Rock To Wind A String Around

We’re on our way home after 4 nights in Georgia, one in Tennessee and 6 in Florida.  Poor Kentucky felt left out, so we’ll stop in Lexington tonight and drive home tomorrow in time to turn the heat up before we leave for choir.

My initial plan was to arrive home late tonight, but the thought of a cold house with no food in it is wholly unappealing, so tomorrow it is.

Our trip to Florida was terrific–we were there to prepare for my grandmother’s surprise party (she  turns 90 on wednesday).  We had a great time, and she was well and truly surprised, which made every painful part of the drive worth (although first class plane tickets would make it all worth it too, but whatever…)

Here’s a picture of sweet Meklit, enjoying the Savannah sunshine on Valentine’s Day while simultaneously demonstrating the laborious nature of our journey.  AM is a multi-tasker extraordinaire!

The tots and I hit the  snowy road today–we left Cowtown  (with it’s 12-16″ of snow) and are hanging in Chattanooga tonight before meeting Albert in Hotlanta tomorrow.  The plan was to get up tomorrow, do something cool here (Ruby Falls, anyone) and then make the speedy 2 hour drive to Hotlanta tomorrow.  Except, Atlanta will be receiving 2-4″ of snow tomorrow.  Arrgh!  2-4″ isn’t much in most places, but it’s quite a bit for Atlanta to manage.  I can’t decide if I should leave for Atlanta early and hope to make it in before most of the snow, or do something fun and then regret it after while it takes 5 hours or more to drive 100 miles.

Please, please, please, no flurries in Florida–that would close the interstate.

Ow!

Saturday night rolled around and it was time for dinner.  Albert took Elliott to a fencing lesson, so that left the ladies at home to chat and cook.  Astrid Meklit usually cooks in her kitchen while I prep dinner in the big one, but on Saturday, she helped to make our sweet and sour curry.  While I made the sauce and chopped tomatoes, Astrid readied the beans:

a quick ‘how-to’ from mama and she was ready to chop

good idea, close your eyes so you can’t witness the imminent digit removal.

Much better form–the curry will remain meat-free

46 long minutes later, the beans were trimmed and snapped, and my girl beamed with obvious pride.  She was SO proud to share the delicious dinner she made with Elliott and Albert.

If you would like to draft your own small fry to make this meal, it can be found in Simple Suppers:  fresh ideas for the weeknight table.

When we moved to San Francisco a few years ago, I soothed my initial loneliness with several trips to Lush.  I bought lots of bath bombs and other goodies, but I was particularly besotted with the massage bars–they are fabulous on super dry skin, smell great, and don’t stain the sheets.  Fast forward three years and I found an unused wiccy magic massage bar tucked away in a bedside table last week so last night we both enjoyed a massage.

The interesting thing about a wiccy magic massage bar is that it contains scores of aduki beans.

adukibeans

As the shea butter heats up, the beans, which feel oh-so-nice as they glide across your back, begin to loosen from the bar.  A massage for 2 adult humans means that your bed will quickly fill with aduki beans.  After a thorough massage, neither of us was particularly motivated to throw back the covers, scoop up beans and dispose of them, so we pushed what we could off the bed (without dislodging the covers–it was 4 degrees last night) and planned to attend to the rest in the morning.

Good in theory, but not so much in practice.  The beans fell from the bed to the hardwood floor all night long. Sometime in the night, I began to dream of our wedding.  During the ceremony, a very small guest wet herself.  The stream of urine hitting the hard wood sounded like pearls falling to the floor and several people in nearby pews began to look for pearls or beads.  While I have no actual memory of this event (what with the vows and all up at the front) I dreamed the dropping pearls so vividly, it was if I had a seat at my very own ceremony (and might I add that the bride was gorgeous…and young!) The intermingling of myth and dream and reality was so interesting, all though not particularly rest-enhancing.

Tomorrow, I think I’ll pop into LUSH for another bar or two.  These, not surprisingly, will be vanilla, or chocolate, and decidedly bean free.

Lots to love about the last few days.  Our friends, Dan & Alex met their beautiful daughter last week and I was lucky enough to meet her tonight.  She is a vision, with the loveliest little ears–perfect little flower petals.    Lots of other friends have similar good news–referrals, court dates, embassy appointments (and labor soon, I hope, for Jill).  It really is raining babies (and 3 year old boys) around here.

We attended the 1st men’s gymnastics meet of the season.   We’ve gone for years, are stalwart fans, and are even more enamored now that Elliott has caught a tshirt!  This may well be the pinnacle of his year and he is even more committed to attending the rest of the meets.   This  is in spite of the fact that he is now a gluten free diner and can no longer enjoy any of the snacks at the gymnastics meet.  You can’t imagine how that particular fact pains him.  Still a gf Elliott is likely a good thing.  To help ease the pain of wheat withdrawal, I minimize his considerable debt to me by a dollar each day if he is a cooperative GF eater.  I don’t usually pay my children to eat, but I knew this would cut down on his grumbling  and  he’d have a hope of receiving allowance sometime in the year 2010.  Just remember kids, retainers and hotel rooms DON’T mix!

My dining room redo is almost complete–the golden walls are gorgeous and I’m almost finished with the various accent pieces (lots of painting and  fabric changes).  Pictures will follow, um, maybe.

And finally, my greatest love might be my new Cuisinart smart stick.  Smoothies are smooth, herbs get chopped, and all of the implements are submersible.  I’m almost glad I let the last one  fall to the floor.  This, this is the road to smoothie heaven!