sunny sunday - recovery (you would think?)

Glaced fruit at Hediard, Paris December 2005.

Boring but true. Unpacked, deefloofed, mail sorted, recycling out, pictures downloaded and soon to be flickered, restaurant for tonight picked, garden surveyed.

Still no tree.

Oh well, there is always tomorrow night.

This could shape up to the most organized before christmas rush followed by a lack of enthusiasm for the whole holiday based on a number of pixy sticks that are all starting to fall into place or not.

So, stay tuned.

Off to airport again.

Portland tonight.

later.

yours hackingly,

the still sick nm

to date

Every flight I have been on in on this journey has had delays. To paris, from paris, to london, an unexpected stop today in ORD because of nonfunctioning lavs. So, now I have wasted 12 hours of my vacation sitting around dealing with weather, beauracracy and engineering.

I give up.

Somewhere on the way to ORD I crossed 100,000 BIS (butt in seat) miles on American Airlines only to be greeted with a gate far from immigration, no customer services agents to help rebook (lucky me, I called from the plane when we landed in ORD), a non-working escalator at DFW immigration and a two hour wait for the next flight.

Oh well, at least I still have a first class seat on the next leg.

I'll post about the actual trip, right now I'm just cranky.

nm

cucina povera

Cucina povera is Roman cooking, cucina on the cheap, tasty, filling and uses every bit of whatever you have. Much like the snout to tail cooking made popular by Fergus Henderson who runs St. John, Romans have been using offal as part of daily cooking. Yesterday for lunch, TH had trippa alla Romana - a tripe stew with tomatoes, tripe and pecorino cheese, which pronounced pretty decent. It is found on many menus here, along with cervelle (brains) and fegato (liver). I'm not a big fan, but I appreciate that its still simple, straightforward cooking that is still available and not elevated to superstar status.

Today I had a lovely lunch of carciofi alla giudia (deep fried whole artichokes), cacio e pepe and an insalata mista, TH had carpaccio con rughetta, a dish of guiancale e porcini pasta and we shared an tarte di ricotta e ciccolata. It was all delicious, it was at a restaurant suggested to me by our friend D, I can't remember the second recommendation, but this one was pretty darn fine. The weather was amazing, but alas, it was a scootch bit too cold for Romans to sit out and dine. The room was decorated most sweetly, without the typical over blown checked cloths of some trattorie/osterie or the smoker's pink that is found in some of the more bespoke restaurants in Rome.

I'm still not feeling at my tip topness even after all that Airborne, so we're laying low and just schelpping across the Campo for dinner at La Carbonara. Some think this place is overrated, me I am salivating over their antipasti and my saltimbocca alla romano. TH and I are becoming big fans of puntarelle, so we may have to get one to share.

Tomorrow afternoon, we schelp off to London to see Miss J. and then N &R. I will be sorry to leave here, but I know I'll be back sooner than later and that it will be as lovely as ever.

nm

Rome - mostaccioli, antipasti and auguri

Good day all.

Slept better than I have in months. We had a lazier day than I had planned, but we're not complaining.

Lunch at Vecchia Roma, coffee at Cammerino, shopping for a small dinner, taking in the christmas lights and shopping for little things and answering - si, c'e un regalo when they ask if its a gift, even if it is not, because they wrap with such panache. Oh, I forgot, gelato at Della Palma and Giolliti - all in the brown to tan color range. :)

Tonight TH is making omelettes con funghi for dinner. I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so I think I'll pass on gelato, however, methinks I've made another Alberto Pica convert.

Well, guess I'll take an Airborne and cuddle up with the latest Alice Munro.

Oh and try and remind me I'm on vacation and that checking work email is a bad, bad, bad thing.

nm

benevenuti a roma

All roads lead to Rome, but between a manifestation on the RER ligne B, a Air France delayed to the rafters full flight and a 9-5 strike by the Italian Rail workers, our what would be 5 hour trip became more like a 8 hour trip.

Ugh.

However, here we are on a coolish evening. We have stocked ourselves with latteria de commune di Roma milk, decaf from cammerino for the moka, some lovely tulips and crackers for all the cheese that TH purchased in Paris. We'll do a frutta e verdura shop tomorrow am at the Campo for tangerines etc.

I have had my hat trick of carbs today, something I've been pretty good about avoiding these days. They were all delightful-- macarons from Laduree, pizza from place I like and a exquisite cono picolo from Alberto Pica on via de seggiola. It is my belief that this gelato far surpasses San Crispino or Giolliti. Tonight I had a tiny scoop of riso con cannella (cinnamon and rice) and miele di arcancia de l'estate (orange honey from the summer). TH went with limone, cafe and cioccolato, which are good ones to use as a measure of gelato quality.

