Saturday night wishes

Friends, I would be psyched if a leprechaun laid a fire in my fireplace, lit it, gave me a foot massage and bolted out the door with nary a word. Sounds good, yes? If only leprechauns were real. Earlier, I had a somewhat lengthy meeting and then exercised before T handed the kids off to me in the gym lobby. We saw him briefly once he returned home but he's been at the office for the past five hours and is still MIA. During this serious amount of weekend quality time, the boys and I made Valentines, killed each other with Sith evil and sabers, took a walk to exchange Jack's roll of quarters for a $10 to find that bank was closed so now I have a heavy roll in my purse and Jack has my "crisp" and then, post-bath (theirs) settled into my bed to have Part 1 of The Talk which tonight was a lovely discussion about how girl and boy body parts differ. Bath-time to Sex Ed-time was actually a terrifically smooth segue being that J donned his scuba goggles in the bath to better study Ol's private area.

Jesus.

Finally, the night was mine, and despite the fact that I could have hit the sack then, I could not bear to let the beautiful filet of Chilean Sea Bass (Patagonian Toothfish, folks. Those marketers can't fool me!) that I bought yesterday go to waste. As such, I summoned the will to poach it in fresh whey and cinnamon, steam up some Carolina gold rice (also in whey) and roast some asparagus because surely T would be home soon. Alas no, and now this beautiful meal is growing cold on the table (though natch I ate while it was hot). Sad. We have been tag-teaming ships in the night lately; I haven't spent an evening with him since Wednesday and do miss him. Perhaps tomorrow night.

At the least Valentine's Day which is A) Friday, B) one of my three favorite holidays, and C) extra-amazing this year because my in-laws INVITED THE CHILDREN TO SPEND THE NIGHT THAT NIGHT!!!!!!!!! That's better than a damn leprechaun, people. So anyway, maybe I'll see T then.

Dinner was very good as, by the way, was breakfast this morning, aka 4 trillion hours ago: fresh ricotta (hence the whey on hand) plus the pear-ginger-black pepper preserves. That is a great recipe I tell you. They were a hit last night (served with Brie and toasted baguette) and I made more today.

What a party!

Last night, C, C and I hosted our Fourth Annual Mom's Party for all the ladies with second graders. It was great fun and super-therapeutic in an "if we rally, it'll be so worth it" way. Tired moms dress up and unite!! The food was great, the wine flowed generously, peals of laughter rung from room after room. Here are a couple of my dishes. I'm happy to have leftovers of both!

Frazzley Friday

After putting my car in the shop, hitching a ride to school and a meeting with T, hitching a ride back home, T going to work, me finding out that tire isn't fixable and thusly car will be in shop all day and I at home (not the worst thing in the world), looking with overwhelm at my house and subsequently vacuuming so manically that if a pet had walked across my path he might have been sucked up, finding rides home for the boys, cooking my share of dinner for thirty (friends and I are co-hosting a party tonight), cleaning up from said prep and attempting to find and order the Darth Vader costume for which Oliver is besottedly pining, I have hit a wall and am so ungodly tired. Naturally, I have just sat down and Oliver should walk in at any moment. It's a Word World afternoon whether he wants it to be or not. Jack has chess so will get home another hour or so from now. I will say that this morning with him sucked due to an extreme meltdown over homework that he didn't complete last night. He suggested he didn't want to see me for the rest of the month but then recanted and climbed upon me like a koala bear. Whiplash, people, whiplash.

So, let's talk about Jennifer Senior. It was marvelous to be out and about last night, and JS is an incredibly likeable, smart woman. Last night's book event was her first ever, and unless she had told us that, I would not have known. She was charming, and I'm happily through her book's intro and into Chapter 1 despite the generalized lunacy that is my life. I NEVER stand up to speak or ask questions at events like her reading but I did last night, and it was invigorating, not least because we had a delightful exchange during which it came out that I was the one with whom she'd tweeted the night before (I sent her a fan tweet plus the essay I wrote that was inspired by her recent NY Mag article and book; she tweeted me right back and apparently loves Benedict too).

Afterwards, I got in line to have my book signed and she inscribed it as such: "Emily, Nice to real meet you! Let's please have a mama cocktail one day. Jennifer"

Shut the front door, people. This was a highlight of my week. If ever we were to have a mama cocktail, I believe it would turn into 2 and we'd laugh like loons the whole time. That could be crack-pipe wishful thinking, but I don't think so.