Hah, hah, joke was on me, terrific espresso

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Ok, I wasn’t preening last night when I said the kids were in bed before 6, but I was thrilled. Hah! Poor Jack was up twice with growing pains in his feet, and at 11p, I found myself making him toast and milk and brainstorming about the design and color scheme of his police badge birthday cake (July birthday, people). I woke up at 5a to Oliver yelling, “Mommy, come visit.” I escaped to the basement but he never went back to sleep (thank god Tom sleeps like a log), and I just know today is going to be loads of FUN.  

In addition, I have realized yet again what a nerdy little dog Percy is. He’s a love but sometimes you just want to yell, “Man up, Dog.” And despite my positive feedback last weekend over NOT peeing in the basement, he has done it again, in spades. To all you dog lovers out there, no, he does not have a bladder infection. This is full on acting out, so in essence, I have three toddlers. Mercy!

Can I just give a shout-out to good coffee?! I can pull a good shot, but Tom is a true barista and is working on latte art. Isn’t that delightfully metro? Anyway, our current favorite espresso roaster is Stumptown, from NYC. You can buy it at one place in DC, so we make regular pilgrimages down to Georgetown for this yumminess. If you all ever come across Stumptown Hairbender, try it. Another great espresso is Old City’s 6 Bean Espresso; OC is from Philly. I, myself, am not a huge fan of Intelligentsia -sorry Chicagoans- but it has a definite following.

Joy to Bloz in 0-60

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After waking up at 5:10a this morning to Oliver calling “Mommy, shoes on, need shoes, outside now” and quickly thereafter realizing that he was not going back to sleep, we all started the day off a bit behind the 8 ball. The day was a pretty good one though, and the kids were thrilled with the deck demolition- Jack very maturely interviewed the foreman about his tools, saws and so forth. So things were going along swimmingly and then suddenly, it was as if Dorothy’s tornado blew through and spit us out in Bloz. I mean, full scale meltdowns at every turn.

The roller coaster ramps became an inside deck that must be razed -inside- which involved literally throwing them around. Of course, each child had to have the same ramp at all times; pushing commences, tears, wailing, dramatic collapses into couches, chairs, etc. I am serious, people, this change occurred within 8 minutes.

Although it was only 5:20p (now, that is more than 12 hours since we’ve been up, for the love), I announced “bathtime,” and Jack said, with a flourish, “I only want bed.” I said sure thing buddy, and he immediately reconsidered. This went on for a while until he was willing to take a bath, did not want to brush his teeth, did want a short story, not a long one, a song, etc. And let me also throw in that I was determined to cut all finger- and toe-nails tonight because they were repulsive.

Long story short, Jack was in bed at 5:52p, Oliver at 5:59, and I have not heard much more than a peep since. Amen.

I am really craving a pie: either blackberry or strawberry-rhubarb. Ooh, lemon meringue sounds good too. Anyway, this is not going to happen tonight but soon. I am too tired and we have too much in our fridge. I also need to shell the favas and cook the brussels sprouts but again, that’ll all have to wait. If you promise to use with love, I will share my family’s generations-old pie crust recipe. It is THE BEST, and you should use it for all pies except one that really wants a graham-cracker crust which is maybe pumpkin. It should also be the go-to for savory pies like tomato-goat cheese (ridic) and the leek confit-Bucheron get-up I mentioned previously. Works well for galettes too- have you done a galette? So easy what with simply folding crust around fruit. The more rustic-looking, the better.