(the OG girls road tripping team)
the last couple of summers we have driven to california for our annual visit… first because of the corona and then because hank is no longer allowed to fly as an “emotional support” dog, which is BANANAS because if i hadn’t had him around during this pandemic and all the crazy things that have happened in the world the last few years i don’t know that i would have held onto my sanity at all. we have journeyed in different configurations… sometimes my first husband has accompanied us, sometimes it’s been me and the kids (and hank, of course!) but this is the first time it’s just been us girls, me and lu (AND hank, of course.)
Read Morewe were still in amsterdam over passover this year, so we had a belated seder dinner this weekend. seders are a big deal to prepare… there’s all of the components of the seder plate, which depending on where you live, can be difficult to come by. in new york, all of the markets suddenly dedicate at least two aisles to passover related groceries in the week leading up to the holiday. in amsterdam, you would never know passover is happening. i had to roast a drumstick our first year living there because i couldn’t make the butcher understand the lamb shank. also, there is no matzo meal, only matzo crackers. in order to make matzo ball soup, i had to first grind up the crackers myself with a rolling pin. it was like little house on the jewish prairie in my amsterdam apartment. horseradish, also, is not easy to find. for that i would have to go to what we referred to as the "expat black market.” it’s a tiny shop on leidesgracht that caters to homesick american and british expats. the prices are outrageous, but it’s often the only place to get a crucial ingredient… a can of libby’s, libby’s, libby’s pumpkin, for example, is typically about ten euros around thanksgiving! so for a shiksa raising my children jewish (the faith of their father), seders can be a challenge, especially when we were living in the netherlands.
Read Morethe pandemic has wreaked havoc and heartbreak all over the world the last couple of years… one small but personally impactful effect was the closing of my bar (exercise) studio. i am NOT a natural exerciser and somehow i managed to attend this class with regularity for nearly TEN years. they DO offer online classes but i always answer the phone or get distracted or manage not to complete them. i tried to replace my bar classes with extra vigorous walks but hank is not the best partner for that. he only wants to visit his friends or sniff around under the picnic tables in the park in the hopes of finding a snack. he does not keep a good pace and frequently just lays down and refuses to move at all. i tried going on “dog walks” without my dog, but that feels silly and no fun. also, we have so many blizzards here (and i am NOT one to march around in the snow like a straggling member of the donner party) so they put a big dent in my walking routine. the result is that i may have a new career opportunity… posing on the biscuit cans that you bang on the counter!
Read Morewe just had our first blizzard in boulder… in typical colorado fashion we went straight from summer to winter, with only an afternoon of fall. i never get used to the roller coaster weather here. i am never prepared with the right size snow boots for the kids or snow pants that fit properly or matching pairs of mittens. at best, i get a whiff of the cow poo smell (which is a pretty reliable snow predictor - i don’t know why) and i have a few hours to get ready. at worst, i wake up and the yard is all white and i have to scurry around and see how i can outfit the kids in some collection of warm clothes before school starts. we are usually late on this first snow day… i just always expect there will be that third season before the snow comes and even after seven years here, i haven’t learned to check the weather.
Read Morenow that we are in the thick of summer, i am reposting my favorite summer dinner… strawberry shortcake! ENJOY!
every summer when i was growing up, there would be one night where we had strawberry shortcake for dinner. no broccoli or pork chops or mac n’ cheese… just a heaping plateful of home-made(ish) strawberry shortcake. (i say “ish” because my mother always made the shortcake recipe right off the bisquick box… which is DELICIOUS, by the way.) there was nothing more exciting for me than having dessert for dinner. it literally felt like christmas in july.
Read Moreas much as i have admonished my children against growing up and getting older, they continue to do it anyway. i miss their dimpled hands and big round cheeks and chiclet teeth and pudgy toes and wobbly walks and uninhibited dances. despite my threats, their limbs have elongated, their knuckle dimples have disappeared, their baby teeth have fallen out and they orange justice and hype, instead of hokey pokey. there ARE some benefits… they are potty trained, they can clean their own noses, they dress themselves and they can even fold their laundry and put it away (when threatened)… i HATE dealing with laundry.
