A visit to Colorado

We are back in Minnesota after a week with our Colorado family!

It was special to spend Thanksgiving in Colorado because we are especially grateful this year for Josh's mom's health: she is in remission now after several months of challenging treatments. We stayed with Josh's brother and sister-in-law, took our niece and nephew to the park for some batting practice, caught a showing of Big Hero 6, enjoyed the 70-degree weather on Thursday and Friday, and visited with lots of family all week.

Here's a group selfie from batting practice:

Now we're settling back into our routine at home. Other notes to begin the new week:

1) A huge thank you to my sister and her boyfriend, as well as my mom and dad, for taking such good care of Wish while we were away.

2) On the flight out to Denver, I got drawn into Rainbow Rowell's debut novel Attachments, which I chose because of how much I liked Eleanor & Park. (Next up: the rest of her books.)

3) Josh and I visited Menards yesterday and left with a Christmas tree, some garland, and a couple of window insulation kits. By the end of the evening, our fireplace mantel was adorned with the garland and some white lights, the tree was up but not decorated, and (thanks to Josh) a bunch of our windows were insulated with plastic.

4) There were some very exciting football games this weekend. The University of Tennessee won its sixth game of the season, becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since 2010 (and the first time since I started following the team)! That means that the team's season is extended for another month, until its bowl game.

5) Lasagna soup is in this week's menu plan for the first time this season.

Hello, November

It's November!

Five tidbits to begin the week (and the new month):

1) Election Day is tomorrow! Please vote!

2) I'm still working on Upstairs at the White House: My Life With the First Ladies, and it's fascinating to learn about the families of each presidency.

3) I got some long-overdue new running shoes. I've run in Mizuno Wave Riders for many years, but the update to this shoe earlier this year did not work for me, and I was able to find an earlier version of the same shoe that I used until now. The newest Wave Rider just came out, and I hear its features move back toward the traditional models, so I am looking forward to trying out these shoes (and hoping that they're like my old Mizuno friends).

4) After stumbling across a recipe for spicy tomato cream pasta last week, I tried it out for Sunday dinner (and will be making it again soon, I suspect). I paired it with a kale salad that Nathalia served last weekend with pizza. I modified the pecan topping the same way Natty did, omitting the nutritional yeast and adding parmesan cheese. Creating nice salads doesn't come naturally to me the way it does to some of my friends, and I think this recipe could help me with that.

5) Wish started a new obedience class this week, and I really, really liked the first session. (We've taken a general obedience course and one geared toward reducing aggression toward other dogs.) This one is focused on helping dogs be more at ease with people—specifically, strangers on the street and visitors in our home. Wish is very comfortable with my immediate family, but he's often nervous and unpredictable around other visitors. There are five other dogs in the class, and the atmosphere in our first session was low-key and friendly. Josh and I took him for a long walk on Sunday morning and practiced the training that our teacher assigned, and I love to watch the pup figure out the challenge and respond to it.

Finally, the week began with an almost-sunrise view during today's morning run:

I'm thinking that sighting will provide motivation for at least one more morning run this week.

Back to books

Two weeks after moving into our new home, we are mostly done with the initial phase of unpacking—literally, the unpacking of boxes—and are more focused now on actually setting up rooms. It's tempting to jump around from project to project, so I scribbled down a To Do list to focus on one task at a time, which has been so helpful. Between the progress on that little list with the process of setting up a cozy reading nook last week, I realized I haven't sat down to read a book in our new house yet!

Now it's time to get back to my books. Over the weekend I reserved and downloaded a figurative pile of library books for my Kindle:

Per recommendations:
Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine)
Attachments (Rainbow Rowell)
Looking for Alaska (John Green)
Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand)

Stumbled across while browsing:
Behind the Beautiful Forevers (Katherine Boo)
The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams (Ben Bradlee, Jr.)
Upstairs at the White House: My Life With the First Ladies (J.B. West)

And two more for good measure:
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee), because I haven't read it in ages
The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein), because Josh and I listened to part of it as an audiobook and didn't finish, for no good reason

It's not likely that my name will reach the top of the reservation lists all at once, so I really hope I get to read them all. (And you know I love to hear recommendations based on what you're reading. Share, if you'd like!)

10 Books

Have you seen the "10 books" challenge that's been circling Facebook lately? The idea is to list 10 books: not the Best books, not your Favorite books, but simply 10 of the books that have stayed with you since you read them. I've loved seeing what books my friends have listed, and then when Stephanie went and wrote her blog post on this topic, I started daydreaming about what my own list might include and finally decided to write my picks down.

