Here we were, there we are, away we go

Once again, we find ourselves surrounded by our lives - all packed up.

The laundry is done, suitcases are packed and boxes stacked. As I sit here surrounded by it, I'm struck how cluttered a place can be when its entirely packed up.

So, Jacob has made us all proud with his devoted and strong finish to this semester, not to mention this tremendous offer and opportunity for work. I have made us proud by rolling (mostly - only a couple of meltdowns) with the punches to get us all organized, arranged, domiciled and scheduled, with the notable help of two fabulous moms who broke all the "in-" laws to take a road trip through five states and spend a couple of days with their kiddos doing manual labor, aka packing (joys of family!).

Tomorrow we pick up the moving truck again (frequent flier discount anyone?) and head back to Kentucky to start our new era (our eras, in case you haven't noticed, tend to be pretty short, but hey it keeps things interesting), and even though there's so much change and uncertainty and insecurity in a way, I know that we're doing it together. We've changed everything up so many times in the last two years, but Jacob has been my constant, my partner, my gift from God. And for that I'm thankful. I know no matter where we go, how many times we pack, move, change, shift or drift, he'll be there.

It also happens that as we approach this Christmas season, we approach our anniversary, so here's to my husband. A little memory of us when we didn't know what it was like to live in wedded bliss in a dorm room with the bathroom down the hall, to be sick for entire months at a time, to be uncontrollably cold at all hours of the day and night, to learn Arabic only to be stuck attempting French, to revel in the discovery of french fries, to enjoy the security of American fast food in a way never imagined, to live without a toilet seat, to live constantly with sand, in short, to live in adventure - together.

Away we go! Photo by Michelle Young, Endearing Studios (the best photographer ever)

A work in progress

One of the things I've been mulling is what to do in Cola once we get there and get settled. Among the possibilities are some graphic design and photography classes to augment the study that happened once so long ago in college and the fun I always have with that kind of stuff.

P&J have been so sweet to allow me to hang out and be a part of intimate moments and use them to experiment and practice. Here are a few templates I designed for baby announcements. I'm interested in putting together some more templates and maybe selling them. What do you think?

Kiss it or miss it

I know it seems odd for me to say this in a way, but there are definitely some things I'm going to miss from up here. It won't be a total kiss off.

I will miss: The large bird. A fan favorite among readers and residents of the NE and also the source of nearly all our shopping spoils, Giant Eagle always doubles my coupons with a smile and adds fuel perks at GetGo (which I still maintain should be named the Eaglet). Is there a place like this in SC? Please!

In no particular order, obvio: P&J. They are such sweet friends and Jacob's relationship with him and them has persisted through many years and many distances. I know it will be the same for the four of us - and now with baby, the five of us!

Kiss it: the rain. THE RAIN! OMG, the rain. Kiss. It. Peace out. I'll gladly take my moisture hanging heavy in the air instead of dumping on me every single day. Heat and humidity, here I come.

Back later with the story of love, loss and lost...a dead cricket. So sad. So very very sad.

Home Sweet (Next) Home

I may have talked about this before, but there was an impertinent moment in my youth when I was incredulous at my mom's wanting to stay put - in Indiana, in her comfy home with all her friends around (sounds terrible, right?).

After our excursions abroad (and in the US, have I mentioned I live in Northeast Ohio right now?), I found myself in a strange place when mom and I traveled to South Carolina last week: I was looking for a home. Not just the next place to land, not just a shelter that covered the necessities. I found myself really desiring a place that Jacob and I can unpack, stretch out and settle down. Did I just say those words? Yes. Settle down.

So somehow, when we found a couple of places that fit the technical bill, I still found myself stressed and hesitating. Seeing as we lived in what we were told was the only available apartment in Burami, Oman after sharing a two-bedroom house with other fellow students (and they were even kind enough to give us the one working bedroom) after sharing a dorm building, I guess I was holding out hope for a little something more.

