just a little something...

i'm such a meanie

Madeline and I beat Sam and Oliver home today. When we came in, I asked Madeline to take her shoes and socks off outside in the garage so she didn't get sand everywhere. After she did that, I asked her to hang up her backpack and jacket in the mudroom, and then I asked her to put her lunchbox in the kitchen. She wasn't happy to have to do these things - it's so much easier to just leave a big pile in the entryway - but she did it.

As she was putting her lunchbox on the kitchen counter, she asked me, "Mommy, are you making ME do all of this hard work because Daddy is not here?"

these make me happy today

1. Flowers are blooming! On my way home today, I saw flowering azaleas, redbud trees, and a beautiful japanese magnolia.

2. Listening to Oliver point to Elmo on his diaper and say, "Melmo!"

3. Reading stories with the kids before bed. I love sitting on the sofa (or Oliver's bedroom floor), with one child on each side of me mesmerized by the latest Dora adventure. Simply wonderful.

4. The dinner-table talks with Madeline. Yesterday she proudly showed off her cut-out pictures of body parts while wearing a cut-out picture of a brain as a hat. Today she read to me a book that she had made with hand-drawn pictures of healthy snacks, with the name of the snack written in English (by Maddie) and Spanish (by her teacher). She was so proud.

5. Thinking about the five-course winemaker's dinner we'll be attending on Saturday, followed by a charity wine tasting event on Sunday in support of the local public radio station. I should probably start fasting now.

take me out to the...

take me out to the, originally uploaded by merryjennifer.

ball game.

The kids and I enjoyed our first trip to watch the Florida Gators play baseball over the weekend. It was a perfect day, with temperatures near 70 and a lovely breeze. We will definitely do it again sometime...until the sweltering heat of summer, anyway.

vegas, part 3

We spent quite a lot of time shopping in Las Vegas. Some of you may not know this, but Sam is quite the shopper. I think he likes to shop more than I do. Perhaps it's just that he comparison shops for good prices while I tend to make impulse purchases, often regardless of price. His method takes longer, so maybe it just seems like he likes to shop more.

We spent so much time walking through the mall near our hotel and through the high end shops of the Venetian and the Pallazo, the Wynn, and Caesar's that our legs were sore. After we had lunch on our last day there, just after our last shopping excursion, I stood up to walk to the restroom and my hips felt like they were going to give out. Maybe I'm just getting old and decrepit.

The shopping was heavenly. In many of the stores I just wandered through checking price tags discreetly. Shoes for $1100. A dress for $1650. A scarf for $300. A small handbag for $900. Names from fashion magazines, brands the celebrities at the Oscars will be wearing. We both managed to find a few things in the more moderate stores, but I did make one huge shoe splurge. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, at least until the AmEx bill comes.

My favorite breakfast spot was Bouchon, one of chef Thomas Keller's restaurants. We went for brunch on Sunday morning and I had french toast that was simple but luxurious. We both had the pastry of the day, a croissant baked with a strawberry filling, and I swear it was the best pastry I have ever eaten. We wanted to bring some of those strawberry croissants back with us, but the restaurant didn't open early enough in the morning on the day we flew out. One of Thomas Keller's most famous and well-known restaurants is the French Laundry in Yountville, California. It is my dream to have dinner there, but after our experience with tuna tartare at Michael Mina, I realize that I'll never get Sam to go with me.

The last evening we were there, Sam and I had dinner at Craftsteak, one of chef Tom Colicchio's restaurants. We decided against the five course tasting menu this time, and instead I had the braised short ribs and Sam had a flat iron steak. I started with the lobster bisque. When I asked to talk with the sommelier about the wine list, the general manager ended up reviewing the list with me. We decided not to go with the $17,300 Bordeaux but instead went with a $65 Italian red. We could have gone with a $7500 bottle of Screaming Eagle, but somehow even that seemed a bit on the pricey side. The meal was fantastic. I could go on and on about it, but let's leave it at that.