Rome is quite strange now, restos and bars are all non smoking on the interior. Yup, you heard me, vietato di fumare. This makes eating for me a much more pleasurable activity. Smokers can still smoke at outside tables and in Rome, eating outside is a 10 month a year gig, so things aren't that bad. There are restaurants I have been dying to eat at that a year ago, I couldn't have even stood in for five minutes due to the amount of smoke. Now, I can't wait to eat in them.

Well, I should sign off now. Tomorrow off to run a few errands, visit the scuderie di Quirinale and the Chiostro di Bramante and visit the lovely shops in the campo marzio and via della scrof area.

nm

sunday in paris

sigh...

breakfast at les orchidees
raspail market
le bon marche for us paper whores
lunch of crepe avec oeuf et jambon et cidre
pavillion du arsenal
walking through the marais
bhv for yet more paper
book shopping
buying yet another collismo xl and realizing that the hotel can deal with the post office
dinner at lutetia complete with conversations about g spots by drunken middle aged english holiday goers
walking from place de la concorde to the larc de triomphe and back including a visit to the drugstore publicis
place vendome at night with all the christmas trees in white lights

off to Rome tomorrow .....

Is that a baguette or are you happy to see me?

Hah.

More on that later.

What can you say about a city that has more Cartiers than Starbucks. After a late arrival due to snow, we enjoyed ourselves walking around and doing a bit of chocolate shopping.

Today, it was bright and sunny and we walked instead of metroing and are now very tired. We must now run back to first hotel and get bags and drag them to bespoke new hotel.

Then run to Pompidou to see if indeed the post is open tomorrow and we can ship another XL box home. Remember kids, ballotins of 300 grams of chocs still weigh alot when you buy four a day.

Keep warm all and a big shout out to miss JK who stepped in on a fashion emergency for TH.

You rock and dinner is on her. ;)

nm

ORD report

Greetings from the Flagship Lounge at ORD. I'm sitting here anticipating that we will leave eventually. Right now it is snowing pretty hard, but our inbound equipment in here, so we'll be delayed at least an hour. The Lounge has a nice selection of food, so TH and I are basically full. I'll trundle onto the plane, curl up with the blanket and pillow and sleep until somewhere over Ireland. That is my hope.

I did stop at dish d'lish on the way out of Seattle and picked up some hummous and tuna salad, so with that, the crudite from the lounge and a water, I'll be fine.

Trust me, the food is not worth staying up for.

Anyways wish me luck, in 12 hours I should be walking around Place de la Madeleine (after a shower) and doing a bit of shopping.

nm

Planning and Implementation

I'm great at planning and can suck at implementation. For travel this isn't as bad as for work. Trust me.

Planning trips is great - where to go, how to get there, how much will it cost, what will we do? We both do the where, I take care of the how and the cost, its a crap shoot.; )TH is the spreadsheet planner, which helps enormously for longer trips and places you are driving to, just to get an idea of what you can do near your destination. This worked great when we went to Wales in September. We were hell bent on getting to a few gardens, but were not sure if we would make it based on distance travelled, traffic and when specific gardens or properties were open. Turns out that we spent about three days in a pretty tight area which was great as well because we could always go back if we wanted to see something again. This doesn't work well with other countries such as Australia, but smallish regions, this is a good approach. A regional map, a bunch of those skinny plastic post it flags and a sense of humour is necessary, especially if one party loves art and the other not.

So, where am I going with this?

We love farmer's markets and so we'll spend this Friday morning in Paris looking for a market to go to, perhaps one we've never been to or maybe one we've seen before. As in Seattle or the Bay Area, they are all very different from each other. The one's in the 18th and 19th are full of North Africans and all sorts of spices, the very elegant one near the Musee de l'art moderne de la ville de Paris is very neat and tidy with great kitchenware. We both like the Batignolle organic market in the 17th and will maybe even venture to the tried and true Boulevard Raspail Market on Sunday morning, even if I can tempt TH with lunch or at least tea at Luteitia. How do I know so much about markets? A couple of sources, including Paris in a basket, one of the best and prettiest books about farmer's markets around. It serves as a comprehensive guide to markets in each arrondisement and nice tables listing market opens by day and they rate them. Not a bad investment of 20 bucks.

Did I mention it was beautiful to look at with lots of recipes?

Other great planning tools for Paris -- Time Out Paris, Patricia Wells' Food Lover Guide to Paris , Egullet message boards, the Paris est a nous series (in french) and travel message boards. Don't get too carried away, sometimes too much planning doesn't allow for the serendepitous discovery of the new patisserie or great little brocantes.

Enjoy more than anything.

nm

packing for three countries and two climates

Wales, Aberglasney, September 2005.

