The first of December

I had the pleasure of a leisurely, basket-filled-to-the-brim shop this afternoon. And while after work shopping is not always my idea of a great time, it was really nice tonight. I was able to get all of our dinner fixings for the rest of the week and some goodies and treats. I made a decent green curry with beef and eggplant, roasted the rest of the eggplant for sandwiches later, made a nice looking strata for breakfast tomorrow and am getting ready to fix Andrew's lunch as he has to be at work by 7:15 in the morning. Though right now I am really enjoying reading blogs in the light of our little Christmas tree. I bought a Mistletoe scented candle yesterday to make our house smell a little festive. I'm determined to start thinking holidays are fun instead of giant pains in the ass. It's such a crappy way to be, moaning and complaining all through the season. So I'm trying to make December fun, a nice kick start to the New Year. Maybe start setting the ground work for the good habits right now.

It's kind of cold here right now. I kind of miss the cold weather. We were going to go to First Wednesday Art Walk, but decided to skip it and make dinner. I'm a little disappointed we didn't just go. I think it would have felt nice walking around in the chilly air and looking at the holiday decorations, but we have RAM Saturday and the rest of the weekend for nice strolls around town.

today i learned about...photographer Stephen Shore

stephen shore

i really love these photographs

good ideas for san francisco

i started a post of places i would like to go. but it's sort of a post for the oddballs. the ones i might not remember. there are a handful of places that i definitely want to visit. i always read little ideas for travel in these places, but i'm never going to remember them when we actually get to visit. so, i've decided to track some of the ideas here. starting with san francisco.

most important: some delicious food

more good ideas for san francisco

bountiful gardens

FLOWERS

• Lupine Plants

VEGETABLES

books i want to read

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

shops on the internet

beautiful scandanavian shop

cutest fabric

party party party

nap on the couch - you got me again...

i was so sleepy after eating tacos and watching movies that i could barely hold my eyes open. instead of going to bed like a normal human being, i decided to take a nap while half laying down/half sitting indian style and rest my head on my shoulder. so i spent about 3 hours in a sort of self conscious half sleep while a washed dishes and folded his laundry and puttered around the house. now it's 3:30 and i am wide awake.

i did whip up a little marinara to cook in the slow cooker and the dough for some no knead bread. i also looked at nothing on facebook for 30 minutes.

mom and dad had to put bogey to sleep today. which makes me sad, but it's the kind of sad that i can push down. one of those situations that's sort of on the edge of making me cry and feel bad, but i also feel totally removed. i guess it just feels like another thing from my childhood/youth that has disappeared.

a & i had a really great weekend. friday night at toot's (and we actually had fun). saturday we went to jess & kris's baby shower. the people throwing it had a beautiful house in north knoxville. love those neighborhoods around there. after the shower we went to see bob zellner speak at the beck cultural center. he was the first white field secretary for SNCC and had worked under MLK Jr., so very interesting. Cassie organized the discussion; he was one of her professors in college. We went to the new tapas place in market square for dinner - really delicious. great glass of wine, the most perfect skirt steak and potatoes aioli (codfish balls just meh). then to backroom and had some whisky sodas. this is the point where we were about to be grown-up and responsible and go home at a reasonable hour. as we were walking to our car, we ran into peter lawson and his girlfriend. so we went with them to urban bar. 3 more drinks later and we were tipsy enough to make bad decisions about the rest of our night. up all night long. way too much to drink. smoked so many cigarettes it kind of makes me sick thinking about it.

so this week and weekend we are taking it really easy. cleaning and organizing, cooking healthy food, watching movies and reading. maybe some hot chocolate. we're never going to get our shit together if we keep acting so silly. but it's so much fun. a asked me if i thought some other couple friends of ours stay up until the wee hours drinking and talking, and i think they might to a point, but i don't think they get as out of control as us. oh well. it's done and sunday was kind of a bust (since i spent the whole of it in bed). i just know we can enjoy so many more things if the hangover stays away. we need a new way of being entertained and a new way to blow off steam.

i went to the gym with liz tonight for a little bit. really does make you feel a little better.

determined to run a 5k by my birthday. katie says she will run it with me.

also determined to wear a great dress on my birthday.

so maybe more than 25 min. at the gym is in order. and maybe not 3 tacos before taking an 11pm nap would be smart.

at least they were turkey.

places i would like to go...

• Oviedo - there is a Woody Allen statue. Vicky Christina Barcelona partially set there.
• This park in Croatia is unreal.
• Look at all of these caves!

pretties

paper stuff

• love these lcd notecards
• beautiful mobiles made in Denmark

if i were ever to want wedding china, this would be the pattern.

stuff i would like to make

crafty stuff to make

• these journals

a poem a day

Good God
Instead of casting them out of paradise, Instead of making them labor in pain and sweat, Instead of instilling tristesse after coitus, Instead of giving them fire to burn their house down
And light their way into the outer world,
He could have split them, each with a memory of the other, And put them each into a separate world.
Mark Jarman



found this poem a day website. think this would be good to add to the resolutions. i've always wanted to like poetry, to be able to read it, but it seems a bit intimidating. so maybe reading a little a day will make me more comfortable around poems.



listening to npr this morning and the discussion was about happiness. the happiest people seem to be those in relationships and those with the best health. need to get the health part straight as my relationship is roses. also, sad for my mom and dad. it said that people were as happy as newlyweds once their children left the nest. now they have one troubled child back and a new baby.

blech

way too much to drink last night, but fun. a good ending to the year. ready for operation lesley 2010. didn't really leave the house today. made a giant steak dinner. really ridiculous steak dinner. watched quite a few episodes of the worst week. now am off to sleep. resolution to get more sleep should start now. resolution to write more can start tomorrow.

lesley2010

resolution time...

