But I'm glad I did.

As it turned out, I was the only student to show up tonight so class was actually a private Italian tutorial. Bene, bene! I was so happy for that opportunity as well as that I'd have felt awful if our teacher had been stranded. So it just goes to show that often, making myself boogie out to something is worthwhile. Plus, class is at the Friends Meeting House on Florida Ave (DC, non-DCers), and being in a peaceful Quaker environment periodically this summer has been a lovely reminder of how happy I am that the boys attend a Friends school. I was especially glad of this when I heard from the babysitter that during a bike ride with the kids, they told her an insane story of a neighbor in a nearby cul de sac who had tried to put nails in our car tires and so they needed to put one in his/hers. None of that is remotely true, and how two little honeys who biked by a lone nail and then created an epic tall tale about good and evil and vengeance and so forth is really quite a testament to their imaginations as well as the need to put their Quaker hats back on pronto. The babysitter, per wisdom and to her credit, did not believe a word they said; she did find them adorable. And that is the good thing about good babysitters dealing with childly BS.

A complete aside: aren't these pickled gingered carrots lovely? I will be selling these (and so many more items) at the Circle Yoga Arts Market on 9/7. Check my calendar if you need additional info. And do come!

I don't wanna...

I do not want to go to Italian class tonight. I don't, I don't, I don't. If the cat and I weren't hiding from the kids and babysitter in the basement bedroom, I might be stomping my feet in emphasis. I'm starting to believe that my age prohibits me from happily doing more than evening event per week: by 6:30 most nights, I just wanna be in my elastic-waist pajama pants, cooking and thinking about sitting on the couch with T later. I do not much want to be thinking about RE-applying make-up and, in this instance, speaking in a foreign tongue for two hours whilst sitting on a hard folding chair in front of a white board. I was happy to find leftover quinoa and carrots from Monday shoved towards the way-back of the fridge today. Ol and I were getting things ready to make pickled, gingered carrots, but we paused for lunch and I found that delicious dish. It was just as good, maybe better as are many things, as it was two days whence. Can you use whence in that manner? I'm not completely sure, but I'm going to as in interesting variation on 'ago.'

We spent the morning at the orthodontist because Mr. J is to get a palate expander installed in his mini-mouth in two weeks (does he talk so much because he's got a subconscious Napoleon complex about small jaws? Hmm....) For whatever reason, he feels that everything about the orthodontist is awesome, particularly when they made impressions of his teeth. Now, I don't know about you, but I think having a tray of cold, chalky, gelatinous, oddly amorphic mush shoved into my too-small-for-it mouth just blows. But Jack thought it was "awesome". All three times. But really, that's awesome for me too, so yay. Great spirit!

I am definitely ready for school to begin. I was ready last week. However, I have totally rallied and have been patient, stern when appropriate, fun, hands-on, and all that jazz. And it's been largely nice. And then today post-ortho glee, it's been a real challenge not to loudly beseech the boys to STOP talking and "go outside and play in the traffic" as my mother used to say sarcastically when my sister and I were on her last nerve. In case you're wondering, school does not begin until September 3 which feels awfully long away but is infinitely better than September 9 which is when a friend of mine's kids go back. That would be blowing my mind in a terrifying way right now.

To Italian I guess.

Friends and dinner

This afternoon, we had a really special treat. A dear friend and her new husband came over, and a TBD visit turned into an hours-long, wonderful hang-out session. It was so much fun and truly quite dear: they're expecting, and being with them brought me back to being a newlywed and to-be-mom myself. After they left, I started in on dinner. Craving a steak, I thawed two of the Piedmontese filets I'd trimmed from that enormous cut a few months ago. In the meantime, I reduced some balsamic vinegar with about a tablespoon of sugar and at the very last minute -off-heat- I threw in some slivered, fresh figs. Once the steaks were done -in my Lodge, natch- I spread some Gorgonzola on top and then drizzled with the hot fig-balsamic reduction. Insanely good!

While I did all this, I sent T to the grill to man the baby okra I'd bought at the farmers market on Sunday. I dressed it with olive oil, minced garlic, crushed red pepper, lemon and salt; also, I tossed in the rest of a head of radicchio I had and the remaining squash blossoms. After it was decently charred, we redressed it (critical) with more lemon and salt. Grilled okra is the bomb; after T had his serving, I ate all the rest.