there are few things in this world as disgusting as raisins. they look like droppings, get stuck in your teeth (marring your smile and causing cavities) and are notorious for popping up in all kinds of baked goods (scones, muffins, cookies) that should only have chocolate chips. and unfortunately, because of their size and color, raisins sometimes appear to be chocolate, which is a terrible surprise for the unsuspecting consumer.
Read More
(lots of greenery in this entry space)
here in boulder we had the MOST spectacular fall, but now everything has “fallen” and all of the trees are bare. i know that technically autumn carries on until december 21st but it already feels like winter with the brown landscape and the bleak, empty branches on the trees.
Read More
2020 felt really important, but now it seems like our whole democracy is hanging in the balance! if you haven’t already, please get out there and VOTE! x0x
(i LIVED for this magazine and was over the moon when my favorite hardy boy graced the cover)
one of the best things about lucy teaching me how to use spotify is poking around on there and rediscovering songs i haven’t thought about it in ages. a few weeks ago i stumbled upon shaun cassidy’s “da doo ron ron” and i was just beside myself. i was a HUGE shaun cassidy fan… i had his signature album, of course, that i played ad nauseam and i also had his poster on my wall that i kissed whenever i entered my room. he is ten years older than me and i was sure that when i became the appropriate age our paths would cross and i would sail off into the sunset with him. we DID have a brief correspondence at the height of my affections… i sent him this heartfelt letter and i got a postcard back with his autograph (stamped, not actual) so i felt like he knew i was out there waiting for our lives to begin.
Read More
the summer before my lucy started middle school she wanted to buy new school clothes. in the past, i typically just dipped into the girls’ section on a target run and picked up dresses and leggings and tees in bright colors that featured unicorns, rainbows, hearts and glitter. i loved selecting happy outfits for her and she was always delighted with what i brought home. this time, however, she wanted to come along and weigh in on everything. at first i thought it might be fun.
Read More
(theo at his bar mitzvah)
i am reposting my story about yom kippur on this sacred jewish day… l’shana tov! x0x
this week is yom kippur, the day of atonement in the jewish religion. while i never converted, i am raising my children in the faith of their father (with santa and the bunny thrown in) and i have spent more time in temple than i have in any other religious setting. i have hosted loads of seders, rosh hashana dinners and break fasts (i can cook all of the holiday food, except brisket - my brisket is TERRIBLE - so we have roast chicken instead), i know a fair bit of the prayers, or at least the tunes and i have a general understanding of the fundamentals of the religion.
Read More
the summer before my lucy started middle school she wanted to buy new school clothes. in the past, i typically just dipped into the girls’ section on a target run and picked up dresses and leggings and tees in bright colors that featured unicorns, rainbows, hearts and glitter. i loved selecting happy outfits for her and she was always delighted with what i brought home. this time, however, she wanted to come along and weigh in on everything. at first i thought it might be fun.
Read More
(hank contemplating the sweet new year…)
on the jewish calendar, the new year, rosh hashanah, is celebrated in the fall. this timing has always resonated with me as it is the start of the school year and a change of season into fresh, brisk, invigorating weather (although here in boulder the school year now starts in mid AUGUST which is just bananas!) wishing you all a bright, peaceful new year… l'shana tova! x0x
i have always had a bit of trouble telling time - my mother thinks it’s because i was out with chicken pox when mrs. stemley taught it in first grade and i was never able to catch up. it’s unfortunate because i HATE to be late and ironic because i LOVE a cuckoo clock but i cannot risk living only with my cuckoo because i don’t always read it correctly so i have to have back up digital ones too. until recently, my challenge was mostly with hours and minutes but the pandemic has exacerbated this problem to include days, months and even whole YEARS! HOW old was lucy when she got her ears pierced? WHEN did we go to NY for thanksgiving? HOW many years have i had my car? i just don’t know.
Read More
we lost our gg in february 2020 … just before everything shut down with the corona. attending her service was the last “normal” thing i did before we all bunkered in and started leaving our mail out to degerm, soaking ourselves in off brand hand sanitizer because people were hoarding purell (AND toilet paper and rice and flour and sugar), wearing hazmat suits to costco and walking our dogs seventeen times a day. i am eternally grateful gg missed all that, along with the fear and heartbreak and isolation. but losing her was still devastating.
Read More
(roșie în one of her donut beds)
i stay in pretty close touch with my parents… i typically call home each morning after dropping the kids at school so we can chat on my ten minute drive home. we do a quick check in on what’s going on with my work or my children or hank or the bananas weather of boulder or what’s happening in the bay area. but for the last month these calls have been dominated by the “rosie report.” i hear about how the night went - did rosie stay in her donut bed or sneak out and rest her head right next to my father’s on his pillow? did she do both kinds of business on her first walk of the day or need to make another potty after breakfast? did she get on her hind legs and dance before dinner the night before or keep all four feet on the floor? which neighbors did my parents run into on her various walks and what are they up to? how many times did she nap during the day and where? (she has her special spots: curled up on the blue upholstered sofa in the living room when my father is reading/napping there, my mother’s lounge chair in her sewing room where rosie waits for mom to come in with her morning coffee, on the cool tiles of the fireplace hearth when it’s super warm, on the fuzzy blanket between my parents on the sofa in the TV room when they watch the news before bed…)
Read More
when we first moved to boulder from amsterdam twelve years ago, i was a complete fish out of water. i had a baby and a pre schooler, no family, no mama friends, no ocean and no interest in running marathons or participating in iron men races or juice fasting or wearing exercise clothes - all things de rigueur for most boulders. (i am STILL a bit of a fish out of water and i still don’t have an ocean or family here and i will NEVER put myself through a fast - except when my next colonoscopy rolls around - but i DO have amazing friends, both mama and otherwise and i DO have two pairs of lulu pants and two pairs of athleta leggings and one pair of running sneakers that i DO wear for brief periods a few times a week.) i was really discombobulated and overwhelmed and homesick for fog and rain and urban living and something that felt more familiar. and then we discovered brasserie ten ten.
