It’s the first day of spring! And it’s beautiful out… After I finish this, Wynn and I are off to spend the afternoon downtown.

I see my afternoon under a tree reading the first of four gardening and preserving books I ordered last week while my dog greats everyone who walks by. It’s only suppose to be 52 today, but the sun is out and the wind isn’t blowing. Good enough for me….

I’m still spending most of my free brain space on garden planning. I look at the one picture I have of my future plot over and over again.

It’s going to be so fantastic!

We ate lunch at the beach the other day… On a quilt my grandmother made. It’s the best outside blanket.

This lovely lady made it all the way back from Key West. It was on our  table at the reception… At one point in the evening she said, “Ya know, I’ve never been to Boston…”

My mom will be here in 17 days… I’m so excited!!!!

J has a couple classes he has to go to in Newburyport. We came along for the ride last week…

We dropped him off and headed to the beach. It was a great day…

We also found an antique store… and thrift sore.

I love that color…

I’m here to tell ya, (from first hand knowledge) champagne flutes you can’t set down until they’re empty, are a very bad idea.

We go through a lot of pineapple. I eat a ridiculous amount of fruit of any kind, but pineapple is one of my favs.

My guideline to choosing your perfect pineapple…

A ripe pineapple has more yellow towards the bottom and top. The bottom will go yellow before the top. The more yellow, the sweeter the fruit. You can also pull on a leaf from the middle and it should come out fairly easily.

My perfect pineapple: yellow on the bottom and green on the top. Sweet but with some sour. And if you pull on a leaf it won’t come out that easily, but it will come out (unlike all green ones where you have to pry a leaf out).

If all of them are green, grab one that looks like its starting to turn. Bring it home and set it in front of your window for a couple days.

I don’t cut the skin off I just cut it into fourths (and then into 1″ triangles) and eat it like watermelon.

I made corned beef a cabbage this year with brussels sprouts. I liked it, I like them both. Brussels sprouts are prettier.

And of course hash… Happy husband.

I’m so happy she’s getting her summer haircut tomorrow. She already gets too hot on walks. She just lays down in the shade and won’t move and so I have to pick her up and carry her home… Such crap.

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING LOVES!!!!!

Ya, I’m that excited.

…is regular bursts of sunshine, surrounding your existence with only the highest quality of people and good food.

The rest just seems to fall into place.

Not that I’m not looking forward to those afternoons full of black rain clouds, rain falling so fast it won’t stay in the gutters and thunder that sets off car alarms.

Those spring storms are on their way. I hope to be sitting in my new sun porch by the time the first raindrop hits.

I have been daydreaming a lot lately about my future…  cupboard space, loads of pantry space to fill with jars and jars of whatever I can stop eating long enough to can, root cellar, number of windows with bright white trim,  guest bedroom, a huge drop in the number of discarded lottery tickets on the sidewalks, short distance to the ocean, finding the perfect bike with a basket for Wynn (if I have to sew her ass in to keep her from jumping out, I will). And my plot… Words can’t express my excitement!

I have my list of everything I want to grow. It’s very long.

I’m sooo excited for this next chapter in our lives to start.

Right now I’ve hit that spot everyone finds themselves in when they realize they would rather burn their current house down than stomach moving again.

I just got all the pictures taken of our current house for our landlord to post in hopes of finding the next perfect occupants. The pictures portray a spacious, clean and bright  condo ready for Mr. and Mrs. “Smith” to move in and make a home… In all actuality anything other than the room I was photographing looked like a war zone. I would just haul everything that made the picture look cluttered out of the field of view; I can stage a photo…

I have been informed that Lola (upstairs neighbor dog) and Wynn wish to go for a walk. It is 55 degrees and the sun is shining, I’m all for taking advantage of that! I’ll be back… (I wonder if there is a soul alive who doesn’t hear Arnold’s voice in their head when reading that line…?)

Key West was fabulous. I love traveling to new places… it’s a bonus when that place happens to be surrounded by water.

We decided early on to drive the 3700 miles. You have to really love someone to travel far distances with them in a car. Books on tape (actually books on CD… but that doesn’t have as nice of a ring to it) are a necessity.