So, whether you gamble (like Sam) or don't (like me), Las Vegas is an amazing place to visit. It's simultaneously tacky and tasteful, cheap ($4.99 steak and eggs) and lavish ($17,000 wine!). I would go back in a heartbeat. 

vegas, part 2

Sam and I stayed in the Venetian, at the northern end of the strip. The Venetian sits right next to the Wynn, so we spent some time touring that hotel, too. The newer Vegas hotels are pure luxury. All of the rooms at the Venetian, for example, are suites.

Our room was beautiful, with huge comfortable king sized bed and a deep sectional sofa that invited lounging. There were three flat-screen televisions in our room - one in front of the bed, one in the living area, and one in the bathroom. We don't have that many televisions in our home.

The architecture and attention to details in the hotels is simply amazing. I wasn't alone when I stopped to take photos of the ceiling.

Here are some photos of the outside of our hotel.

Vegas is quite a spectacle. The strip is such an interesting combination of tackiness, excess, and luxury.

vegas, part 1

Warning: Food-speak ahead. 

Our culinary tour of Las Vegas started with a dinner at Michael Mina in the Bellagio. This was a meal that I had been looking forward to for as long as we had been planning this trip. Not only would it be our first gourmet five course dinner, but it was at a Michelin one-star restaurant and the executive chef is award winning. It would also prove to be our most expensive meal. Ever.

The service was stellar. Our water glasses were never empty (this is very important for my water-addicted husband) and the empty plates and dirty silverware were promptly removed and replaced by fresh pieces. I had wine with each course, and when I asked if wine came with the dessert course (it didn't), the waiter promptly brought me a complimentary glass of a dessert wine (which I really didn't need after the four glasses prior to that).

The first course was a tartare of ahi tuna. The tuna was served with raw quail egg yolk on top, and served with a sauce containing pine nuts, sesame oil, jalapeno pepper, and a variety of other things. This one put fear into Sam, but he was an amazing sport and tried several bites. The tuna came with three pieces of toast on the side, and at the end of the first course, Sam had devoured all of the toast and about three bites of tuna. I managed to eat most of mine. I say managed because, try as I might, I just have not developed a taste for raw tuna. Especially when topped with a raw quail egg yolk. I'm sure some people find the dish fabulous. Not us. But, of course, we're just simple country folk.

The second course was a huge improvement - lobster potpie served with black truffles and huge chunks of tender lobster. For the third course, we were served miso glazed black cod served on a shrimp and scallop ravioli in a mushroom consomme. This was followed by Kobe ribeye with seared foie gras in a pinot noir sauce. Dessert was a mini rootbeer float with rootbeer sorbet, coconut cheesecake, and a rich chocolate pudding. All of the courses were relatively small amounts of food - except the tuna tartare, which seemed endless - but we were stuffed when we left.

It took Sam a while to get over the tuna tartare, but I think he began enjoying himself once he got to the bottom of the lobster potpie. When the bill came at the end of the meal, he had sticker shock for a while, but now we laugh about it. I think it was worth it, for the experience and the memory if nothing else. Sam eventually won enough money at craps to make the thought of that credit card charge much more tolerable.

Here are some photos from the Bellagio that evening...

At Michael Mina...

The conservatory at the Bellagio is filled with beautiful flower gardens. These are some of the flower sculptures in the garden...

The lobby of the Bellagio is filled with a gorgeous ceiling filled with Dale Chihuly blown glass. It was really stunning.

More tomorrow...

vegas baby

More to come when I recover from the change in time zones...

o'leno

This past weekend was so nice, especially Sunday, when the weather warmed up to the low-70s. Because of the beautiful weather, and because we were all so tired of being cooped up inside to stay warm, we took the kids out for their first visit to O'Leno State Park. 

O'Leno is named after the town of Keno which was established there on the Santa Fe River in 1940. According to the history books, the town applied for a post office in the late 1870s. The request was denied because Keno meant "gambling," and I guess the postal service didn't want to support that particular vice. The town's name was changed to Leno and it worked - Leno got the post office.

