tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

I left home a long, long time ago
in a tin can for the road with a suitcase and some songs
chasing miles through the nighttime making tracks
with no time for looking back to the place where I belong

how these days grow long
but I`m on my way back home
it’s been hard to be away

~Brandi Carlile

It felt like it was time to go home. And so we went.

That’s how Chicago still feels to me. Taking the Ogden Ave exit from 83 South is just….well, it’s exactly the same as it ever was.

Some things are completely unrecognizable now, but almost everything else is still…home.

This was our first stop.

September has always been sort of an intense month.

Anyway, then we went to Baker’s Square so I could have some French Silk Pie.  It made me a little sick, but it was a good sick, you know? I wish there were less cupcake shops and more pie shops around DC. I don’t know why pie gets the shaft.

After gorging on pie we drove around my old neighborhood, and stopped by Mrs Butler’s house since she was having a garage sale. Unfortunately we left just a little before Mr Mitchell popped over to say hi. I used to babysit for Mr Mitchell, and apparently he asked about me and wanted to make sure Aaron was taking good care of me. I love chivalry.

What else do you do on a Saturday in the suburbs than hit Oak Brook Mall and wander around for a bit? We even got some shopping in – Aaron had a personal shopper at The Gap who found him some snazzy jeans. They look great, except when he wears them I have to carry his phone in my purse. Fashion hurts.

We had drinks with my tennis buddy Karen and met her husband – I don’t think I’d seen Karen since high school, so it was great to catch up. We talked about wanting to open up B&B’s in various parts of the world.

Then we drove into Chicago, through construction traffic, and finally made it to the Dana Hotel and Spa – which is freaking amazing. We somehow landed a corner room, which (like all the rooms) has floor to ceiling windows for walls. It was awesome.

I’ll spare you the shot of the bathroom, but there was a glass wall separating the shower from the rest of the room, and if you didn’t pull the curtain closed just right (or left it wide open…) you could catch quite an eyeful.

We had just enough time to freshen up before meeting Steph and Scott for dinner at 1492.

Dinner was great, and after two pitchers of white sangria, we were definitely the loudest table, and the last ones to leave. We had such a blast.

My best friend from kindergarten:

We’ve come a long way from Gilbert Ave, Steph.

On the way back to the hotel, Scott pointed out the steps of the church where the St Valentine’s Day massacre took place. Chicago is kind of bad ass.

The next morning we were up early and headed off to meet up with Jenny at Lou Mitchell’s for brunch. Chicago is pretty empty on Sunday mornings.

It was really good to catch up with Jenny – the time just flew by.

Before we knew it we had to head back out to the suburbs, and we went to Katherine Legge Memorial Park for a picnic with Lisa and her family. It was a gorgeous day and we had so much fun – special thanks to Lisa’s dad for bringing over the grill!

I finally got to meet Lisa’s husband and son, and we had a great time catching up.

And Aaron and I finally got a picture of us together!

We ended the day with another trip to Baker’s Square since it used to be where Lisa and I would go all the time. This time I had my favorite – triple berry pie. It was every bit as good as I remembered it.

We said goodbye to Lisa and family and headed back to my old neighborhood park.

I couldn’t get a great shot, but here’s the view from our hill.

Yeah, home.

We checked into our hotel in Westmont – unsurprisingly, it was nowhere near as nice as the Dana, but it served its purpose I guess.

Monday morning we drove around and explored a bit more, then met up with Franny for lunch. Of course, I forgot my camera.

Hopefully we’ll meet up with her again when we are in France, since she lives in Switzerland these days.

It is amazing to be able to spend time with people you’ve known for over half your life. People who have known you from the beginning, through your trials and triumphs, and still love you and can make you laugh and can give you a reality check when you need it. I’m really lucky to still have friends like these.

After we left Franny, we freshened up in the hotel and headed over to Dee’s house for dinner. Again, no camera.