Read Morewe were still in amsterdam over passover this year, so we had a belated seder dinner this weekend. seders are a big deal to prepare… there’s all of the components of the seder plate, which depending on where you live, can be difficult to come by. in new york, all of the markets suddenly dedicate at least two aisles to passover related groceries in the week leading up to the holiday. in amsterdam, you would never know passover is happening. i had to roast a drumstick our first year living there because i couldn’t make the butcher understand the lamb shank. also, there is no matzo meal, only matzo crackers. in order to make matzo ball soup, i had to first grind up the crackers myself with a rolling pin. it was like little house on the jewish prairie in my amsterdam apartment. horseradish, also, is not easy to find. for that i would have to go to what we referred to as the "expat black market.” it’s a tiny shop on leidesgracht that caters to homesick american and british expats. the prices are outrageous, but it’s often the only place to get a crucial ingredient… a can of libby’s, libby’s, libby’s pumpkin, for example, is typically about ten euros around thanksgiving! so for a shiksa raising my children jewish (the faith of their father), seders can be a challenge, especially when we were living in the netherlands.
Read Morenow that hank is on a diet, we have been trying to step up our exercise routine and we made an amazing discovery… COOT LAKE! coot lake is the perfect kind of nature for us… there is always parking across the street, the paths are flat and well maintained and we can circle the lake in converse or even low boots. there are lots of nice dogs for hank to romp around with (he can go off leash!) and there are benches for me to sit on, as well as little poems posted on signs here and there. and of course, there is the pretty water to look at. one of the hardest things for me about living in boulder is that there is no ocean. i have never lived anywhere before that wasn’t bumped up against a big body of water and sometimes i feel a bit panicky about being landlocked. certainly, a lake isn’t the same thing as an ocean, but it is still blue and has movement and reflection and alleviates the dry, dusty feel of the relentless colorado sun.
Read Morewe just had our first blizzard in boulder… in typical colorado fashion we went straight from summer to winter, with only an afternoon of fall. i never get used to the roller coaster weather here. i am never prepared with the right size snow boots for the kids or snow pants that fit properly or matching pairs of mittens. at best, i get a whiff of the cow poo smell (which is a pretty reliable snow predictor - i don’t know why) and i have a few hours to get ready. at worst, i wake up and the yard is all white and i have to scurry around and see how i can outfit the kids in some collection of warm clothes before school starts. we are usually late on this first snow day… i just always expect there will be that third season before the snow comes and even after seven years here, i haven’t learned to check the weather.
Read Moreevery summer when i was growing up, there would be one night where we had strawberry shortcake for dinner. no broccoli or pork chops or mac n’ cheese… just a heaping plateful of home-made(ish) strawberry shortcake. (i say “ish” because my mother always made the shortcake recipe right off the bisquick box… which is DELICIOUS, by the way.) there was nothing more exciting for me than having dessert for dinner. it literally felt like christmas in july.
Read Morerecently, hank had to get his THIRD collar. his neck just keeps getting bigger and bigger. i certainly didn’t expect him to have a swan neck like audrey hepburn… he IS a bulldog after all, but i have been surprised by his rapid growth. he also now weighs in at TWENTY-SEVEN pounds… more than half the weight of my daughter. i think his bones must be made of steel. while i am grateful for his sturdiness and good health (except when he eats chapsticks) his many milestones in such a short period have left me reeling. only two months ago, i was working at the kitchen counter with hank at my feet and all of a sudden he was just GONE. i looked all around the room and was wondering if he’d somehow left when i heard pattering overhead. somehow he’d managed to go up the stairs all by himself. until that point, we’d been carrying him up and down. it reminded me of when my son was about four months old and i left him in the middle of the room on a blanket and went to the bathroom. he was also gone when i came back. i finally found him in a corner and realized that he had learned to roll over… and over and over. unfortunately, he could only go in one direction so he was a bit stuck.