Like Stephanie, many of mine are from my first 10-15 years as a reader, a realization that surprised me initially. For all of my life, reading has been a vehicle through which I explore other perspectives and ideas. I've never stopped reading for that reason. I do wonder if that experience was more startling and thus more formative in different stages of those first 15 years, from the first chapter books I read to the wonderful English class in my senior year of high school that introduced me to modern fiction.

And before I begin the list: yes, I have many more in my head that didn't fit in the first group of 10!

10 books that have stayed with me

The Giver: This may actually be the book I've read the greatest number of times in my life.

Stargirl: If Stargirl had been around when I was a kid, it might have rivaled The Giver in total times read. This book came out in 2000, and I think I discovered it in college.

Number the Stars

Animal Farm, which my dad read to me as a bedtime story in elementary school

The God of Small Things and The Things They Carried, both from that high school English class

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (and the sequels that followed)

The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir

What is the What

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life: I read this collection of essays during a day of train and air travel, and I was in tears or close to it practically the entire time.

Just choosing these 10 books makes me want to re-read every one, in addition to so many of the books that my friends have mentioned. I will have a long reading list this fall.

The start of September

We've spent big blocks of the last few days getting ready for our move later this month—packing, prepping, organizing and cleaning—and feel good about the progress!

Five other notes:

1) I did start the weekend with a run: On Saturday morning I ran with Molly, two of our former cross-country teammates and one of their partners. I haven't run with a group that large since I was part of the running club a few years back, and I loved it. I was only with Molly and the crew for six of the 17 miles she eventually covered, but those miles flew by as we talked both as a large group and in pairs.

2) We took a break in between errands on Sunday for lunch outside at Anchor Fish & Chips in Northeast. The view from my seat:

3) I said before that our home projects were on hold, but we wanted to do one more: recovering four chairs for our new dining room. I read several tutorials online, but the one I recommend most is a Martha Stewart video on the topic. Josh used needle-nose pliers to rip out the staples on each seating pad's previous cover while I cut fabric, fit each piece to the chair and stapled it back on. This project was easier than we thought, especially once I got past the first chair's first corner.

Before:

After:

We liked the final result!

4) I might have also made a mini table runner modeled after the checkerboards in Tennessee's endzones to use up a leftover piece of duckcloth from last fall's table runner projects. And Josh and I were happy about many components of Tennessee's big win on Sunday night! I loved hearing how loud the crowd at Neyland when the team ran through the T and during other key moments. There were some great college football games this weekend.

5) As I sorted out my books, I discovered that I had two copies of Jerry Spinelli's book Stargirl, a pleasing realization. I hope this happened because I just bought duplicate copies of this wonderful book at different stages of my life, not because one copy belongs to someone else.

6) This guy elected to spend a lot of time lounging in his room (his crate) while we were packing and organizing this weekend, but he loved a long walk on Saturday.

Last night, Josh grilled bacon cheeseburgers on pretzel buns, I made Oreo ice cream, and we watched "The Way, Way Back," which I loved. We are ready for the first week of September.

101 in 1,001 update: August 2014

Nearly a full season has passed since my last 101 in 1,001 update back in May, and I'm about six weeks away from the this project's end date. It's time for a report.

Here are some of the items I've checked off my 101 in 1,001 list this summer:

17) Participate in an adventure race/scavenger hunt in the Twin Cities.

Josh and I did this together in June! I saw a discounted race entry via Crowd Cut for the City Solve Urban Race Series event in Minneapolis, and I figured it'd be our best opportunity to try out an urban scavenger hunt.

From the event's home base at Cowboy Jack's on a rainy Saturday afternoon, more than 600 people (more than 200 teams) solved a clue that sent all of us out of the restaurant and over to a nearby intersection. From there, each team got the packets containing the clues, each directing us to a checkpoint, some of which were mandatory. We had to get to eight of them over the course of the afternoon or else risk a big penalty added to our finish time. Most checkpoints required a photo of all teammates next to the checkpoint's signage; others required completing an activity. And you figured out each checkpoint's location by solving puzzles that, through exercises like word finds and crosswords (often with local trivia), eventually point you toward an address. Then it's up to each team to figure out their strategy for getting to each of the checkpoints the fastest!

This was one of the most fun parts of the event for me. I don't watch Amazing Race but I am one of several people in my age bracket who still keeps up with Real World/Road Rules: Challenge. We mapped out our strategy (literally and figuratively) and then made our way around Minneapolis on foot and via the newly opened Green Line trains. (The rules stipulated that transportation modes were limited to walking/running or public transit.) We ended up walking several miles around the city, mostly in downtown Minneapolis and in Dinkytown by the University of Minnesota. 

