sunny sunday

coffee outside::lazy dog watching airplanes::winter things packed away::laundry on the line::wildflowers planted::clean car::new sunglasses::this jacket::the long winters::

a walk through the cultural gardens::

Three Bernese Mountain Dogs::gelato under umbrellas::

falafel & chickpea fattoush::the new issue of Blueprint::
More photos here.

who knew?

I have a thing for foreign candy. More specifically, candy of the British variety. This is almost entirely due to the fact that my dad was born in England, so there is this heady nostalgia surrounding all things Cadbury, Quality Street, and Wine Gum related.I think I may have gotten heart palpitations when I saw the Cadbury machines in the London Underground. My best friend's father is randomly from the same town in England as my father, so this affection is even further amplified. Some of her first memories are of getting wine gums from my grandpa in church. Her uncle designed the first Quality Street tin.So for all of these reasons, trips across the border to Canada always involve hauling lots and lots of English confections. There are,of course other venues to purchase these goods. Indian Grocers can be successful as well as fancy grocery stores and places like World Market, or even better, when we lived in Cincinnati,Jungle Jims. But then, an ordinary candy bar costs like $2 bucks, making it something special, and thus the reason why I put off eating them until they are way,way past their prime.

So, you can imagine how I felt when I spotted a Coffee Crisp recently. First it was in a vending machine in Dr.'s office. Really strange, I thought.Maybe the vending company got an odd lot from Canada. It is just across the lake. Then, today, There they were at Discount Drug Mart 2/$1.00. I resisted my inclination to stock up on them and bought just one. In case you've never enjoyed one, a Coffee Crisp is much like a Nutty Bar,only instead of peanut butter cream it is coffee flavored cream. It makes it seem a little more adult and legitimate that way. When I sat down to write this entry,I went looking for a Coffee Crisp webpage, and low and behold, there has been an entire campaign devoted to bringing the Coffee Crisp to the states. Seriously, it was incredibly successful and you can read about it here. It's kinda crazy and a little cool to know that across the country people were being mobilized to demand the right to buy this candy bar.Of course, we all know that scarcity creates desire and once they are at every gas station and drug store, their elusiveness will only be legend. My future children may never know a world without Coffee Crisp.

The Emperor's Children

I've been meaning to write a post about the book, The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud. I finished it a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. In light of recent events, the themes of the book seem even more relevant.
The book focuses on three friends about to turn thirty just as this century is turning.It examines their intertwining lives in Manhatten and the intellectual world that they inhabit. The book culminates with the events of September 11th, but Messud uses a light hand describing the events,focusing individually on the characters and assuming we know what we know about the events of that day. The impact of the world event and the lives of these often self centered twenty-somethings have a great deal in common. It is a loss of innocence, a realization of adulthood and responsibilty that cannot at all be avoided.

Before the country has to face it's own inevitablity,one the characters, Danielle reflects on all of the changes that have recently happened to them so quickly:
"All of them, all three of them: a year ago, they'd been still linked, inexorably and, they'd thought, forever. It was supposedly better this way- each of them had found her heart's desire- but did they laugh as they had done for so many years? Would they ever laugh that way again, or was it over, now, in the Realm of Adult Society?" (345)

it just flew

Wow. I'm not really sure where this week got to. It really flew by. We spent an entire afternoon at the Apple store trying to resolve some major issues with our Macbook Pro. We've had it for a year and it's been sent in for repairs 3 times, and is still a disaster. I am a pretty big Mac devotee, but this computer has been a pain. So after a stressful afternoon, we finally got a suitable resolution: a new computer. To be fair, this is actually not my accomplishment,but Devin's. Forseeing the impending customer service confrontation, I decided to bow out right from the beginning and browse at a book store instead. Many magazines and half a novel later, he returned triumphant.

We went to see Dave Eggers give a talk about What Is The What. We were the first to arrive and then his flight was delayed and then we stuck around for the book signing, so it was a long night. It was well worth it to see one of my favorite authors. He really spends time with each and every person at the signing. Something that you don't really appreciate until you are the one at the front of the line. He and Devin chatted a little about the non-profit Devin is starting and he gave a little advice and encouragement,which was really nice.

This weekend we are finally making the trip to Chicago to see our baby niece for the first time. It's pretty exciting to be an aunt and uncle. Ramona went to my parents last night to be dog sat for the weekend. There's always more coming and going there,so she really loves it,even if she is completely intimidated by the cats. So, we're off. Next week the "print shop" will be initiated, and the recent reads discussed.

Last but not least I decided to join the color posting week over at The Glass Doorknob . Todays color is red.

she doesn't mind the weather

I've decided that I'm through with complaining about the weather. It has been pretty unseasonable, even for the midwest. We were supposed to visit my family for Easter dinner today, but as it turned out we were pretty much snowed in. So, no banana cream pie for us. Instead, we decided to embrace being homebound with some red lentil soup and homemade bread. In fact, soup is pretty much my answer to coming to terms with this turn back to the cold. I figure that now is the time to make a point to enjoy hot soup while the snow blows. You don't always get a second chance in April. That said, I was really hoping the tights and boots could be packed away for the season




.Another upside of missing Easter dinner was that I was home to watch the Wind in the Willows on Masterpiece Theatre. I don't care how much of a nerd it makes me, I really love Masterpiece Theatre on Sunday nights. I think that I appreciate PBS even more when I don't have a million channels. It's kind of great when all of my favorite shows come without commercials and cost me absolutely nothing.


There's been lots of room for inspiration lately. I spent some time last week setting up my printmaking space. I've been meaning to do it for awhile, and then Devin suprised me with an array of much needed supplies. I have a tendency to attempt to "make-do" with what I have instead of investing in things I really need. I'm not sure guys have that problem. I think that when they embrace a pastime they splash out on whatever it is they need to do it right. It's not such a bad quality. I'm glad he was looking out for me, and I'm so excited to get to work. I did update the shop with a set of sun prints I did while it was gloriously warm and sunny. I love how the set came out and I love that they capture a very specific moment in time.




I really loved the interview with the "ladies who lunch" on Hoping for Happy Accidents. I suspect that I'll be spending a bit of time checking out the archives on their page.

So, here's to a busy week.

april snow

After several days of wonderful, warm , it-won't-last-long weather, our lawn is now officially covered completely in snow. There has been something like a 40+ degree drop in temperature. So, it was a good day for making indian food and watching dvds. A few days ago, at the library, this copy of the Drawn & Quarterly Showcase
caught my eye.

I'm so glad I picked it up. All of the pieces are wonderful, but I was particularly transfixed by the work of Genevieve Elverum. She also did the cover art. Some of her other work can be seen here. She also has ties to the band Mt. Eerie, as well some other really interesting projects. The Drawn & Quarterly page has a preview of her work that can downloaded in pdf format. I highly recommend it.The beautiful snowy scenes make a snap back to winter a little more bearable.