Read Morewe were still in amsterdam over passover this year, so we had a belated seder dinner this weekend. seders are a big deal to prepare… there’s all of the components of the seder plate, which depending on where you live, can be difficult to come by. in new york, all of the markets suddenly dedicate at least two aisles to passover related groceries in the week leading up to the holiday. in amsterdam, you would never know passover is happening. i had to roast a drumstick our first year living there because i couldn’t make the butcher understand the lamb shank. also, there is no matzo meal, only matzo crackers. in order to make matzo ball soup, i had to first grind up the crackers myself with a rolling pin. it was like little house on the jewish prairie in my amsterdam apartment. horseradish, also, is not easy to find. for that i would have to go to what we referred to as the "expat black market.” it’s a tiny shop on leidesgracht that caters to homesick american and british expats. the prices are outrageous, but it’s often the only place to get a crucial ingredient… a can of libby’s, libby’s, libby’s pumpkin, for example, is typically about ten euros around thanksgiving! so for a shiksa raising my children jewish (the faith of their father), seders can be a challenge, especially when we were living in the netherlands.
Read Morei have always had a bit of a southern obsession. i loved watching gone with the wind as a child… i was mesmerized by the big hoop skirts decorated with intricate ribbons and lace and layered over all the petticoats and cinched up corsets. i spoke with a terrible southern accent for the entirety of my fourth grade year, nearly driving my father out of the house. in my twenties, whenever i suffered a break up, i would return to gone with the wind and read in the middle of the night when i woke up miserable. “fiddle dee dee… i’ll think about that another day!” i’d tell myself when i couldn’t stop ruminating over whoever had broken my heart… just like scarlet. in my early thirties, i was invited to a wedding in north carolina. there were loads of southerners there, but there was one proper belle that i became fixated on. she was newly pregnant so she had a perfect little baby bump poking out beneath all of her floral empire waist sundresses. she always had a matching cashmere cardigan draped over her shoulders that never fell off, even though the top wasn’t buttoned. her husband wore pink pants and immaculately ironed button downs and loafers all weekend. i studied her and followed her around all of the wedding parties and events like a stalker. i couldn’t wait for the bride to return from her honeymoon so i could interrogate her about my belle. i learned that all of my belle’s towels were monogramed and every christmas her entire extended family had a huge photo shoot where they wore matching clothes. apparently, holiday cards are very important in proper southern families raising belles and gentlemen.
Read Moremy whole life, when i envisioned getting a dog, i pictured a brown-haired dog. we are a brown-haired family and more importantly, we have dark wood floors throughout our house. the flooring was an intentional choice because i can’t stand the sight of my long, brunette, fallen-out strands on white tile or light floors. also, i wear A LOT of black and navy, even in summer, and didn’t want light dog hairs on my clothes. so last july when we got permission from my dad to get a puppy (yes - at 48 i still felt i needed to ask because the vikings STILL hadn’t won the superbowl) and we’d zeroed in on a frenchie, we immediately decided we would get a “brindle” because they have very dark brown/black hair like we do.
Read Morehank is perfect. he sleeps through the night and always wakes up in a good mood. he is super quiet…he has only ever barked at his own reflection in the piano or when he is trying to play with another pup. (so maybe he won’t make the best guard dog?) he sleeps A LOT so i am still able to get work done. he is perfectly happy to binge watch the crown with me. he allows my daughter to dress and and undress him in his various hoodies and weird little outfits she creates. he hops around the yard like a bunny and thoroughly enjoys the simple things like chewing sticks and sniffing mulch. like me, he is a bit lazy… on our last walk he would only go as far as one and a half houses (and in my neighborhood the houses are very close together!) before he sat down and refused to go further. i had to carry him the one and a half houses back home. and of course, he is absolutely the most ADORABLE little guy you’ve ever seen.
Read Moremy father grew up in minneapolis. he was a HUGE vikings fan. we literally had to clear out of the house whenever they were playing so he could focus on the game without the distraction of little children. (maybe also because my mother didn’t want us exposed to the salty stream of comments my father would yell at the tv.) i became a devoted fan as well, because what i wanted most in life was a dog. my father used to tell me that “if the vikings win the super bowl, i will get you a puppy.” each year, i followed their progress and kept track of their stats. i wore their colors and got in fights on the bus defending their honor - i was the only vikings fan in my elementary school because at this point we were living in northern california. the vikings actually made it to the super bowl FOUR times, but they never won. and i never got a puppy. i don’t know what my father would have done had they actually won, because my brother is so severely allergic to dogs that we would have had to sell him had we brought a dog into the house. i don’t think my parents would have done this, regardless of my father’s promise, because they really loved my brother. to this day, the vikings have never won the super bowl and i have never had a puppy. until now…
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