A Glimpse of My Future...

...hopefully.

I did a lot of babysitting last week. I watched the little girl pictured above for three days while her daddy, who normally stays home with her, was out of state on business. Remember when she was born? What a difference four months makes!

I only watched this little guy for an afternoon, but he was none too pleased about it. He is nine months and going through that "I only want my mama" phase. Although, to be fair, I was his first babysitter.

His parents were best friends with my husband when they were all undergrads. Sadly, they are moving from our neighborhood to Baltimore. I took him on a walk and to the park so his mom could pack without him unpacking behind her.

Even though I had to deal with a diaper explosion on the former and a lot of crying with the latter, both babies were a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll have my own little one to play with soon.

Are You Freaking Kidding Me: Old Lady Edition

Wednesday is my favorite day to go to Costco because Wednesday is the best free sample day. Apparently, word has gotten out about the samples because it was super crowded this afternoon.

I was waiting patiently in the checkout line for what felt like three hours when an old lady, pictured above in the bathrobe, sun hat, and tights, sauntered right up and stood in front of the next person in line right next to the conveyor belt. Clearly, we were all standing in line, but she didn't care. She just started putting her items on the belt. The gentleman in front of me was much nicer than I am and said "You can go ahead of me" even though she had already decided to go ahead of him.

Thus, my wait got a little longer. I rolled my eyes and thought, "Are you freaking kidding me, lady?! You're too old to be a cutter."

Turning 34 Two Ways, Part II

A week after his birthday, we had a fun little party for Chuk at a local park on the banks of the Potomac. There was a shady baby play area and a hammock.

Babies weren't the only drooling guests, some dogs came too. They were so cute and well behaved. (The dogs and the babies.)

I labeled the cups with the names of rivers so it would be easy to keep track of. It worked really well and it was fun to see which rivers people picked. My husband, a returned Peace Corps volunteer from Ukraine, chose the Dnieper, of course. I knew he would.

There was lots of food. (Sadly I didn't get a picture of the cake. It was homemade, from scratch, carrot cake.) We provided cake, cheeseburgers and veggie burgers, and potato salad. Some guests asked if they could bring something, so we asked them to bring sodas or side dishes.

Everything was delicious and summery. It was my first time trying quinoa and I'm it's newest convert.

It was a lovely afternoon. We're so lucky to have such awesome friends.

Turning 34 Two Ways, Part I

Two weeks ago, my love turned 34. Normally, I would make a big fuss, but I had hardly been home in more than three weeks, so the celebration had to be low key. Fortunately, the birthday man didn't mind.

The day started with breakfast in bed. Sadly, I messed up his eggs, but fortunately he was to sleepy to notice (or too kind to bring it up.)

Chuk had to work that day, but when he got home he decided he wanted to go out for traditional Irish fish and chips. This is not a fancy guy; he just likes good food.

He also treated himself to a deep fried snickers. He had been wanting to try one for at least five years.

Once back home, we did presents and had store-bought cheesecake. It was simple, but perfect.

Fish on Friday

Costco has Copper River salmon for a meager $8.99 per pound. I bought seven pounds and divided it into half pound meal-sized portions using my kitchen scale. Usually my budget doesn't allow for such an expensive food purchase, but for the highest quality, healthiest fish, I decided the splurge was worth it. At $2.25 a serving, it's cheaper than a Big Mac and more delicious than almost anything I can imagine in a healthier restaurant. I can hardly wait to get some of it on the grill.

Do you have a special splurge food or would you rather just go out to eat?

Not Yet in the Swing of Things

I've been back from vacation for nearly a week but I'm having trouble getting back to reality. I'm still on Alaska time. It was 104 on Monday. After ten days of 24-hour buffets, I no longer know how to feed myself. My attempts at productivity result in massive failure. Just yesterday, I tried patching a pair of my husband's pants and sewed one of the legs together, then I cut myself with a serrated knife while attempting to slice an apple, finally I got a paper cut while opening the mail, then I just gave up and watched TV.

