handsome

"like a lady in a jane austen film." -- the checkout girl

my favorite toy

playing around with MYphone -- i paid actual money (a dollar ninety-nine of it) to get this hipstamatic application. it makes cool old-style pictures, see? i love the rounded edges and square shape of the one below. it reminds me of a shoebox full of old photos.

wind

our portion of last night's monster storm was nothing but fierce wind, which was kind enough to pretty much leave our willow tree alone. our power was out for longer than we've ever experienced, but it was still only about twelve hours (midnight to noon, approximately). i'm sure our electricity is somehow connected to the traffic signal at the intersection right outside our front door, because we're never without it for long. m and i took the opportunity to get coffee at 158 and take a very short walk on a very abbreviated version of willard beach with minnow.

the title might be something like "the happiest doll"

this is a heartbreaking children's book just waiting to be written.

in my kitchen

my sweet mom gave me this beautiful bird bowl (jeeze, what's with the alliteration lately? i can't seem to avoid it). it's such a lovely shade of reddish-brown, and...those birds. three birds, three pears. bean came into the room and said, "wow! that bowl really ties the room together!"
























this is just about my favorite packaging. anything that involves an elephant on the label is okay with me. plus, pad thai. and i have recently figured how to not have the rice noodles stick together.*
























there you have the highlights of my kitchen. we have our boy home from his amazing trip to the west coast (he learned to snowboard and ski and hung out in san francisco and flew both ways solo, and if he could do it again tomorrow he would), and we're all getting re-adjusted to the school week schedule.


*after cooking or soaking (following the package instructions), i rinse in cold water til the noodles are clammy and pale as a sick person. then when i'm ready to stir-fry them, i run warm water over them until they relax and give each other a little space.

limbs unfurled for action

m, bean, and i had a wonderful whirlwind weekend in new york (ooh, alliteration!), where we were lucky enough to stay in a comfortable and charming brooklyn apartment courtesy of our friend erin, who was out of town and generously mailed us her apartment keys as well as maps and metro cards and museum passes.
























her apartment is completely adorable.
























i love the fact that there are rolls of streamers on her bookshelves. and the color of this blue cabinet.
























and the fact that there are pretty little things all over the place, like this little dish with spools of thread, adjacent to some tiny chickens.
























so, when in new york, we travel on our stomachs. as they say. we ate delicious, cheap food all weekend, including hummus and fava platters with falafel at hummus place and pastries at the hungarian pastry shop near columbia. i think my favorite was vegetarian dim sum in chinatown:
























chinatown wasn't as stinky as it has sometimes been in my experience. i thought these silvery (dead) fishies were kind of lovely:
























also, we had pickles from this famous lower east side pickle place. m told us a horrifying story from his childhood involving sweet pickle juice.

















and coffee! at least as important as the snacks we ate was the delicious coffee we drank, first at the tompkins square park ninth street espresso (not on ninth street, by the way).
























perfect lattes.
























happy, caffeinated people.
























oh yeah, we also went to the moma on friday night, which was packed with mostly french speaking people and americans taking goofy pictures of themselves and each other in front of the art. often striking silly poses, modeled after the figures in the art. we saw the tim burton exhibit, but it was so crowded it was difficult to really see it (all i remember now is a black light room, where i noted all the stains on my scarf that are normally invisible). here is my favorite piece of art of the evening, by jenny holzer:

















erin's neighborhood was great, just a couple of blocks from prospect park, and very neighborhoody. we even mastered the art of "no train! no train! the f train is not running, go out to greenwood and get the shuttle bus."
























and really the reason we were in new york at all was that miss gliss's sister alison was getting married. it was a fun wedding, with lots of laughter and a beautiful bride and happy family members and delicious food (including wedding cake baked by the bride herself, which may have been the most scrumptious wedding cake i've ever tasted). but most of all, bean's reunion with her miss gliss, who has been living in france for the last seven months. they had a few hours to hug and catch up, and even dance the hora, before they had to say goodbye again (miss gliss flew back to france last night).
























just before we caught our megabus back to boston, we popped into the ace hotel for some stumptown coffee. that place is excruciatingly hip, and somehow extremely friendly too. i recommend lounging in the lobby admiring the hipsters and the taxidermy and the vivienne westwood-style chairs and black lacquer while sipping a pretty nearly perfect latte, if you're ever in the neighborhood. and if you go down to use the bathroom (which you should), you'll see this on your way up:
























and for today's grammar tip, ahem, "alright" is not a real word. but i like these stairs anyway.

bloggity blog

i guess i haven't been adequately documenting my life this week. it's winter break from those crazy schools, and boo is currently learning to ski and snowboard in tahoe with a, j, robot and pink. he's having a fabulous time! bean has been squeezing every moment out of this, the final winter break of her secondary school career. yesterday she and a friend spent the day in boston shopping for saris, eating good food, and discovering a more charming part of waltham than we'd previously been aware of. we've taken minnow to the beach nearly every day, and bean and i took him for a longer hike at wolfe's neck too. snow came, but only about half an inch of it. tomorrow we're going to new york for a few days!

