WEEKEND WARRIORS

spring crept in the door this weekend! it shouted, in its cute high-pitched elmo-like voice, "wear a colorful dress! eat colorful food!" and so dress i wore and kale i ate and merry we were, as roomie patrick entertained his guests on easter for one of those brunch parties that starts at 2 in the afternoon. (i am convinced that all of patrick's friends qualify to be guest characters on girls. you know, the attractive, smart, pop culture savvy type that have 10,000 twitter followers and poetry degrees.)

also this weekend i broke my kosher for passover run to eat hot cross buns x two: one from bklyn larder on a little lunch date with eggboy, and one (ok three) that chris made from scratch. after bklyn larder, eggboy got a little bit blue about not being with his family for easter, so i rerouted us to fleisher's, where we acquired beginner's steak and beginner's lamb (neither of us have cooked either of those before) for a special eggboyeaster dinner! i think the steak had about 10 minutes too many, but i'd rather feed eggboy overcooked steak than undercooked. 

we rounded off the weekend with 90s movies, the kind that show you what life was like in the suburbs when scrunchies were in style and pixar wasn't yet that cool. i rather miss those days... 

-yeh!

I WAS HOME

ok hi, hi!!! i'm back from a stupendous long weekend home of little lunches around my favorite suburban restaurants, george gershwin being camera shy, finally finding a dress for stoop's wedding, and stoop obviously getting drunk at brunch.

oh and then johnswik, my future brother-in-law, rolled in to sing: when i say afi, you say komen. it only took (formerly little, now really tall) jake about two hours to find it. i think he won a high five?

being home was just so much awesome stillness, like sitting on the couch and watching girls and spending five hours in the spice shop with mum smelling every single spice thrice and painting my nails purple and watching melissa down a robicelli's cupcake on the television with katie and jaclyn while we drank cider. nothing i'd ever be able to do in new york without feeling guilty for not being at this album release show or that new opera or catching up on my new yorker. 

and so now i'm back and pondering my existence as a half-way to new yorker brooklynite and mostly i just want to be eating kale in the kitchen with mum as she brushes gracie's teeth. oy vay. 

-yeh!

TWO BIRTHDAYS

this week two beings in my immediate family celebrate a birthday: mia is 7, george gershwin is 6. 7 years ago today i watched mia gracefully exit the womb and somehow got it all on camera. and a year and a little while after that, a fluffy ball of dreadlocks tumbled into my home in illinois for a life of playing, eating shoes, and regularly being called some variation on the most annoying word not in the english dictionary: rasta-dog. 

it is weird that i've been watching from afar as they grow til tall and every day i wonder if, now that i'm out of school, it's worth it to still be in new york and not where they are.

luckily i'll be going home this weekend for {among other things}: lou malnati's, stoopie's bachelorette party {i've never been to one of those, should i be scared?}, delivering american girl stuff to a birthday girl, eating doggie sherbet with a birthday boy, making one million macaroons for passover, and hopefully judging at the big mustard competition.

happy birthday, mia and george gershwin!

-yeh!

RECIPE: VEGAN SHAMROCK SHAKES

march is not a real month until shamrock shakes have been achieved. {once mum and i demonstrated this with a bunch of selfies taken in the parking lot of an illinois mcdonald's.} so when eggboy asked "what is a shamrock shake?" i got all startled because i really just don't think it's ok to not have ever had a shamrock shake. i was also confused because he has all these fond memories of going to mcdonald's when he was little... but i do remember hearing somewhere that not all mcdonald's sell shamrock shakes. which is so dumb. anyway, this morning we walked in the rain to three stores before we found just the right ice cream {soy ice cream sweetened with fruit because eggboy fears processed sugar} and then while he strum strum strummed away at his guitar, i ferociously recalled the chapter in my photography book on not sucking at taking pictures of ice cream. and the shakes were wonderful! eggboy-friendly {free of dairy and tons of processed sugar} and human-friendly {no icky artificial mint or green coloring} and they are like a splagillion times better than the ones from mcdonald's. i'm not just saying that-- the fresh mint is completely something else.

so go blend up milk, ice cream, and mint, and have yourself a very merry st. patrick's day.

-yeh!!!!