Under the Glass Bell

Here. Here. Here.

Since when does Land O' Lakes make bottled water? I was just sitting here pondering what this entry should be about and glanced over at the water bottle I'd purchased earlier when bringing Baby C back from his Well Baby visit. Odd. Poor little guy got 3 shots. Ouch!

Ordered takeout from Katsu. God Bless Mr. Katsu.

Hm. Maybe there is nothing to say tonight. Started digging through my Hawaii pictures and I have a lot of editing to do. Been taking a lot of Photo Booth Photos. I love my mac.

There's something going on that's not quite right

What an odd, odd week.

Last week in Hawaii was amazing. There are not enough superlatives in the English language to cover it.

This week, very odd. We came home to a sick Baby C. Sick and teething. Boy, was he cranky, poor little guy. But he's well now and is my sweet and lovely boy.

Back in my office on Monday, I got a call from the GM of one of my clients telling me that one of the staff members, a seemingly chipper kid in his early twenties, committed suicide last week. Shocking. And even though I'd only met him once, it hit me in the gut. Absolutely horrible that this happens.

I am negotiating a couple of additional contracts and I'm toying with the idea of renting some office space nearby. A couple of reasons, 1) I'm going to be managing the site manager for one of my clients that recently lost their GM, 2) It might be good for me to get out of the house to focus. It's hard w/ my sweet toddler upstairs available for squeezing at any moment of the day and 3) we've got an architect coming in next week. We've been thinking a lot about our house and how to make enough space in it to meet all of our needs. We both love it so. And love our neighborhood. We would have an additional floor of space to work with if I moved my office out. We'll see how all of it shakes out.

We made the decision to put our beloved eleven-year-old cat to sleep yesterday. She was very sick. We loved her and couldn't stand to see her suffer, so we let her go. We are all in mourning over her. Sad times.

I had a physical this week and it was the first one I'd had in a couple of years. I was diagnosed with high cholesterol and have six-months to bring it down on my own with exercise and diet. Otherwise, I'm being threatened with medication. I've been borderline high since my early twenties, so, obviously, there is a huge genetic component to this. But, it's time for me to take the bull by the horns. Adios, cheese and baked goods and red meat.

TGIF!

Brought over old blog entries

Yep. I did. So, my old blog is now merging with this one. I felt so naked, having written a blog for several years and yet having so few posts on this new one.

Still been in a funky up and down place. I did manage to get out for a nice brisk walk today. It bought me 2 Weight Watchers activity points. Oh, yeah, have I said that I'm on weight watchers? Yep, I am. And LOVING the results. When I went out on my own and started my company five years ago, I slid into this uber-sedentary lifestyle. Then, add having a baby on to it and whoo hooo, my weight had gotten out of control. So I started WW back in January. I do the online version. I'm not a meeting sort of gal. I immediately dropped a lot, but since my aunt died, I've been using food as a crutch and not losing much. To date, I've lost 18 pounds. I'm so proud of that, but more happy about the fact that I know I can get down to where I want to be simply by sticking with the plan.

I'm feeling a bit guilty for being such a Darcy Downer in my last entry. However, nothing was dramatized. That's truly where I was. Bluh. B and I leave for Maui on Sunday. We're gone for the entire week. I cannot wait. I need some downtime. And the jungle. And the beach.

Over the Bridge Now

I have a standing 8 AM con call on Wednesday mornings. The nanny gets here at 7:30, so it's no big deal. But today, I sat on my call staring out the window at about a half inch of heavy, wet snow on the ground. And it was still coming down in large, fast-falling flakes. Two robins hopped through the snow with little cartoon balloons over their heads that said, "WTF?"

Ok, I lied about the balloons. But boy I felt sorry for those little harbingers of spring. And then I started wondering about the robin in my header. I took that picture two years ago, I believe. Was he one of the guys pouting outside of my window this morning?

According to Learner.org, most robins die within their first year of life. But, if they make it past that first year, they live from 5 to 6 years. So, my guy in the header could still be around.

I was up late working last night. I slid into bed at midnight and then couldn't sleep. So, I got up and did about fifteen minutes of yoga in the dark. Then I sat on my zafu* and said the Jewish evening prayers.  I'm memorizing them slowly, so using each line I am memorizing as a mantra of sorts works well. Serves two purposes if you will. I slept more soundly than I have for weeks.

* I love that word. Zafu! Yes, I own a zabuton too.

I am planning to re-read the first volume of Nin's Diary in Hawaii. On the beach. Me, B, the ocean, Nin, Paris. B and I once got into a fight because he complained about the number of Nin books I had in the living room bookcase. "Can you take some downstairs? Between that and the Henry Miller, it looks like an undergraduate's dorm," was his comment I believe. "Up yours. You've never even read any Nin or Miller," was my response. Heh.