I packed all our meals for the way down, we ate well.

The way back was another story…

Sorry mom, I had to use the F word to explain the magnitude…

I very much like the idea of spicy dark chocolate, however in this case “dark” is a slight exaggeration.

Show me your bruschetta!

I had a five minute conversation with this guy while trying to borrow their salt. He thought I was his waitress, I wondered why he kept bringing up bruschetta. I did gather that they all had a very large time on the booze cruise they went on that afternoon…Fun Lovers!

Great place for a mani…

This was our first slice of key lime pie in Key west… big smile!

Pina coladas are brilliant!

The only thing better than being on vacation, is being on vacation with friends…

He’s a child…

“I’m just too excited to choose!”

Late night walk on the beach with my favorite…

Of course I found a thrift store, the woman behind the counter was a doll.

The wedding was a glorious event. We had an absolute blast!

Individual key lime pies… um, yes!

Yep, right where I left it… an hour earlier.

We stayed with friends in Orlando on our way home. I missed the Leon Melvin family…

Some day he will turn into a chicken.

I can’t wait until you come visit us! We don’t have armadillos… Thanksgiving (that isn’t actually on Thanksgiving (you know what I mean)) Is a nice time to visit Boston… I will make sure I have eggs.

Thanks for letting us crash!

We didn’t eat so well on the way home, Cracker Barrel and DQ, I felt like such shite when I got home… In my defense, I haven’t had a chicken fried steak in a thousand years. I’m convinced they don’t even have white gravy in New England. Fascist bastards!

It was good.

So we spent close to a hundred dollars on the road faxing, scanning, printing… Not fun. I believe I did voice my opinion on buying a house while on vacation… We are waiting for the bank assessment, that’s the last big hurdle. Then I will order seeds.

Thats a lot of miles in 12 days.

My neighbor is a peach! Cannoli and a brand new meat thermometer, welcome home to me!

The bride made hot sauce for party favors for the reception. One problem, everyone who flew couldn’t get them back; so they all rode home with us. One of ours is almost gone… so so good. My husband put it on spaghetti.

I know you’ve heard this a thousand times but Tamiko, you should sell your hot sauce.

We should have a “come get your sauce and get sauced” party…

Back to 30 degree weather and East Boston… bla.

Cheers to the bride and groom! We love you both!!!!

Don’t forget to howl at the moon tomorrow Loves!

At this very moment I am sitting poolside drinking bloody mary…

We had a magical evening last night celebrating the union of two of the most fantastic people I know… (more on that in my next blog)

I uploaded my latest images before I left. I figured I’d  have time to bang out something along the way. Now is that time…

Ok it wasn’t that time. My lunch came and I got sidetracked. It is now three days later. I am in Orlando sitting at our friends kitchen table… Whatever works I say.

Take it from me, don’t decide to buy a house while on vacation. It wasn’t our first choice but sometimes life works out that way. We got our P&S (purchase and sale) yesterday.  If everything keeps going along this line, I’ll have my very own plot by April fools day.

I’m still not allowing myself to get really excited until we have the keys in our hands. Home buying is a bitch!

Is it sad that I’m more excited about my future garden than my future house…?

We hurried an inspection through before we left. I got to go hang out in my future house Sunday morning.

This is one of my favorites… Even though it looks like it was painted by my five year old niece.

I take that back, we are genetically engineered in my family to pop out already knowing how to paint.

It looks like some random five year old painted it.

I am glad the house isn’t perfect though, how boring.

Just think how exciting it will be when the front porch falls off because the temporary jacks they put in however many years ago, give way. Good times!

And what did we find up there (other than the crumbling chimney) the original french doors. Big smile!

We went to beer wars the other night…

This beer

vs. this beer

The food was so so, but the beer was fantastic on both sides.

Good advice…

The sisters have bloomed again… They died a couple months ago on the same day and bloomed again on the same day.

I will miss the pier in Eastie. The random artwork always makes me smile, plus it’s a great place for Wynn to run off leash. And it’s by far the best view of the city.

Oh well… I choose a garden over a view of the city.