The checkpoint I'll remember best, the one that still makes me laugh, is our last one. By the end, the rain was coming down harder and the wind was picking up—my baseball hat was great protection from the rain until the wind lifted it off my head and dropped it squarely in a puddle—and Josh and I got a little lost getting to the last checkpoint on our list, a Crossfit place. We'd had a great time but were both pretty tuckered out at that point. It turned out that our last stop was the only one that required serious physical activity: to be specific, one teammate had to do burpees while the other held a plank, until the team accumulated 40-50 burpees. Burpees are among my least favorite calisthenics and we were not especially fond of this stop, but after that, we were heading back to the finish line!

Even with the burpees, the whole event was a fun and novel way to explore a familiar city for the afternoon, and it was definitely outside our usual weekend routine. I'd do an urban scavenger hunt again for sure.

68) Have a progressive dinner party.

This happened last weekend! Our group met at our house for appetizers, then went to my brother's house for dinner, and then returned to my house for the homemade ice cream we had assembled earlier in the evening (vanilla with Golden Oreos, to be exact).

Here they are, in motion to show that we are indeed progressing to my brother's house:

The key to the main course at a progressive dinner is something that can be prepared in advance or without much attention from the person cooking. My brother figured out a great solution by making chicken in the crockpot, so by the time we arrived at his house, all he had to do was shred the chicken and broil it (like preparing carnitas but without pork) for tacos. Nicely done, Brother!

71) Sew a dress.

This happened in June!

73) Take a photo of the same place every month for a year.

This happened from August 2013 to July 2014, and I shared the final results last month. I want to repeat this project and am brainstorming new locations for it.

100) Read 30 minutes per day for two weeks.


I mentioned this before, during one of my unsuccessful attempts to complete this goal, that for someone who calls herself an avid reader, this project was trickier than I expected! I usually read magazines in the morning and books in the evening, and I learned that I was prone to reading for a few minutes and then falling asleep at night. But the upside is that this kind of goal is a great way to really delve into books. Sometimes I have a hard time getting drawn into a book when I'm reading it 5-10 minutes at a time. When you're reading for half an hour per stretch, getting hooked is much easier. During these two weeks, from July 25 through August 7, I read Americanah, Dixieland Delight: A Football Season on the Road in the Southeastern Conference, and The Circle.

I believe that leaves me with 74 items complete. My list's items are grouped into 11 categories, and I reached another little milestone this summer when I closed out my first category by finished all the projects in the "Creativity" section.

But I'm not done yet. Six weeks to go!

101 in 1,001 update

With just over three months to go, I'm making some more progress on my 101 in 1,001 list. I'm starting to get close to finishing a full section (my list is divided into different categories) but I have no idea what one is going to get closed first. I'm so curious!

Also, I recruited cartwheel help last weekend (that's goal #6) from a former gymnast. I will revisit our conversation later in the summer. She makes it sound feasible!

Here's what I wrapped up recently:

#46 Eat or shop at 10 (new to me) local businesses in Minneapolis. Turns out that I prioritized the "eat" part of this goal: all 10 places I recorded were restaurants. I liked having a reminder to branch out from my St. Paul favorites. This month I checked off my tenth restaurant with a visit to World Street Kitchen on Lyndale. I had the Bangkok Burrito (red curry with chicken) and it was incredible. (The other nine: Pizzeria Lola, Nami, Anchor Fish & Chips, Red Stag Supper Club, 5-8 Club, Parkway Pizza, Sonora Grill, Cafe Lurcat and Al Vento.)

#53 Put change in someone's expired parking meter. This was fun!

#16 Go to a drive-in movie theater. We finally did this last night! I didn't realize when I set this goal how scarce drive-in movie theaters had become in Minnesota, but it turns out that Vali-Hi theater is just off the interstate and a quick 15 minutes east of St. Paul. We were there primarily for "Neighbors," the middle movie of the triple bill, but we arrived in time to get situated before the first movie started around 9:00.



The lot really filled up by the end of the first movie, and it seemed like most people watched from inside their cars (like we did), though some brought camping chairs or sat in the back of their trucks. We bought popcorn for $1 (twice) and kicked back on a pretty spring night to watch some movies. Going to the drive-in was a fun and novel outing, and I am both amazed that we stayed til 1 a.m. and fiercely curious about how many people stayed for the third movie, which presumably got started around 1:15. (My husband and I did bring up the median age, from what I could tell.)

#47 Volunteer at six races. I wrapped up this goal on Sunday by volunteering at packet pick-up at the City of Lakes Loppet Foundation's Salomon City Trail Loppet. The race, which had 10 mile and 10K options, started in Robbinsdale and then meandered, mostly on trails, all the way down to the finish line at the Walker Art Center's Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis. Pretty neat place for a finish area, no?

