July 29

One of the many nice things about working for an influential, hip, advertising agency with big name clients, is that cool musicians come and perform, just for us. Today Regina Spektor brought her band and Steinway grand piano to play a set on the back patio. I skipped the line for the free ice cream sundaes so I could snag a spot close to the stage.

Too cool.

July 28

Early morning walk.

July 27

Good friends. Good food. Good times.

July 26

Something I've never seen before. Papaya seeds sprouting inside the fruit.

July 25

Tonight I made pizza on the grill. Not just any pizza, but crust-made-from-scratch with pesto-chopped-by-hand and homegrown tomatoes. I didn't intend to eat any. Oh no, it was just for Josh and Lauren. Feeling way too heavy these days, I had made myself a lovely high fibre, no-fat bean salad to enjoy in lieu of pizza. It was delicious. Truly.

But ... but ... then this temptress whispered my name. "Just one slice," it lured. "You know you want to." Mmmmmm. It was ohmygod good.

OK, two slices, but no more.

OK, three.

Let's face it. Some things are worth the calories.

July 23

Summer in the Valley. 9:30pm. Doors and windows gratefully admit the slightly moist air, courtesy of sprinklers glorying in their allotted twice a week 10 minutes of fame.

Animal, vegetable, we drink it in.

White wine over ice. A few hours spent at the sewing machine, resulting in the world's best burp cloths, for a baby who's hatching.

It's all good.

July 22

Last Saturday morning, I broke my camera by putting the memory card in the wrong way and bending the little wire connectors inside. Josh was heading out, and offered to take it to the camera store for me to see if it could be repaired. I asked if he could bring me home a camera from his prop truck to borrow for Sunday night dinner, and he assured me he'd come back with a camera.

He did. A new one. For me. "Merry Christmas," he said. "I was going to get you this for Christmas anyway."

YUMMY!

July 19

After a couple of week's hiatus, we had plenty of friends sign up for tonight's open house dinner. Lola brought three new-to-us friends, as well as her surrogate niece, sweet baby Angelina.
With the current heat, I really wanted to serve light summery fare. The menu consisted of a tasty frittata plus various delicious salads. For the carnivores, I grilled chicken breasts.

For dessert, I kept with the light/fresh theme and served a quirky fruit salad (fresh thyme in dessert? who knew it could be so good?) alongside a terrine of sorbet.

But as always, it was not the food that shone the brightest; it was the connections, the camaraderie and the laughter. Evie cuddled little Angelina as she nodded off to sleep; her protruding tongue and sweet nature proclaiming her extra 22nd chromosome.

Sunday dinners are SO worth it.

July 17

See this? Know what it is? It's a virgin jar of Vegemite. Americans know not this joy. I was tempted to carve "A.C" into it with the tip of my knife, because my sister always claimed that right as we were growing up (she was the vegemite fiend, I preferred pb). But I didn't. I just slathered it on my buttered sourdough toast (that's real butter, thank you), added slices of cheese, and chowed down. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

July 12

Josh and I spent the weekend sans enfants at Morro Bay, where temperatures are at least 30°F lower than at home. Very, very pleasant.

July 5

One of the things I love about living in a large, cosmopolitan city is how easy it is to obtain exotic things. I decided I wanted to make this for dinner, which calls for the addition of pomegranate molasses. A visit to the Persian market down the street revealed three different brands to choose from. Love that!

Yesterday's big purchase was a new pair of thrift store jeans. The pair I've been wearing for the past year are so threadbare that they're likely to embarrass me in public one day very soon. Like the others, the new ones are too long, and as I rolled them up this morning I remembered my sister's admonition to take up my jeans properly. "You can sew! Hem them, why don't you!"

So, flush with the pomegranate molasses success, I stopped at the fabric store to buy some gold thread with which to hem my jeans. And what should I spy in the magazine rack?

I had to buy it, didn't I?

July 4

A three day weekend. With no plans. Bliss. Yesterday I read, I napped, and I stitched this teatowel. Being a big fan of Anthropologie teatowels, I was of course drawn to Anna Maria Horner's version in Seams to Me. I dug through the stash and found a soft, absorbent man's shirt which generously offered up its back panel for the cause. The next few hours were spent peacefully appliqueing and embroidering. Such a lovely way to spend an evening! And such a lovely result, if I may say so! I've already started on another, with a completely different colour scheme.