My new rockstar friend E drove me around on our last full day in town and she is the ONLY reason we found this place. I didn't want to call the numbers we found that day, and I didn't want to go see the only place from all 15 numbers I called that was: in our price range, had W/D hookups, and would allow my dog. Sitting outside, waiting for the landlord, I thought, there's no way this will be worth it. But I think I was wrong...

Front porch! Brick duplex! Yard! Cute 'hood! Bikeable to campus!!!

Built in bookshelves! Fireplace! In the (paraphrased) words of my mom and mother in law, 

this just looks like you. I'm excited for it to look like us. 

This is a place I can see our lives. I can see Jacob coming home in the evening and walking my dog in the neighborhood and having dinner parties. Al humdulallah! Now just remember, Columbia, SC is so very close to lots of fun things like Asheville, Savannah, Charleston - and it's not too bad itself. Come visit!

Cafe All Lait

I know that this seems indistinguishable and sort of like one of those kids puzzles on the back of the World Wildlife Federation magazines, but I won't make you guess what it is.

I woke up yesterday morning and attended to my first priority of the day: making coffee. Jacob likes his fiber in cereal, I'm more of a java girl. Sooo...before I knew it, I looked down into my coffee maker and that is what I saw. I then looked incredulously to my pouring right hand, which was holding - a gallon of milk.

I guess this is why I usually make my coffee in the evenings before bed.

Mama Mia!

I took off at the end of last week and headed Indy-way to visit a bit with my family and friends here and, even though it was a pretty short time, there have been lots of good times. It's amazing how sometimes (especially when you're home or in the company of those you love) even the really basic things can be wonderful.

Mom and I spent a good bit of time rummaging through the attic in a process of sorting and un-boxing and reboxing that seems neverending and frustrating but that always yields fun stuff (wedding gifts! thought-to-be-lost kitchen accessories!). We attempted to figure out how to finish a set of Kate Spade Library Lane flatware when it's not available anywhere - or sell it (we decided on sell it - you want it? Try here), but that was after Sarah and I had a nasty adventure with an unhappy (I suppose about most everything) clerk at Macy's named Chuck. I have no problem reporting this and saying that I will furthermore avoid Macy's home department at the Greenwood Park Mall like the plague, and maybe all Macy's stores hereafter (sorry, manager James, not even your helpfulness could mediate that attitude). Mom and I cooked a heart healthy meal from the Mayo Clinic (which I will spare this site, lest you try to prepare and eat it - blech). I also got to spend lots of time with my girls (Sarah and her beautiful baby Mia), drive my Mustang (so did the husband) and cook breakfast for my mom this morning before I left.

That recipe, I will post - because if you make it, you'll enjoy it and because I can tell you about how I used my torch! I have a torch! It was a birthday gift from Sarah but I never went out to get the butane tank to fill it up and now I am a wannabe chef so I found it and got motivated. It's awesome. So is oatmeal brulee...

Oatmeal Brulee
Prepare oats (regular or quick) according to directions, but instead of all water, I like to use half water and half milk. If you want to be decadent then use some half and half in the mix.
Add to the warming liquid (before you stir in the oats):
a pinch of salt
Cinnamon to taste (I put in about 1/8 of a t for 2 servings)
Brown Sugar to taste (1-2 T)
Butter (1 T)

Cook oats until thickened (if you don't have a torch, lightly butter or spray your oven-safe bowls with cooking spray and heat your oven to broil) and then pour or spoon finished oats into bowls. Sprinkle white sugar on top (about 1 T per serving or until it's covered) and run the flame over the sugar until it bubbles and browns OR put your bowls in to broil for just a couple of minutes until the sugar bubbles and browns.

Serve with berries.

The whole visit was enhanced by the appearance of my darling husband for the middle couple of days. I love him so much for driving five hours each way to come spend time with me and my family. As much as they love me, they really love him (because he's not even related to me and he still loves me so sweetly - and knows how to handle me!) and they love having him around, too. Yay for visits! Yay for husband! Yay that I'll be back with him this evening.