She showed off all the changes she had made to the house and yard, and everything looks amazing. It was good to be back.

We had a really nice seafood dinner and got all caught up. We had to get up super early for our flight home so we called it an early night.

And that was Chicago. A jam packed long weekend full of food, friends, and memories. And Aaron said he wouldn’t mind living somewhere around there.

I’ll have to bring him back in the middle of January and see if he changes his mind.

Breve: Short for Espresso Breve. Espresso with half-n-half.

We’ve been talking about getting a companion for Illy for a while now, not to mention an actual dog for us since Illy is mostly a cat. I had been sending Aaron pictures of dogs to look at for months, and he had always either dismissed them outright or said something vaguely neutral like, “That seems like a nice dog,” quietly ending the conversation.

Finally I sent him a picture of a border collie mix, around a year old, with slightly longer fur than we typically have been drawn to, but an irresistible face. And to that dog I got, “That’s a forever dog.” And I knew I had him.

We sent in an application, and they liked us! We found out later that this had been a supremely popular dog, but the foster mom liked our application the best so we scheduled a home visit and were invited down to meet him.

So we headed down to Bumpass, VA (true story) and met him, along with about 20 other border collies living at the house. He was more puppy-like than we expected, but Illy seemed to like him and he was beautiful. We were a bit wary about his energy level meshing with Illy’s, and ours, but we decided to take him home for a three week trial. They have our check, so if we like him, he’s ours, but if he doesn’t fit, back he goes.

Illy on the road to meet her possible new brother:

She really is the prettiest, sweetest dog in the world.

And here he is, the Breve Brother:

Showing his true color:

We found out on the way that he likes to bite air. My guess is he’s never had his head in the wind before.

Bitey Breve:

We’re still settling in, so more to come about how we’re faring in a bit…

We just got home from a camping trip with the Bru’s. We had an awesome time, as usual. We were all a little concerned about what the weather would be like, since we’re in the midst of a heat wave right now. Not only has it been in the upper 90’s every day, but the humidity has turned all of outside into a sauna. Doesn’t sound much fun in a tent.

But when we hit Skyline Drive, we rolled down the windows and were positively chilly in the breeze up there. We became cautiously optimistic that we would be able to sleep in comfort, and I started to regret not bringing anything long-sleeved.

We put up the tent and settled in. The Bru’s arrived shortly after us and we decided to go on a short hike before we got too entrenched (and lazy, at least for me).

Aaron found a nice trail that looped around behind the campsite and ended up behind the ranger station. It was gorgeous.

It was also a little hilly in parts.

So we stopped to rest a lot.

After we got back to the site, we decided we didn’t want to deal with the bugs anymore so we sent the boys off with Lila on a shopping trip for a screened in shelter.

They found one, and Aaron also found himself a nice little cot to lounge on.

It was really comfortable. Too bad he didn’t get to spend a lot of time on it.

Everyone enjoyed it. Pat even slept on it.

I think Illy wants us to set it up in the living room.

Lila looked like she had a great time. She wandered around, played with Illy, and was a perfect little camper.

Illy didn’t even mind getting in and out of the tent this trip.

Eventually we started the fire and had some dinner.

Kelly and Lila hit the sack early, but Pat, Aaron and I stayed up late chatting and making s’mores.

We didn’t actually sleep very well – my back does not like air mattresses, it has decided. I think we might pick up a second cot and see if they can squeeze both of them in our tent for next time.

And now that we’re back in the heat and humidity, I miss the mountains even more. I think it’s time to start planning the next trip!

It seems like summer weekends are always planned out far in advance and we never have enough time to do everything we want to. But we finally made it back down to VA Beach to visit with our cousins. We headed out Thursday night to avoid traffic, and woke up to a glorious Friday morning. Illy wouldn’t let us sleep in since she heard the other dogs downstairs, so it was up at 6 to take her for a walk. I took a short jog and by the time I came back, Dee was ready to head to the beach with Archie and Oscar, whom she was dogsitting. So Illy and I decided to tag along and we had a lovely walk on the beach.