Because of my year-round volunteer role with Twin Cities in Motion, I'm on site at nearly all of TCM's events, but I decided to focus on non-TCM races for this goal for more of a stretch. That made it more ambitious, but I learned a lot and enjoyed supporting other events in this great running community.

#52 Register to be a bone marrow donor. I first donated blood in high school and have been intending to join the bone marrow donor registry since before I made the 101 in 1,001 list. I wish I would have done it ages ago, but I finally registered to be a bone marrow donor last month. Please ask me if you have any Qs about either process.

And one I am attempting:

#100 Read 30 minutes per day for two weeks. I set this goal to make sure I was prioritizing how much I enjoy reading. I thought I read a lot, but this one is trickier than I expected, mostly because I've been reading at night and falling asleep minutes into my designated half-hour. I've been waking up earlier in the mornings thanks to the earlier sunrise, and I think I'm going to become a morning reader (besides or instead of my magazines over breakfast) for this goal. I'm three days in.

That's 65/101 complete and 9/101 in progress. A few are not likely to be completed, but 36 items left on the list isn't as daunting as it sounds. There are a few left in each category, with several delightful summer-specific goals. I'm looking forward to the last three full months of my first 101 in 1,001 list.

A rainy beginning

After two gorgeous weekend days, yesterday's skies dropped more than two inches of rain on the Twin Cities. (It wasn't the ideal day to, say, forget an umbrella.) But the rest of the week's forecast is wonderful, starting with nearly 80 degrees for tonight's softball game, which would be the warmest temperature since Sept. 30.

More nice tidbits to begin the week:

1) Our household's weekend was full, starting on Friday night when I met my mom and brother for dinner at Anchor Fish and Chips. Then we visited Art-A-Whirl, another one of the Twin Cities' popular art crawl events. This one is in Northeast Minneapolis, and it features more than 500 artists in all kinds of studio spaces. One of those artists was my aunt, who was exhibiting her paintings in her first show ever. I was so proud to see her take this step.

One of her paintings already hangs in our home, and I was excited to see tiny versions of the same theme on display (complete with tiny easels) among her larger paintings. Right away, I wanted one for my workspace. I bought one and brought it to work this morning, and I love seeing it on my desk and thinking of the big painting, which was a special gift.

2) On Sunday morning, I volunteered at the Loppet Foundation's Salomon City Trail Loppet. I was at the finish area, which also was the race day packet pick-up spot, since most runners biked or drove to the finish line and then were transported up to the starting line in Robbinsdale. The finish area was at the Walker Art Center's Sculpture Garden, and my shift was early in the morning, so I got to see the iconic cherry and spoon in early morning light.

3) Later on Sunday, I practiced my panorama function during my first trip to Target Field this season. The Twins lost, but I had a great time with our group.

4) I stayed up late last night finishing The Fault in Our Stars. This joins Eleanor & Park as two of my favorite recent YA reads.

5) Today is my dear dad's birthday!

Here's my dad and me, way back, on a trip out on the Mississippi on my grandparents' boat.

And here's last year's birthday, with his traditional birthday lemon meringue pie. Our family is celebrating officially in a couple of weeks with our annual trip up north.

Happy birthday, Dad!

Making a Kindle cover

There is something to be said for long-term craft projects that you pour lots of energy and love into. There is also something to be said for a craft project that transitions from a little idea in your head to a final product in an hour and change. Today's project falls into the latter category.

A few years ago, Josh surprised me with a Kindle. Though I maintain my love for hard copies of books, the Kindle has become part of my reading routine, especially thanks to our local library's Kindle book lending program. I wondered recently if I should consider getting some sort of case for it - and then forgot about it.

Then I saw a tweet containing a picture of a simple-enough Kindle book cover, and I thought, I want to make one of those.

I set off on a Google search and came across the "Kindle cover from a hardcover book" tutorial that became my inspiration and guide. I went off in a different direction a couple of times, but the final result is pretty similar and so that post deserves much credit.

Basically, you take a hardcover book and remove the pages and then cover it with fabric that you secure with hot glue. My route to the finished product was different because I tried to use supplies I already had on hand, and that didn't include the quilted fabric suggested in the instructions, so I started adding some makeshift padding with some quilting batting scraps and the hot glue gun.

Because of the batting, I wanted to wrap up the whole book with the rest of the cotton fabric. This is where the project started to feel a lot like using grocery bags to cover textbooks back in middle school and high school. I'm not even sure how honestly I can make that comparison, because my dad was so good at making perfect book covers that the number of books I actually covered myself is low. I may have texted my dad to ask for his book covering tips during this project.