That is all.

It's not the only way to work...

but it's definitely the best!

Elisabeth, Rue and I hit up the poolside yesterday and while I was busy reading all kinds of laughably ridiculous propaganda about Lexington's water issues, Elisabeth was studying away for the Bar. Rue, perhaps smarter than both of us, just sat there and looked pretty. 

What I really want to know

There are so many questions out there that just pop into our heads. Questions of consequence, questions of, well...inconsequence. Lots of things about which I'm curious. This is part of the reason I know trivial facts and other things useless in daily life, but helpful in board games.

What I really want to know today is, how does Giada deLaurentiis, with all her gorgeous figure and hair and skin and eyes and lips, keep her fingernails clean while she cooks all that delicious food? She always has these gorgeously manicured chip-free fingernails that should be, in all fairness, discolored by garlic and splattered with parsley juice and full of tomato stains. How?

I can't even keep polish on for one day. Fail.

PB&J

Baby day came and went not too long after Jacob and I arrived in Ohio, so I not only got to be there to snap some shots of J carrying the baby, but of all three: baby, P and J. So, now it's PB&J around their house, and all I can say is that's one very very goodlooking sandwich.

Girl, I want to give you something special

1- cut a hole in a box:

2-put some wine in that box

3-let her open that box

4-and that's the way you do it...

Cause it's my wine in a box.

Plant a big one on me

The other day, Jacob went on an expedition to find me flowers and when he couldn't find a bouquet of peonies (my favorite flower), he bought me...a shrubbery!

Ok, not exactly a shrubbery, but, a peony bush.

A rush of emotions went through me when I realized what he had done: gratefulness, appreciation, confusion and panic. Panic because I am not a plant person. I killed the memorial hydrangeas a friend gave me after my father passed away (after she assured me I could not possibly kill them and then proceeded to plant them and arrange them for me). So, considering we are nomadic and I have nowhere to plant a bush (and no one to take care of it for me), I freaked out a bit.

I decided to carry it with me to Cleveland, after the wedding, because I didn't want to abandon it. So I carted it around in the Party Time and then to P&J's house in Brooklyn and then to our new place in Akron. Just about the time we were headed to our new apartment, I noticed a wrinkly brown leaf on the bush - a surefire sign of certain death.

Frantic texts were sent out, a phone consultation and some garden-center shopping followed and I settled it into this pot with some fresh soil and watered it and held my breath. It seemed to be doing fine and then Cleveland experienced about three days straight of rain and cold and rain and cold and rain and cold.

I once again ask the question: has anyone not mentioned to Cleveland how obscene it is to be this cold and nasty in MAY? Oh, and one other question. Can my plant have seasonal affective disorder? I think it's living (which is an accomplishment in and of itself), but probably depressed.

Whataweek!

Well, between moving and Jacob's and my work and finding a new place, you'd think we had enough to keep us busy, but nooo...we had so much more!

And happily. 

Last week, before we returned to Lexington for some different revelry, P&J welcomed their sweet new babe to the world! Say hello, Gabriel!

Then, I scooted over to U of K to celebrate Elisabeth's Law Grad Ceremony. Congrats Elisabeth!

While I hung out with the girls, Jacob was practicing up for the wedding of these two crazy kids, which took up our Saturday. Yay for marriage! Yay for Tommy and Ashley - hope you guys are enjoying MX (you picked a good time to leave since it's cold and rainy here - boo).

Then we scored a very relaxing Sunday just hanging with Jacob's family (after sleeping through church - whoops!).

Happy Mother's Day to both our mommas and to my Grannie - we love you all so much!

Table for One

This is what dinner looks like when the husband's not around:

Pan grilled marinated chicken with red wine reduction and spring greens

Unless, of course, it looks like this:

McDonalds Angus Third Pounder with bacon and sweet tea 

(am I the last in the whole world to catch on to McD sweet tea?!)