crazy heart

i love jeff bridges.
but i still didn't believe
that she'd fall for him.

lucky me

not only did my valentime give me a brand new bottle of my favorite smelly lotion (as well as a bunch of goodies for the little valentimes), i also received this beautiful, beautiful print in the mail from my sweet aunt sooze:
























isn't it gorgeous? it's made by hollie chastain, who has an etsy shop i like to ogle. i bet i sent the link to sooze along with copious hints and reminders of how much i love crows. i don't know if you can see, but it incorporates not only crows, but public schools, letters, and trees. more of my favorite things.
























on the theme of valentine's day, i'd like to add that if minnow and i had entered this dog kissing contest we would have won, no problem.

the beloved community

yesterday, bean was one of the moderators of the beloved community event at usm, a belated mlk day/black history month celebration. about eighty percent of it was excellent: interviews with portland community leaders, readings of martin luther king's writing, and various student performances. there were a couple of cringey parts that will no doubt be edited out of future events, but bean did an amazing job hosting and interviewing. and the bates college gospel choir, the gospelaires, were fabulous.

the learning shack

boo found out yesterday that he did get a spot in the learning shack's class of 2014! hooray!

cold

my etsy pick of the day. this is a print by elsita, and i like it. although it's not quite accurate (no snow here in maine, and yesterday we felt a little hint of spring), it still kind of captures winter. and its endlessness. and its chill -- though she really should have mittens on! i wish i had a red coat.

le temps du loup

just when you think it
couldn't get any more bleak,
well, somehow, it does.

creepy

a little something spooky just for you.

lapin vs. girafe

boo has been working on a video for a school project. yesterday, with the help of his friends anthony and enoch, he finished filming while i documented with MYphone.
























anthony is in the giraffe mask, boo (of course) is wearing the beloved rabbit head.
























enoch helped up the awesomeness factor.
























i have always allowed my kids to go on the roof, if it fulfills an artistic purpose. or even if they just ask really nicely. i can't wait to show you the final product, which is a french music video. the concept is basically a dance-off between the giraffe and the rabbit, shot all around our neighborhood, with a bit of dialog en français. here is a sneak preview.

february, cont.

well, having missed my number one thing to look forward to in february (the checkout girl's portsmouth opening, as well as swallowfield's enormous tiny art show,* conveniently located right across the street from each other -- portsmouth, new hampshire seemed about a thousand miles away last night, and also i was ferrying kids around a bit. but mostly, i was in my jammies by eight p.m.), i am replacing that thing with this one, jason's** officially awesome lecture on monday. titled, awesomely, "everything i needed to know about capitalism, i learned from watching television: the wire and marx."



*happily, i did get to go out to lunch on thursday with these two, two of my favorite people, at one of my favorite restaurants, and it went a long way toward brightening my february. remind me to order the pineapple brown rice next time!

**although probably i should refer to him from here on out as "the part-to-full-time arabica denizen." that's kind of a mouthful, though.

a single man

gorgeous set design,
long, slow shots; perfect acting.
a pleasant surprise.*






*i have to add that while it wasn't a perfect movie, there were a couple of unbelievably sad and beautiful scenes, one of them involving a man smelling a dog.

pardon me while i brag

bean is officially the "how student of the week" (how = "habits of work") at her school (did i ever tell you that she refers to her school as "the learning shack"?). she is the only student at her school (ever) to simultaneously take three ap classes and a college class at usm. "also," said her principal, "she might be a jayhawk!"

meanwhile, boo made his official high school choice for next year. he chose none other than the learning shack! however, there were so many applicants that there will be a lottery to fill the seventy spots available. his second choice is also a great school.

february

the sun is actually shining today (though it is freezing). and there are many fun events to look forward to this month.* but i can't help it, this photograph is a pretty accurate representation of my feelings about february.



*list of fun events i can think of:

:: the checkout girl's art opening in portsmouth this friday
:: boo is traveling to san francisco solo over winter break
:: miss gliss's lovely sister alison is getting married in new york mid-month and we're invited
:: enoch's monday movie nights

yep, that's about it. here, too, a list of the good things about february:

:: it's not january
:: it's short

you, me

my very favorite form of virtual winter window shopping is browsing etsy for wonderful things and marking them as favorites. then i like to procrastinate by browsing again through the amazing things in my list (though i have to admit i am not much of an actual money-spending-type shopper). looking at my favorites, it's clear that i'm a sucker for certain bears, birds, rabbits, dogs, and deer. also gorgeous photographs of summery scenes (now, anyway -- let's see what happens in the summertime). also maps, silver, people with animal heads, and lovely pieces of art and jewelry made by people i know.

today, i am liking this letterpress card, a bold and unsentimental valentine's day message. actually, everything bread + butter makes is pretty cool.

grammar tip of the day

to "beg the question" does not mean to "raise the question." it implies circular reasoning, and it is a lot closer to meaning "avoid the question." you're welcome.

rabbit rabbit

hello february, you shortest-but-simultaneously-longest-of-months!