A vision in magenta

Friends, T and I were not pleased to have been woken up at 1:53am: "Mom! Dad! Mom! Dad! I need help putting my shirt on! I'm brr!" A) Oliver, you're the one who wanted to sleep without a shirt on even though I told you you might get cold, and B) since when was it hard for you to put on a shirt? Mother of... and then again at 5:42am as the boys barreled in, light-sabers clashing, at stake the Empire, with a side of "we're hungry and want breakfast NOW."

I swear to you I could not even begin to count the number of times we have opined that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE (except an exceedingly dire one) should either child disrupt us before 6:15. Jack has a clock and feels extremely proud of his ability to tell time. Oliver has a light that turns from a moon to a sun when the time has come. These are neither difficult cues nor an onerous rule. While drinking my coffee, I realized I felt as if I'd pulled an all-nighter in a disco. Then I remembered I was to drive carpool and head to Pilates.

I hurriedly dressed in my new outfit- magenta yoga pants and a pink top a few shades lighter- grabbed my raincoat and hauled it out the door with Jack. Only when walking into Pilates did I realize what a pink-nut I looked like. In addition to the outfit, my raincoat is yet another shade of vibrant magenta, and my toes are painted Elephantastic Pink. Surely I looked like some kind of vision as I headed into class.

Fast forward thirty minutes, and I'm in the lobby, shirt in my lap, damp peppermint tea bags resting around the sports bra straps on both shoulders, a Reiki master who also fills in at the front desk performing some gratis healing. Some combination of fatigue, hormones, stress and stretch caused my neck to spasm and then seize. It feels like someone poured electrified cement into my neck and shoulders which then hardened. I'm moving like a mannequin and am still clad in magenta.

And then there's our pathetic excuse for a Senate who apparently is too impotent and weak and cowardly to pass something as critically needed and simple and supported as background checks for people who want to purchase guns. The NRA must be laughing their heads off right now.

This piece by Gabby Giffords is a good one!

Upcoming deals and events

TODAY only, from noon - 7pm, boneless/skinless chicken breasts (animal welfare rating 2) will be on sale at participating Whole Foods for $2.99/pound (usually $4.49 - $4.99/pound). This Friday, 4/19, MSC-Certified Wild Alaskan Cod will be on sale at all participating Whole Foods stores for $5.99/pound (regularly $12.99/pound). Great deal, and Cod is wonderful with fruit salsas, so while you're at the store, pick up some mangos or pineapple, cilantro, a red onion, some limes and a jalapeno if you like and go to town!

On Saturday, 4/20, participating Whole Foods will be hosting their biannual e-cycle event. This is such a great opportunity to safely and responsibly dispose of your old/broken/unwanted electronics: computers, monitors, TVs...most anything with a plug or batteries. Think: annoying kids' toys that might just need to go missing. They will not accept refrigerators, microwaves or batteries.

EARTH DAY is Sunday. Celebrate in some wonderfully helpful, eco-friendly way!

My day

Readers, today was lovely. Has been lovely. As it stands, my dear hubs is opening a 5 putt Tokai for a celebratory nightcap. Years ago when we lived in Amsterdam, we traveled through Eastern Europe and had a hell of a time in Budapest. If ever you go, please, please dine at Cafe Pierrot if it's still open. Up on a hill, beautifully appointed, we ate at it two days in a row, and then our dear friends dined there a couple years later with similarly rave reviews. When we discovered it, Hungary had just joined the E.U. and we had such an interesting conversation with our waiter who felt hopeful yet truly concerned that Hungary would lose some of its sense of identity by becoming part of a larger, heterogeneous whole. It was definitely a stage of transition in Budapest; some streets were dolled up to the nines, others still unpaved, pre-now as it was then. The train station was totally shady. I'm a seasoned traveler and like a bit of mystery but this place was "get me out of here" wild. God, those days seem like eons ago, another life, a totally different one. In any case, my birthday breakfast with friends was amazing. Foodie friend C went to town, and the spread was ridiculously good. I'd purposely held off on eating a thing before I headed over, so by 9:15a, I was ready to chow. And did. Homemade granola, lemon curd, ginger scones, cinnamon-sugar breakfast puffs. And she'd called together a posse of my dearest pals. Wow. Then to a massage, some pick-ups and drop-offs, a pedicure, the most irritating trip to the market EVER and then home to cook. Because I wanted to.

Rapini with vin cotto: insane! Dates stuffed with mascarpone and goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto, broiled and then sprinkled with chopped marconas and more of the vin cotto? Terrif! Truffle Tremor cheese with melba crisps? I can't speak!

Thank you to everyone who wrote such sweet Happy Birthdays to me today!