I didn't take any more "in progress" pictures because I was working quickly with the glue gun and largely off the cuff. I tried to wrap the cover pretty tightly but with enough room to close nicely. I ended up wrapping the book like a present, with the fabric edges ending in the spine. Then I decided to put a little band of purple fabric in the spine to cover the edges and "hemmed" that with an iron. Along the way, I had attached the fabric to all four edges of each side with hot glue. No sewing in this project.

Then I made a little pocket out of another scrap of fabric, ironed a little hem on each edge to make a nice crease, and hot glued three of the edges to the left side of the cover.

That last picture spoiled the surprise of the last step: adding the elastic. That's the only part I had to go out and buy. I tried some elastic I had from another project and it was way too thick. It did not do the job. This dainty elastic was just right.

And here it is closed:

To be sure, it's definitely not perfect, but I like that something a little sturdier is protecting my little e-reader. I am happy with the results of this quick project.

The latest things

Lest the title confuse you, this post is not at all about new-to-the-world trends. It's just a regular old Miles and Laurel update on my latest...

Book: I am reading Bill Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927 and am fascinated by it. It details all of the factors and storylines at play that make 1927 a pivotal year in American history. I'm not even halfway through yet, and I've already learned a lot about aviation, baseball, Prohibition and the rise of the automobile. I also learned that Calvin Coolidge had a beloved pet raccoon named Rebecca.

Team sport: I have joined a softball team. Our first game was scheduled for this week but the rain thwarted those plans. I haven't actually played on a softball team since eighth grade (my grandma laughed and laughed when I told her this update) and am a little bit nervous. Mostly, though, I am excited because it will be one set evening each week where I'll be outside with friends who I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Wall update: Our household recently purchased a Minnesota Historical Society membership, and a recent mailing caught my eye. I liked the travel map so much that I wanted to add it to our gallery wall, which features some of our favorite places. On one rainy day this week, I shuffled some frames around, then shuffled some more, and then Josh and I set up the new nails (including some very high ones) to make room for a new vertical piece. See it?



The two biggest images, the Minnesota map and the old Twin Cities Marathon poster toward the left edge of the wall, both incorporate that pretty, vibrant red color. I like how they play off each other.

Salad discovery: I have a couple of friends who are so good at whipping up beautiful salads. I do not have this skill yet. But recently I did discover a game-changing recipe for healthy green goddess dressing from A Couple Cooks via Em for Marvelous. (I just made the dressing for the second time and realized I completely accidentally omitted the olive oil the first time around, so it's good with or without it.)

Craft: I'm finishing up a little makeshift cover for my Kindle. One of the earliest steps, courtesy of some leftover scraps of quilting batting:

May project: This week I attended the first meeting of the year for our community garden group, and despite this week's gray skies and rain clouds, it's time to start brainstorming about this year's garden plan.

What projects are coming up this month for you?

Marvelous midweek

A little snapshot from yesterday's six-miler under purple-gray clouds:

Onward with more marvelous tidbits:

1) Last week, a friend told me about using Zinio, a digital magazine program through the St. Paul Public Library and available in other metro systems. (More info here.) I loved exploring the free lending program, seeing some magazines I already really like and discovering new ones. (This month's Smithsonian Magazine, for example, had gorgeous pictures and a neat feature on small towns around the U.S.) I can browse the magazines on my phone and click a "text" option to read the articles in larger print. I think this is such a neat resource.

2) Josh was in Arizona over the weekend, and his flight was originally due in at 11:30 p.m. yesterday, but he changed flights and got in at 10:30 instead. (Marvelous indeed!)

3) Both Tennessee's men's and women's basketball teams are rolling into the Sweet 16! Orange Gerbera daisies are on the table this week to celebrate.

4) The Twins' home opener is less than two weeks away. It is still not feeling very springy here (with the fleeting exception of days like Friday) but the beginning of baseball season is a good sign. I've been listening to baseball podcasts to get up to speed on the spring training storylines.

5) I am looking forward to seeing the Matisse exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts with Sara tomorrow!

That's it! I hope your Wednesday is a good one. What's your favorite magazine? How's your bracket? And are you planning to catch some baseball games this spring?

Marvelous Monday: Week 11

I hit "publish" too soon on Saturday's post about bubbly ice! Look what I saw on Sunday's run:

Okay, let's start off the week with five tidbits for Marvelous Monday:

1) I tried a new recipe last night for Thai chicken curry, with red curry paste instead of yellow because I had a jar already in my cupboard. Thumbs up from me, especially with cilantro on top. (I didn't buy basil but I think the combination would be pretty good.) I think this is the first time I've actually trusted the chicken to cook during the simmer instead of cooking it separately and adding it in later, and that made everything a lot easier!

