The Perfect Dress

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Tuesday Randomosity: Shopping and Entertaining and Far Too Hot Edition

Vent vent. The appliance repair person came last week to examine my hood vent. He opened up the hood vent, asked me to describe the problem, diagnosed the issue as a faulty user interface (the piece that has the buttons that turn the fan on and off), looked up the part, and discovered that my hood vent is discontinued and he cannot source a part for it. All this, including when I tearfully begged him to at least disconnect the fan so that it would stop running at all hours of the day and night, took five minutes and cost $160. I am still salty about the whole thing. (I emailed the vent hood manufacturer weeks ago, asking about companies that service this hood vent. I also gave the model number of my hood vent to the appliance repair company. Why neither of those people bothered to inform me that the hood vent was DISCONTINUED is beyond me.) But at least the fan is OFF. (And we can reconnect it if we need to make something on the stove, which I am still avoiding due to excessive heat.)

I am trying to decide if I need a sous vide badly enough to buy one for myself. Jen has completely influencered me into wanting one; apparently it is really good at making various curds and I love a good curd. But it’s expensive enough that it feels like something I should request as a gift. But… this one is also on a big sale for Prime Day ($121 down from $199), so maybe I should just bite the bullet and get one????? Do you have a sous vide? What do you use it for, if not for curds? (I am aware it does MANY things besides curd-making.) (Curd is a very weird word.) 

Do you need to be influencered into buying a new small appliance? If so, then I HIGHLY recommend this Cuisinart immersion blender. I use mine ALL the time. In fact – and this is super embarrassing to admit – I have TWO of them, and I use both of them weekly, if not daily. (It’s embarrassing to admit because I had one of them for a million years, or so long that I completely forgot it had the little chopper/grinder attachment. Then I bought a new one, which was different only in that it also came with a large mixing/measuring cup.) I use them for smoothies, dressings, dips. This past weekend I made an impromptu whipped feta using the chopper/grinder cup. It’s so easy to use and I love that it takes up less room in the dishwasher than my blender or my food processor. (The one I have is not technically on a Prime Day deal, but it is 25% off.) (Ooooh, this one by Mueller IS on a Prime Day deal – 37% off and only $31.55!) (Do I need a third immersion blender set? No, I do not. Right? Or do I?)

I just finished two books that used the same murder method! And it wasn’t a super common murder method, like strangling or whatever. It was a fairly specific method. I love it when I experience that kind of synchronicity in books. Like there’s something in the collective consciousness that makes writers reach for similar things at similar times. 

The first dinner party went off without a hitch. We ended up making balsamic pork in the crockpot, and then having all sorts of goodies alongside it: brown rice, crumbled feta, kalamata olives, caramelized onions, sundried tomatoes, and marinated artichoke hearts. I also made a quinoa salad to go alongside it. Where I went wrong, I think, is in the appetizers. I made hummus and the aforementioned whipped feta, and served both with veggies and pita chips. People seemed to fill up on the appetizers and then didn’t have a whole lot of room left for the main course. Because we had six people over, I doubled the pork recipe. And… we had SO MUCH pork leftover, Internet. So much pork. My husband and I had it for dinner again on Sunday, and then yesterday I paired the pork with a mango salsa to make it different enough for us to enjoy for a third day in a row, plus a small Tupperware container for me to eat for lunch, AND I still had a generous portion leftover that I put in the freezer for another time. We also have so much quinoa salad leftover. How does anyone know how much food to make? I felt SURE that six adults would eat AT LEAST as much food as my husband and I do on our own, but that didn’t seem to be the case???? I don’t think the food was bad, although I guess I can’t rule that out? Well. I have a second chance this weekend, as Dinner Party 2 is coming up. This time, I am making tacos, and guacamole, and maybe salsa. THAT’S IT. (Although I am fretting a bit about what sort of meat I should make. Just ground beef? Or should I also do shredded chicken?)

The best decision I made for the dinner party was to include a friend for Carla. I figured she would be bored by all the adults, so we arranged for her bestie come over and spend the night. I didn’t have to worry about either of them the whole night. I mean, I fed them. (They did NOT eat balsamic pork.) And my husband (and possibly the other adults as well) watched them in the pool. But they entertained one another and had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, the kids then stayed awake until THREE O’CLOCK AM IN THE MORNING. And felt the need to keep me updated about their awakeness approximately every hour. I have no problem with the kids not sleeping. It’s a sleepover; not-sleeping is expected. But I was exhausted from a day spent cooking and cleaning and entertaining and then I didn’t sleep more than a few interrupted hours, so I ended up being pretty useless both Sunday AND Monday. 

