Happy Birthday to my Man!

My man has conquered another year.

Happy, happy birthday to the handsomest, funniest, sweetest, compassionatest man.  I hope your 26th year is the best yet!

I love you so much!

Ready Player One

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This book was so much fun to read!  Cline has taken 80s nostalgia, a dystopian future, MMORPGs, adventure, friendship and romance into one awesome story.  

The year is 2044, and Wade Watts is trying to win the world's biggest online gaming competition.  James Halliday created the OASIS, an online program everyone in the world logs on to.  You see, the environment and economy has gotten so bad that public schools are overcrowded, trailers are stacked on top of each other in ghettos, etc.  OASIS allows people to use technology to log into another world and bypass the ugliness of the earth.  James Halliday died five years ago, and left the world a puzzle to solve: find the three "eggs" in OASIS to win his vast fortune.  Wade Watts is an gunter (egg hunter) who has studied everything 80s in order to come out on top.  Halliday was notoriously obsessed with the decade in which he was born, and every gunter has done research on all of John Hughes' films, RUSH albums, War Games, and anything else 80s you can think of to win the money.  Watts is up against time, other gunters, and corporations interested in taking over OASIS in order to win; can he make it happen?

Okay, does that synopsis make sense?  There's a lot going on, but Cline folds everything together in an interesting and fun twist.  I had a great time reading it, and it's a perfect segue into fall.  Well done, Ernest Cline!

Solar Decathlon 2011

Over the weekend, John Paul and I hit up the 2011 Solar Decathlon on the National Mall to look over the houses up for consideration.  The SD was developed to promote innovation in environmentally sustainable architecture; there are tons of great ideas for space-saving furniture, new ways of using old materials, even just ways of easily integrating "green" living with your daily life.
University of Maryland ended up winning the competition, but all of the houses were so cool!  Below are a few pictures of my favorite things we saw, that are easiest to picture in a house.  A couple pictures were taken by my mother; thanks for sharing, Mom!

Here's a lightweight stool that's sewn together!  There are three legs, and they're stitched to the seat with really thick yarn-like material.  What a cool idea.

A copper backsplash in a kitchen- easy to clean, and will patina nicely in years to come.  That color against the medium wood grain is gorgeous, isn't it?

One of the houses had quotes and sayings burned into the wraparound patio.  Beautiful.

A drying line built into a back porch.  Such an easy idea, and something you could definitely use on a regular basis!

This kitchen island has bookcases on one side- something I wish my current home had.
What would you do with your home to save space or be greener?

A few more photos...

In the past couple of weeks, I...

...sauteed and ate collard greens with cranberries and pine nuts.  Vegan and tasty!

...saw this beautiful bench on the Mall.  How gorgeous is it with the roots attached?

...had an artichoke night with my boo.  I steamed the artichokes, he made the aioli.  If only we could do that every night!

...ate individual peach cobbler for dessert.  Oh my gracious, they were sinfully good!

...ended last week with a rainbow over Georgetown.  Does it get much better than that?

My life in a few photos

Hello, you wonderful readers!  I apologize for being off the map for the past couple of weeks.  There is no excuse, but would it help if I say there was a long visit from my mom, the National Book Festival, and lots of delicious food?

My mom and I got pedicures in Dupont Circle during her visit; it was terribly relaxing.  They asked if we wanted coffee, water, or champagne.  I think our answer was pretty obvious.

I would like to think that she came up solely for me, but the Book Festival was going on that weekend!  Here is Julianne Moore, discussing her children's series, Freckleface Strawberry.  She is gorgeous and well-spoken and great with kids.

Brian Selznick wrote The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which is a beautifully and thickly illustrated book about a young boy who lives in a train station.  (It's going to be a movie by Martin Scorsese this November.)  He's a dynamic speaker- really enjoyed hearing about his creative process, which involves lots of research.

Amy Chua (we were in the back- trust me, the view was better in person!) defended her memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which details her strict upbringing of her daughters.  The tent was pretty charged with opinions of her parenting style, but I really enjoyed her talk!

Summer joined us!  It was a great day- low 70s and cloudy.  We had a great time!

On Sunday morning we trekked to the Dupont Farmer's Market, where we picked up honeycrisp apples and peaches.  Yummy!  Also had brunch, then headed back to the NBF for the second day of speakers.

I really enjoyed Joshua Foer, the guy who wrote Moonwalking with Einstein.  Very articulate and, not surprisingly, the memory champ did not use any notes.

My Sunday ended with Garrison Keillor.  He recited sonnets he had written; they were lewd and hysterical.  I could listen to him speak all day.  What a wonderful closing author!

Newsies

 Scarf and cardigan: Gap
Belt: H&M
Pants: Anthropologie
Oxfords: Aldo
These pants do strange things to me; they are the most unflattering things I own.  They're all the things short people should stay away from: cuffed, flood-length, pleated.  Yet it never fails that I get compliments every time I put them on!

 John Paul doesn't quite understand this phenomenon, but I know that it's a girl thing.  We understand that the best pieces of clothing doesn't always make the most sense.  We know that if pants are comfortable, if they fit with a certain aesthetic, if they're $20 at Anthropologie, we have to buy them. 

Wearing these pants is basically saying, "I don't have to wear a skirt and super-high heels to be feminine."  Wasn't it Marilyn Monroe who said, "Your clothes should be tight enough to show you're a woman, but loose enough to show you're a lady"?  I'll take my fashion cues from her every once in a while. 

