Desert Magnolia

There was no darkness, just good food, giggles and warmth, and the togetherness we clearly all needed so very much. There was also dessert deliciousness. Daughter did an absolutely amazing job creating a pumpkin pie from Heaven. And she and I collaborated on a chocolate cheesecake, which also came out great! She believes her work with the Oreo crust is the reason, because we all know how important a great crust is on a cheesecake. Post Turkey snarf there was...relaxing by the fire, then shopping like maniacs on Friday, then more relaxing and eating and then putting up the Christmas tree..with a houseful of Daughter's friends to assist, which they did, and it was lovely. There was..Hubby's pork red chili, green chili turkey enchiladas, queso and chips..and toppings, of course..to fuel the tree trimming team. And now, now we resume life. Daughter is back at school, forging ahead through her first college final prep/finals. She'll be fine, this we know, but it has been...

Our Thanksgivings have been very traditional, and continue to be this year as well per a specific request from Daughter who really really wanted us to do the whole thing one more time. So we agreed. My friend KS and her fam were on the beach last year at a mini family reunion. They all rented a big place, then made a turkey dinner, then played on the beach. Bikinis and turkey? Not really designed to go together, but they made it work, and it turned out to be their best Thanksgiving ever. Hubby and I have been yearning for that type of experience, and will most likely work toward that next year. A house, on the beach, cooking a nice but simpler feast, then hanging out on the beach afterwards. We'll import both of our offspring and simply enjoy the gathering as a smaller unit, on our terms. But this year we're going traditional. What that looks like? Dinner at our house. We invite fam and any friends who'd like to join us. I get up very early to prepare the bird...

Shellac is an awesome word, isn't it? It can mean precisely what you wish to it mean at any given point. If your team loses badly in a competition, you've been shellacked. Or drubbed. Or wiped out. If you're finishing wood, you may choose shellac as a curative agent. Or, if you're me, and you want to try this cool new way of polishing your nails that lasts longer than regular polish (I kill polish. I love manicures, but I cook way too much and apparently abuse my hands beyond all rational bounds so I simply destroy a nice polish job in just a few days. It's annoying at best), you can get Shellac-ed. There are a few nail salons that offer this in our area, so I had to try it out once I learned more at the recent event I attended. The process (one my friend KG first brought to my attention a couple of months ago) involves using a polish that's been infused with a gel-like substance that's better for your nails than artificial nails because they don...

Seriously. For the past 11 years I have been a serious business traveler. At my peak travel frequency I was on the road at least twice a month for a week at a time. It was brutal. It was a test in personal and professional endurance. It was part of my job. Travel is a part of what I still do, but usually it's not back to back to back to back like it has been this last few months. And it's never accompanied the hellish professional and emotional year that has unfolded. I'm setting you up to feel some sympathy for me, but really, it is what it is. I'm a grown up, and I screwed up. See, a couple of weeks ago we did a big shuffle on who was coming on this trip, and I rearranged the itineraries, rooms, etc., since I had made the original reservations. In the process, I actually traveled to another destination, was there for five days, did the song and dance that event required/deserved, then returned to home base...for less than a week, and now I'm on this ja...

Never accuse me of being deep. I am capable of superficiality of stupendous proportions and manage to derive intense satisfaction from focusing on issues NOT of substance whenever possible. Life is intense; finding joy in simplicity requires skill. Kind of like meditating and learning how to steer your brain back to your heart energy when it veers off on some random tangent again. And again. And again. It's a discipline, really. So I found an amazingly beautiful deep winey garnet polish, Stop Whining, by Sonia Kashuk, that will become the icing on my toesies' cake this weekend. Now that I have my pedi plan in place, I need to focus on wrapping things up here at the office, then head out and wrap up things in my personal life before I head out once more. DC weather forecast seems reasonable, mid 50-60's with a chance of rain a couple of the days I'll be there. So I'll pack an umbrella. And take my favorite black bomber jacket and a fun scarf. Checklist bef...

Our trip to Ft. Lauderdale for a business event was a resounding success on many levels. My colleague KG and I worked hard, discovered an even greater tolerance in ourselves than we'd documented before for really nice, well-meaning practitioners in the industry who simply don't track very well, and generally made the best of a business trip involving a full day of travel on both ends. That's a little rugged, but we did fine. Except yesterday the head cold I'd been holding off for the entire five days and general angst set in big time, so I was pretty much down for the count. But I'm back, and feeling mostly human again... Anyway, KG and I were at dinner one night, sipping a deep red wine and enjoying some decent food, when we forayed into a conversation about relationships, and how interesting and funny they can be, particularly after a long time with someone. At some point, inevitably I suppose, we got to the 'silly conversations we've had with our m...

I find the concept of terroir particularly compelling. Perhaps it's the hedonist in me. Perhaps it's the elemental tie to the earth. Perhaps I love this concept because it feels so antithetical to so much of what is happening today. It means, 'of the earth.' The longer definition, per terroir.france.com, ' A " terroir " is a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation, and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions, grapes and wine making savoir-faire, which contribute to give its specific personality to the wine. I love this definition. If you really know wines, then, you can taste not just the type of wine that you're sampling, but the terroir from which it originates. I, alas, do not pos...