Is it hot where you are? It’s hot, isn’t it. It seems to be hot everywhere, in the US at least. (And Canada. HI NICOLE. I hope you are ensconced in air conditioning right now!) We had a thunderstorm this morning at about four, and so everything is wet, but it’s also hot already (I am writing this at six) and all our windows are steamed up. “Hot and humid” is my least favorite state of being. I walk around in a constant half-melted state. My hair is impossible and I have been wearing it in a ponytail so much my scalp hurts. My face is a zitty mess. My deodorant is working as hard as it can but cannot stanch the sweat. I am longing for winter. But not really, because I am also enjoying the heck out of having a pool. Carla and I went swimming last night before dinner and I love it so much. 

Our summer schedule is – finally – so awesome. We have really settled into a rhythm right now, and I love it. I wake up at six, make tea, wander around my garden, make a smoothie, wake up Carla and watch a million cat videos with her. Let’s not speak of the period between waking her up and getting her into the car for camp. While she’s at camp, I exercise and write. I am part of an honest-to-goodness writing club right now, and I’m loving it. I buy groceries and do laundry and make endless phone calls and appointments for our house. I pick up Carla, spend as much time outside as possible, make and eat dinner, watch a show with my husband, go to bed. Repeat. It’s so lovely. One thing I am dreading about the school year is having to shift everything again. Especially now, I am enjoying the quiet hour or so by myself before I wake Carla up… but I’ll have to wake her up an hour earlier during the school year and I don’t know that I have the kind of constitution that enables ME to wake up at five. We’ll see, I guess. I’m trying not to waste any of this glorious summer with WORRYING.

Back to complaining about the heat, I am ogling all sorts of fans on amazon right now. I really, really want a fan for our gym. I get so sweaty while working out, Internet. It is disgusting. Even just walking on the treadmill, I become a puddle. I often type while walking (I have a treadmill desk attachment that I love) and I leave these horrendous sweaty paw prints on the desk. But I know NOTHING about fans. This one looks good – I like the tower look and it gets good reviews, and it seems like a reasonable price? Maybe this pedestal one would be better? It’s supposedly “space saving,” although I don’t know that it takes up any less space except visual. Do you have a fan that you like? 

Also in an attempt to beat the heat, I have been buying dresses like crazy. Earlier this summer, I splurged on threeamazing dresses from Boden. I love them ALL. Yet I find myself coveting MORE DRESSES. All the dresses! This one is cute and seems more casual than the Boden ones. Do I need it??? (No. I definitely do not NEED it. Do I want it? Yes. Do I want it enough to buy it? Jury’s still out. Although it is only $15… Hmmm…) My husband also sent me a link to a “freezer dress,” which sounds deeply intriguing. It apparently has some sort of special fabric that cools as you sweat. That sounds kind of amazing?! Ooooh there’s a maxi dress version, too. 

Another good thing about summer? My hydrangeas! Look how beautiful they are! When they are on the bush, overloaded by the weight of their own blooms, they aren’t quite as lovely. But in a vase on my counter, they are pretty spectacular.

Okay, that’s all I have time for, Internet. I hope you are staying cool, whatever you’re doing. 

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Five Favorite Things Friday

1. The First Day of Summer Break! Carla is done with school – done with elementary school, in fact, which boggles my mind; doesn’t it feel like just yesterday I was leaving cryptic messages announcing my pregnancy? – and now we are officially on summer break! The first day was a perfect day and I hope we have many perfect days just like it ahead of us. We slept in until eight o’clock, which felt decadent but also not too slothful. We ate breakfast and planned our day. Then we took a drive to Target for some provisions (a sun hat for me, a new pool toy for Carla, some popsicles for the garage freezer) and then to Home Depot for some additional planting supplies. We had all the car windows wide open while we drove and we picked summery songs to add to a summer playlist. We were both GIDDY with the promise of summer. Then, after lunch, we invited the neighbors over for a swim and the kids alternated eating snacks by the pool and swimming. (Note to self: everyone always thinks they want Cheez-Its but no one ever finishes a bag except the gluttonous ants.) While watching four children swim is not relaxing in any sense of the word, it was still a wonderful way to spend the day. 