2) Josh and I have a list of about eight household chores that we try to do weekly, which means that everything usually happens on Sunday. Josh was out of town over the weekend, so we did most of them on Friday instead, and it was fun to enjoy a clean(er) house all weekend instead of just starting the week with one.

3) Last week's purple tulips are hanging around!

4) Reading: F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise. Fitzgerald wrote his debut novel in St. Paul and I heard a lot about it on the walking tour I took awhile back, so it's fun to read it with some context from Fitzgerald's own life in St. Paul. (Also, remembering that tour reminds me that spring and summer bring more neighborhood walking tours, and I need to do some research.)

5) I'm signing up for a 25K trail race with Molly and am very excited about working back up to a longer distance and running in a new-to-me trail system next month.

And I'm still thinking about my D.C. friends as they wait for their baby. Soon!

Hope your week is starting out in a marvelous way!

Marvelous Monday: Week 2

Monday! Here we go:

1) Reading treats this week: today I picked up my reserved copy of A Field Guide to American Houses, and it looks simply marvelous. It's grouped by housing style, with lots of example photos and drawings to point out the key features of the style. I loved the architectural tidbits from the neighborhood walking tour I took and am excited to read the book and then know more about the other kinds of houses in the neighborhoods where I run.

2) You aren't going to believe this, but I got out for a run before work this morning - my first weekday morning run in what must be months - and did just under five miles, the last 1.5 of which were with Wish. It felt great to have the workout in the books so early, though tomorrow morning is supposed to be snowy and windy, so I won't guarantee that I'll be out there again.

3) My mom Santa included a little Keeshond-shaped cookie cutter in Wish's stocking at Christmas, and I am too fond of it to stash it away until next Christmas, so I devised a temporary little kitchen set-up, thanks to scrapbook paper, a few nails and a 5x7 picture frame (minus the glass) to keep it on display. I am trying to decide whether I should make two more with my Minnesota- and heart-shaped cookie cutters to make a little (odd) triptych. For now, the little Keeshond is making me smile.

4) My beloved "Hart of Dixie" is back tonight after a midseason hiatus and I just figured that out today.

5) I aim to begin a sewing project this week.

What's nice about the start of your week, Reader? Any winter TV shows coming back that you're exciting about? Any new books on your reading list? Tell me!

Marvelous Monday: Week 36

Hey, it's wedding week!!! We can hardly believe it but are so excited!

1) It's hot here (but supposed to cool down by the weekend!) and I slogged through almost 10 miles on Saturday morning, my longest run in a long time. (That last part is the marvelous part.)

2) This morning's run was another slog, but there were two very beautiful parts: a rose sky just before daybreak, and then seeing one of the St. Paul bridges lined with glowing streetlights on a foggy, cloudy morning.

3) This is totally not romantic or light-hearted wedding week reading, but I started reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood last week and am captivated. Along similar lines, Josh and I finally - finally! - started watching "The Wire" over the last couple of weeks and are captivated by that, too.

4) Tennessee's second game of the season (and the first one on accessible-to-us TV) happened over the weekend, and Josh and I camped out on the couch on Saturday afternoon to watch the Volunteers march to a good win.

5) I went to a lovely baby shower yesterday honoring a lovely mama-to-be and was so happy to be able to celebrate with her.

And there are so many marvelous things ahead this week, with marvelous people, and my heart is so full.

Marvelous Monday: Week 31

1) I finished Gone With the Wind on Sunday, and my reading experience certainly added oomph to my quest to read more classic novels that I missed reading via school assignments. I loved working my way through it over nearly three weeks and thinking of the main characters during that time - it truly was a reading experience because it wasn't the kind of book one could churn through in a long evening and then set aside.

When I checked out the book along with Pride and Prejudice, I mused that I was thrilled to read this epic novel as a traditional hard copy instead of the Kindle version, but wow, 1,024 pages makes for a hefty book, especially when your copy has a fragile binding. I might have preferred a Kindle version. Also, I'm not sure what I was thinking, checking out Gone With the Wind and Pride and Prejudice in the same three-week borrowing period. I finished the former with three days to spare. (And yes - I can't wait to watch the film adaptation.)

2) It's dear Ellie's birthday today! Here we are, at Nat's wedding. (Her nickname is Fence.)

I cannot wait to see her next month.

3) It's August and our wedding is next month! The date felt so very far away for so many of the months of planning, and all of a sudden it seems a lot closer, and we are so excited.

