I hate winter. It’s mocking me, what with its spread to New Orleans while I was there. But there are a few simple pleasures I take during winter that, while they may not completely make up for the suckitude of the season, make things at least tolerable. These things are:
Being able to leave groceries in the car without worry of spoilage.
Using your back porch as a walk-in beer cooler.
Hot beverages in mugs. Perpetually. Lately, I’ve been making hot chocolate with half milk, half coffee. Homemade marshmallow on top. Plain coffee will gladly do.
Scarves, which are my very favorite accessory ever.
Dogs as portable bed warmers. Neko is the best heated blanket that ruined a bunch of stuff I used to own ever.
I’m in a great mood right now, which means it’s the perfect time to crank out this week’s Grace In Small Things post.
1. Getting out the winter clothes stash. I found my knitted arm warmers that I should have been wearing for a month. They’re cute and cozy.
2. The Baker Creek seed catalog came in the mail today. It’s a Missouri business that has one of the most extensive collections of heirloom seeds available. We order from them every year.
3. Warm potato chive bread with real butter and butternut squash soup with ginger.
4. Getting the syllabus for my J-Term class and realizing I already own two of the four books.
5. My dad calling and offering to buy me a new phone to replace the one Neko chewed up, just so they could make sure they could get ahold of me. I love my parents, even if they didn’t buy me a phone.
We found out this week that South City Prep will be receiving our charter at the January 18th DESE board meeting. This means we have the authority to open our school in August of 2011. We can sign a lease; we are eligible for several grants, which means we won’t be broke any more. We can get to the business of educating kids. Although we have been anticipating this for months, it’s still a relief and a green light to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We’re thisclose to signing a lease on a building; we’re just waiting for the funding approval to come through. I can’t wait to tell you guys about it when it happens. To quote Penny Lane, “It’s all happening”.
We don’t need a whole new transmission for our car, just a $540 part or something. I’ll take what I can get.
My new morning drink of coffee mixed with Penzey’s Hot Chocolate Mix and a splash of half-and-half. This way, I can get both a sugar rush and a caffeine jolt at the same time. Bonus points for dairy and chocolate.
Seeing the latest Harry Potter film in the blissful couches at the choice Moolah Theatre. You feel as thought you’re the only people in the theatre. The couches there are more comfortable than the one in my living room.
Easily finding matching socks in the morning, even if it means looking in Chris’s drawer.
1. The garlicky smell of roasting pork in the oven.
2. A new sweater enveloping me from the persistent cold outside.
3. Seeing a seven-year-old’s eyes light up as she decorates a gingerbread house, making me, for the first time this year, happy for the holiday season.
4. T-shirt sheets. Holy shit, what have I been doing for the last ten winters? These are amazing. They’re stretchy like my favorite blend t-shirts and are perfect for creating a cozy cocoon. Every time I get into bed I get a twinge of delight.
5. Echostar, for inventing DVR technology which has enabled my addictions.
Chris and I went to Iowa for Thanksgiving. Despite the fact that our car had transmission problems that we’re going to have to rectify soon, we had a great time with my family. We drove up Thursday and had a chili and soup dinner, then did the whole turkey and fixin’ on Friday. We avoided the whole Black Friday nonsense and were able to run to the store and get last minute supplies if we needed them. We woke up late; my mom and grandma and I drank coffee in our robes and read the paper and gossiped. It was awesome. During the day, my mom, grandma, and sister-in-law and I played Scrabble and drank spiked cranberry slushies, which will probably end up being our new tradition. My sister-in-law is aces at Scrabble. My dad also got to go hunting; he got a deer, and we got part of the loin, which we ate last night. So good, by the way. The only bummer was that none of my friends were home for Thanksgiving, but I hope we’ll be able to meet up at Christmas. From now until the holidays, I’ll be crafting up a storm, trying to furiously finish my long-neglected classwork, working at Kitchen Conservatory, blogging, and reading in preparation for charter school programming.
How was your holiday? What are you looking forward to during the season?
1. “Do You Realize” by the Flaming Lips playing as I sipped a cup coffee and cream at the cafe and watched a happy young mother, wearing her baby on her chest, kneel down and pet and smile at her dog.
2. Not really a small thing, but the board of South City Prep are so committed and engaged and awesome and I’m so thankful for them.
3. Finding a new recipe that we love that uses a cut of meat we might not have used and uses pantry items.We made the second one and ate it on garlic cheese bread. Epic win.
4. Seeing my two crazy dogs settle down with a bone. Sharing it. I swear to you, Asher will gnaw something for a while and then nudge it over to Neko with her nose and I am killed dead.
A good chunk of my friends and I participated in the annual Tour de Moose bicycle pub crawl around St Louis on Saturday. The Moose in question is actually my friend Kevin, and the Tour celebrates his birthday, this year the big 4-0. Almost 80 people met up at Lemmon’s Saturday morning to drink beers and tune up before meandering around South City to Downtown and back. We finished the 19-mile ride at Lemmon’s, then ended our night at Double D’s, singing karaoke. My Grace In Small Things this week comes from that day.
1. Coasting down a slight decline on my bike.
2. With a slight buzz.
3. While eating a Gus’s pretzel.
4. Surrounded by friends.
5. On a cool, gorgeous, autumn day in October, leaves falling around us.
I know I promised more posts last week, but I had a crazy busy week. This week, I promise.
1. A clean fridge and pantry. I am participating in The Kitchn‘s Fall Kitchen Cure, where you complete weekly assignments designed to clean your kitchen and make it more streamlined, useful, and efficient. I deep-cleaned my fridge the day I heard about Kitchen Cure, and today cleaned and organized the pantry. It feels so clean and fresh.
2. Our friends Alice and Adam got married this weekend, and it was a wonderful day and gorgeous event. In between the wedding and reception, everyone went to The Bridge and I snapped this of Alice as she was getting “bustled”.
3. The feeling of content when Neko flops down for a nap at my feet, exhausted from going 100 miles per hour.
4. Scarf weather.
5. Anything with warm fall spices, like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and mace.
Happy Monday. I have a good feeling about this week. I promise, more posts this week.
1. The satisfaction that comes from checking everything off on one’s to-do list.
2. Our hardy little aloe plant, Malcolm, that survived Neko’s puppyhood with new growth all over.
3. The genius of this scene in Freaks and Geeks, from the episode where Bill’s (Martin Starr) mom (Claudia Christian) starts dating his gym teacher (Biff from Back to the Future).
4. My cast iron skillet, which is seasoned so well I’m proud every time it easily wipes clean.
5. A small chocolate flourless torte made by Kelly at work last night. Rich and velvety and slightly woody from rosemary ganache. Perfect late-night snack after work.
1. Having a knitting project on needles for the first time in a long time. It’s this apple tree blanket. I’m doing it in “pickle” with a “mediterranean” border. I love the rhythmic nature of knitting, the clacking of the needles, and the slow expansion of a project growing. When I get into a groove, hours go by as I voraciously try to finish projects, and it’s very therapeutic and focusing.
2. Dinner with friends at Blueberry Hill before a Drive By Truckers show at the Pageant followed by the debut Chill Dawgz show.
3. Dulce de leche cake.
4. Fall in St Louis and wearing scarves again.
5. Perfectly comfy gray heather sweatpants, thieved from high school track team.
Just found out one of my 5th graders--on his own--ran to school yesterday after missing his alarm. Three miles. That's grit, sonnnnnnnnn. http://www.twitter.com/kbestoliver2012/05/15