Read More
i spent a significant portion of my childhood trying to convince my parents to get a dog. i didn’t understand until years later that this was always going to be a fruitless endeavor as my brother has severe allergies to anything furry. probably to deflect my desperate campaign, my father, who grew up in minneapolis and was a HUGE vikings fan, told me that if the vikings won the super bowl we could get a puppy. each fall my heart was full of hope and i cheered and supported and rallied behind those guys in purple and gold and each year i was terribly disappointed. they actually went to the super bowl FOUR times (’70, ’74, ’75 and ’77) and LOST each time. those years were definitely the hardest and i am just realizing might be why i really don’t care for purple or yellow. i don’t know what my father would have done if they had actually pulled it off because there was always the issue of my brother. maybe he understood, after rooting for them for decades that it was never going to happen. to date, it STILL hasn’t!
Read More
(the guard was kind enough to take this photo of us with our president)
lucy and i had the BEST afternoon with the obamas last week. the smithsonian has been touring the portrait paintings of barack and michelle across the country and right now they are in san francisco at the de young. they are SPECTACULAR! they are giant and so thoughtfully done. the exhibit shares the processes for both artists (kehinde wiley created the president’s portrait and amy sherald painted the first lady) and articulates all the meaning and symbolism embedded in the works. (we learned that each flower in mr. wiley’s painting represents a different aspect of the president’s life and the bright colors and foliage redefine traditional power and masculinity. ms. sherald’s painting expresses the first lady’s personal power, beauty and inner strength in a flat, grayscale palette that is an absolute departure from the portraits of previous first ladies.) it was so wonderful to sit with the obamas and remember that inspirational period of american government. our hearts just swelled. x0x
Read More
(artwork: aaron alvarez)
we are half way through our summer sojourn in california and i am proud to say that we have eaten at (almost) all of our favorite restaurants and even added a couple of new goodies. i try to be super organized about this, like a tactical general, because it just guts me to leave with unfinished business.
here is our gastronomic tour so far:
Read More
for the last ten years my kids have been attending a jewish summer camp in berkeley called kee tov. it is a day camp but it seems to have the feeling of a sleep away camp in that the same kids return each year and they get SUPER bonded. the result has been that both of my children have a whole gang of friends they look forward to seeing in california every summer. kee tov is pretty amazing… all of the counselors are really energetic and enthusiastic and creative. they do all kinds of crazy things that i would NEVER do with my kids like taking them out into the woods to sleep on the GROUND and get really dirty or “messy day” when they squirt them up with paint and whip cream and chocolate syrup and who knows what else and they get so dirty they come home in GARBAGE BAGS or swimming in lakes (that are inherently dirty!) i am realizing that there is a dirty theme here. they also have all kinds of adventures in the bay area: rafting down the american river, ice skating in oakland, riding roller coasters at six flags, treasure hunting in san francisco’s china town and tromping through all the parks and outdoor spaces within a fifty mile radius (where they also get really dirty.)
Read More
i just watched the first season of “stranger things”… i KNOW i am about five years late to this show and now all of those kids are grown up and don’t look the same at all. i never watched it before because it has lots of things i don’t like: it’s dark (literally dark - lots of scenes in the woods so it’s hard for me to see), it’s scary - there are slimy monsters and slimy vines and bloody things, children disappear, it’s confusing, like “lost” which i find frustrating, lots of the houses are dirty and some of the characters are really mean. but there are also things i really LOVE: winona - amazing, the music is epic and so is the styling. i love seeing all the old telephones and lamps that are specific to my childhood. and i am beside myself about eleven - she is so fierce i almost want to shave my head and start wearing a dirty smocked dress with striped tube socks and high tops.
Read More
this is the girl i love most. she is funny and kind and smart and determined and stubborn and SUPER spicy and exhausting and creative and empathetic and really the most WONDERFUL one. i look so forward to witnessing all of the adventures she’s going to have and hearing about the thoughts she’s going to think and celebrating the milestones she’s going to leap over (although i DO wish she would stop growing up and just stay my little girl forever.) but now, as of friday, june 24, 2022, in many parts of the united states, she’s going to have less rights than half the population. and so will all of the girls you love most too.
(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 More
last evening hank and i were walking in our beloved north boulder park and we came upon this tree wrapped in a crocheted message: GO FOR IT! we have been feeling a bit down and overwhelmed with all of the horrible happenings of late: roe, uvalde, buffalo, ukraine… and it really lifted our spirits. so THANK YOU crochet artist for sharing this bit of encouragement… it put a big smile on our faces! x0x
Read More