What have I done but wander with my eyes in the trees?

Late night Settlers of Catan marathon with our boy and a high school friend of his. Theo was wishing he had opposable thumbs so he could play too. It was a revelation to me when I put on my reading glasses, because I could see the board without squinting (#old).

Miss Lulu has gone home, so we are now down to one dog, one cat. Two of Isaac's college friends spent most of this week chez nous and have now departed too, so we are down to one boy. He leaves tomorrow, emptying the nest yet again.

And OH did I show you this yet? We hung an antique cabinet (courtesy of my mom and dad who bought it years ago), and it only took about four hours of discussion/attempts to line up the hole in the wall with the hole in the cabinet (it's all about studs behind the plaster, etc). ANYWAY, it took four humans to do this, and we did it, and it is securely attached and now even full of dishes, which is amazing. Also in this photo you can see our new window sill--it's a gorgeous piece of oak. We still need to caulk around it and sand and paint the window trim where we messed it up. Then it's on to the floor, the last project before we start talking bottom cabinets!

March is nearly over, my dears. April isn't the cruelest month, no matter what they say.

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Happy Pi Day, lovey doves. I crowd sourced ideas for the best kind of pie to make today, but I plan to disregard all the great suggestions (pecan, sweet potato, cherry, etc) because I've got four ripe bananas and a creamy dream of banana cream pie in my head.

Lulu is visiting for two weeks while my parents gallivant around northern California and Portland-the-Second. I hesitate to mention this, for fear of jinxing it, but she has been quite civilized so far, waking me at 6:45 or even 7:00, rather than, say, 4:45 in the freaking morning. We mince around the block, Lulu sniffing each individual brick, me breaking every bit of ice that my feet can find. Later in the morning, Mark and Gus head off to the beach while Lulu and I settle in for a long walkabout. Mostly, I let her decide which direction to go, and I catch up on my ever-expanding podcast list.

Don't let my glad expression give you the wrong impression.

Isaac is also here for two weeks, for a luxurious spring break! Zoë, meanwhile, is using her break (only one week) to visit Berkeley, one of the grad school possibilities. Did I mention that at least two grad schools have pretty much offered to shower our girl with money, attempts to lure her to study with them? She is weighing her options right now, but what looks certain is that she won't need to take on any debt whatsoever to get her PhD. So, so proud of her and curious to see what she decides! As of now, it looks like she'll either be in California, Chicago, or India next year.

This weekend's kitchen plans include building a pendant light fixture that will hang over the sink. I'll show you when it's done.

Some Things I Like To Do

Cry: Oh, I just remembered this book I loved so much when I was a kid, and I spent about twenty minutes trying to find it online based on these search criteria: "Dog in kennel while family goes on vacation. Family dies in car crash. Possibly a Dell Yearling book. SO SAD." And I found it: The Visitor, by Gene Smith. Just look at that description, "When his master dies, Sassafras, an Irish setter, becomes a permanent resident of a kennel." BOO HOO HOO. I think I must've first read this book when I was around nine years old, and it became my go-to book when I wanted to bawl. It's funny to abruptly remember this, and to realize that one of my favorite activities, sitting in a movie theater--or in the privacy of my home with a book in my hands--with tears and snot pouring down my face, has always been one of my favorite activities.

Yell: Here's a good way to test out a possible name for your future child/ren: Holler it out loud, like you're calling the child in for dinner from your fictional back yard. I have done this to amusing effect with both sexually transmitted diseases ("Chlamydia! Come inside this instant, young lady!") and fonts ("Garamond! Helvetica! Dinner time!"). Just a suggestion. And note, I successfully named my own children Isaac and Zoë.

Walk/Listen: We have a houseguest these couple of weeks, cousin-auntie Lulu the hound dog. She has been a perfect guest, aside from one or two mornings when she decided she was ready for a walk at five AM. I've enjoyed taking her for a long stroll mid-morning every day. She sniffs all the smells and pees like a boy while I listen to a podcast. May I recommend Judge John Hodgman, in addition to my various NPR and pop culture favorites? It's adorable when a loud truck drives past and she bark-howls at it. She's so little, when you're used to a big old Gusdog.

Muse: I'm going to try to write in this lil' blog more often, because I'm feeling mute. I think it's the weather, which I've solemnly sworn (to myself) not to mention. I can sum it up, and my feelings about it, by mentioning at this point my suspicion that we may skip spring and summer this year and go right to fall. In which case I am moving to the desert.

Watch: Please go see The Grand Budapest Hotel. I loved it so much. And maybe you'll enjoy the web series High Maintenance as much as I do. And perhaps you'll grow to love The Bridge, as I have despite my initial reluctance (I wanted to watch the original, set on the border between Denmark and Sweden, which Mark thought sounded much less interesting than the American version, set on the border between El Paso and Juarez. "Why don't you want to watch it?" he asked, and I was all, "I don't know. Just, Mexico."). But it's pretty great, if dark and with the chopping of bodies and their parts and so on.

I like the beach. I like dogs. I am tired of always wearing these boots, and this sleeping bag coat.

everybody's waiting for the man with the bag

reindogs-of-the-day. i love how dubious minnow looks in this picture.

fa la la la la la la la la

did you think i'd forget miss lulu, hound extraordinaire? mais non!

she's a pretty little pony, and she's your december fourteenth dog-of-the-day.

*cookie update, because i know you're dying of curiosity: speculoos bars are nearly to the taste testing stage (they require many steps). today's project=almond macaroons.

work some voo-doo magic

i didn't realize this had been captured on film--the chair trick, mentioned here, and numerous times before, being performed at isaac's birthday celebration by a bunch of men in my kitchen. "captured on film." i guess i took this photo, unless it was taken by jason using mark's phone. have you tried this trick? i'm serious, you should. but wait and let me show you how it's done, since watching people be amazed is my favorite.

we are babysitting miss lulu, who really hates the ice cream truck. i am attempting to teach her the beauty of sitting in the back yard, just hanging out. we don't have to go anywhere, lulu. we can just be.

settling catan, eating too many peanut butter cups. staying up too late reading about mormons. dogs and coffee, opening the window. the sunshine and glowing green still seem unfamiliar and gift-like.

life without encumbrance

minnow's cousin-auntie lulu is visiting this week while my parents are on sanibel island.



































she is very kindly not making fun of the collar of shame he has to wear for a few more days as he recovers from his (very minor) eye surgery. it is getting less pitiful each day, as he figures out how to do what he needs to do while wearing a huge plastic cone around his neck.



































that doesn't mean he's happy about it.