The weather could not have been more perfect all weekend. It was a little muggy, but nothing a dip in the pool couldn’t solve.

(This is from Saturday but there was too much talking and not enough pictures, so here:)

Aaron and I had lunch at Bubba’s, which was divine as usual, and then I did nothing but relax all day. It was perfect.

Saturday was much the same, except this time Aaron joined us and our hour walk on the beach turned into two hours. Illy was completely exhausted by the time we finally got home, which was great since we wanted to try taking her leash off to see if she would run away or stay near us. (The house is on a peninsula and she hates water so she couldn’t go far, but she didn’t know that).

And she did great!! Of course it helped that we had sausage for her when she came to us when we called, but she did come when called. We even let her walk down the driveway and she stayed near us the whole time. That was as much as we were willing to try with her, but it was very encouraging. Now to find bigger fenced areas where we can try again.

Then it was time for jet skis:

Archie goes CRAZY to get on a jet ski, so Dee took him out:

We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and enjoying the beautiful sunset.

We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend.

Our gracious hosts:

Hopefully we will make it back down in August, when everyone’s schedules clear up!

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous. And one of the few weekends we didn’t have planned from morning til night. So randomly on Sunday we decided to go check out the British Pub in Upperville, Hunter’s Head.

It was pretty authentic inside, and had a nice garden area. The bangers were absolutely delicious, and tasted just like I remembered. I had a chicken pot pie which was very good, although a little short on the chicken. It wasn’t exactly cheap, but we knew that going in.

Then we drove around for a little bit and ended up at Barrel Oak Winery to have a glass of wine and take in the nice day. And wouldn’t you know, there was a puppy adoption day going on! Wine and puppies? Heaven!

This little guy was adorable:

But I fell in love with this girl:

If she was a boy, I’m sure we would have taken her home. But I know Illy gets along better with boys, so I had to be strong.

It was tough.

Sigh.

This weekend was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival – hard to believe it’s been a year since the last one!

We booked the same hotel as last year, the Hampton Inn, and I headed up Friday night after traffic. Kim, her mom, and Heather had arrived earlier and were just coming back from dinner when I showed up. We went to bed early so we could get up early enough to beat traffic. And beat traffic we did! We left by 8am, took back roads, and didn’t get stuck in one bit of traffic. It was perfect.

It was really nice to be there so early, before the crowds (and heat!) really hit. The vendors aren’t supposed to start selling until 9, but no one paid any attention to that. I made a beeline for the Australian hat guy, and picked up my new best friend:

Kim had her heart set on a Carol Leigh Adjustable 7′ Triangle Loom. Now, Carol Leigh is a wee bit of a celebrity – at least in the loom world. Either that, or we are just a little bit crazy. But Carol Leigh was awesome and took some pictures with us, and Kim got her loom! And yes, Carol Leigh is wearing a poncho she loomed herself. She made sure to point that out to us.

I really hope she calls me to update her website. I’m not even linking it here because it makes me want to claw my eyes out. The woman makes a fantastic loom, but Oy! that website.

We wandered around after that, stopped for some BBQ lamb, and did some more shopping.

And then the heat started to kick in. It wasn’t so bad in the shade, but out in the sun, or in the barns that really didn’t have much ventilation was almost unbearable.

The Juniper Moon Farm group had a meetup at noon. Here’s Maggie:

It was nice to see everyone, but it was far too hot to just be sitting in the sun, so we all wandered off pretty quickly.

In the early afternoon we surrendered to the heat and decided to call it a day. On the way home we stopped at a liquor store and Heather and I spent some quality time in the walk in freezer, cooling off. That was awesome.

After some much needed showers, we headed out to La Palapa Grill for some delicious margaritas. Oh, and dinner.

We went to the Ravelry After Party, but it wasn’t quite a party, so to speak, so we left early (and won’t go again next year).

