Time for a Change

I'm throwing in the towel with winter. So over it.   This past weekend I went shopping for some spring clothes and I decided to prematurely change purses.  Since February I had been carrying this red Lill bag pictured below.  For most people, it's probably considered a decent sized bag.  For me, it was woefully small.  I always need Mary Poppins bags to tote my life around, and I was itching to switch to the bag my sister-in-law made for me for Christmas.  As you can see, it rather larger in size than the red bag!  I loooove it.  It fits my life inside with plenty of room to spare.  Plus the interior has lovely fabrics and handy pockets.  In the final shot, I hope you can appreciate the striking patchwork of fabrics and the skilled quilting involved.

I love this bag, and I look forward to having it with me for March and April! (side note: does anyone else feel as relieved as I do when we hit March 1st?  To me, flipping the calendar to March is always a huge morale boost...we're almost there!)

For Your Consideration...

....Costco's muffins are totally worth the price of membership.

Happy Weekend!

Origami and Ribs

Happy Presidents' Day!  I've spent my day binging on episodes of House of Cards, the new Netflix show that was released on February 1st in its entirety.  If you watch it, you caught the reference in this title.  Let's talk about how insanely I've been drawn to this show.  Clearly, if you've kept up with this blog at all, you know that I pretty much love TV.  One of these days I'll do a post on my favorite TV characters, spanning all genres and decades.  But for right now, House of Cards has me trapped.  There are only 13 episodes (or "Chapters") and I just finished 11.  I'm saving the final two for my next day off. 

I just need to say one thing: can we talk about what happened on Father's Day on this show??  Because it essentially traumatized me.  Like I watched it on Friday night and then woke up a few times in the middle of the night stressing out about it.  In my defense, I strongly believe that most people who have watched that episode...that moment...have stressed out about it.  W.T.F. (*deep shudder of revulsion*)

Moving on, I have a few more random thoughts:

~All last week I had a cold!  So did Mr. My Blog for Bonnie.  Bahhhh.  It was one of those slow-to-build numbers, with several days of feeling fairly crappy followed by one or two days of feeling absolutely awful.  I'm so ready for spring!

~Speaking of spring, what is with Easter being so early this year??  Yes, I totally understand how they determine the date for Easter each year (the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox) but I'm not feeling it being at the end of March.  Usually I love Lent because it means we're slowly climbing out of winter, but right now it feels strange to not be eating meat on Fridays when it's only mid-February.  I'm sure I'll start feeling better in March, which is such a great, underrated month, in my book.  Way better than February; a nice transition between the dark of winter and the light of spring. 

~Since there's no getting around the fact that it's Lent, I'll share with you that, this year for Lent, I gave up Facebook.  Taking it a step further, I deactivated my account.  I'd like to say that on Easter I'll reactivate it, and the truth is that I probably will.  But I've been rather annoyed with Facebook lately and it's nice not to be a part of that world.  We went out to dinner with friends of ours who don't have Facebook, and they told us about a German study that determined that most people feel dissatisfied and envious while trolling around on Facebook.  And I have to admit that I do usually have negative feelings after being on there.  I do a lot of eye rolling and sighing, and really, isn't life to short for that?  I also started valuing my privacy more in the past few years.  I know it's strange to say that since I keep this public blog, but this is a different type of openness than Facebook, if that makes any sense. I even tinkered with the Privacy settings and created a small list of people who are the only people who can see my posts.  Basically, very close friends and family.  Because the idea of sharing all my photos and personal updates with everyone was making me feel strange.  Again, here I am explaining all of that in a blog post.  It's strange and contrary, as I well know.  To make a long story short:  I have a feeling I might rejoin after Easter, just to maintain loose connections with people without sharing anything obnoxious or overtly personal.  But I won't be upset if I chuck the whole idea all together and remain deactivated, either.  Ahhh, Facebook:  you've ensnared us all in your web!

~Girls!  Have you watched the second season?  This is another show that I watch all the time and I usually have strong feelings of revulsion, just like a lot of the critics who watch it. That being said, for all of the gross sex and weird revelations, the moments of humor are totally worth it.  I love Lena Dunham.  On the show, I frequently laugh out loud because she exposes part of the Female World (actual term) that are usually only discussed among extremely close friends, if at all.  I think she's an amazing actress and the show is smart, though totally unconventional.  Plus, she went to Oberlin College, which is 15 minutes down the freeway from me.  I love a good Ohio connection! Also, I love Shoshanna.  But who doesn't?

~Pinterest fun:  Mr. My Blog for Bonnie and I are trying to watch our cholesterol, so yesterday I made and froze 12 breakfast sandwiches.  I got the idea from this pin.  The process went very quickly and I was amazed at the low calorie count of each sandwich when using turkey bacon and egg whites.  I diced up a red pepper, threw that in the egg whites and topped it all off with some spices.  I had one this morning and it tasted really great.  I'll definitely be stockpiling these in the future!

