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

[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...