Sunday, October 28, 2012

p-bug

every now and again I like to pull out a little box from the closet. It’s full of our “love letter”s dating all the way back from high school. But you know what was in it today? A roach Sad smile. a big fat nasty gross evil thing LIVING IN OUR LOVE LETTERS. It sprawled out onto the carpet, laughed at me, and said “HA, you never guessed I’d be  hiding here”.

Several cans of raid later….I sat with the box. I no longer felt like looking through them. They’d lost their value. They had roach cooties. For the life of me I can’t understand why I hate them so much…and I realized today that I hate killing them just as must as their being alive. I feel bad, watching them writhe. I can’t help but to think that I’m smothering something significant…a life. 

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

it’s the little things

 

Perhaps the most non-thrilling post ever: The day I cleaned insignificant things.  For example, the light switches had accumulated some wear and tear grime. Their purpose is after all to be touched-makes sense that there’s a fair share of dirt in there huh? Since the plates were off white to begin with –I picked up a few shiny white ones to match the white living room. A lot of the electrical sockets need to be replaced to match but it’s a start. And what could be more satisfying than spiffy new light switches?

 

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I also cleaned the door tracks, windows crevices and the vents with vinegar. Some crazy lady on pinterest suggested using q-tips for cleaning vents. She’s correct, they clean awesomely. They would also take about 40 hours of intensely concentrated scrubbing each individual grate rung. Nadda. Also, it took me about 9 Q-tips just for that little section. I switched to a sponge but it still took a bit of scrubbing. Scrubbing bubbles would probably work well but I had none.

 

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My trivial accomplishments for the day:

  1. scrub bathroom grout
  2. clean inside of washer dryer
  3. clean window tracks
  4. clean vents
  5. steam vac couch.
  6. change ac filters
  7. paint living room trim

stuff I still need to do:

  1. clean fridge
  2. reorganize cabinets
  3. wash curtains
  4. keep scrubbing grout
  5. get the dead leaves off the roof
  6. find a second job

ps. Said accomplishments most likely in result of not accomplishing #5 of things I still need to do.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Sticky buns

 

Charley finally brought home some pastries from work!   He’s been making these flaky “pop tarts” with fig and honey, or apple, or chocolate filled insides. Oak table has been using them almost like party favors and they’re a pretty big hit with the business crowd. Charley’s Sunday special is his jumbo-huge-big-as-your-face sticky buns.  If you’re looking for a healthy saturation of sugar and pecan- Sunday’s your day. They are also starting to do these home-style sit down dinners on Sunday where you have platters sitting on the table and everyone shares (like a whole roast pig persay).

Juneau was very intent on getting some when I tried to set up a food photo on the patio table. (well duh? who wouldn’t fight hard to get some?)

 

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I let her inside later that night for a second. She remembered the existence of food and check out this begging action:

 

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No stickybuns for you.

 

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Thursday, October 18, 2012

My honey worker bee

 

I was caught off guard to hear the click of the lock being turned. Charley walked in at 5:00pm. A record time for him to be home since the opening of the restaurant. He’s put so much heart and soul into his work- everyone has in order to kick it off in grandness. I felt so blessed tonight just to catch up with him. I’ve hardly seen him for a month as he’s been at his “other home” from sun up to sun down.

He is tired, but I’ve never seen him so happy about the work he’s been doing. He’s passionate about it. It’s inspiring. I can’t imagine what it would be like to work in his environment. My little peak of it from over the metal counter leaves me wide eyed. The hiss of steam, the sweat, the stress. The noise of orders getting called, times placed, grease popping. The cooks work together as one machine- but not a brutish machine- one in tune to nuances. A drizzle on a plate. A pop of green to balance the color. A careful glance weighing a proportion. A fancy we like to call “art” rolled into efficiency. It’s renamed “craft”. Man is a craftsman.

The animals as well, just look at the beaver, the ant or the bee for instance. They happily set to their task with earnestness even though they do it from day to day. Each crafting animal has a nitch and a goal it’s working towards, perhaps with something closely resembling passion (but more likely it’s driven by survival). Charley falls into his work so bracingly that it almost seems like his premeditated purpose.

“You there, bear, go forage.”

“You there, Charley, go cook”. 

It’s hard for me to remember when Charley wasn’t a cook (yep, there was a time when he wanted to be an English teacher). It’s hard for me to remember that passions don't just come easy. You work for them. You aren’t just good at your thing, you have to work towards your craft…that’s what makes it a craft. Being efficient as a human means putting aside distractions and fighting against the body. (A body that might want to sleep, or wander or be lazy.) I’m so proud to have seen Charley be a pursuer of things. He’s always willing to learn and weighing opportunities….not to mention remaining insanely humble about the things he’s already learned. (I’m bragging, but it’s my wifely duty).