4) I grilled corn tonight for grilled corn and potato chowder, which I chose to use up the red potatoes and chives from this week's CSA (the sweet corn in the box got used up in sweet corn and quinoa over the weekend). Anyway, I was excited for grilling the corn because 1) I had never grilled corn and 2) this is a big reason why I wanted to learn how to grill: not just for main meat entrees, but also for components of other dishes. (I made the soup more fun by topping it with bacon and cheese, but I would give it a thumbs up either way.)

5) Yesterday I got to see Wish notice a squirrel way up in the treetops and then try to leap up the tree trunk, as if just this once, he might get enough momentum to catch the squirrel.

Your turn, Reader! What's marvelous in your world this week? Have you grilled lately? Have you read or watched Gone With the Wind?

Hodge Podge: Wednesday edition

Oh, dear. I thought about this post and was gearing up for a Three Things Thursday, until I realized that, yes, it's indeed still Wednesday. This week is flying, so I'm not sure why this happened. Josh came back from a work trip last night, and Wish and I picked him up at the airport and the dog flung himself into Josh's arms. It's really true that one fun part of dog ownership is seeing how thrilled a dog is when you come home everyday. It's even better when these two see each other after time apart. Wish sulked and moped and he's very happy that Josh is back home.

This morning I saw the tiniest little lone flower backlit against the sidewalk. I loved it. Later in the day, it had flipped upside down and the magic effect was gone.

Later in the day, I went to the library to pick up the two books I had on hold. I was delighted to see the books together, which are pretty much the definition of old school. I love my Kindle, but I feel like this is how classics ought to be read, no?

Finally, with temperatures in the 90s for the better part of the week, I swung over to our garden after work to give the plants a quick drink of water. I had planned to go tomorrow morning but was talking to my mom on the phone and got the word that the plants would only probably be okay if I didn't go until tomorrow. (I bombard my mom with questions, usually about watering patterns, to which I seem to expect definitive answers because of her amazing gardening prowess. I'm sure she's thrilled by this.)

Anyway, the light was really pretty, and all of a sudden, tiny peppers and cucumbers have emerged. I watered the plants and then looked around at the rest of the gardens. One of my very favorite gardens in the whole area (there are 50 total) happens to be very close to our plot. The owner is growing vegetables but has filled in the free space with gorgeous orange and yellow marigolds. They were practically glowing tonight in the July evening sun.

I am keeping cool and hydrating with a mint fizzy. What book should I read first?

Marvelous Monday: Week 27

I've missed a couple of Marvelous Mondays lately, including the halfway point of 2013! Time to get back:

1) I'm almost done reading The Shining Girls, which is making the media rounds this summer. It's creepy and probably not the best book to read before bed, but it's got me hooked.

2) Molly and I had planned a run for this evening, but with the temperature hovering near 90, we thought a stroll might be wiser. Baby (her sweet boy!) came with us and we had a splendid walk around her neighborhood.

3) Later in the evening, Josh and I had marriage preparation class. We've been meeting every week or two with a couple at the church where we're getting married and go through a workbook with exercises about communication, financial goals, conflict resolution, and that sort of thing. We were totally unsure about what to expect going into these classes but have found them really interesting, productive and valuable.

4) With each member of my household contributing, we've finished the eight pounds of strawberries I picked with Mom last Tuesday. That is not marvelous, but the strawberries were definitely marvelous. We ate most of them plain, made strawberry shortcake once and finished the leftover strawberry toppings on ice cream.

5) We cleaned yesterday and are starting the week with a clean house, which makes everyone happy except Wish, because he had to listen to the vacuum cleaner.

What are you up to this week, Reader? Best book you've read so far this summer? Favorite summer food? Tell me, please!

Marvelous Monday: Week 24

You know how this goes! Five marvelous tidbits to begin the week:

1) I've been catching up on my reading over the last couple of weeks. I like to save books for flights, and I relished the uninterrupted block of time last week to settle into a book. As mentioned yesterday, I finished Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach, who writes a Bon Appetit column with her husband. I loved many pieces of her take on how to make dinner a priority (first with her husband and later with young kids at the table) and was very impressed that the author jotted down every dinner she cooked for 14 years. Wouldn't it be a hoot to do the same thing with your own meals over that long of a time frame?

Later I read Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life by Natalie Dykstra, and over the weekend I finished Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games by Lopez Lomong, a runner who I have always admired but whose full story I never knew. Thumbs up to both.

2) As you might have deduced from other recent posts, the last few days have been gorgeous and wonderfully summery...

3) ...and I've been having a great time cooking and eating the season's foods. (WATERMELON!) My CSA vegetable box has helped a lot with that, and I think my favorite new recipe is the cilantro pesto I made on Thursday night. (It didn't hurt that the whole dish came together in 15 minutes.)