The artwork agrees…

The “belle” and it has a Christmas tree in the back… how perfect! She wanted to come home with me, I could tell. It’s possible that my husband would choke me until I quit kicking if I came home with a boat.

I am starting to see spring everywhere… Not that we had much of  a winter.

I didn’t realize joy was a registered trademark… hmmm.

Happy Vacation Day Loves!

We put an offer on a house…

This house.

It’s the first house we looked at. We haven’t looked at any other houses, that is/was tomorrow’s project.

I do have to admit, the rate at which we are moving forward in our home buying adventure is a bit unnerving. We looked at it last Thursday and put an offer in yesterday.

I am in love with this house… We wouldn’t be moving this fast for any old piece of rubbish. Sometimes you just get lucky.

We still may not get it, and I’m ok with that. Whatever is meant to be, will…. And it’s that simple.

A great way to spend Valentines Day… Not that we care too much for this particular holiday.

I just love this image…

I was dog sitting for my upstairs neighbor while she stole away for a weekend of frivolity in San Francisco.

I thank Lola for forcing me to appreciate the splendor of the early morning. It has caught on…

It does jump start your day when you get up and go for a walk first thing.

She was beyond excited to see Michelle…

And she brought me truffles… my favorite.

I am discovering a love for really good dark chocolate.

My christmas cactus has a bloom!

It’s kinda close to Christmas…

Happy garbage day loves!

It’s seven am and I’ve already been up for an hour. Yes I know, very unlike me. I kinda like it. It’s amazing how much I can get done before nine. I’ve been trying to turn myself into a morning person for years. Maybe this time it will stick…

They say for us nutty people, getting up early is better because more of your day is spent in daylight. I agree.

God love this woman… she gets it.

So I turned 34 since last we chatted. I have never been a huge birthday person (mostly because my day is at the end of January (with my ever present little black cloud)).

When I was younger I never had birthday parties with friends, I don’t remember that ever bothering me either. We had our birthdays over at my grandma’s house, just family. With cake made from a box and chocolate frosting that you could remove in one piece. Magical!

This year I spent my birthday hungover with a migraine. But with friends…:)

I had a blast with my girliefriends who came to visit. At 11:11 I jumped in the car to go pick them up and it was full on from then on.

This post may be a bit touristy, but when people come to Boston for the first time (especially from a state thats like 25 minutes old) they want to see old.

I have to say, the old gravestones are still my favorite.

Thank you Mother Goose for all your craziness. Your stories still haunt me.

Of course they have a much bigger monument for Paul Revere, I still like this one.

Having a star in your beer is a good omen… Ya I just made that up.

I have never been to the top of the Prudential building… Other than being able to feel the building move, it was amazing!

One thing I did had on the books while my friends were in town was a bachelorette party for one of my favorite Boston gals.

It was glorious! (And I use that word just for her.)

I like meeting successful, smart women who like to say fuck a lot. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Those were the best Cuban sandwiches in the world, not that I’ve ever been to Cuba and had authentic.

I want a fro in my next life, always have… I LOVE big hair. I’ve had many a talks with the coarse haired ladies and they all agree, be careful what you wish for. I don’t care, I’m throwing it out there.

LOVE me some escargot…

This little girl personally gave these birds diabetes…

She was there with her 15-ish year old brother who was so calm and quiet, feeding the birds so gently a little piece of bread at a time. The opposite of her. She was throwing cheerios at those birds as fast as she could. And then she would run over and dump cheerios on her brother. He just kept calmly feeding the birds and paying her no attention. After about ten minutes of this I happened to glance over just in time to see him throw a huge handful of cheerios right in her face. Made my day…

Chinese New Year parade…

She had so much fun… She couldn’t decide who she loved more, she just bounced between Alanna and Jaime the whole time.

She got a lot of attention; two dog lovers that were missing their dogs.

I went to my first Celtics game, it was so fun…

You’ll just have to imagine a picture, no cameras with interchangeable lenses allowed. They should be scared of the stellar images I would have produced and sold for a million dollars… with my 10-22 from the balcony.

