Potatoes in the Mist

I made a really awesome dinner, from Vegetarian Planet . I changed the recipe a little bit. Here it is: 1. Boil water for pasta and cook the penne till just tender. Drain. 2. Melt 4 T butter (I used Vermont cultured butter, really good). Add 1 tsp minced garlic and 1 heaping tsp minced ginger. Saute for 1 min. Add 1/2 t dried sage, 3/4 c red lentils (don't use brown), and 3/4 c water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and cook for 15 min or until lentils are done. Add 2 or 3 big handfuls of fresh spinach and 1 tsp salt. Cook until spinach is wilted. Add pepper to taste and drained pasta. Plus, Z likes it.

I have a cookbook that's coming apart at the seams - the binding is broken, and the 400+ age-spotted and crumb-specked pages are separated into little packets. It's Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons. (The funny thing is, my mother has a copy in virgin condition.) Do you have any cookbooks like that? They are probably the best ones.

Today a friend came in from Brooklyn with her daughter, and we went to a park I hadn't tried before. E loved it. He kept saying, "I don't want to leave, this park is so beautiful." Then we sat by a little pond and he threw bits of bagels with cream cheese for the ducks. Life in Manhattan can be so crazy, sometimes it is nice to just sit on a low stone wall and give some bagels to some ducks.

A book came out a couple of years ago about the middle-aged brain. I didn't read it, but a friend of ours did, and filled us in. He explained that the "young brain" can assimilate new information more quickly, such as foreign languages, but the middle-aged brain has better judgment. I used to think that middle age began at 40. I had a writing teacher some years ago who was 36 at the time, and referred to himself as middle-aged. Now I know what he means. At 36 or 37, I forget which (I'm 37 now), I started to feel middle-aged. I didn't love this at first. But now I can feel the better judgment of that "middle-aged brain." The beginnings of wisdom...

I just noticed that, in my iTunes library, "Upside Down" by Diana Ross and "Walk on By" by Dionne Warwick are right next to each other. They're kind of thematically related. Playboy/heartbreaker. In other news, about three or five of our bowls disappeared. Just vanished into the night. I will post here if they reappear.

I got some more time to myself today than usual because Z is starting to enjoy D's company more. So I got to take a shower, shave my legs, paint my toenails (shade: Ate Berries in the Canaries), do an extra yoga routine (a relaxation sequence from a Tara Stiles book), and sew some squares in my grownup quilt. It felt really good to get a break. I also read a bit of Triburbia by Karl Taro Greenfield. This started out promisingly with the story of a father in an upscale neighborhood in Manhattan, who looked like the suspect on a child molester poster. Then the next story was about a handicapped boy with a sister who looked like a model and was popular, and he wasn't, blah blah yawn. So then I tried Every Day by David Levithan, about a sixteen-year-old boy who wakes up in the body of someone different each day. This one is holding my attention.

So D took E to visit the in-laws at their summer house these past two days. I stayed behind, thinking it would be a nice break to only take care of one kid. I learned a couple things: it really isn't significantly easier to take care of one kid, especially without the other parent; and despite things often being chaotic and busy when everyone is here, I missed them, and missed E's little voice which is almost always chatting from the time he gets up. Just finished Penelope by Rebecca Harrington (and discovered via Facebook that the author is my second cousin's niece, I guess through marriage, because her brother's children are both small). I really liked it though some of it was too close for comfort. It's about a socially awkward but funny and smart girl and her first year at college. Some of it verged on satire, but a lot of it rang true. If you've ever missed social cues or inadvertently pissed people off, it will probably resonate with you. Also, it was ju...

I finished watching 2 Days in New York this morning. It's a Julie Delpy movie, also starring Chris Rock, and a guy who is always in Chris Rock movies (I used to see him at my old gym's pool, and also pushing someone in a wheelchair in my neighborhood). The movie also had a scene in my neighborhood. It was fun, light, enjoyable. A couple of scenes fell flat, but overall I like her neurotic/female/French version of Woody Allen. I have started the kindergarten admission process (and then hopefully we won't have to do this again for a very, very long time. All these schools seem to give preference to siblings so that will hopefully make things easier when it is Z's turn). E is currently in preschool but his school doesn't go up to kindergarten. So I am wading through applications, with open houses, parent interviews, and playdates in our future. Some of these schools even have "early decision," like college. New York is insane in some ways. At least they ha...