New to me

TGFN.  Thank goodness for Netflix.
John Paul is an Apple addict, and we bought the new Apple TV right when it came out.  It's a handy little device that allows you to rent movies and TV shows, as well as stream video content from youtube and...Netflix!  We don't have cable, so this is how we catch up on our favorite shows.  Well, this and Hulu.
Each month, I pay the streaming fee and we have access to HUNDREDS of television shows and movies.  Old  (Cheers, The Dick van Dyke Show) and new (Pushing Daisies, Battlestar Galactica).  Good (The Cosby Show, Party Down) and bad (Laguna Beach, The Hills).  I love it!  Here are some of the shows I get all couch-potato for:

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The Cosby Show
I didn't grow up watching the Huxtable's family antics (it stopped airing when I was 6, so I don't know how much I could have appreciate it anyway), but really wish I had.  Clair and Cliff have a great, honest relationship, and their kids aren't super crazy; the whole show feels relate-able and familiar.  I'm about halfway through the first season, and was soooo glad when JP told me that the theme song changes each year.  I skipped ahead a bit, and love the 6th season opener best!

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Oh, this show is dangerous.  I can already picture a marathon viewing the next weekend JP goes out of town.  FNL just finished its fifth and final season, although it always had a problem keeping viewers and switched networks after the second season (from NBC to DirecTV).  Although I can understand why some people might not be super into it, the acting is superb, with characters you feel for right from the pilot episode.  Yes, the focus is on football, but it's more about the relationships between the characters, especially coach Eric Taylor and his wife, Tami, who I already think have one of the most realistic marriages on TV.

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Oh, I resisted Battlestar.  John Paul has tried on three separate occasions to get me into the show, and it finally stuck once I realized we could just watch it anytime on Netflix.  The sci-fi fan in me rejoices with everything about this: great character development, epic plot (Cylons basically killed all but 50,000 humans, and they are trying to eke out a democratic existence in space while they search for a new home), romance, suspense, action, political intrigue...yes, yes, it aired on Sci-Fi (SyFy?  I don't have cable these days, so don't know these newfangled network names), but don't let that stop you from checking it out. I just started the fourth season and am DYING to know how this story ends! 

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Party Down is seriously making me fall in love with Adam Scott.  He plays Henry, a guy who is well-known for some beer commercials from a few years ago and hasn't had any luck as an actor since.  His old friend, Ron, gives him a job at a party catering company, where Henry acts as a bartender.  Each episode focuses on a different event, and each of the two seasons is only 10 episodes long (so it won't take too long to get through the series).  It's a completely ridiculous show, with heaps of sarcasm, nudity, drug use, and language (Mom, I'm warning you now).  However, all of the characters are trying to break into the acting business but continue catering because...perhaps they like it.  I think the moral of this show is to not judge unconventional careers.  That's pretty deep for a 30 minute sitcom.

What have you been watching lately? 

Rustic Pasta

Remember when I told you there would be some vegan recipes on this blog following the cleanse I did?  Well, during that 3-day juicing, I read Alicia Silverstone's (yes, from Clueless) book, The Kind Diet, which is about sticking with a vegan and/or macrobiotic diet.  Half of it goes into why she's a vegan and the research behind sticking with a meatless and dairy-less diet, and the other half is full of recipes with lots of veggies, salads, and whole grains.

The first one that caught my eye was this rustic pasta dish.  It combines soy sauce and marinara sauce, caramelized onions and sauteed cabbage, and celery cooked so long it's softened to a consistency even I can't resist.  The flavors are perfectly complementary: salty soy with tangy tomato and sweetened onions.  Yum-my!

I used whole wheat rotini pasta, and 1/2 cup of marinara instead of 5-6 Tbsp.  Also, a whole head of cabbage wouldn't fit in the skillet, so I could only use half a head.  Trust me, it was enough!

This recipe made 5 servings, enough for two and a half meals for JP and I.  After we finished our bowlfuls, he looked at me and said, "Who was skeptical when you said vegan meal?  This guy.  And who's satisfied?  This guy!"  It must be good!

The Strange Case of Origami Yoga

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First of all, how sci-fi-tastic is this cover?  I love the paper Yoda with a real lightsaber; just gets you in the right mindset for reading this juvenile fiction book by Tom Angleberger.
Tommy, a 6th grader, just wants to know if Origami Yoda is real or not.  His weird, kind of loser friend, Dwight, starts wearing a paper Yoda on his finger one day, which should just make him seem even more weird.  Instead, Origami Yoda starts giving pretty sound advice to all of the students in his class about how to solve the mysteries of dancing with girls, confessing a mistake to a teacher, or facing bullies.  How can Origami Yoda be so wise when Dwight is such a strange kid?  Should the rest of the 6th grade class take the advice seriously?  And why in the world would is the Twist so important?
Each chapter is written from a different perspective; students share their Yoda experiences, and Tommy adds his two cents at the end of the stories.  It's a fun way of incorporating a variety of voices into the narrative, and giving each character its own personality.  There are great doodles throughout, as well as asides from Tommy's friends.
As soon as I put this book down, John Paul picked it up and enjoyed it too!  It's really about kids learning to be social and step outside of their comfort zones a bit, and that's always fun to be reminded of. 

Parking Garage Model

Shirt: Gap (birthday gift from Katrina!)
Belt: J.Crew
Skirt: H&M
Shoes: Nine West
Bracelets: random gifts from Grandma in North Carolina, Brent, and Mom!
I wore this outfit to start of my work week, and got so many compliments!  I love the color of this top, the pinky nudish mauve-iness of it.  It's a great compliment to the dotty textured gray skirt, which is a little big now and has more of a paper bag waist than usual.

Man, look at that hair!  It's getting so long, I can barely stand it.  At least it finally got trimmed this weekend, and is shiny, healthy and split-end-free!

Watch out, world!  I've got a great outfit, a great haircut, and an alien green manicure- this girl is unstoppable.