I guess this may be second nature to some of you, but it can really drive me crazy. I love to travel and hate to pack. I envy my female travel friends are great at it. I can toss and turn all night before I leave just thinking if I packed correctly. Note I did not say, enough, but correctly.

Winter in Europe is great because the mighty radiator/towel rack means that I can limit my smalls and socks/tights to a minimum because they'll dry very quickly. However, what to wear can be a challenge. I'm not the most stylish girl, but I do try. My coloring and accessories get me mistaken in Italy and Spain as a native, so I guess I'm doing something right.

This trip I have a book release party to attend in Paris, one nice foo foo dinner in Paris, dinner in Rome and a concert in London. I figure I'll take two pairs of crushable light jeans (velvet and something with spandex) and one pair of slacks that look decent with my danskos (the horror, I know) and a pair of mostros and boots. Boots are insane, but moderately comfortable and if I really hate them, I'll mail them back from Paris.

I will take two cashmere tops, both in neutrals, a pashmina like object in a brighter color, one large bag (lancel?) as it is "bright" and a small dinky bag. I'll layer everything with a t-shirt underneath it and realize that one less is okay because I can always do laundry in the middle and besides, for the most part who the heck is going to notice if I'm wearing the same pants three days in a row?

I always carry another bag for the trip home, usually a fold up one. I have a set of those longchamps les pliages that I love, even if ever coed in town sports on or two now. I have a set in "pick up spit and dust" beige (whose great idea was that?) and black. Black is good for travelling. They are not the easiest things to manage with a rollaboard, but they hide a multitude of things -- the latest Hello!, some duty free from boots and an extra sweater and hat. I can't live without them.

So, I'm nearly done pontificating here. Remember, most of us travel to first world countries where we can find almost anything we need, so if you forget underwear, use it as an excuse to buy some. If you are almost done with your anti-perspirant, buy some. If you believe in the wear it and toss it, do it, just don't expect the hotel housekeeping staff to take it as a gift. I can't imagine wearing holey underwear and grotty tshirt to Laduree, but if it floats your boat, go for it.

nm

wet blanket

How come edamame taste soo much better fresh that dried?

I feel like I've been sucking on peas.

This of course, is to stop me from running to the carbo/candy machine and getting something to eat. I am really hungry today, maybe because I'm tired (up until midnight working on the paper) or just hungry. I did weights this morning and then 25 minutes on the elliptical.

I managed to get two things done this morning that were positive - post office run and the library. However, now I really feel like I'm coming down with what everyone else and their cousin elmer has in this fair city.

Oh well. If I still feel like crap at 3, I'm going home.


nm

argh, can it be over soon?

Nuff said. This quarter has sucked the big egg.

I will be sooo glad to be out of that class and five credits away from that certificate and maybe far away from
planners.

Now, I love or two of you, but this quarter has really really been bad and I'm slogging and trying to finish tonight so that tomorrow I can just chill.

Chill, wow, what a concept. I haven't chilled since my last transcon.

Hmm. Maybe I should look for some cheap chilling flights.

Not.

nm

sugar high sunday

Sugar, sugar, dragees. December 2005.

Okay, so it's not Sugar High Friday, but man, there is more sugar on my floor than I have ever imagined. I feel sorry for my cleaning diety, but methinks he'll manage.

Here are just a few highlights:


The calm before the storm: Lots of newspaper padding the table, table covered with sheet, carpets rolled up, paper towels handy. Food a plenty - hummous (homemade), baba ganoush with crudite, green chile artichoke dip, baked brie, other nosheri. Greens galore around the house and lots of spiced cider for thirsty guests.





Paris before it got toppled. My little friend W. loves Paris more than anything. I won't let him get to the cars quite yet as his little bro is too young to play with them, but I think this year for Xmas, he's getting New York and Tokyo.




The troll with a pierced lip, done by miss A, aged 5! Very very cool.



The very artistic ms. C.

Who would have ever thought that dragees could have made so many happy? I can't say much more than there will be some pretty dedicated five year olds keeping the martha stewart empire running for a long time.

I'm pooped now, the house is nearly back in one piece. We have a million dragees and non-pareils on the floor and at least another two loads of laundry to do, but once again, we survived the great cookie decorating extravaganza of 2005.

nm

We still have cookies, so come on by.

nm

cookie cutters

Camel, lobster and friends, December 2005.

Just thought I would share.

I have nearly 100, which I know is probably not really that much, but if you can splurge and buy some from Hammersong, you'll be happy for life. I wonder if I can get TH to roll out a few anatomically correct gingerbread women?

I get these fabulous cutters at La Cuisine in Alexandria, VA. If you can't run to Paris every few years to visit Dehillerin and buy your copper (or just can't deal with shipping it or waiting to pay for it while there), come here. They have some of the coolest things for both the amateur and professional cook. I haven't been there since last October, so I guess I'll need to make a trip soon!

