Life on earth

This house is around the corner from our apartment. It features Santa Claus in a helicopter, Santa Claus on a rocking horse--electronically rocking back and forth--and a 10-foot tall Santa who waves from the front yard. And 30-foot drummer boys on either side of the porch, lit up in lights. And Mickey and Minnie Mouse riding a sleigh on the roof. I stop and stare. Tis the season...to be seen from space.

Neil Young and wheat products.

I'm making bagels and listening to Cowgirl in the Sand. To my gluten-free friends: I'm sorry for doing this--but oh man, fresh bagels? Fresh bagels!

And then they look like this:

we finally had a snow day!

Top of the Sears Tower, last weekend

Last weekend Lev's sister was in town. We had a lot of fun and did some touristy stuff downtown. Being a tourist in your own town can be illuminating. For example, we discovered that Chicago is a giant, lumbering, and somewhat dilapidated place. With an extremely tall building (the Sears Tower, or "Willis Tower," as the elevator operators kept insisting that we call it). I took a terrible photo of Levy and his sister at the top of the building. Because, as many of you know, when the backlight is much brighter than the light in front of your subjects....this happens:

catch-up

So I know that Thanksgiving was over a week ago, and now it's like, "who cares," right? BUT we had a wonderful time. And we went to the aquarium on Sunday. And this is my life from the last couple of weeks, in pictures...xoxo.

this is the door to the Shedd Aquarium. For real!

She was feeding the BEST whale.

kissies.

Thank you.

Yesterday my mom and I made Thanksgiving dinner while Levy and my stepdad built a computer. It was a nice contrast--I could stroll into Lev's office and see what he made and he could come into the kitchen and see what we were working on. Both projects were labor-intensive and paid off. 

Because it's Thanksgiving...a list of everything for which I am grateful.

I'm thankful for my husband, and that we are having an enjoyable, loving, lifelong conversation.

I'm thankful that I have a family who gets along--really gets along

--and that they made the trip to Chicago for Thanksgiving. 

I'm thankful for my wonderful and giving friends. 

I'm thankful for the sun that streams into our living room almost every morning. 

I'm thankful for my street, and the squirrels that like to look at me while I walk down it.

I'm thankful for life. I'm thankful for love. I'm thankful for the happiness that has finally found me.

Pumpkin pie, a yellow mixer, and a cake stand--Thanksgiving!

The morning. Metra tracks.

today today today

Today I walked to Trader Joe's on my lunch break and I can say that it is officially COLD out. I love the change of seasons--as soon as you think that you just can't take another hot day, the air blows colder and then, suddenly, you've got your gloves on. I love fall clothing, too. Wool! Boots! Yes!

Tonight Lev and I are having a date. We're going to this vegetarian Indian restaurant in Lakeview that we love. I'm planning on eating an absurd amount of food. And round two of the date is, um, Costco. What can I say? We are romantics.

This is the first weekend in three weeks that I'll be able to enjoy from home. I was in New York for my grandfather's funeral, and then at a work conference, and then back in NY with Lev to visit family and friends. I love NY, but I really love my apartment. Lev and I have decided that what we'd love most of all would be an apartment in NY. That's for real, too--but it has to wait until he graduates.

While in NY I got to catch up with some wise and wonderful friends, relatives, and in-betweens. The smart people in my life remind me to stop, breathe, smile--and go forward holding onto newly considered ideas and expanded plans. The future is fluid.

OK.

I made this. This is the first bundt-pan cake that I've made that didn't completely fall apart. Success!

a great man.

My grandfather passed away on Thursday, October 6 at 9:20 pm EST. He was 92. Born in Brooklyn, he lived his entire life in New York. He turned Publix shirt company from a one-factory operation (and before my grandfather's time, it was an apartment operation ran by my great-great-grandmother) into a union company with factories all over the country. He was a hard worker and a person who never forgot where he came from; he was also a loving and kind man who will be missed by his family and, as I discovered at his funeral this past Sunday, everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him. He was an avid walker who took special notice of the birds and the squirrels in his neighborhood; I believe I got my love of watching the neighborhood squirrels from my grandfather. My brother and I will miss his wisdom and his ability to confound us with word problems and, as my mother so eloquently eulogized, "his lap to sit on." It has been 25 years since I climbed onto his lap. I miss you, Grandpa.