Z and I went to the Whitney today (we have already been to the Met, the Guggenheim and the MOMA). I was in a bad mood after waiting an hour in line and having a woman with brass cajones try to cut in front of me. (I foiled her.) So we got a brownie in the cafe and shared it, which improved things slightly, and then we took in the Yayoi Kusama exhibit. One floor of it was shut down for the day, but we still got to see the other, and amazingly it was basically worth the hour wait. Very striking art. We weren't supposed to take photos, so I didn't take any with my iPhone, although it's probably an exception. My favorite pieces were: a painting from 1975 with a large dark-blue eye (the color of a night sky) filled with stars; and a bunch of octopus legs in buckets, all white (very memorable and I REALLY wanted to take a picture of it). I recommend it, though you might want to go on a weekday.

Tonight I looked out the window and saw a full moon hanging low over one of the neighboring buildings. Then I heard some music drifting in. Initially I thought it was a saxophone, then I realized it was probably a trumpet. It wasn't a tune I recognized, though it sounded a little jazzy and slightly sentimental, like the soundtrack to one of Woody Allen's softer movies. Just one of those moments I want to remember :)

So I just finished reading Jonathan Tropper's newest book, One Last Thing Before I Go. I thought it was great, probably his best yet. He is one of the best authors at balancing humor and pathos, that I have come across. After finishing that, I started How Shakespeare Changed Everything . I don't usually like nonfiction, but this seems fascinating. The author, who did his dissertation on Shakespeare, talks about a tribal ritual where men test each other on their ability to quote passages from Julius Caesar by heart. If they mess up, they are whipped with telephone wires. During this whole thing, everyone is drunk on local rum. (I know, bizarre...but interesting). I finished the baby quilt and started work on an adult one.

I finished the sweater for SIL's baby... and also the quilt top... It's a little messy but I had fun doing it. 

Z and I got some culture this week. We went to the Guggenheim... and the MOMA. My favorite part of the MOMA was the sculpture garden, filled with funky sculptures, water fountains and a peaceful aura.

So we all took a Spirit Line cruise today. This is a boat that glides down the river near Manhattan, pulls up close to the Statue of Liberty, and then circles around back to the starting point. It was really fun. It reminded me of a wedding, but more relaxed; you didn't have to dress up, and you could bring your kids. The waiters doubled as singers and dancers; one of them performed "Footloose," and another sang, "Mama loves mambo," and offered the microphone to Z.

So I've been meaning to make a quilt for the longest time...and I started making one for the new baby (or imminent baby, whatever you want to call her). I wish I did this before. It's not that hard, and it's fun. I love creating things. This is the first row:

D's sister is expecting a baby girl near the end of October (right around Z's birthday, in fact). I am really excited. They are only going to be a year apart in age. I hope they will be best friends. I grew up in a large family, which I enjoyed, with many cousins, but nobody was near my age. I'm thinking of making her this: Of course I will make it in pink.

...is cutting baby nails. I remember when E was born, somebody (probably my mother) told me, "You're going to have to cut his nails." I thought, are you kidding? Clipping those tiny nails would be like plucking a hair from a worm. I managed to get out of it with E - my mother did it that first time, with scissors (that's what all the '70s moms did), and afterward I just kind of peeled them off (like I usually do with my own). That's not an option with Z, who has strong, sharp nails that can't be peeled. And she likes to use them. I saw a network of scratches on my chest; she likes to rake her nails there when she nurses. Fearing I would scar, I had D hold her hands still while I clipped. Hopefully her scratches will hurt less now.

I'll never forget when I met one of the other moms in my co-op. In the land of helicopter parenting, she really stands out. She drank Red Bull when she was nursing, etc. Anyway, once I was in the playroom with her and her child started going through her pocketbook. Suddenly her mouth was full of cigarette butts and the mother was lunging across the room at her: "Don't eat those! Those things are expensive!" I remember smugly thinking, "E would never put cigarette butts in his mouth." Fast-forward four years. I have a baby who has swallowed my moisturizer, tried to eat A&D diaper ointment (resulting in a call to Poison Control after I read the warning on the label), and stuffed some twigs and leaves into her mouth at a park near E's school today. E was always very cautious with eating. "He'll never be poisoned," my mother observed; he often wanted us to eat something before he would try it. It just amazes me how different two children ...

Today was a good day. I put on Z's swim diaper and we all went to D's gym (which I recently joined) for Family Day, when you can all use the pool together. D held Z so that I could swim independently. It was the first time I've swam (not counting wading while holding Z) since she was born! And she was perfectly content to be held by him. We also rested in the hot tub and went out on the sundeck. This is one of the views from the deck: Later, I made an asparagus and Havarti puff pastry tart.

So we went to the beach today. It was nice to have a break from our routine. The train was packed, filled with people who smelled like sunscreen and beer. Both E and Z loved the water, and Z loved the sand as well. She kept trying to eat it, and laughing when I tried to stop her. For dinner we had quesadillas that we ate on the beach, plus a bit of rose wine.