~I also made BBQ Chicken Nachos last night, direct from Pinterest.  Here in this house, we are suckers for Mexican food.  And yes, I know that BBQ Chicken Nachos (and nachos of any sort) really aren't authentic Mexican.  But my feelings on that are akin to the way I feel about Buffalo Chicken:  the best way to capture that flavor is in actual Buffalo wings (eaten in Buffalo, because they are so much better there!) but I love the taste so much that I make Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches, Buffalo Chicken Dip and Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese.  Don't judge.  Anyway, this recipe is great because the nachos call for a Queso Sauce.  I of course cranked up the heat and added minced jalapenos to the sauce, and it was fabulous. 

~I saw something about Heart Tarts and I made them two weeks ago for Valentine's Day.  Then I made a second batch, froze them with the intention of baking them on Valentine's Day itself, and promptly forgot about them.  So today I took them out of the freezer, baked them and iced them.  They are divine! 

February Seven on February Eight

 

This is where I was last night!  "Les Miserables" came to Cleveland for 4 short days and Meredith and I were at the opening performance.  Let me just say, we jetted downtown precisely after I finished working 4, 10 hour days with 2 year olds.... I really needed the night out!  I knew there'd be a lot of laughter and tears, and that was true.  Though in Classic "Me" fashion, a lot of laughter was inadvertent and unintentional.  For instance, during "I Dreamed a Dream" which is of course one of the most emotional musical numbers of a very emotional production, I accidentally kicked my (thankfully closed and unopened) bottle of Diet Coke and it went rolling down several aisles of seats.  Sigh.  Luckily at intermission Meredith spotted it and requested an elderly gentleman in front of us to help us retrieve it.  All was well in the Diet Pop department after that.

The production was wonderful, and while the movie gave scope and exposition to the story, the musical production was concise in telling the story...as concise as you can get over a story that spans a couple of decades and encapsulates politics, religion and redemption.  I loved every minute of it! Especially during "One Day More" which is my favorite song in the whole production, and which closed out the first act on a very dramatic note.  I teared up.  But of course, when don't I tear up at Les Miserables?

A lovely and serendipitous event occurred on the way home.  Listening to the radio, "February Seven" by The Avett Brothers came on.  I love this song, and my heart did a little leap when I realized that the actual date was February 7th!  Listening to "February Seven" on February Seven was a nice little wrap-up to the evening.

Here's the first verse of "February Seven" which I think is so beautiful:

I went on the search for something true 

I was almost there when I found you 

Sooner than my fate was wrote 

A perfect blade, it slit my throat   

And beads of lust released in to the air

When I awoke you were standing there 

I was on the mend when I fell through 

The sky around was anything but blue

I found as I regained my feet   

A wound across my memory  

That no amount of stitches would repair

But I awoke and you were standing there

 

This song definitely has a bluegrass-y feel (actual description, of course) and, dare I say it, almost a country flair.  Typically I'm not into that type of music though my horizons have expanded pretty wildly since Mumford and Sons came along and "Nashville" started showing up on TV.  "Undermine," anyone?  It's definitely in heavy rotation on my iPod.  

 

To go along with this country-esque phase I'm going through, I recently ordered a necklace with lyrics by Johnny Cash.  Have you seen these necklaces floating around?   I came across them online recently and loved it.  I really like Johnny Cash and "Walk the Line" is one of my favorite of his songs.  I found this necklace on Etsy and ordered it, it arrived yesterday.  For a mere $16, I am amazed by the quality.  It's a good size and I ordered the black bead to go with it.  In her notes, the designer says that the pistol charm can be removed and I definitely plan on doing that.  After all, I can only take this "Country" image so far!  All joking aside, I'm uncomfortable wearing the pistol charm mostly because this is a necklace I'd like to wear to work.  I can just imagine all of my kids grabbing the necklace, pointing to the gun and asking "Miss Sondra, what's that??"  and me having to hastily pull it away and look awkward and transparent to toddlers.  Considering we have instant discussions about how "we don't pretend to have weapons at school" when the kids construct what are obviously revolvers and shotguns out of Legos and then proceed to point them and say "Boom Boom Boom" to their friends, me wearing a pistol charm around my neck is pretty much out of the question!

 

And so now my 4 day weekend starts.  Today I plan on meeting Mr. My Blog for Bonnie for lunch at the restaurant on site at his company.  Then I might take my self to see "Silver Linings Playbook" since I recently read the book.   We got a guacamole kit from a Farm program at Mr. My Blog for Bonnie's company this week, so I'll be whipping up some guacamole to go with our Chipotle tonight;  Don't be too jealous.  I also plan on making some Valentine's Day treats this weekend in preparation for the big event, which comes just TWO DAYS after Paczki Day on Tuesday!

Off to listen to some more of The Avett Brothers...