1. become a runner. not a marathon runner just enough to be able to run a 5k by my 31st birthday. so maybe this should say become a jogger.

2. i should say stop drinking cokes. just none at all, but i really love them, so i'm going to say only have one sweetened beverage of the non-alcohol (don't worry-getting to alcohol later) kind per week.

3. stop eating crappy fast food. makes you feel yuck. makes you tired. makes you super fat. however, since i do really love some chick-fil-a, i'm going to allow myself one chick-fil-a meal per month. and no pretending that i'm going to go to cfa or mcdonald's and get grilled chicken sandwiches and no fries. i usually can't control myself and end up eating something fried with a side of fries. no good.

4. make a healthy nice dinner every night. i realize we'll go out to eat sometimes. and i realize i might want to make chicken parmesan one night, but shoot for 6 healthy meals with vegetables. 2 meals per week without meat. at least one meal per week with healthy fish. plan, shop and prep on sunday. no excuses if everything is ready. make enough for lunch leftovers.

5. oatmeal for breakfast every single morning.

6. at least 30 min. of exercise 4 days/week. 6 days would be better, but 4 should be minimum. 3 days of strength training per week. make up some kind of chart with reps and weights and all that crap outlined and keep up with it. one yoga class and one pilates class per week. also, try two new classes/month at the ymca. find something that is fun and works. walk around the track at work one time during my work day. stretching. get a good stretch in as soon as i'm home from work and gym. i've become so not flexible at all over the past couple of years. ridiculous.

new decade time

so i'm back to trying to write a blog again. this time for real. new year's eve was good. i ran around like mad after work getting food and drinks and cleaning. amy and brendan showed up at our house around 7:30 and i was pretty close to finished. we had some moscow mules and then went to sassy ann's for a bit, but made it back home in time to have champagne in front of our tiny tv. i actually bought a nice bottle of champagne for once. not the $4 cook's. makes quite the difference. we stayed up late listening to music and talking. amy and brendan went to the pilot light new year's eve party and made it back around 2 in the morning. they were in a huge fight, but things seem somewhat resolved today.

i made a spinach, mushroom and sundried tomato strata for breakfast. as soon as they left i crawled back into bed and napped for about 3 hours. really nice. a & i watched purple noon - a french version of the talented mr. ripley while eating some chinese takeout. then we watched too many episodes of the television show worst week on our new roku player. this thing might be worse than actual television since it's commercial free and you can pick exactly what you want to watch.

i guess i need to work on some serious resolutions tomorrow. i have the day off alone. a has to work. i can't decide if i should try to make a big nice dinner with cocktails first, wine with dinner and a little boozing it up later or if i should just make us a nice steak and buy a some real coca cola and say we watch movies again. both sound equally nice, but one is smarter, cheaper and doesn't leave us with hangovers. but then again, should we have a last hurrah before putting project lesley2010 into action?

books i've read in 2010

1. The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin

movies i've watched in 2010

1. Purple Noon - a French version of The Talented Mr. Ripley.
2. A Perfect Couple - really strange Altman movie. had terrible fake band called keepin' 'em off the streets. could have been a sweet story, but too annoying to watch.
3. The Fabulous Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson animated version of Roald Dahl story.
4. Abigail's Party - Mike Leigh from 1977. Horrible couple having a dinner party.
5. L'Iceberg - French. Woman gets stuck in freezer and family doesn't notice she's missing. She runs away with a deaf man on a boat. Mostly silent. Kind of interesting, but not great.
6. The Black Dahlia - Brian DePalma about the famous murder in Hollywood.
7. Public Enemies - John Dillinger story with Johnny Depp and Marian Cotillard.
8. Alice - Jan Svankmajer surrealist version of Alice in Wonderland.
9. Two Days in Paris - Julie Delpy wrote, directed and i think maybe even sings. Adam Goldberg is kind of funny. Julie is a little much.
10. Lymelife - had a sort of big cast, but i don't even remember this ever in theaters here. probably because it wasn't so good. about suburban long island in the '70s & lyme disease. probably wasn't that bad. i didn't like the ending. also, didn't really pay attention to the entire movie. was mostly talking to liz.

11. (500) Days of Summer - Zooey Deschanel & Joseph Gordon Levitt are not in love. Zooey has cool clothes and a cool house and great hair. She also is funny and can sing. JGL loves her, she doesn't love him back.

12. Alice in Wonderland - the Tim Burton version. I liked it okay. The last scene with Johnny Depp was kind of painful. Helena Bonham Carter was good. Maybe one day I will spring for the 3D movie.

13. The Ghost Writer - Roman Polanski's newest (and some say best in a long time). Really good. Ewan McGregor was great Olivia ? was great as Pierce Brosnan's wife.

14. Jennifer's Body - Kind of fun, could've been funnier, horror film. With the horrible Megan Fox and pretty Amanda Seyfried. Diablo Cody was the writer? or a writer on it. Sort of funny dialogue. Not as annoying as Juno.

15. Dead Girl - Really strange horror movie. Gross out scenes. Think it wanted to be a little deeper than it actually was. Nobody famous involved.

16. Up in the Air - I think I liked this more than Andrew. George Clooney was charming. Didn't think the female lead was all that great and she had an Oscar nod.

17. A Single Man - Tom Ford wrote, directed and produced. Really pretty, but almost too much. Colin Firth was so good. In love with the house he lived in. Based on Christopher Isherwood novel.

hmm...having to kind of start fresh with this list as i have been quite negligent. i think i'll suspend the multi-colored typing for now.

18. Goodbye Gemini

19. Greenburg

20. An Education