I jotted down the recipe on a Post It and wanted to share it with you...

...Oops. Good going. You can check out this recipe for the basic idea.

4) I dug out my little white running hat for my midday run today, and while it earned me no style points, it really worked like a charm to keep my face shaded and cool (well, sort of cool).

5) Josh usually takes Wish for his morning walk, but the job today was mine, and I loved strolling the neighborhood when it was quiet and cool and the day was just starting. It maybe gave me incentive to launch my morning running routine again. (But even if that doesn't happen, it was marvelous.)

What's up in your corner of the world? What's nice about the start of your week? What are you reading, and what's for dinner tonight? Tell me!

Marvelous Monday: Week 19

Reader, today was already turning out to be good. But now, thanks to this afternoon's vote in the Minnesota Senate, it will be part of a historic week for love and equality in my home state. That, plain and simple, is the most marvelous part of my Monday.

Everything else seems tiny by comparison, but there are other sweet pieces of life to appreciate, too:

1) Magnolia blooms around the neighborhood:

2) I read The Splendid Table's How to Eat Weekends over the last week. It's a cookbook from the host and producer of The Splendid Table, a public radio cooking show and one of my beloved podcasts. It's not the kind of collection for which I expect to try every recipe or even most recipes, but I loved it because 1) I did learn a lot of tips and 2) their passion for the art of slow, step by step weekend cooking is so wonderful that I couldn't help but be captivated.

3) My weekend with these girls:

4) Grill Party Extravaganza 2013 appeared to have arrived at our home for the summer. We got the grill out on Friday for the first time this year, and tonight will make three days out of the last four that we've used it. Tonight I am trying a margarita marinade on some chicken. On my own. Yes, that's right. By my request, Josh taught me how to operate the grill yesterday. I am looking forward to a long season of grilled steak, hamburgers, vegetables, Boca Burgers, hot dogs, fruit, and more. I will also finally try my beloved Grilled Corn Guacamole recipe with the corn actually properly grilled.

5) The countdown to our wedding has reached the four-month mark! Yay!

Your turn! What's your favorite item to cook on the grill, and what is your best grilling tip? Do you have a favorite cookbook? And what's blooming in your neighborhood?

Marvelous Monday: Week 15

Yesterday's inclement weather motivated me to hibernate for the bulk of the day and thus set me up to start the week feeling recharged and rested. We also took a family self-portrait:

Wish looks more dismayed than he actually is, although he didn't know at that time that we had postponed his "spa day" (trip to get his nails clipped and paw fur trimmed) because of the weather. I hope that will happen tonight.

Onward with Marvelous Monday!

1) Last week, I posted about one set of friends expecting their baby to arrive shortly. It turned out that, in the last week, two sets of friends welcomed sweet baby boys, thanks to one's early arrival. I'm so happy for both sets of new parents and their families and so excited to meet the babies.

2) I finally, finally signed up for a Spanish class, and it begins this week. Yeep. I am nervous, but it's time to start slowly getting back up to speed with this language.

3) I'm devouring (ha!) Julia Child's memoir My Life in France. My most recent read, Cheryl Strayed's Tiny Beautiful Things, was exquisite and extraordinary and I'm hoping to pull together a separate post with some of my takeaways. By contrast, My Life in France is a lighter read, but a marvelous change in pace, especially if you like to picture the narrative in Julia Child's voice, which I do. It's also fascinating to consider that all of this culinary icon's passion for France and French cooking (really, cooking in general) didn't develop until she was nearly 40. Her joy for all of it really comes through and the level of detail is great, thanks in part to drawing on tons of letters that Paul and Julia exchanged with friends and family. (I love letters.) She also concludes some passages with one-word summary exclamations, like "Woe!" and "Marvelous!" and "Yum!" which I also love and might have to start doing more at M&L.

4) It's Boston Marathon Day! For several years (I originally typed "for much of my adult life" but felt silly about that), qualifying for the Boston Marathon was a huge goal for me. It hasn't happened yet and it's definitely not the focus of my running right now (though maybe it will be again someday). Regardless, I still always get a few chills on this day on behalf of thousands of people getting to run this race. So many people have worked so hard to qualify, and I can't imagine the thrill of being on that start line.

5) It's my dear mom's birthday this week. We're not celebrating all together until later in the month, but she deserves a full month of celebrating. That's how wonderful she is.

What's marvelous in your world today, Reader? Anything new on your reading list? Do you speak a second language? And if you live in Minnesota, were you out and about yesterday or were you cozy indoors? Do share!