Pleasantly busy day.

[rivka]

This morning Alex and I went out to brunch with roozle and jonsinger and several of their friends. A good time was had by all, I think. Jon brought lots of pottery for show and tell. The Reed College grading system came up in conversation for the second time in two days, but this time I didn't rediscover a long-lost friend thereby.

Afterwards I took Alex to the mall for a massive Shopping Expotition. She got two pairs of sandals. What can I say, they were buy-one-get-one-half-price, and it does kind of make sense to have one sport pair and one slightly dressy (but still eminently run-and-playable) pair. She became aquainted with one of my few rigid rules about gendered clothing: she can try on anything she wants, but I will not buy shoes that don't permit running. "I'll just walk slowly, Mama," she assured me as she shuffled along in slippery-soled hard-plastic Barbie thongs with electronic light-up thingies. Yeah, no kidding. That's why you can't have them.

We bought invitations for our housewarming party and cards for Alex's thank-you notes. I bought a pair of khakis and two V-neck T-shirts. I failed to find shoes at the Clark's outlet. We bought some cloth napkins for everyday home use, because we aspire to make that transition. And! I bought the absolute best new purse ever, which is to say that it's almost exactly like my old purse, with the only changes being slight improvements.

I don't think I'm hard to satisfy when it comes to purses, except that I must be because I have a hell of a time finding them. Here's what I like: black, structured, large enough to hold a paperback book and/or a couple of small toys in addition to my regular equipment, and plain. I don't want flashy fittings or little doohickeys hanging off it or a pattern on the leather or, well, anything. That's hard to find.

I've been carrying the same black, structured, extremely tailored and sleek Liz Claiborne purse for at least five years now. It's held up beautifully, and it's just exactly what I like, so I was pretty traumatized when the straps began to fray where they hang over my shoulder. I tried a few stores, including the Liz Claiborne store at the mall, with no luck. But then! There was a "Liz Claiborne shoe outlet," and I noticed that they had purses. And there, in a corner, on a rack labeled "take an additional 40% off"... one that was almost exactly like my old purse, only newer. They've moved the external PDA/iPod pocket to the inside, which strikes me as a good idea. It's slightly larger - big enough to hold a small trade paperback, not just a mass-market paperback. And the lining is a sort of a dull red color, which I think will make it easier to find stuff inside. But otherwise? It's my old purse. Observe the restrained black structured lack-of-decoration. Yay.



We finished off the shopping trip with ice cream and came on home. I took a nap. Michael and Alex weeded the yard. Then we had sushi to celebrate Michael's final night as the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore's treasurer. And Alex? You know, Alex the underweight and picky toddler whose favorite words at the dinner table are "I don't liiiike..."? Twenty-eight pound Alex? Ate eight pieces of nigiri and a piece of salmon roll. They weren't the biggest pieces of nigiri in the world, but they weren't the smallest, either. Three pieces of shrimp, two pieces of maguro tuna, one piece each of salmon, red snapper, crab stick, and salmon roll. The only thing she turned down was the eel. This is a kid who won't eat potatoes. Or hamburgers. I don't think she was supposed to have been born to Americans.

Tomorrow's schedule: church, church annual meeting, church Seder. Due to my unwisdom in posting to LJ about being able to cook well, acceberskoorb assigned me a complicated recipe to bring. I guess I'd better hit the supermarket and get right on that. It seems unlikely that there will be time to make it tomorrow.

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

That sushi sounds wonderful! So, for that matter, does the lamb recipe.

And what a lovely day you had. Congratulations on your new purse. :-)

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Look at it this way -- you didn't have to get approval and fly across an ocean to get her!

[geminigirl]

I paused when we were out shopping for other things one day to look at purses, because I'm always on the quest for the perfect bag. I know this habit frustrates zedrikcayne who commented about how he doesn't understand the purse shopping thing that so many women have-the eternal quest for the perfect bag. I pointed out that I think I, and many other constantly do it simply because the perfect bag just doesn't exist.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I still shop for shoes on the principle that I should be able to run for the bus in them (the shoes for my wedding are the only current exception). I think it's an excellent rule for a child.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

That lamb stew recipe looks great.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

It was really tasty, but a whole lot of work. Four heads of romaine is a lot.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

The sort of thing you'd only do once a year some years?

[echosupernova.livejournal.com]

When I was three, I embarrassed my parents by eating $20 worth of sashimi at a family friend's vacation house in Hawai'i where we stayed. My guess is probably a pound or so...and I was living in Kansas City, Missouri at the time. Go figure.

Actually, I've always been much more inclined to Asian cuisine than my parents, so I guess that was just an indication of my future proclivities.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

eating $20 worth of sashimi at a family friend's vacation house in Hawai'i where we stayed. My guess is probably a pound or so...

Jealous jealous jealous!! Mmm, Hawaiian sashimi...

[ailbhe]

I think she was born to exactly the right Americans.

(And am totally with you on the shoes thing, and also on the two pairs thing. And have been inspired by your recent bother-to-cook post to try to bother to cook nicer food).

[naomikritzer]

People are frequently surprised that my kids would rather eat raw tuna than practically any other food available. And yet there are quite a few kids out there who love sushi. Especially urban-dwelling kids with hip parents who feed it to them without prepping them with, "Now this is RAW FISH" ::aghast look:: "do you want to try" ::visible cringing:: "raw fish, honey?"

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Today we went to a Seder and she was only willing to eat matzoh and hard-boiled eggs. She did taste minute quantities of parsley and charoset, but she wouldn't touch any of the actual dinner. I found myself saying, "But poached salmon! It's just like sushi, except that it's cooked."

Fortunately, we had pre-fed her.

[(Anonymous)]

Yum, charoset...it's funny, none of the foods except the ritual ones are familiar as passover foods to me. I've been going to my stepfather's family's Seder for ~15 years, and the foods that I remember always eating are gefilte fish, matzoh ball soup, brisket, and tsimmis(sp). My mom makes the best tsimmis--she is forced to do it every year now, and they never let her keep any. :P

Oops...

[echosupernova.livejournal.com]

Oops, that was me--I meant the lamb stew, eggplant lasagna, and other main dishes didn't really seem Passover-y to me. People have way different traditions.

sounds like...

[dubiousprospects.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

she's still growing her brain, and wants complex grease. :)

I have certainly seen other small kids who preferred sour to sweet and didn't like greasy anything, apparently on mouthfeel grounds. (I didn't have the twitch about greasy, but did about sour; I'd eat raw rhubarb in preference to celery.)

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I have similar purse requirements, but also the strap must be able to fit across my body, as my shoulders have a tendency to shed bag straps and having to clutch my purse to myself keeps my hands annoyingly occupied.

So yeah, I feel you on the "impossible to find, use it till it dies" purse situation.