Week 3

What I will remember about this week is realizing that we are in it for the long haul now. By "it" I mean winter and snow. These are the days we plan vacations and house projects and, apparently, watch many seasons of Frasier. I would like to take a moment to remind myself that the wonderful thing about right now is that I'm not pulling weeds and feel no guilt in sleeping in on weekend mornings. Hurrah!

Luna and Margot survived their visit to the vet on Monday. I like going with all four of us because it's just the most ridiculous endeavor and we all get to be part of it.

Another major highlight was wearing earrings. In December, I went to a Christmas bazaar and a young woman had made these gorgeous polymer clay earrings and I decided then and there to re-pierce my ears so I could wear them. I bought them and went to the mall on my lunch hour that afternoon and felt like a 12-year-old girl again getting my ears pierced. This week I hit the six-week mark and could take out the studs. And finally, on Friday, I wore the earrings that started this whole thing. Thrilling.

I got this little bedside clock for Christmas and it's silly how much I love it. I now keep my phone in another room while I sleep, I hit an actual button when the alarm goes off, and that little button in the top right lights up the clock. It also functions as a snooze button. It has a sweeping second hand for a quieter clock experience (though I can still hear it faintly if the room is super quiet). It's also so small I can travel with it. Without making a new year's resolution about it, I've been trying to find ways to reduce the amount of phone scrolling in my life. I set a limit on my phone for 10 minutes of social media a day, and my daily overall screen time average is down to 30 minutes per day. Granted, I use my computer to do a lot of social media work (because it's work), so it's nice to come home and plug my phone in and mostly leave it alone other than for texts and phone calls.

In a delightful turn of events, Joel made reservations for us at the German-American Society rouladen dinner, a fundraiser for their choir. It takes place in the Deutsches Haus, which was recently added to the Spokane Historic Register. It was fun to see inside. We made new friends with our table mates, who were likely the only two around our age at the whole dinner. The majority of the folks were omas and opas, including one man, choir singer Fred, who came in his turtleneck and ski bibs fresh off the mountain, boasting that now that he is over 80, he skis for free.

Watching:

The Long Shot (HBO). The romantic comedy is all but dead, but I kind of enjoyed this one. Seth Rogan, who plays a journalist who just lost his job and wears 90s windbreakers, and Charlize Theron, who portrays a secretary of state poised to become the next U.S. presidential candidate, are an unlikely pairing, which is the point of the movie.

Sharp Objects (HBO). I might have found my new mini-series. I love Amy Adams.
 
Recipes:

Smitten Kitchen's cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese (I added ham). PERFECT for these snowy days.

Italian beans and sausage soup, more aptly described as a kitchen sink soup. We had leftover hot Italian sausage, some small dried beans in the pantry that were of unknown age, and really good, fat Rancho Gordo beans. I cooked the two bean varieties separately in the afternoon (no pre-soaking, just boiling for 5 minutes, then simmering, with olive oil, adding salt toward the end) and saved the bean liquid. When I was ready to make dinner, I browned the sausage and drained it on paper towels. In the hot, greasy pot, I sauteed chopped onion and garlic until fragrant and softened, and added a can of fire-roasted tomatoes to scrape up the browned bits. To that I added homemade vegetable stock combined with some bean liquid, as well as the beans and a ton of chopped parsley, then added the meat back in. I think I might have added a little oregano. I served it with a salad and fresh slices of homemade semolina sourdough bread.

Chicche Verdi del Nonno: Joel made this from Pasta By Hand. It's a gnocchi made of semolina flour, potato and spinach, fried in butter and olive oil, and drizzled with a browned butter and sage sauce. I loved this - so crispy and hearty and herby. (I found a recipe that looks like the one he made here.) We used the rest of the spinach to make a salad alongside.

Making:

Sewing has been delayed as I haven't worked up the motivation to look at patterns, plus I'm so hot on knitting right now. I've got more socks on the needles and am over halfway done with my cowl.

Reading:

This week's read has been How to Behave in a Crowd and I love it. I'm kind of a sucker for clever-kid narrators. This one, Isadore, is a 12-year-old youngest child who keeps running away from his super-smart family in France. His perspective of the world and of people is so heartbreaking, insightful and true. The writing and the dialogue between siblings is smart and surprising and makes for a joyful read.

Listening:

Don't worry, drivers, nothing's wrong with me, I'm just listening to an Amy Grant song I haven't heard in years on my commute and tears are inexplicably rolling down my cheeks. No, I'm not embarrassed. I found out Amy is coming to Spokane in April and it prompted me to listen to her 1984 album "Straight Ahead."

We also enjoyed playing cards while listening to Wattstax on Friday night.