Road trip anyone?

nm

More exciting than I need this morning

We have a lot of bookshelves in the house. More than most people would consider normal for sure and TH is always looking to put another one somewhere.

Well, soon enough we're going to have to expand into a library wing.

I went to move one book and a whole shelf sort of toppled or looked like it was going to. Good thing I had a couch handy and took all the books down, righted the shelf and then put it back. I found my old sketchbooks from grad school, I still suck at sketching, but it was fun to look anyways.

I can't wait to redo the floors, take out all the bookshelves and start with sturdier one, cause gosh knows, you can't get rid of books!

nm
soon to be found under a mountain of them.

Slogging away Saturday

Don't forget the University District Farmer's Market is still open. Market, November 2005.

Slogging away on my essays. I have not a clue why this is being so difficult. I'm 3 of the 5 pages into it and could really give a whack at the same time, I do, which makes things difficult.

TH managed to blitz through some more cookies - so we have owls, hippos and trains along with stars and bears and cowboy hats. I wonder if she remembered the chile peppers.

Most of the other shopping is done and I only have hummous and artichoke dip to make. JK sent me a link for a baked brie from chowhound that I may try. My dearest Miss PRI is up from Mineral with her dog Mr. Scruffy, so hopefully she can fill me in on planning. In any case, what a great chance to catch up with someone near and dear to moi!

Still need to think about packing... and work. What is with that?

nm

flight, what flight?

Ever have that nightmare that it is the end of the quarter and you forgot you signed up for quantum physics or underwater basket weaving and you forgot to go to class all quarter?

I hate that.

Imagine how I felt when I logged into my email today to find out that my upgrade to JFK cleared for my 8:05 flight this morning and I hadn't booked it or remembered I was flying!

On my last SEA-JFK turnaround, they were oversold, so offered my seat and then offered me another flight and voucher. Turned out they didn't need me and my upgrade cleared, so I boarded the original flight. Apparently they had rebooked me anyways - leaving today and coming back tomorrow.

Hmm. Anyways, I called cancelled my flight and made sure that she had my flight next week still in the system.

Darn, I could have used ten hours of uninterrupted work time.

nm

unexpected evening

Panforte makings, November 2005.

I'm sitting here writing an essay and thinking about advocacy planning and TH is busy baking up a storm, or I should say, rolling out a storm and cutting out dozens of bears, camels, stars, hippos, cowboy boots and hats for our cookie decorating party.

It smells great and this is just the gingerbread.

We decided not to get a tree until we get back from our Paris/Rome trip, it was just one too many things to deal with and it'll be neat to have something to look forward to when we get back. I think TH was relieved that I came up with that decision myself.

We had a nice unexpected walk tonight when we saw a dog walking himself on a busy corner by top pot donuts, we followed him/her until they decided that they had found their people. That is, I went back to Top pot to get a cake donut to try and get the dog to come to me and TH walked with the dog. We spent about 3o minutes walking around looking for eachother. Nice walk, snow on the trees, lawns and the decorations were pretty tasteful.

nm

let it snow

Back garden ornament, November 2005.

Actually, I'm kidding.

However, I have two lovely wreaths sitting in my office (One is for you, Miss L!). And tomorrow TH and I will buy garland. Tonight, she is brave enough to deal with buying a tree.

Why buy a tree so early? Because I want one and besides, with small children over this weekend, we'll only decorate the top half.

I think its time to weigh the cost/benefit to getting a dog and a cat. I am really missing the furry ones this time of year. The dog who used to love the tree because he could drink out of the bucket it was standing in, but didn't like it because the lights shined in his face while he was trying to sleep.

I think the cat loved the baking more than anything. That cat, even in her dotage could hear the egg carton come out of the fridge and be in the kitchen doing the "egg dance" in five seconds.

However, looking at pics of them last year, with Jacques' ramp to get up on the couch and his cat on the ramp in hopes of a cream cheese treat during his pilling, I get all sad. It will be a quiet holiday around here.

I really can't do a cost benefit analysis, I think it has to come from somewhere else, n'est ce pas?

I think it is still snowing, dammit.

nm

another sleepless night

Exhausted from work and class (oh, what a class) and in bed by 10:00 pm. Someone's car alarm (I'm thinking mine) started beeping at 1:15 am. By the time I got out to check on it, it was off, my car was fine. I think it was mine, I need to check in the daylight.

It has yet to do that in the time I've owned it.

Can you disable those things?

I love keyless entry, butt warmers and leather interiors, but I can do without the car alarm.

So, I spent the next four hours tossing and turning and replaying all the things that are driving me to sleeplessness.

It is going to be a long day.

nm