Bright Lights, Big City

My Favorite Color is Shiny

I wanted to write about our anniversary trip to New York but I have been slackin'. I'll get to it eventually but right now I just have this lump in my throat because I want to move there so badly. I just saw a picture of an apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn and I just felt like I needed to go home and tell Asher that we need to go. NOW.

Everything rational inside me says it isn't the right time, it never will be. I lost my chance when Asher moved out here, when I didn't do more to move out to be with him. But that would have been a different life. We wouldn't be where we are today. How can I leave family? How would we survive? Would Asher be able to do art for his work? Could I find a job that I loved? When could we have babies and then how would we feed and care for them?

So yes, more questions that answers and it wouldn't make sense but goddamn it...I just can't let this dream die.

Mmmmm....Pie

Last night I baked my very first Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. It is the prettiest pie I have ever baked. Unfortunately, it is too pretty to eat.
Last night, after it came out of the oven and sat for a minute I decided we couldn't do it. It was going to be our dinner because I had been busy baking since 6 and Asher was working. But like I said, it was too pretty to eat. So I made Asher a toasted cheese sandwich and off I went to bed. It was after midnight. Why did it take me so long to bake this one special pie? I cleaned out the refrigerator in the meantime. I think I threw away one entire shopping trip to Winco in rotten vegetables. I am ashamed we didn't eat them before they grew fur.
But back to my pretty pie. I used a new recipe for the crust, this one has sugar in it (and both butter and shortening)! And the whole reason I picked is was because of a line on the Smitten Kitchen recipe:
Certain pies, like, say, this Lattice-Topped Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, should be made every Memorial Day weekend, creating the most delicious bridge between rhubarb and strawberry season, during the most welcome break between winter and summer.
Isn't that perfect? I made it with rhubarb from Aunt Mirna mixed with some from Pike Place Market and strawberries from Safeway. They were kind of sour but this recipe has both white and brown sugar in it. I think we are in for a treat...when I decide it's okay to destroy it.

****Okay, I JUST realized, looking at the pictures compared to Smitten Kitchen's pie that I didn't weave the lattice like I should have, I just layed the strips on top of eachother willy-nilly. This is good news because now we can eat my ugly pie. Anyone want to come over tonight for pie?

Woodland Shower

Last weekend was my Dev's baby shower, it turned out so well and the mama was very appreciative. Yesterday was she and B's 4 year wedding anniversary. They will have a new baby within the next month and we expect he will completely change their lives.

Baby Ewing, here are some pictures of the party I threw you.*


*With a trunkload of help from Heidi (Dev's good friend).

This weekend - Going to Grandma's

My parents bought my grandma's house when she died because otherwise they would lose the connection to the town they grew up in. It is in a town of maybe 300 people called Endicott. Just a small farm town with hot nothing to do. Except, this particular little town, holds mythical stature in my mind.

My dad's dad was the country doctor, treating patients in exchange for goods if they couldn't pay. My mom's dad, was a farmer whose cows ran to greet him when they heard his car approaching. Dad's mom had a big, lovely house with hidden rooms, lots of costume jewelry and she blended up orange juice with ice into frothy goodness . Mom's mom sat in the kitchen and drank coffee, smoking cigarettes with the ladies and she is the one I got my middle name from. Her peonies still grow because Mom and Dad tend to them, they even got the recent Yard of the Month award.

There are memories in every house, in the park, the main street, the doctor's office and with the few people left. Even if they aren't all my own memories, after years of stories, it feels like it. So you see, we couldn't leave that little town.

The house has A/C and tons of raspberries bushes in the yard and I get to swim in the huge pool where my mom set swim records when she was in high school. Mike Phelps, meet Rhonda Kay. I will work on the rest of the prep for Dev's baby shower next weekend and read tons of magazines in the hot sun. Asher can practice driving on the farm roads or just skate down the empty streets in town. Maybe we can explore some scary abandoned house on the side of the road. Who knows?

Asher doesn’t really want to go but I’m making him because it will feel like a real vacation! I think maybe I need to sell it to him a little better because I think anyone who read that whole part up there would want to go. It is a perfect escape.

Weekends in August Part 2 - Asher's Art Show

Asher was part of an urban art gallery show called "Spray it, Don't Say it." It included many different artists including some locals, a well know street artist from Paris, Jeff Aerosol, and a girl from Brooklyn who actually knew AV. She was going to fly with him to our wedding because he was scared to fly. The world just gets smaller. Plus, the artist who curated the show, Kim aka Soule, was really awesome, as was her boyfriend, and Asher will make fun when I say I want us to be friends with them.

It was a warm day except it rained while the artists were all doing live painting. Asher kept it up until the airbrush started reacting to the wetness in the air. Dev and B came and we went and had an ice cream/gelato break. B had more cider and sampled the keg.

Asher sold some prints so we were excited to go out to dinner and then Dan treated us to dinner with he and his girl, Laura. I am so excited by the exposure Asher is getting. He was interviewed for a documentary and even though I was eavesdropping and wanted to answer all the questions for him, I think he did a good job reppin' himself.

Weekends in August Part 1 - Olympia

The first weekend in August, Dev, B, Asher and I took a trip down to Olympia to spend time with Toby and Olivia. Tob is my oldest friend. I am bad at holding on to friends when I move or change or whatever and somehow with Tob, we always reconnect and still fit. It is mostly because he is a constant joke cracker and my laughtrack is always cue'd up. A year ago he married the girl most perfect for him and they made the cutest house together. She used to be vegan and was slaving away almost all day making the most deliciously vegetarian food, candied walnuts for the salad, fish and even pork chops for the meat-a-holics. What a gem. B talked us all into drinking cider and tequila with limeade (my favorite) and Dev let me feel her belly a lot and got to snuggle with the anti-social Towns while B attempted to love up the chompy/frisky old lady cat. It was a really wonderful weekend. Bonus, at one point Asher was rubbing my feet and Toby and I were talking and he was like..."I always knew you'd marry a really cool guy." I know, right?

Saturdays

On Saturdays, if I don't have a yummy wedding to attend, I get to sell my art with Asher down in Pioneer Square in Seattle. The anticipation led Asher to propose that each night this week we have art sessions to prepare our goods to sell. I was so excited and immediately accepted another of his proposals! "Yes, yes!"

If you are in Seattle on Saturday, come see us. We will be set up by the Fireman statue in Pioneer Square!

Grab your innertube!

Yesterday we were riding our bikes on the Cedar River trail and the river is really high and it is running at a good pace. It made me want to go tubing but I thought it might be illegal. Asher and I talked about how we would escape the authorities if they tried to stop us. Then I google it and what do I find? It is perfectly legit and they even give you 7-step instructions if you can't figure it out for yourself. Hot weather? Look for us there!
http://www.ehow.com/how_2058758_plan-inner-tubing-trip-cedar.html