When my brother and I were little, my parents took us to O'Leno quite often. We hiked the dirt paths, mostly avoiding the cypress knees but occasionally stubbing our toes on them. We used to stand in the middle of the old suspension bridge, then jump up and down or rock from side-to-side to get it to sway. When we were older, we used to go there to swim in the summer. My dad used to tell me that deep in the woods at O'Leno were ponds of quicksand. I still have a fear of quicksand based on those stories. Of course, now that I think about it, he might have been making it up just to keep me and my brother a safe distance from murky water filled with alligators and snakes. Or maybe not.

My kids loved it, of course. Madeline spotted the playground when we first arrived, so I was worried that she would obsess about playing on the swings the whole time. She did obsess for a while, but once we got to the suspension bridge and made it sway back and forth over the river, she forgot about the swings and the slide. She and Oliver climbed over tree trunks. They stood at the water's edge, tentatively sticking their fingertips into the water, and soon they were giggling as they stomped in the water in their shoes. 

It was nice to go to O'Leno again, and it was great to see it through my children's eyes.

 

minor distraction

whatchoo lookin' at?, originally uploaded by merryjennifer.

So, this is a tough week for me. Not much different is going on except for OUR TRIP TO LAS VEGAS this coming weekend. That little detail is keeping my mind sufficiently distracted that it's become a real challenge to be productive at anything other than making restaurant reservations and deciding among the spa options.

I'm hoping that I don't bore you with this all week, but it may very well happen.

eek

This creepy thing was waiting for me beside my car in the hospital parking garage. Lovely thing to find at the end of a stressful day.

it all started with good intentions

Last weekend, I was feeling particularly mom-ish. Or rather, I was feeling like I needed to start acting more mom-ish. 

"Let's bake a cake!" I told Madeline.

She was so excited, and so was I until I realized we didn't have cake flour. And the eggs were a couple of weeks out of date. I found a box of cake mix in the pantry - also a tad (like, six months?) out of date.  But can cake mix really go bad? I put aside any doubts and Madeline pulled up a chair to the kitchen counter as I got out the mixing bowl and hand mixer.

Once we got the cake batter mixed, poured into a couple of 9-inch rounds, and into the oven, I started the exciting part -- homemade buttercream icing. Since it was rather messy, and since I have this thing about messes, I had Maddie observe rather than help. She was not thrilled about this, so I bribed her with the opportunity to lick the icing-covered beaters when I was all finished. 

I learned several things that day. One - old cake mix really IS lacking in some important quality. I think it's called quality. Two - it's really a much smarter idea to use the good-ol' Kitchen Aid stand mixer, even for such a simple task as beating buttercream icing. Turns out that it's actually quite a workout on the hand, keeping the hand mixer steady for that long. Three - Madeline is not patient when there's buttercream icing to be had at the end of the fun. Four - making just enough icing to decorate a cake is really not a good idea. One should always make extra, just in case the cake decorator turns out to be awful at it. The last thing that I learned is that even ugly cake tastes fantastic when covered in buttercream icing.

The top isn't too bad, is it? Madeline insisted on flowers, so I pulled out an old icing decorating kit that I inherited from my  mom when I moved away to college, and I did my best. It could have been worse.

And it was.

It was a lot worse. At some point, when I realized the icing was going to run out, I just gave up. As far as I know, smearing and patching are terms not normally associated with cake decorating. 

I guess I'll be sticking with my chosen profession. And buying my "homemade" cakes at Publix. They do a much better job.

love this

I found this artist on Etsy, and I think I'm in love.

Mincing Mockingbird is one of my new favorite sellers on Etsy. His blog is here.  His Etsy store is here.  Go visit.

a list, some bad and some good

The bad:

1. Madeline's tantrum this morning.

2. The rain that didn't let up today.

3. Feeling fat.

4. Guilt over eating the extra piece of cake last night.

5. The frustrating phone call to the patient at the end of the day.

The good:

1. My new black patent leather Born flats. Love those things.

2. Oliver's sweet kisses.

3. Watching Oliver try to kiss Fritz on the lips.

4. Twelve days until Las Vegas!

5. Sam on daddy-duty, and doing a fantastic job of it.