saturday

happiness is reading elizabeth hardwick while eating truffles in the backyard on a hot spring day

The ride home (II)

Distance to bike from home to work: 6 miles
Distance to bike from work to home: 6 miles
Distance to bike from work to home if you take the oh-so-attractive, unpaved, windy path through the wetlands that actually comes up over by the airport: 8 miles

Level of leg-soreness the next day: AAAARRGGGH

Level of incredulity that you did this kind of thing in high school all the damn time: !!!!!!!!!

The ride home

Funny money

Some days (like, oh, today) I look at my bank account and think, "Huh. Where did all the money go?" 

Then I realize that I have $678 dollars of expense reports still to submit, after which point my bank account balance will go up rather noticeably. 

Maybe it's not all about the shopping after all....

More about babies

On my mantelpiece right now are two new-baby announcements. Both babies look, um, like babies: they're cute (but then, would anyone send out a new-baby announcement that wasn't?).

But the real point of this post is that both babies have the middle name Elizabeth! Just like me!

Clearly these babies' excellent middle name makes them way cuter than they would be otherwise.

Gadget love

"I'm going for a walk," I said to C. It was Sunday afternoon, nice weather; our original plans to termite-prep the house had stalled out when the property rental place failed to tell us when the termite-tenting would actually occur.

"Where to?" he asked. Sunday afternoon: there's doubtless some kind of sports on TV, but then, it's a nice day....

"Maybe the Apple store," I said. This of the danger of living in downtown Palo Alto: the ever-seductive Apple store, so shiny, so silver, so ... tempting.

"Hmm," said C. "Think I'll pass."

So I went for a walk. I felt the warm sun on my shoulders; I admired the newly-budding cherry & plum trees that give the neighborhood a sudden, unexpected grace in spring. I watched some bikes speed past, since this was the first day of some kind of major bike race I'd never previously heard of. I bought lemonade from a hopeful kid selling it in front of his mom's store.

And then I got to the Apple store.

I've been eyeing the MacBook Air (3/4" thick! silver! not Windows, so it won't "feel" like work!) since it was launched. I've been telling myself firmly that I'll wait till it hits V2 before I buy one - who wants to be a beta tester for $1800?

But then I saw it. It was sleek and lovely and the rounded edge fit nicely in my hand. It was light enough that I could imagine myself carrying it around in a backpack while I was travelling. I hesitated for maybe 3 minutes before letting my credit card leap eagerly out of my wallet.

I took my new gadget home, installed a bunch of writing software on it, and started playing. And I love it.

Cheddar Cheese Soup

This was the first weekend I'd been home in a while, and it was about as perfect as a weekend can get.

Things that contributed to my happiness: a new Italian place that turned out to be great; warm weather (Saturday was my first hammock day of the year); buying an empty barrel from a winery to use as an herb garden planter, which my guy sawed in half for me and which cost less than a quarter as much as buying a pre-made planter in a garden store; sleep; and last but not least, cheddar cheese soup (yes, it can be vegetarian, just switch the stock).

Of course, when I woke up this morning, I thought, "Why do I hear a garbage truck? The trash pickup is on Monday." Pause while the sleep clears from my brain. "Oh. Today is Monday."