Rainy Saturday

Jacob now works Saturdays at this new job and his 12 hour days (plus commute) and 6 day a week schedule are a lot different from what we've had in the past. We knew this kind of change would come and, in a way, it's wonderful. I love waking up and seeing him off in the morning and, even more, I love it when I see him pulling into the driveway.

But, I have this observation: I'm thankful that I have work - and work that is flexible enough I can take it with me anywhere. Because, I have to think that being a housewife sans kids would bore me to death.

Well, maybe not if I had oodles of cash on hand and just shopped and worked out and was groomed all day by a dedicated staff.

...

Nope, I think I'd still be bored.

Anyway, I was planning an exploratory trip to the West Side Market today and, while much of it is indoors, I was really hoping for some nice weather and photography ops. It turned out to be a rainy Saturday and I just wasn't feeling that for traipsing around, so I stayed closer to the house.

Thanks again for the casa, P& J!

I'll have to save that one for next week, so stay tuned, but in the mean time: a little sampling of the Ohio spring and our new (temporary - although, aren't they all right now?) digs.

Rice-in

thehardyheyday.blogspot.com

Remember when it was all the rage to send some kind of poisonous powder to some government office (and just for that line, I fattened up my FBI file for sure, just like all the little geniuses who joined that facebook group 'Dear Lord, this year you took my favorite actor Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress Farah Fawcett...yada yada, Barack Obama is my favorite president'. Don't you people know anything? If Al Gore invented the internet, Barack owns it - but I guess he is giving it away so, whatever right? Wrong. Add a page to all their files. Maybe two. And audit them).

Anyway. that was a major tangent and the point was, I made rice so bad the other day that it could have been poison. Thus 'Rice-in,' it's a play on words. Get it? Gah, what a waste. At least it's Saturday. It was, what I hope is a few-and-far-between black mark on my cooking record. It was rice porridge. It was rice soup. It was pure gluten in a pot. A pot which boiled over and spewed, well, I'm not going to describe it. I did take a picture of it, though. Mostly because it dried and peeled off the pan in these crinkled little rivulets that make you wonder just what is in the food you eat if this is what happens to it when you leave it alone for two seconds?! (Oh, and because my husband still did the dishes - even after being presented with that monstrosity for dinner)

So, I have been cut down to size once again. This is a sidenote that I think will inspire a new label called 'I was wrong'. This post is dedicated to my brother who, when he complained about not being able to cook rice, I teased. He has a rice cooker, now. And I am a sucker.

PS-I was so excited to read notes from people who know the GIANT EAGLE personally! Love it!

Giant Eagle to the rescue

I've shopped in lot of different places in my time. I always enjoy open air markets, and then there are the places like a true butcher shop or "chicken guy," who kept live chickens inside his store and slaughtered them in front of you. I've done the mini mart for essentials, supermarkets (American, French, Moroccan) and boutique gourmet shops. 

What I had never done, before today, was "Giant Eagle." Yes, that is the name of the leading supermarket up here. GIANT EAGLE. What?!

But it's true. And sort of glorious.

On a side note, today was the first time I've been grocery shopping for us in FOUR MONTHS! That's what you get, kids, when you live with family for months on end: spoiled. Which, is a clue to what's coming tomorrow here on thehardyheyday. 

Baby Time (NO, not ours)

I was so excited to get to snap a few shots of Josie during a laid back afternoon up here in Ohio (Cuyahoga Falls, to be precise). She and Phillip are expecting in just a couple of days, and she's barely had a shot taken of her pregnancy, so it was such an honor that she asked me to be a part of capturing this special time! 

Since both Phillip's and Josie's families are abroad (Josie is Swedish and Phillip grew up between Lexington and Brussels), it's important to have photos so the family can be a part of things. 

As you can see, and I already knew, Josie is absolutely gorgeous and I swear she hasn't gained an ounce of weight except baby. It's unbelievable. 

We're so happy that we'll be here to welcome this little one to the world and experience this wonderful time with our friends. 