I know that I am not like my husband. I don’t have a strong will to stay on task. My passions are confused and spread thin. I lack focus and drive. That’s the great thing about Charley, is that he pushes me to focus. I love that he remains calm under pressure and always seems to know what to do. It’s easy for me to get swept under the notion that  he is excelling beyond me. That I drag him down or as if our marriage was a competition. It’s a silly thing, but it’s easy to see where you are lacking because you have an extreme comparison in front of you. We are rather opposites, but I believe we were purposely pitted together for that reason. 

In fact marriage has been the most helpful and insightful of tools for introspection in that way. It’s almost odd that someone can know themselves having not lived alongside another.

Wasn’t the title about bee's or something? I’ve gone from cooking to craft to marriage. My whole point being: I love my husband. He teaches me things and he’s a hard worker. END>

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Night out: OAK TABLE

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My friend Anne and I went out for dessert tonight at the Oak Table (where the hubs works). I decided to get all retro and wear lipstick with my glasses- only to regret it’s reappearance on the edge of my water glass. That always looks gross.

I was extremely flattered by how congenial people were. The wait staff and employees and chefs from the back all made it to our table and said hello and asked how we were doing. They have some seriously cool people, especially executive Chef Joseph Jacobson and the food he’s putting on the table.

They surprised us with a scallops appetizer. I’ve only had scallops on a few occasions due to rubbery childhood trauma and these babies were cooked absolutely perfectly. A golden brown exterior but my fork ran through with no resistance whatsoever. Anne got the Tuna, lightly seared, served on some rich Smokey cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. I chowed down on some beer battered onion rings with bourbon ketchup. Girls gotta have some onions every now and again right?

Our dessert plate from the incredibly handsome pastry chef Charley was a scattered selection of pretty much everything. I mean who could pick just one- so we got greedy and tasted them all…in smaller proportions of course. But before I describe them in their glory, you’ll have to wait because I’m going back to take some pictures.

If you were looking to visit yourself, I’d recommend the butterscotch bread pudding made from buttery brioche. It’s  seasonal, homey and warm. Also their signature drink right now smells so good I’d like to plug it in the wall and call it a Glade. It’s called “legend of the fall” and it has a deep cinnamon and cider arrangement chilling in some whiskey. It basically taste like the fall holidays on crack.

PS. you’ll find Oak Table down on the end of Main street at Gervais, Columbia, SC overlooking the capital.

 

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Friday, October 12, 2012

A FAVORITE PLACE

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My glasses came

 

I have been stalking the mail for two weeks waiting for my glasses to arrive. I sucked the life out of my very last pair of contacts. I was a bit worried ordering glasses through the mail having never tried them on but I have to say I was surprised. I got these for 30 bucks at Zenni optical while Wal-Mart wanted like $150. I found out about it through this lovely lady who posted her thoughts on glasses exactly when started glasses shopping.  I went to three different stores to sample size and shape and disliked about 99% of what I put on my face. Being that I’m built like a stick and wear grandma clothes, everything I tried pushed me towards nerd. I decided to just go with it and by the huge glasses. I try really hard to not look like a hipster. The hubby especially hates hipsters. But I think there’s something about loving camera’s and geekery  that just draws you to make those decisions.

 

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I tried to take an “old man in the chair” photo but the only news paper we had was a publix ad.

 

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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Friday, October 5, 2012

primed

 

A while back we primed the living room and hallway and patched holes..here is our “in process”. We still have the hard part left of choosing a color and hanging photos. You may have noticed that we had a rug in there before. We moved it to our bedroom because covering up wood so pretty just felt wrong. The room gets surprisingly less light than you would think during the day so I’ve changed whites a few zillion times. I basically wish that I could have a different shade of white on the wall for different times of the day. White looks so lovely in naturally lit spaces, but it’s tricky to get it to say “designer” as opposed to “dingy”. I’ll be even more confused if we go with a color. Decisions, decisions. (feel free to imput).

 

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Like most things, it’s just going to take some tweaking. Living in it for a while and then changing things up. And as this month of hair demonstrates, I’m up for trying new things (and being indecisive). Oh and in if you’re wondering what happened with the hair- Charley preferred the blonde and the box was washing out (which also takes some of your current pigment with it leaving your hair rather grey looking). I liked the brown, but I’m so used to it being blonde. In the end, I can’t decide which one I like better.

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