What a Weekend

I love four day weekends. I know, it's a bold proclamation, and I should be commended for the brave issues I take stances on. I also love pizza and Michael Phelps and kittens.

The weather was fall-down perfect this weekend. No marine layer, no haze, just bright blue sky, clean, post-rain air, even 80 degree temps on Monday! In February! S and I decided to cruise down to the beach on Sunday...along with half of San Diego County. We drove around and around before we found some street parking near the Stone Steps. It was a zoo at Beacons and Carlsbad and all the best beach haunts. Seriously, you would think it had been sleeting for two straight months the way we all frantically scrambled to the ocean like desperate prisoners. But there is something to be said about freshly-washed beach air. Soooo good for you.

I cooked S some migas on Valentine's morning, he liked them a lot, I thought they were just OK, but they were hearty and a good excuse to eat sour cream. We watched a bit of the Daytona 500, but eventually got too distracted by the sunshine so that's when we wandered over to the beach. S continues to play with our fancy new camera, taking ugly pictures of me sitting on driftwood, and seagulls staring at him. I swear they have brains like humans, they have something going on behind their eyes like they are plotting an attack. If they had weapons other than their own doo-doo, they would destroy us all.

We continued our weekend 101 cruising by heading down to the Cardiff Seaside Market, the greatest grocery store ever. It's so expensive, but they have so many beautiful things. Their produce is gorgeous, the meat, seafood, and deli is amazing, the beer section is huge and local and crafty, and their flower section at the front makes me cluelessly stop and block the entrance to the store every time because I'm freaking out and yelling at S to "smell this!!! look at this rose!! I can't stand it!!!" This is the market at which we always buy beer and exotic cheeses when we're camping across the street. It's a tradition, and it felt odd to be there during a non-camping time.

After procuring our Entenmanns (I had a powerful hankering for an afternoon donut), Heineken, and two kinds of cheeses (Italian Pepperjack and Idiazabal), we headed back to the homestead. We set our chairs into the sunshine and drank beer shandys (thank you Dr. M for introducing us to that particular joy), a mix of Heineken and ginger ale, ate olives, cheese, and crackers. S took more pictures, mostly of a bee collecting pollen from the flowers in our iceplant, and I said, for the fourteenth time since we got the camera "I need to learn how to use that thing..."

Then we got all gussied up like grownups and went out to dinner at a relatively new restaurant in E-town called Barracuda. They had a lot of seafood on the menu, but also lamb, beef, duck, and various nice-restauranty foods. S had the most perfect roast duck ever. It was so tender, not fatty at all, just rich and perfect. I had underwhelming but good halibut. It was a really nice meal, great service, good ambiance, I would definitely go back!

The rest of the weekend was filled with other delights: a fun but fruitless shopping excursion with my mom, watching S paint my beautiful bookcase, Olympic celebrations, and hours going through boxes of stuff in my parents' garage. I found some hilarious mementos from high school and college that were absolute gems. I don't know how to decide what to keep and what to toss!

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day wherever you are!

Artsy Fartsy

Usually the two thoughts most occupying my brain are "what's for dinner?" and "can I just read my book now?" But as a new wife and nester, I really want to spend all my free time decorating our little home, or at least thinking about decorating our new home. I am super excited because S has built me a new bookcase, and it is simple and just fantastic. I've already informed him that this does NOT count towards the dream library he will someday build me, said dream library limiting me in terms of how many books I'm allowed to have at one time. (I keep telling him I want the library from Beauty & The Beast, and he keeps telling me we won't ever be living in a castle with a multi-story tower. He's so negative.)

Anyway, the bookcase is built and primed, and is waiting for the rain to stop, and me to pick the exact perfect shade of peacock blue so it can be painted and finally moved into our place in The Leuc. (Not to be confused with The Fee.)

I already have most of the artwork picked out for above the bookcase, including a mirror hanger/door knob thingee with a picture of a squirrel on it. It's from Anthropologie, therefore, it is cute and funky, whereas if I had found it at a garage sale, it would be declared random and scary. How about random and funky?

I bought some decopauge stuff the other day, but I've never used it before. I'm looking forward to joining the decopauge party that has swept our nation for years. I plan on finding some sort of decorative and overpriced paper, and then covering one of those multi-drawer thingees from IKEA in it.

Knitting is still trudging along, although the other night I experimented with some stitches and things went haywire. But at least I haven't forgotten how to knit and purl, so that's good.

Ah! To make "The Bookcase", a delicious new cocktail invented by S and Dr.M, combine Tanqueray Ten (or any gin you like), St. Germain, club soda, and optional blueberry juice. Then read a book. Then pass out from the cocktail.