I'm no professional, but I'd have to say that she'd make this an easy job for anyone. 

The plank...

There's a passage in the bible that discusses taking care of your own issues before getting up all over other people. It's in Matthew 7:3-5. It's familiar to parochial school kids, Sunday school grads (and dropouts), churchgoers, churchhaters and pretty much every kid/grown up who wanted to give an end-all reason some sibling/parent/significant other/friend/frienemy should mind his or her own business. I'm not about to go into the true theological thoughts on the depth of this biblical statement against hipocrisy, but I am going to tell you that's sure what I was thinking this morning...

But about myself, not someone else.

The verse basically says, 'you see a splinter in your friend's eye and you want to get it out for him, but you need to check yourself first because you're sporting a plank' and, hey, that might just affect your own eyesight.

So, back to this morning...or perhaps back to a couple of months ago when I started mining my mom's attic for some of my clothes. I pulled out a bunch of my old clothes - my 'old' clothes that are pretty and voluminous in the amount available and sometimes expensive and that scream SINGLE! FUN! GREAT JOB! 

One of the selections I gingerly selected to remove from its protective plastic and begin wearing was a gorgeous pearl-gray Lewis Cho skirt made of so many layers of translucent silk chiffon. I cautioned Jacob as I carefully placed it, buffeted by tshirts, in the suitcase - that he must MUST be careful. Those layers get away from you, I said. It's silk. I love it, I said. It cost a half month's rent on our apartment, I said. Be careful.

So when I squared my shoulders and asked him, yesterday, if he remembered when I told him about that skirt, he looked at me - terrified - and said, 'Yes. I was careful. I didn't do anything. What did I do?'

And do you know why I love that man? Because when I told him I'd zipped it up in the suitcase (all by myself, in a rush, not being careful, not watching the layers) his first response was to ask if it was ok, not to be relieved that it wasn't him and, mercifully, not even to laugh at me (I totally deserved it).

You'll be happy to know that, after a good half an hour, I managed to extricate my skirt from the suitcase zipper - and they both came out no worse for the wear unlike, perhaps for the better, my attitude, which was better for the adjustment.

Hope for the future

Paula Deen on NBC's Today Show this morning:
"You can have a little bit of Savannah no matter where you are. You can have a little bit of Savannah in Cleveland, Ohio!"

Well, thanks for that, Paula. I'll keep you in mind.

In other news, did you know there's such a thing as a beer milkshake? Well, actually, it's a beer float.

Doesn't matter, though, because it's delicious. Just ask us girls. Mmmm...who knew, chocolate stout? Who knew.

Ice Cream + your favorite (or soon to be new favorite?) Chocolate Stout = Beer Float.

I suggest sampling it with your besties.

What's for Dinner Part 2

Sorry for the delay, it's been a wild couple of days (more on this later). Here's the finishing to your dinner plans for...sometime...but maybe never. But...maybe sometime!

So, the salad...my favorite salad (except a close second is the grilled chicken and peach salad) is this gorgonzola apple salad.

Take your favorite salad mix or lettuces and toss with balsamic dressing. Add one small package walnut pieces, about 1/2 c gorgonzola and one granny smith apple chopped into small pieces. THIS IS IT! It's so great though, yum.

And now for the "light" (ha) dessert. Let mascarpone reach room temperature. Put in a mixing bowl or stand mixer. Mix on a low setting until the cheese is smooth, slowly add 1/2 cup of cream while mixing on low (be careful not to mix too much or too fast once the cream is in). When the two begin to incorporate, slowly begin to add 1/4 c powdered sugar and then a couple of drops of mint extract. Continue blending until all ingredients are fully incorporated and the mixture begins to expand just slightly with air. Slice strawberries and set in dishes (you can use any berry - or fruit - of your liking). Scoop mixture next to or on top of berries and garnish with mint.

Now I'm kind of sad that I already made this and it's gone...sure sounds good on this lovely evening.