2. Cherry Smoothies. I have been drinking cherry smoothies for breakfast for months now, and I am not tired of them yet. They are SO GOOD, y’all. Not too sweet, and 33 grams of protein without protein powder. I also enjoy the lovely purpley pink color. 

3. My Cuisinart Stick Blender. Smoothie-relatedly, I am loving my stick blender. I am still very fond of my Ninja blender, which has its own smoothie cup perfect for making smoothies. But since I made a smoothie daily, sometimes the Ninja isn’t clean and I need another option. (The versions of the blender available now come with TWO smoothie cups, those lucky ducks.) I love this stick blender because it came with a nice, big carafe that I can use for the smoothies AND it came with a little food processor attachment that is perfect for salsa and dressings and other small-batch things not worth the hassle of my enormous food processor. 

4. My Indoor Plants. I’ve already gone on and on about my outdoor plants, but my indoor plants are THRIVING. My orchid – which I got when Carla was in pre-K – is blooming again, the anthurium is blooming happily, two of the succulents that are leftover from Carla’s tenth birthday are still alive. I am a teeny bit concerned about Carla’s orchid cactus – it’s sprawling all over the place and seems happy, but from my limited research it might not be getting enough sun? Well. I don’t know if there’s a sunnier spot, sweetheart, so we’ll have to see what happens.

5. A Comfy Summer Schlub Dress. I bought this dress on a whim and I am loving it. It’s my ideal summer lounge-around-and-go-to-Target dress – very casual, so soft it feels like jammies, but cute enough that I feel like I’m making an effort. Also, it has pockets. 

What are you loving lately?

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Five for Friday

My poor husband is STILL not caught up on sleep after his call week, so I am continuing to make his coffee for him every night when he inevitably falls asleep early before taking care of it. Last night, I managed to grind the coffee beans for too long – the grinder makes a terrific racket, but somehow I stuffed it into the far reaches of my overstuffed brain and just FORGOT that it was on, merrily grinding away. So I ground too many beans and had extra grounds, and so as not to waste them, I made myself a pot of coffee this morning and now I am at the Visible Trembling stage of caffeination. 

Also, I have SIX PHONE CALLS to make today. SIX!!!! That is too many phone calls! How will I get through them all?!?! That is why I am procrastinating. Although no one is quite awake yet, I think. So I am just wasting time until I have to CALL people. So many people!

  1. What kinds of flowers should I buy? We are about to list our house for sale. (ACK!) The realtor had a few suggestions for how we should spruce up our house. Most of the suggestions were very simple: remove family photographs, clear surfaces, thin the books on the bookshelves. Okay, I can do those things. But at the very end of her visit, when we were touring the outside of my house, she said, “Add some flower pots to the front here.” I dutifully wrote this down, but honestly I have no idea what she means. No idea! I am happy to buy more flowers – of all the things I can spend Sprucing Money on, flowers are at least FUN and PRETTY, at least until I kill them. But I don’t know what she means or how to execute whatever it is she envisions. (She is a wonderful realtor and human, but I will be unable to get any additional suggestions from her. When I tried to gently prod, she said, “You can look it up online.”) (I looked it up online and am STILL CLUELESS. I even walked around our neighborhood to try to find things to emulate, and nothing!) Do you know what I should do? Do I buy a bunch of marigolds and shove them into the ground around the perimeter of the beds? Also, we have DEER, who are JERKS. (They just ate all the beautiful, flourishing petunias in my backyard, the jerks.) How would you spruce up this area with color? Here is a photo of what it looks like now: 

I will note that Carla’s rock pile has been relocated. She was allowed to keep seven precious rocks. The others now make up the border of another, smaller bed.

Also, my petunias are hanging in there, by the skin of their teeth. I hate to toss them, since they are still blooming. But they are so RAGGEDY. Tell me, should I say goodbye to the petunias (not pictured, due to raggedyness) and get something else? (And if so, WHAT?) This whole area of the house gets lots of direct sunlight (we face east), so I think the petunias are suffering from a combination of benevolent overwatering and sun crisping. 