I had a decent haul this year – I even managed to pick up the print I had longed for last year:

And I leave you with a baby alpaca:

We headed back down to Juniper Moon Farm this weekend to participate in the Spring Shearing celebration. We arrived Friday evening in time for the wine and cheese party. Kim and her mom had arrived on Thursday, so we met up with them before we headed over. It was great getting to meet so many of the shareholders and enjoy being on the farm with them.

It was crazy seeing how small Tiny (real name: Rushworth) is in person. He was a preemie lamb, whose health was very touch and go for awhile, but he seems to be hanging in there. I was able to hold him and he is teddy bear small!

Luckily it didn’t rain, as forecast, and the cloud cover kept us nice and cool all weekend. The shearing took place on Saturday. Ernie was the star of the show, being the biggest sheep. Emily the shearer wrangled him like he was Tiny-sized.

It was fascinating seeing the fleeces come off, and feeling how greasy they were from the lanolin. I’m not an expert in these matters, but I’m pretty sure we’re going to be getting some excellent yarn next year!

The potluck lunch was incredibly well stocked (notably Amy’s blueberry cobbler) and it was so nice to just eat and relax in the countryside.

Aaron snapped quite a few adorable pictures over the weekend.

Feenat:

Lambs:

Cini takes a break:

Thanks to Susie and Maggie at JMF for throwing this wonderful party for us!

It doesn’t feel like it’s been ten years since I graduated from the University of Richmond. I never had plans to go to the reunion, but when I heard one of my friends was going, and managed to convince another to go, I decided it sounded pretty fun after all. I even dragged Aaron with me.

We headed down Friday, stopping by Juniper Moon Farm on the way to say hi to Susan and the animals and show Aaron around. We finally arrived in Richmond and checked in at the Westin on West Broad, which is a brand new hotel and beautiful. I would definitely stay there again – heavenly bed indeed! Anyway we got changed since we had reservations at The Tobacco Company, and headed to the lobby to meet up with our friends. I hadn’t seen either of them since our wedding, so it was a long overdue get together!

Here we are waiting for the elevator.

It was so good to see Kristin and Andrew again, and meet Kristin’s man, John. They are such an adorable couple!

We headed out to The Tobacco Company and had a fabulous dinner. And of course, we finished the night with a drink at Sin-e.

Where of course, we had a blast. Some things just don’t change, even in ten years.

The adorable couple:

We finally called it a night and headed back to our heavenly beds.

Saturday we headed over to campus and checked in at the Jepson Alumni Center.

They were giving away old yearbooks they had lying around, so I grabbed one from 2000. Note to students: Don’t waste money on a yearbook, you can pick one up for free in a few years!

They had a free picnic for all the alumni and it was really great – good food, a free drink ticket each (Note to self: Buy ring of red raffle tickets for future such occasions).

I only said hi to one other girl from our class, but I saw a few more I recognized. The class of ‘00 didn’t really have a huge showing. Now the class of ‘85, they were partying pretty hard by the end of the night. I guess we’ll have to wait and see who shows up in ten more years.

It was really great being back on campus – UR is a gorgeous place.

I think Aaron enjoyed taking the tour. There were a few new buildings, a few redone buildings, but the biggest shocks were the new fitness center, which is nicer than any gym I’ve ever been in, and the new Dining Hall, which has so many more (and nicer) food stations. I was just a little bitter about missing out on the gym and D Hall.

I ended up donating to the university in the form of a shopping spree at the bookstore. Then it was time for a nap.

Andrew joined us for dinner at Bandito Burrito’s. We headed back to campus for a quick drink at the Cellar, for old time’s sake.

We stopped in to the final party of the night at D Hall, but no one from our class showed so we called it an early night.

We had one last meal together Sunday morning – breakfast at the hotel. It was so great seeing Kristin and Andrew again, and reliving our memories of UR.

I hope we don’t let as many years pass before our next visit. Good friends are hard to come by.

