This photo gave me shivers this morning. I’m so, so proud of all the great work we’ve been doing on We Love DC. Are you reading it? You should be.
Tom should have pictures up soon of what exactly he was doing this morning that got him this badge, and there will be an article up at WLDC by the end of the week.
More bento-blogging is coming, too. I got my package from JBOX last night, so I have two bento boxes to compare and contrast, plus there is plenty of bento-ready food in my fridge now. But I won’t be packing one tomorrow- it’s a potluck at the office and I’ll be bringing a dish and sampling my coworkers’ culinary stylings.
I have a terrible case of Handbag ADD. I get a new purse, and I like it just fine for a month or two, and then I want something else, because the form factor isn’t right, or it doesn’t hold what I need it to hold, or because I can never find anything in it, or I want something cuter, etc. I’ve been looking for The Ideal Bag for some time now. And I have long had this suspicion that Timbuk2’s Eula bag was just about the right form factor for me, except I wanted it in one of the specialty fabrics to make it a little more “Business Casual” and a little less “Bike Messenger.” The problem is that the specialty fabrics are a significant up-charge, which moves the bag out of “It’s a lot of money but Timbuk2 makes great bags that last for-freaking-EVER” territory and smack into “OMG I can’t spend that kind of money on a bag with my terrible Handbag ADD!”
So it became my habit that every time I got a promotional email from Timbuk2, I’d go to their bag builder, configure a Eula with some ridiculously cute limited edition fabric, decide I STILL couldn’t part with the money, and not complete the transaction.
But then… they had a sale that juuust about negated the upcharge for the fancy fabric… and the sale coincided with my birthday.
Look at my totally awesome new bag! I <3 it. It’s the perfect size for my Dot Grid notebook, and all the other stuff I carry around and still has room for me to toss in a paperback or my DS Lite or something else like that if I need to. It’s perfect. And waterproof. And adorable.
Thanks, sweetie. 
As depicted by riciulous laptop camera.
The cats woke me up bright and early, one wanting to go outside, the other wanting to come inside, but not quite able to pull it off the way they wanted.
Tonight I will partake in an ungodly large margarita and toast the beginning of another decade. 30 is the new 20, right?
OMG! Where are my red and blue crayons?
I talked my friends John and Lisa into adopting a kitten each a couple of weeks ago, when there was a litter of kittens available for adoption at our CSA farm (see? Even our PETS are fresh and local).
John has finally posted a ton of Smokey photos, and Lisa has been steadily adding to her collection of Bandit photos.
The cuteness, it burns. Enjoy.
…because he’s totally serious about that kitten thing. Even if the pumpkin costume is too silly to be taken seriously.
Disclaimer: This is someone else’s ratatouille in the picture. But the one I made last night looked a lot like this, but with no red peppers. I got home later than expected, so I got a late start on dinner, and finally was ladling it into bowls at 9PM. We were hungry, and also Heroes was starting. So I didn’t take pictures.
The ratatouille was a success. It was kind of time-consuming because of the need to salt the eggplant first, but if Tom had been home before I was I could have asked him to get that started for me- once it goes into the oven, it’s a 30-40 minute meal.
The flavor of the ratatouille was a complete success, which I attribute heavily to the pile of fresh herbs called for in the recipe, as well as the fact that two of the three herbs came right out of Tom’s garden and therefore had only been off the plant 20 minutes by the time they went into the pot. Tom loved this dish, and had seconds. I enjoyed the flavor, but found that I was not such a fan of the texture of the eggplant- the flesh was mushier than I expected and I don’t care for eggplant skin at all. But I suspect that if I cut the eggplant smaller next time, I’ll notice less.
We served it with a little French bread- perfect for soaking up the juices with. I was surprised at how full I was after a bowl of this. I’m sure I’ll make it again.
But in the meantime, it only ended up needing one of the two OMG GINORMOUS eggplants we have from our farm box, so it looks like I’ll get to try one of those cheese-smothered recipes this week after all. With roasted acorn squash, no doubt.
Next week we get butternut squash, and also get to pick up vouchers for jack’o'lantern pumpkins. And possibly pick more edamame. Mmm, edamame.
I stayed up way too late the other night finishing a project for work that I am not equipped to do AT work, so I did it at home. Without getting into the details, suffice it to say I was pretty irritated at how the whole thing went down, and I’m still kind of tired from it. Fortunately, Flickr’s Last 7 Days Interesting feature is excellent for redirecting one’s moods. Oooh, pretty….
Tonight I think Tom and I will eat a simple dinner and spend some time kicking pixelated ass with our WoW guild.
We’re having a great time in Seattle- seeing lots of sights, hanging out with friends and family, etc. This is some video I took of some guys who regularly get booked to sing outside the original Starbucks shop (you can tell it’s the original because the mermaid is naked). They were fantastic! View the full set of photos (including new ones as I add them).
This is, oddly enough, the post I was trying to write when I decided I needed to upgrade Wordpress (and managed to wipe out my archives). Flickr wasn’t getting along with the older version I was running, so I ended up writing this post at least four times, and losing it every time.
These are my friends John and Leanne. We’ve known John for a few years, and had only been starting to get to know Leanne as her relationship with John deepened.
Less than 24 hours after this picture was taken, Leanne passed away in her sleep, due to a chest brain aneurysm that took her without warning. She was 27 years old.
The last two weeks have been a blur- we’ve been confronting the uncomfortable betrayal of our assumptions that we’re all going to live to ripe old ages. We’ve been focusing on supporting John, whose loss is far deeper than ours and who wakes up to a fresh hell every morning without her. We’ve been challenging a universe in which someone so radiant and joyful can be taken so suddenly while nasty, small people continue to walk the earth.
Leanne’s friends gathered yesterday afternoon to comfort one another and celebrate her life. It was exactly the kind of party Leanne would have liked to attend- people from all the different areas of her life, together, getting to know one another over a few drinks and her favorite music.
Related: I am well on my way to being the grandma who won’t stop fussing in the kitchen during times of family stress. Being pathologically unable to stop making jokes, I am not so good at words. But I can cook.