I feel sure I’ve photographed that sign before…

You girls are the best! thank you, thank you, thank you! You made my birthday! Even though you bitches were the ones who gave me the hangover… See you in July!

Today is my mom’s birthday. Our birthdays are a day apart so we always celebrated them together.

Now I live 2500 miles away so that’s out… boo. When you retire I’m flying you out for our birthdays, it just doesn’t seem right without you.

There are no words to express what you mean to me…

You keep me sane. I always, always feel better after talking to you.

I cherish our two hour conversations about food and gardening…

I hope you have the most fantastic day! You deserve it. (And I don’t use that word very often.)

Love you to the moon and back!

Ya know, I’m one of those people who believe you get out of life what you put into it. I try to stay positive and upbeat no matter what. But believing isn’t always enough.

I’m so excited!!!!!

You are the kindest person I know…

Thank you for showing me to always keep life in perspective, even if that means saying “piss on it” every once in a while.

You are my sunshine…

Have the most fabulous of days! I can’t wait to see you in… 173 days.

I know I say this a lot but, I sooo love this time of year.

There is something to be said for new years resolutions. I like the idea of a fresh start. J and I are both very goal oriented people. We don’t always set our goals for the year at the beginning of the new year, and they aren’t always yearly goals. But still I love the organization of a goal. It’s so clean.

Vague outline of my goals for the year:

• alternative process hanging
• opening a studio (or coming damn close)
• eating only foods nature intended
• being as green as humanly possible in every aspect of my life.

The last two will never change but I like to put them up anyway.

We have a lot going on this year, and it all starts now. We’ve been saying for four months, after we get back from New Jersey we’ll really start looking for a house… I have no doubt everything will naturally fall into place once we find our corner of the world.  We are driving out to the area we have taken a shine to on Monday, I’m beyond excited.

I have been waiting so long (forever) to get to that wonderful under-rated place in life where I get to truly settle in.

In less than six months we will own our own home.We will finally have a space to do with as we please.

I want a big ol garden with enough storage to store all it produces through the season. And, a kitchen big enough to hold my massive old pyrex collection and appliance addiction. And… a huge bathtub.

I’m a simple girl…

It seems like I took these images forever ago. In my rush to get to that calm place, a few things like this little collection of thoughts, didn’t get much love. Everyone has that one thing that gets the least amount of attention in times of disarray. This seems to be my new “take one for the team…” I hope that will not always be the case.

Randomness from the last two weeks…

This was my favorite christmas gift this year, I love home made gifts.

Wynn and I went back down to the pier, this time with a charged camera battery…

I love my upstairs neighbor, and I love going to dinner at a friends without having to put shoes on.

We had a great time in Jersey, we didn’t end up doing what we planned on new years eve, we still had a blast.

I do love fireworks, but standing in the cold for two and a half hours (after driving to Philly) waiting for them to go off sounds like to opposite of fun. So we decided to stay in.

We ate crab legs, drank in the living room and watched ridiculous tv shows and laughed till our cheeks hurt. It was the perfect way to bring in the new year.

And Julie because I love you, I will omit certain photos from evening…

We also came home with J’s ornaments from when he was a kid. And a one eyed santa clause that we need to make a pirate patch for…

How wonderfully 50’s…

She just loves everyone…

We used to go to movies three times a month and now (because of the general suckieness of the movies of late) we haven’t been in six months.

We did go to Sherlock Holmes while we were in Jersey. I was great, just like the first one.

Happy 2012 Loves! I hope it’s everything you dream it to be… and all you mayans can bugger off, I have plans for the next 50 years.

Merry Christmas All!!!

The three stockings hanging above my brothers head are now hanging in my house; the silver ornament is now on my tree. I think that is fantastic!

I remember exactly how those candles smelled…

my family in 1978

My mother is three years younger than I am now in this picture… My brother is 12, my sisters are 11, 8 and 5.

This picture is a trip, taken a million and a half years ago.

So very much has changed…

Our numbers have gone up and down. My brother grew biceps. No more beard. My sister now has a daughter who looks just like her in this picture. I no longer think pink is a good idea.

my family 2011

No less amazing…