Last November Kim and I arranged to do a Farm Stay weekend at Juniper Moon Farm. Kim heard about the farm a while ago from a friend and became a shareholder in their yarn CSA. Knowing I love yarn and sheep, she told me about their blog so I could follow the lives of the animals on the farm. So in November we saw a post go up talking about farm stay weekends. In a matter of minutes after the blog post, we simultaneously emailed each other and agreed that we needed to book a weekend, stat. We fell over ourselves trying to make sure that we could get a deposit in fast enough to secure a weekend before they booked up. Shepherd Susie (or just Susan, if you’re not tweeting or earburning her) wrote us back and set us up for April 1-4, and we could not have been more excited.

Sheep! Sheep dogs! Goats! BABY GOATS! April took freaking forever to get here.

But get here it did, and we hauled ass down to Charlottesville(ish) on Thursday afternoon and arrived in just less than 2 hours. Not too shabby. It turned out to be the first absolutely perfect weather weekend of the year, which I think was the Shepherd Gods way of ensuring two more additions into the fold.

We pulled up the driveway and I don’t think we stopped squealing the entire time. Sabine greeted us with some very deep and threatening barks, the sheep were grazing lazily in the field, and UPS man pulled up right behind us. That worked out great because we weren’t sure whether to go to the front door or what, but Susan came out to the garage to get the package (which happened to be boots from Zappos for a future farm stay guest – a brilliant idea) and greeted us with a tiny, fearsome chihuahua barking his head off in her arms. This was our first introduction to the Crown Prince of Yarn. Gulliver is a little sweetheart once he gets used to you, which took all of about five minutes:

First order of business, of course, was snorgling the baby goats, so we headed over to the barn, home of the lamb cam.

Look at those ears! These little guys were so warm and snuggly.

They were so cute when they would call to their Mama and leap around trying to find her.

The Mamas were mostly focused on when they were going to get their grain.

We spent some time wandering around the farm, shooing the chickens out of the barn, and getting to know the sheep. Big Ernie was Kim’s favorite.

And of course, loving on the dogs.

Juniper Moon Farm is an incredibly peaceful place. I could sit on one of the rocking chairs on the porch and watch the sheep graze for hours.

Susan was an incredible host, explaining how life on the farm works and answering our endless stream of questions with patience and humor. I don’t think we stopped laughing the entire visit.

Our days were structured so that we’d wake up around 8am or so, go feed and water the animals (and collect eggs) at 8.30, and then come back in for breakfast. Susan makes this incredible granola which is delicious with yogurt. And I bet it would be great over ice cream, too. Then chores and errands during the day. When it starts to get dark, feed and water the animals again, get them back into the pens (and coops) for the night. Finally, time for the humans to eat.

Susan made us the most divine meals. Salmon with rice and asparagus, pistachio cream pasta, risotto with a fried egg – everything was simply delicious.

On Saturday we paid a visit to Amy, who had a pregnant goat who needed an injection. I was tasked with holding the goat while Susan showed Amy where to stick the needle.

Amy has a beautiful llama, but sadly he didn’t like to be touched. He did, however, like to sneak up behind you in stealth mode so that you would suddenly feel warm breath fluttering over the back of your neck. But as soon as you turned around, he would be stepping away.

Nothing to see here, folks. Keep movin’.

Amy baked Susan a strawberry rhubarb pie which was soooo good. What’s a farm stay without a fresh baked pie?

Susan was gracious enough to drive us around a bit, since it was such a beautiful day. We ended up trying to find the Kluge Winery, which is just gorgeous. However the main road was closed so we were directed by a very stern man to take the detour. The detour turned out to be ridiculously long, so by the time we got there we decided to stay for a glass.

I think this was also the day Erin stopped by to pick up a sheep and a goat, so it was really nice to meet her. We also met Maggie, who is delightful.