Sheldon Berdon. November 12, 1918–October 6, 2011. Photo taken 1980. 

My Pacific Northwest fashion sense strikes again!

Today my business-casual is something that Billy Bob Thornton's character in "Slingblade" would have worn to his job.

walk with me

Lev and I went on a walk in the forest preserve yesterday. I had to really fight my instincts not to quote the Grateful Dead in this blog post.

This is my favorite time of year--a burnt sienna touches all things in the woods. Even the deer knows that winter is approaching.

Saturday morning, ten a.m. Oat pancakes.

seriously.

We got a beautiful and awesome blender as a wedding gift and I've been making lots of smoothies. Lev's become a big fan of fruit (as long as it has been processed and does not resemble its original shape or texture) because of these drinks. I bought some protein powder, too, so that our smoothies could be a little more than just sugary junk (I mean, as sugary-junk as organic yogurt, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries can be, but whatever). Unfortunately the only protein powder available at the suburban Trader Joe's by my work was "for women." Whatever, I bought it.

So today I made one and Lev commented that it was the "best one yet"; I let him know that I'd put the protein powder in it. He looked at the container and was like, "For women?" I think he thinks I'm up to something.

changes

Proof of fall.

Photobooth life

My mom did the photo strip on the left in maybe 1974. I did my version on Sunday. She's a lefty and I'm a righty--I think you can tell in the 3rd and 4th because we're both using our dominant hands. And it shows that our hairline is similar, I think. She's prettier than I am. I don't know why I sat so close to the camera. And if I had it to do over, I'd rearrange my arms on photo 2 to un-smush my forearms. But whatever. Guess what? We are related.

I hope photobooths are still around when my kid is an adult because I'm going to "strongly encourage" him or her to get in there and do this sequence. It could be like an intergenerational portrait. See no evil...

Labor Day Weekend!!

Yesterday we went to a miniature golf course that also had a full-blown game room onsite. Oh yeah, and we did the batting cages. By the way, miniature golf is really fun. And there is an awesome, straight-out-of-the-70s course by our house.

soup's on!

This is what's happening tonight. Indian curry in a wedding-gift pan!

plum pool

biting into a ripe cool plum always reminds me of jumping into the deep part of a river on a hot day.

delicious

weekend

Ok, so I used to ride. I had horses, I did dressage for many years, did horse shows, the whole thing. And just like that, I dropped it when I was 17. I've taken a lesson here or there now and again since then, but nothing like before. It was my life. Sometimes I don't know why I ever quit. I was good at it. I love horses. This weekend we got to go over to a friend of Lev's farm--with horses! It was awesome. I rode and I miss it so much. I'm thinking about getting in touch with my old trainer and finding out about some trainers out here that I could school with. Hmm..
In the mean time, horsey pictures! Courtesy of Levy.

it happened.

August 7, 2011.

I'm getting married today. No big deal.

this is it

So a week from today is the last day of me being single; or, really, unmarried. I haven't been "single" in a long time. But I was single for a long time--or, I feel like I was until I met Lev. It's funny when you finally meet that one person...it's like everyone else that you had ever dated never existed. Because there was nobody like this person. Everything in my life was leading up to that moment that I met Lev, and everything in my life has been leading up to this moment, here I am, now.

Ten years ago this month, my best friend (and maid of honor) was gearing up for her wedding. I remember it so clearly--I remember how wonderful it was that these two fantastic people had met, fallen in love, and were about to embark on a life together. And I remember wondering if that would ever happen to me. I was breaking up with a boyfriend that I'd been together with for about two years (when you are 21, two years seems like a lifetime), and just thinking that perhaps I'd never find *it.*

Ten years is a long time but it is also a blink of an eye, you know? I can still feel the energy of August, 2001. It seemed like the whole world was just opening up to me. I was new. I was applying for a publishing internship in New York (which didn't happen for obvious reasons). My best friend was getting married on September 7. We were so very young. And now, ten years later, my best friend and her wonderful husband of ten years have two beautiful children, a great house, and the same cat. And I'm getting ready for my marriage to Lev. 

