my portrait
over there------------->>>
don't tell anyone it's me.
it's a secret!
the secret snob...
joel and i have been horribly remiss at getting enough down time, and i think it's because we are just so excited to have a new life as given us by our new neighborhood! but that adrenaline is rapidly wearing out...
you see, joel and i had an overly-busy weekend - full of really fun things, but just too much for one weekend. (see blog below). this wouldn't normally be a problem, IF i had enough "alone" time reserves to make it okay. but i haven't...not by a long shot. i feel badly for my friends who seem to thrive on being together - where i only thrive being together IF i have been alone equal amounts of time.
i keep thinking i am stronger than i am. but my strength comes only from recharging - and i must do this more often. the sad part is that i often don't know this until it's too late.
all of this to say, joel and i had an amazing night last night.
we determined that it would be an "only us" night, and wouldn't you know it - five people called/texted to hang out. it was sad because every single person who did call/text was someone with whom i would have loved to be with, had things to tell, feel rejuvenated by... but man, i am just so e x h a u s t e d.
so i walked to the chiropractor and to rite aid while joel stayed home and made me dinner. when i got back, i suggested we should eat on our rooftop deck, which we did! we walked up there with our steaming hot (farmer's market bought) gnocchi and delicious (farmer's market bought) swiss chard, and sat outside while seattle sprinkled on us. this was delightful to both of our souls.
we then took a load of goods to the goodwill and decided to explore the neighborhood more in our car, and ended up at Volunteer Park. Oh gosh, this park. It felt so magical, and since I was in the flats I bought in Paris, and the garden I was in reminded me of the gardens just outside the Louvre, I had a very Parisian bit of dejavu. The gardens were scarcely populated and incredibly fragrant, and we stumbled upon this huge brick water tower - and took all 105 steps to the top (after some convincing by joel, of course). i felt so naked w/o a camera, but at the same time, it was really really good for me to not have one.
(i will of course be going back with both cameras).
we then came home, had ice cream and watched Into the Wild.
AND we actually got to go to bed together. Joel has to get up so early and I am such a night owl that we rarely fall asleep at the same time. Last night ended up just perfectly with us giggling ourselves to sleep - happy in our protected time. it was validating to hear from my soon-to-be-married little sister that she was glad to see us protecting our time. we did this a lot when we were first married, but have just been juggling a lot more lately.
saying yes always means saying no to something else. i am glad that joel is my yes. always.