After a bit of relaxing and drinking in the beauty of the farm, it was time for evening chores and dinner. Susan whipped up a delicious pistachio cream pasta dish which I can’t wait to make again.

Saturday morning found us headed to the local diner for breakfast, where we were to discover to our horror that they were out of biscuits!!! There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but we managed to survive when they gave us a basket of slider buns to keep the peace.

After breakfast, Susan took us over to Chicken World.

Chicken World is everything you think it’s going to be. They have a Chicken Nursery, Chicken Daycare, and a Chicken Academy. I chicken shit you not. A fantastic woman runs it – if you ever need chickens, this is the place to go. A certain very important family in our country has even bought chickens from her.

After Chicken World, we hit up a little antique store, where everyone but me picked up a few treasures. One of the owners told Kim the story of how he courted his wife. It involved tomato sauce and a loaf of Wonder bread. Ask him about it, if you’re ever in town.

On the way home we did a drive by of a house that was for sale, since I suddenly decided I was in the market for a 10 acre farm. We passed a family out for a walk who appeared to wave us down, so Susan stopped and asked them if they needed help. But apparently they were just saying hi and we hightailed it out of there. We then passed what looked like a junkyard but was apparently someone’s house. A man was tossing down great quantities of a white powder, and it reminded me of the funeral scene in Amadeus. We eventually found the house that was for sale, and while it was ok, there was no way I was going to live on that street with those families. Who knows WHAT decomposing bodies that guy was sprinkling powder on. We didn’t stop to say hi (again) to the walking family on our way out, but they did stare us down as we passed.

After that exhausting day we relaxed for a bit at the farm. Dinner was a delicious egg topped risotto and a salad. Simply lovely.

Sunday came way too soon. Kim’s mom had surreptitiously packed us each an Easter basket, which was so sweet, and so thoughtful, so we even had Easter baskets! We made the rounds to say goodbye to everyone and took a long last look at the farm before we headed home.

As soon as we got home we booked hotel rooms for the shearing weekend on April 24th. I can’t wait to go back.

Some of my favorite photos:

Big Ernie:

Heading out to graze:

For years we’ve been talking about remodeling the closet in our bedroom. I hate the builder’s basic wire shelving we have all through the house, but it’s especially annoying in the closet because it’s not an efficient use of space. Here’s a before shot of the closet, looking through the door. On the left you can’t see another shelf at the same height as these two. We made it work, mostly, but it could definitely be improved.

We looked all around for closet systems, from the Container Store to Lowe’s to Home Depot to Target. Everything was either way too expensive, or couldn’t be customized very easily since our dimensions were just a little off of what ’standard’ systems are measured.

Then we saw the closet system that Pat and Kelly installed in their house, and it was awesome! It’s the John Louis Home closet system (we bought from Sears online). It’s solid wood, metal brackets, and can be easily cut to fit any wall. And it’s so much cheaper than anything else we looked at.  Their closet looked so amazing, we had to copy them. It’s really nice having handy, crafty friends!

We ripped out the old wire crap and I painted the closet Rhino (Behr) since I had a ton leftover from the laundry alcove in the basement.

It took a while to figure out exactly how we wanted to lay everything out, and I think we will end up installing another shelf at some point, but we finally got around to putting the shelves on the wall. Of course our walls are not flat at all so we had to shim almost every bracket, but it all worked out.

Aaron – Husband Extraordinaire:

It was pretty easy to put together, but it was still hard work. We worked on it all day Sunday, and most of Monday evening.

It looks awesome! The wall I’m taking the picture from just has one high shelf/hanger rod. And the paint is a lot more green than the picture reflects.

I do want to replace our light, but we decided to hold off for now. I guess I should put the cover back on.

Here it is, almost completely filled up. I added some more baskets and clothes after I snapped this shot. We have more room than before, since I fit in some clothes we had stored in the guest bedroom closet, and I could reorganize it a bit to get even more in there, if we need to.

I think I won’t mind putting the clothes away anymore. At least until the newness wears off