...on granola

So everyone who knows me knows that I'm kind of crunchy, kind of a granola. An extremely uptight granola, but a granola nonetheless. Well, now I make granola. This is my first batch, and I'm figuring out that it is impossible to screw up granola! This was made with flaxseeds, honey, raw sesame seeds, peanut butter, and old fashioned oats. Put it in the oven for a bit to toast and there you go! Lev approves, too.

Speaking of Levy, OMG we are getting married in 12 days! Twelve days! I am so excited! You know who is taking this very much in stride? Lev. He's calm, cool, collected, and happily looking forward to the wedding. I'm those things too--but sometimes in the middle of the night I wake up very much the latter but not at all the former. I mean, I guess "cool" never really described me anyway so why try to fake it? 

Today Lev's wonderful sister sent me scanned photos of him when he was little. I can't even--he is so cute. Augh! This little boy! I just want to hug him and kiss him until he won't let me. Which is what I do to Lev on the daily, anyway. If we have a son he had better love smooches.

you don't know heat until...

There is a brutal heatwave in the midwest right now. The air conditioner and I celebrated by watching Levy cook dinner. 

our feet, the heat.

majick

Yesterday a tornado blew through town and knocked out the power in the suburb where I work. This morning I woke up at six and called to see if the power was back on. It sounded like it was--the organization's outgoing message said that the office would be open (and the message ended with the open-ended "today," as in, "Today we'll be open"). I got dressed, hopped on the train, and got off at my stop...and when I got off the train, nobody else did. Normally, 2-3 people from my work get off the train with me. I noticed that the people waiting at the station for trains into Chicago had wet hair--a sign of no blow-dryers, but even more, a sign of no electricity. After calling the office again, the message had been changed--day off! For sure!

To celebrate, I baked this mango-apricot custard-ish tart thing that I used a recipe for and faked (a combination of the two). It goes a little something like this:

Lev's report: "It combines flavors that I wouldn't think go well together, but that are actually delicious." Nuff said!

How to do it:

Make a basic crust--I combined 1 1/4 cups flour with some salt, sugar and 8 tbsp butter. I pressed it into a glass tart pan and stuck that in the freezer while I made the filling (it seemed like the right thing to do).

The filling I kind of took from this article in the New York Times...except Levy's allergic to les cerises...AND I had a heap of apricots and a mango that needed to be eaten. Therefore:
1 cup of Greek yogurt
6 tbsp sugar
3 eggs
1 vanilla bean
3 apricots
1 mango
Cut up the fruit and pull the crust out of the freezer. Fill the tart pan with the fruit. Slit the vanilla bean and push the seeds into a bowl. Mix the other ingredients into the bowl; when you've mixed it all, pour over the fruit that's already in the pan. Put into a preheated 375º oven for 35 mins...take it out and let it cool.

And YUM. I promise. xoxo

apples, peaches, pumpkin pie...

Lev and I are tripping out on how good these plums and peaches from Stanley's fruit market are. SO GOOD. SO SO SO SO SO GOOD. It's crazy that artificial-anything even exists when there is stuff that tastes this good. That grows on trees!

This is just to say--William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

lazy monday

we BBQ'ed. we came home. relaxation nation...

seoul patch/ seouled out/ seoul music

I uploaded our trip photos. But this is all you really need to know about Finland...

Marimekko pillowcases, OMG

Yes, I purchased much Marimekko while in Finland. And the stores are everything that you'd dream they would be--light, bright, full of great stuff, and of course so very Finnish. I watched a woman pay for her bolts of fabric with a Marimekko credit card. Concentric dots all over it. *Sigh.*

And on that note, I'm apparently posting photos from Korea due to the fact that it is taking forEVER to upload anything right now.

Me on the bullet train from Daejon to Seoul. 3 hours by bus = 1 hour by train 

The fam, train station, Seoul

Coming back to Daejon on the train

 Lev took these photos. I love looking at his photographs--it's what he sees. He's napping in the other room right now (the one with the air conditioning). He came in and said, "I'm grumpy! And tired!" and fell onto the bed, into a deep sleep.