  • I have been totally slacking on my exercise routines. I have also been eating more comfort foods (nachos, pizza) than I want to be eating at this time in my life, but listen. Sometimes you just need to eat what you want to eat. Sometimes nachos feed the SOUL. But the exercise! I NEED that, for my mental health. And I have just not been finding time. Also, the last couple of times I have managed to grab an extra 30-60 minutes to devote to working out, I have injured myself. I did a really great workout (it was a Tracy Steen workout, but I can’t find the specific one), but it had some lunges and on one lunge I felt a muscle in the side of my thigh just… clench, I guess is the word. It hurt, at the time, and then it was painful to walk for a few days, but then it was fine. And then the next workout I tried had SO MANY LUNGES. I need to not do lunges, I think. I know some people avoid burpees in a workout (I get it; I am not a fan), but I need to avoid lunges for awhile now. I wish I knew a good alternative to lunges, like a modification that I could do that would work similar bodyparts without straining anything. I also tried tacking a seven-minute ab workout on after a brisk walk outside, and it was SO HARD. How can a seven-minute workout be SO HARD? (It was so hard.)
  • No matter how many interviews I give, I never get less nervous. Interviewing subject-matter experts has been a part of my writing work for… decades now. I like interviewing people and learning about their passions and getting them to talk about how they got involved with a particular industry and discovering what makes them get out of bed in the morning. It’s invigorating, talking to someone about something they love. And yet, I still get SO ANXIOUS in the hours leading up to these calls! Yes, calls! They are not even in-person interviews! Sweaty palms, knotted stomach. I am also one of those people who can’t accomplish anything else until an appointment is over. Maybe not, like, a doctor’s appointment. But certainly if I am speaking with a subject-matter expert in advance of writing something about/for them, I can think of nothing else until the call is over. This works out okay if the call takes place first thing in the morning. But if the person I’m speaking with is in a different time zone, forget about it. The day is TOAST. 
  • Speaking of things that make me anxious: I had an initial consultation with a therapist. I was, of course, deeply anxious about every step of the interaction, from the initial email to the actual call. But she seems very nice and comes highly recommended from a friend. So we’ll see how it goes. She was very upfront about saying that if we have a few sessions and I don’t feel like she’s the right fit, she will happily help me find someone who will be a better fit. I liked that. I feel really, really stupid about pursuing therapy. My life is full of gifts. I am, in the majority, happy and healthy. Also, I am extremely self-centered and so have thought a lot about what my “issues” are, so I’m not sure a therapist will have a lot to add in terms of insights. (That’s a very arrogant way to think, I see that.) And yet, I do think I could benefit from therapy. Especially if I can learn some techniques to help avoid negative self-talk and to be more proactive about expressing my needs/boundaries and to be a better/more patient parent. I also think that if I had a friend in my position, I would encourage her to reach out for some therapeutic input. So I am trying to be my own friend. I’m doing it. But I still feel like I might potentially be wasting this person’s time, and/or be taking up a slot that could be going to someone who REALLY needs it. 
  • I bought something(s). Because we are in a phase of CULLING, not in a phase of acquisition (unless you count acquiring packing paper and bubble wrap and endless boxes), I have been trying to discourage BUYING THINGS. But… Loft got me. There’s this dress that I bought last year that I LOVE. It is literally the only thing I own that always gets compliments when I wear it. It is SO comfortable and SO flattering. Plus, you can just throw a denim jacket over it in the fall and wear it then, too. Then this summer, Loft came out with the same dress in a few different colors. I resisted buying any of them ALL SUMMER, and then Loft had a $40-dresses sale, and I even resisted THAT. But each time they sent me an email advertising the dress, I would go look at it… and even put it in my cart. And then of course I would get emails saying, “Don’t forget…” or “It looks like you left something behind…” or “Lots of people are buying this dress, don’t miss out” and all other sorts of super creepy tracker-y things that I hate and yet were hugely effective. I kept thinking about the dress and thinking about it. And finally it was on sale for 48% off – just a little more than the $40 it was at its lowest. So I bought it in three other colors. They haven’t arrived yet, and I can and will take back one or all should they not be as cute as the original. But I’m kind of excited about having more dresses.  

What are you thinking about this Friday?