Smarty Pants

Today is a momentous occasion and, for once, it has nothing to do with countdowns, checklists, gowns or graduation. This is, in fact, an accomplishment all my own. This morning, for the first time ever, I completely completed the New York Times Sunday crossword.

I've enjoyed the challenge of crosswords for as long as I can remember. My grandma always worked them, and I remember sitting beside her on the couch trying my best to help her with the "Word Jumble" in the daily paper. In college, I would do my best with the Merl Reagle crossword, with spotty success, looking only briefly at the more difficult Will Shortz offering on the opposite page of the Tribune. But for the last four or five years, I've diligently tried my hand at the Sunday New York Times version. Some weeks are better than others, and I have come painfully close a few times but, up until today, I have never been able to completely finish a large grid.

There are some rules to my game: No help from anywhere, which means no dictionary, no Google, no husband. He's not allowed to fiddle with the crossword or call out any answers. And there's no time limit, meaning I sometimes work on the puzzle through the week until the next Sunday's arrives. Also, I don't do weekday puzzles, only Sunday.

And so, today, finally! I completed a full puzzle. I could hardly believe it when I filled in the last letter, I looked over the page again and again thinking there must be one or two clues I'd missed. But no, I had figured out every last one. What a long-awaited accomplishment this is!

Before it's taped to the fridge, here's the prize puzzle:

And its closeup:

Helter Swelter - reworked

I finally made it back to the gym today after an unfortunate few week hiatus. In my defense, the gym was closed for a week in there, but the rest of my truancy was due completely to my own excuses and various and sundry other issues that seemed to be in the way of walking two easy blocks from my office and plopping my sorry self down on a stationary bike.

And so I felt some very well-deserved but serious pain in spinning class tonight. Through the haze of the pulsing music and pedaling torture, I was able to conjure up only two other times in my life that I've sweated that much.

One was sitting in a van in 110 degree heat at the base of the caldera on Santorini Island in Greece, waiting on a few straggly bedraggled backpackers before climbing the teetering switchbacks to Oia, some unknown importance having been placed on keeping the windows sealed up and the sliding door firmly closed.

The other time was in Le Kef, Tunisia, this time ratcheting it up to 120 degree heat. Having been stuffed into a five seater long distance taxi and told we were leaving straight away, then waiting indefinitely for a few more interested but dusty traveling Tunisians to bring the car's occupancy to a stuffy, stinky, squished and nearly unbearable seven, with me as the lone lady amongst the sweaty menfolk.

Note to self: Stop skipping spin class, and for the love of God, stop traveling south in August!

Garden Update

My next door neighbor asked if I'd be setting up a flower stand anytime soon, and I'd have to agree - we are definitely in full bloom! Look at all the beautiful colors:

Here is my fragrant Sweet William. I still can't believe it grew from seed. In the front are my herbs and a flourishing lavender, which I plan to pot and take back with me to Seattle. After I finished weeding and taking photos, I picked a beautiful bouquet of the Sweet William, a few peonies and some chive blossoms.

My arugula, lettuce, beets and carrots are coming up nicely. Here they are before I thinned them:

And here, the spring greens salad from the thinning, including beet greens. So delicious and fresh!

Pomp and Circumstance

Hurray! Today Gus graduated!

Okay, not really. He participated in the Villanova School of Nursing's convocation with the rest of the lucky folk that really are graduating now, but he and his anesthesia classmates still don't finish up until November. Still, it was a fun day and a great step toward feeling like this really will be all over someday soon.

When Gus earned his Bachelor of Music, it was a pink tassel, then again with the pink hood for his Master of Music. For his Bachelor of Science in Nursing, we moved over to apricot (ooh la la!) which is where we were today for the Master of Science in Nursing Anesthesia. Fortunately, he looks great in pastels as he apparently picked the two girliest paths toward academic regalia, color-wise at least.