Truly, some of our largest fights have been about art. We cannot even speak of Elvis Costello's All This Useless Beauty without someone sleeping on the couch. It is one of my favorite EC albums. He hates it and says it is EC past his prime. Uh! I got pissed just writing that. He can't stand Tori Amos, who I believe saved my life when I was in my early 20s. He can't stand to listen to as much as two bars of any Ani DiFranco song. And he just doesn't get Midnight Oil or Seal or The Postal Service.

I guess I should be fair and say that I hate Van Morrison, Ricki Lee Jones, Bob Dylan, The English Beat and Salman Rushdie. He recently converted my on Tom Waits by taking me to see him live. I guess the common thread is that we are passionate about art.

More on Paris...

So I think I want to write some more on the trip to Paris.

We've been talking a lot about crepes since our return. We ate a nutella crepe a day. My favorite was the one that we ordered from the crepe window of the restaurant two doors down from our apartment. We took them back, sat on the couch and lost our minds as we ate them. First of all, the crepe woman had triple stuffed it with nutella. On top of that, I have never witnessed a crepe that was so hot in my entire life. TWENTY MINUTES LATER (and I'm NOT exaggerating) I was still burning my fingers on it as I continued to eat it. It was amazing. The culinary highlight of the trip as far as I'm concerned.

Brian made a trip to Vancouver a couple of weekends ago and reported back that, as Vancouver is a little bit of Europe in North America, they had crepes of near quality to what we had in Paris. So we're now toying with the thought of trying to replicate them. I'm a little skeptical. Crepes are hard to make, let alone crepes that rival the quality and mystique of those that you have on vacation in Paris. The ingredients are simple enough, but the technique in making the crepe the right consistency and then folding it properly will be a challenge. I'll post photos of our results once complete. I suspect the hubby will make a go of it this weekend.

But enough about food...

We went to the Picasso Museum this time around and thoroughly loved it. When I was younger, I just didn't get Picasso. (I've never really taken an art class in my life, so that's probably a big part of it.) But I've gotten into his work after reading some Stein. (How can one not?)

Picasso Museum

Site in English that explains a lot about the museum

Here's a painting that I spent a lot of time in front of. The lines and colors and flow of the painting attracted me. Nu au Jardin. (Click to see larger version.)

I wish I had a better vocabulary to speak about art. I should take a basic art appreciation course. The twisting of the body, as if sunning oneself, is so appealing. The way the body is drawn suggests the movement of the stretching. The pillow being the most "drawn in" or least abstract object in the painting. The garden feeling so all encompassing. I love this painting.

The building that houses the Picasso Museum is in itself stunning. The Hotel Sale was built in the XVIIth century for Pierre Aubert Lord of Fontenay. It's one of the most stunning mansions in the Marais and it is as much of a treat to take in the Hotel itself as it is to take in Picasso's work.

Each time we visit Paris, we try to balance eating, shopping and museuming. We usually do a good job of that. The museums on top of my list for next time around are Museum of Jewish Art and History and Musee D'Orsay.

Paris Spring 2004

My husband, Brian, and I took our second trip to Paris a couple of weeks ago. We had a fabulous time and experienced what most people do when they travel outside of our country...a more objective look at our society (forced about due to the society you are immersed in when you travel) and a more objective look at the day to day existance of our own lives.

Oh, that and the fact that the food and art are mind-blowing.

I love the disappearance of the daily schedule that comes about on vacation. I love having nothing that HAS to be done all day. We did a lot of walking around the streets of Paris, simply meandering and taking in all that we saw.

Window shopping in Paris is amazing...clothing, purses, shoes, food...all very different from what I see in shop windows here in Chicago. I did plenty of actual shopping in Paris this time around, but the window shopping was more fun than actually purchasing. Brian became self-conscious because every 45 seconds I was "Oh!'ing like a child at the next beautiful silk scarf, intricate piece of jewelry or delicate espresso cup that I saw in a window. I'm an American, what can I say??

Here's a tea shop that we absolutely adored. It's in the Marais, where we rented an apartment:

Mariage Freres The

Right now, the site is only in french, but looks like it will be translated into English soon.

An article about Mariage Freres as well

Once you are within 3-5 store fronts of Mariage Freres you will catch an odor in the air that smells like the most delicate, sensual and inviting perfume that you have ever smelled. It's not perfume, however, it's the tea.

The sheer volume of the different varieties of tea is overwhelming. Brian and I did a smell test and ended up bringing home some of their Arabie tea. It's a green tea that tastes nothing like I've ever had before. I'm excited because I can order more of it through the Mariage Freres website above.

If you are in Paris though, and you go to Mariage Freres, I would highly recommend you actually sit down in the back room and have some tea and sandwiches. It's a good way to talk to someone their who knows their selection and let's face it, a relaxing way to spend an hour or two.

More about Paris later...