Despite now being slightly useless at real life, vacation was heavenly. We really had the best time. Someday, I'll download my photos and tell you all about it, but now I'm getting out my suitcase again because we're heading to my father-in-law's this weekend to beat the heat in his community's pool. He also lets us do our laundry for free at his place, so I guess I'll have to start getting back into the swing of things soon enough.

Packing Light

I used to pack an obscene amount when I travelled. I always worried about contingencies. What if it rains every day of a two week trip? Alternatively, what if there's a heat wave every day of the trip? I would pack for both and then have a month's worth of clothes for a two week trip.

When I was fifteen I left the country for the first time on an eighteen day trip to Europe. If memory serves, I took five big bags. I had so much that in the tiny Parisian hotel room I was sharing with two other girls, there was not enough room for my luggage and I had to leave two of my bags in the hallway.

Many years later in life, while backpacking around China, I realized I hardly needed anything to travel. I was away for several months with only what I could carry one my back. It was incredibly liberating. I love the feeling that I can make do with very little.

For this ten day trip to Alaska, I have only brought what I can fit in a carry-on suitcase. The suitcase is full, but I do not need to expand the bag or sit on it to close it. Honestly, I could have brought less too, but I need options since the ship has what sounds like a pretty strict dress code.

Including what I'm wearing on the plane, I have packed:

2 pairs of jeans
5 tops
1 sweater
1 velvet blazer
1 dress
10 pairs of underwear
11 pairs of socks
3 bras
1 bathing suit
1 bathing suit cover up
1 pair of pyjamas
1 pashmina wrap
1 pair of flip flops
1 pair of shoes
12 AA batteries (for my camera)
toiletries and makeup
5 pairs of earrings and a bracelet
windbreaker/raincoat
sunglasses

I plan to wear each top twice, mixing the look up with the blazer, sweater, wrap, and jewelry. I'm sure you realize that choosing pieces that match with everything else allows you to pack lightly, but I think it's important to recognize that choosing a color palate is important.

I know mixing brown and black is all the rage now, but I'm not feeling it. I choose either black or brown as my base neutral and work from there. You can see that everything I picked for this trip is black, grey or white. This is allows me to bring only one pair of shoes and and one set of accessories. In my everyday life, I normally wear a lot more color than this, but for a week and a half, I can deal with being drab. Besides, I have a bright blue wrap to add color and my jewelry adds color too.

In the same way that I base my clothes off a brown or black palette, I choose to either bring silver jewelry or gold jewelry so that I can mix and match pieces. On this trip, this isn't so much a factor because I'm not bringing necklaces that need to coordinate, but in general, I find the principle helpful.

What has really freed me from bringing everything but the kitchen sink when I travel is the awareness that if I really need something and didn't pack it, I can just buy it there. Even if I'm traveling to a remote developing nation, chances are, if it's something I REALLY need, they'll have it. And you know what, in all my travels, and I travel quite a bit, I have only ever not brought something I needed twice.

Once, I went on a long weekend trip to Pennsylvania Amish country and I was staying in a hostel because I was traveling alone. I forgot to bring a towel. (Hostels usually don't provide towels.) The first night, when I realized my mistake, I dried off with my dirty clothes when I got out of the shower. It wasn't my favorite thing in the world to do, but I lived. Then the next day I went to a store and bought a towel. It was ugly and brown and scratchy, but it got the job done for the next few days. No biggie.

Another time, I was in Africa and was bitten by something and was having a terrible allergic reaction to it. It was actually pretty frightening. My entire face was swollen and burning. (I was traveling alone then too.) I didn't have any benadryl, but I was able to stay calm and look on the internet for the name of the active ingredient in benadryl. (Benadryl is just a brand name and therefore can be called different in different parts of the world.) I wrote the name of the medicine down on a scrap of paper and took it to the pharmacy. Turns out, they didn't have benadryl, but they gave me some other type of antihistamine and again I lived to tell the tale.

Moral of the story, even if you do have to buy something, chances are it'll cost you less to buy it than it will to check a bag on an airplane. Even if you're not traveling by plane, schlepping around a bunch of luggage is a pain in the butt and makes you more likely to leave something behind. Though I'm not a minimalist in my everyday life, I like to travel like I'm one.

Do you pack a lot or a little?