Here's the graduate, waiting for our ride, carefully holding his gown which took me a good thirty minutes to steam the wrinkles from. Looking good!

Meeting up with the rest of the class in the parking lot, here with our good friends Bud and Rheana:

The beautiful Villanova Chapel where the program was held:

And the proud wife with the (almost!) graduate:

Burger Joint

For dinner tonight, we tried out a new place in town called Elevation Burger in Wynnewood, PA. Their sustainability shtick seemed like a taste of home, but apparently they're primarily a mid-Atlantic start up franchise with locations (shockingly, given Elevation's commitment to the environment) in Texas and Florida, two states I don't exactly associate with reduce, reuse, recycle.

Hailing from the hallowed land of Dick's Drive In and Burgermaster, I consider myself somewhat of a cheeseburger connoisseur - I definitely know what I like and I've been known to take my burgers seriously. Elevation's offerings are made with 100% grass fed organic beef and topped with real cheddar, with a list of pick-your-own ingredients. I had their cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, raw onions, ketchup and mayonnaise and I must say it was delicious! Not too big, not too small, fresh vegetables (although I do prefer shredded to the leaf they offered), soft bun and a generous serving of sauciness which I like.

On the side, Gus and I split a serving of their fries which are a thinner cut potato fried in olive oil until nice and crispy. I could have used a little more salt but other than that, they were delicious!

I keep hearing that Five Guys Burgers and Fries is also great and it's definitely on our growing list of Things to Eat before we leave.

Perspicacity

And so with that, I'm thirty four. With gifts opened, cards propped and well wishes received, life goes on as it was, except now my second number is bigger than my first. Not my best, but not my worst. Certainly the first birthday I didn't fully embrace, a number I wasn't entirely ready to be.

When I think back to this day a year ago, five years ago, ten, in some ways it feels like reflecting on another person's life lived. Even rereading my post from this year's beginning, confident of a best year ever, now smacks of juvenile naivete, full of rainbows and unicorns and puppies and pink. Because at this wizened age, these mid-thirties I find myself in, I've come to the realization that life is a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be. Sure, there's a lot of great stuff - really, really great stuff, but there's also a lot of crap. Challenging, painful, difficult, unfair, drawn out crap, and from my vantage point anyway, there seems to be a lot more of it out here at the end of the limb, anted into this game of Risk, on this road less and less taken.

Indeed these days, look though I may, I fear any vestiges of my carefree can-do twenties are well and truly gone. Opportunities to be weak, frivolous and blithe seem to have checked themselves somewhere along the way - Mountain time, the mighty Mississippi, the Montgomery County border, who knows exactly. And what's left in their place? Apparently an urgent need for bravery, patience and resilience in amounts I didn't think I had in me. The opportunity to accept with grace that life once and for all really isn't fair. The achievement of finding the strength to smile (even laugh!) with a wicked big lump in my throat with no one the wiser. The chance to shut up. To speak up. To listen. Really listen. And a million more odd little moments that are both vexingly humbling and oddly empowering.

Is this adulthood? Um, like, I dunno.

Provençal Dinner

I hate to write about events the day after, but seeing as our dinner with friends didn't wrap up until almost one o'clock this morning, I figure yesterday's news is still fair game.

We hosted friends for dinner last night, and decided to go with a Provençal theme. To start, we made a tapenade which Gus hand pounded with a mortar and pestle we bought in Montreal. It used black Provençal olives, anchovies, garlic, capers, thyme and a little tuna, to which olive oil is added to make a paste. I made an onion tart that starts with a dough which calls for lemon zest. On top of this you add slowly fried onions, olives, garlic and capers. It was absolutely delicious! I also prepared some beautiful purple-tinged asparagus from the Bryn Mawr Farmers Market which I served cold topped with olive oil, lemon zest and chive blossoms from our garden. Here is a photo of the tart just before we warmed it up for our guests:

For the main course, we had our second go at making Soupe de Poissons à la Provençale, a pureed fish soup we first had in France and absolutely fell in love with. It starts with making fish stock (thanks for the fish heads Whole Foods!) to which is added fish chunks, leeks, garlic, tomatoes and a bouquet garni. Once fully cooked, this is run through a food processor, then strained, producing a silky smooth finished product. Thin slices of baguette are spread with a layer of fat and baked and a homemade spiced mayonnaise (Sauce Rouille) was also prepared. The soup is served with the rouille spread on the croûtes, which are then floated on top and sprinkled with Gruyere cheese. It is absolutely heavenly! Here is a photo of the soup pot, full of its fishy goodness:

For dessert, a simple fruit and cheese plate. I served early strawberries, again from the market, sliced apple and globe grapes alongside a true Roquefort, Manchego with rosemary and a goat cheese crotin from Berry, as well as some honey toasted pecans.

Just before our guests arrived, I picked a beautiful bouquet, all from our garden. My Sweet William is blooming, along with a rosebush and some peonies.

What a fun evening!

Penny Candy

Do you take your rain drizzled and drawn out over weeks and months like a slow, painful leak? Or all in one fell swoop, an opening of the heavens, a bucketful tipped from above? I grew up with the former and now live in the latter. Sunday night and Monday morning brought the spring downpour, producing images like this:

The sight of my muddy puddled garden sending me into a swoon that it will all be swept away, down a drainpipe in a chocolate mint swirl. But as they always do, the floodwaters subside, the garden survives, the sunshine returns and the following days' skies are bluer than the sky is blue, causing me to wonder how there could be any bad in this world or, really, why any of us has to work inside at all. In University City, the air is a deep, hot breath, thick with college confidence, sun-melted tar and too many flowers blooming, the sticky sickly sweet of a half-sucked Jolly Rancher formed to the soft palette like useless orthodontia.

Weekend Recap

Mine was a busy weekend but filled with healthy, relaxing activities. On Friday, we skipped out early and drove to Washington County, Maryland. As we drove west on I-76, the same route we'll take to leave Philadelphia for good, we tried to imagine what that moment would feel like. We arrived at our destination in the late afternoon and unpacked into our Kamping Kabin, seen here:

After a much needed nap, we headed into the closest town, Hagerstown, for (what else?) Maryland crabcakes. Then, early to bed in the still and dark of the near-deserted campground.

The next day we rose early and set out to hike a (very small) portion of the Appalachian Trail. The weather was hot and the hike was steep but it sure felt good to be out of the city into the fresh, albeit wet, spring air of the countryside. Just in the short time we were on it, we saw how varied the Trail is, from thick trees and underbrush to a small path behind a church.

Upon returning home,despite the 90 degree weather and heavy humidity, I spent a good deal of time working out in the garden, saved by a persistent breeze. I had missed on Thursday seeing that my sunflowers are coming in! I can't wait to see how tall they grow over the summer. Today I planted two kinds of pumpkins: Antique French "Cinderella's Carriage" and "Rouge Vif d'Etampes," described as "a very old French Heirloom, the most common pumpkin in the Central Market in Paris in the 1880s." I also planted Sugar Snap Peas (Dwarf Gray Sugar). I installed a homemade pie safe to protect my dill from predators, made from chicken wire and twine:

After a quick trip to the nursery ("Just for tomatoes, Gus"...ha!) I put in a hearty looking basil as well as some additional annuals including Lobelia, "Midget Mix" Stock and a purple Angelonia. Finally, I planted and caged four tomatoes: Heirloom "Mr. Stripey" (how could I resist?) "Black Krim" and "Yellow Pear," and "Sweet 100" cherries. Although the cherry tomatoes are not heirloom, I bought the same last year and had great success both in terms of flavor and prolificacy.

Bah humbug to Mondays, but look to your left! Only 199 days until I retire and can spend all my time on the good stuff.