a life beyond running shoes.

at least that is what my husband it teasing me about in the quest for local, seasonal food. of course, when he tasted the fresh yellow zucchini & the fresh blueberries... he could not argue some merit to this adventure. what we got at the market: the last of the season's strawberries, fresh young carrots, yellow zucchini, romaine lettuce, spinach, apples, tomatoes, blueberries, & raspberries. i know that the lettuce & spinach & tomatoes had been picked the day before i bought them. the others, i can only speculate that it was nearly as recent. there is something quite remarkable about actually washing off fresh dirt from my lettuce and realizing that i bought it from the man that grew it. and the blueberries are scrumptious. i had great intentions of making a strawberry rhubarb pie for a party i was going to tomorrow, but alas.... i missed rhubarb season & pretty much found myself at the tail end of strawberry season....guess what is coming though......peaches ...

just for the record.....local means within driving distance. for the geographically challenged, new jersey is driving distance and is considered the "garden state." there are farms on long island as well.....which is part of new york, again, just to clarify.

i am reading a book on eating locally.... it is good, interesting, challenging, inspiring, etc. i usually don't post about a book until i am finished reading, but this one is a process....reading little bit by bit, trying it out bit by bit. last week, i tried a whole meal: organic chicken from upstate new york.... $6 (half of a whole chicken) sugar snap peas....$2 a pound (we used about half a pound) cooked with fresh mint from our garden....free caramelized spring onions....$3 a bunch (i used half) sauteed yellow zucchini....$1.50 (served with the onions) saving fossil fuel....priceless. (bad joke i realize, but it was all set up for me - i gave in.... my apologies) snap peas, onions, and zucchini were all purchased at one of the various green markets here in new york city. i'll keep you posted as i explore cooking & shopping locally..... it was YUMMY considering it all was in the ground less than a week before i ate it.

and he is six months old! wow!

asher may just be the death of us. we finally moved him to the kitchen after nursing him at 2:30. i caved. i usually am hard-nosed about waiting until 3, but last night it was too much. how much more can we take? here is my new hair. i love it. more apartments today. saw three on monday. saw five last week.

if he wasn't so cute, i think i might have thrown him out to the curb!! it has been a three night journey of death and back. i have give the boy some credit since he was amazing while john was gone last week, but re-entry has been awful. sunday night: i woke him up to change his diaper - it stank - at 11. (we watched last comic standing ) he was awake for an hour and a half... asleep by 12:30. woke at 2 - pacifier but was not asleep until i nursed him at 3. woke at 5....morning begins. ARGH!! monday night: woke up at 1, 2, 3, 5:30 but was able to sleep until 6:30. i have to be honest, as i am writing this i am a bit unsure of which night was actually which. all i do know is that i got my hair cut & colored, and it looks good. pics to come. asher is 6 months tomorrow. holy cow!

a week ago, i was bemoaning the fact that i had not lost a pound. this week, i feel like a million bucks. what changed? who knows.... my head, my heart, my runnings, my waxer....... p.shivers had a reality check and here was mine: personal waxer (for unmentionable areas that are affected by swimsuits) from the ukraine named olga (seriously, i could not make that up...i guess i could, but i did not). o: you need wax for bathing suit? vacation? k: yes, i swim for exercise. o: you wear one piece or two? k: oh, a one piece, of course. o: no, of course. you young. wear two piece. old, fat people wear one piece. k: well, i had a baby six months ago and i am still getting into shape. o: no...well.... in ukraine, i wear two piece. in america, i wear one piece but i not fat in ukraine. you no look like baby six months ago. you, no wear one piece. old and fat wear one piece. you wear two. you look like me, you wear one piece. you look like you, you wear two piece. and there you h...

what a solid read.... it was challenging, refreshing, and ultimate reverberates our victory in christ and totally based on puritan john owen's writing. this may sound funny, but his short chapters were almost too short for me. it was such heavy issues that it almost took me four pages to even begin digesting what he was talking about and then the chapter was over. overall, i am mostly thankful for the women that i read it through with. it makes it all that much more rich & fruitful.

i got this great idea of trying to make fresh, yummy food cheaply.... okay, confession: i didn't come up with that brilliant idea myself i am reading a book that inspired me to try it out. more on that later..... fresh sauteed spinach (from the green market on saturday - $2.50 for a pound), fresh mushrooms, and feta cheese (which micah can eat) on pizza dough from a local pizzeria ($2)!!! awesome....so, yummy!!!

for heaven sakes, it is one week. but, it was a week that i thought i was being "good." okay...except for the cookies on monday....but a good week of eating spinach & grilled meats and salads and only half a peanut butter sandwich but a whole apple & strawberries fresh picked from new jersey. i hate going and checking it at the scale, standing there in my bathing suit and realizing i lost nothing this week. i know in my head that it okay....but for a moment there.... well, let's just say i went nuts-o. i starting creating the scenario that i had hit my plateau and that this was the end and i was not going to lose what i wanted to by my dad's wedding and blah, blah, blah. i admit that i have crazy moment... this was one of them. i have to talk sense into myself....first, stop weighing every week. two weeks is a good time frame. for those of you who hate the scales...i have to make sure i am not loosing too much because i am still a nursing mom... which t...

walking up to the park today, i saw two signs. 1. media company is filming a toyota highlander commercial; therefore, the road will be closed to traffic from friday to monday. 2. due to the oil sucking nature of the toyota highlander, please call your neighborhood representative to oppose the filming of this commercial as we do not need anymore gas guzzling propaganda infiltrating our media promoting the wasteful use of oil resources. my first reaction is, "how cool...they are filming up the street from my house." second reaction is, "yeah. we don't need anymore SUVs on the road."

about a year ago, john found three recipes for the world's best chocolate chip cookies. they were posted in the new york times. since then, he has become the cookie man in our house. he is the expert baker. he made some on monday...not the normal recipes that we make. we usually go for the crisp & gooey. this time he made the thin & crispy. they were soooo yummy! they are definitely a challenge to the weight loss extravaganza....one day of indulgence is okay.

i happen to capture this in perfect light and just the right look.... he is a cutie. i took a run on the treadmill today. it is getting easier and enjoy pushing myself a bit. of course, the 1.8 miles i ran this morning was all i could do...but i got up to a few minutes at 12 minute mile pace. it felt good.

our book group met last night to discuss e.l. doctorow's the book of daniel . we all agreed that if you could stomach the first quarter of the book without throwing it across the room or being offended beyond redemption, it was a well-written, politically challenging read. he is a superb writer, but his ability to push the envelope gets difficult to gloss over. while the character of daniel, despite his misogynistic & abusive behavior, fails to be truly redemptive, he is explainable as his story unfolds via transitions between first & third person narrative and the past & present. i don't think our group got a final conclusion as to the full significance of the biblical reference to the book of daniel or the name issacson.... but we identified it as probably relevant. the historical context was fascinating & appropriate as times don't seem to have changed all that much from mccarthy's era and the country's need to find the enemy or at least have ...

so, i have started a little business. i have not really "come out" yet and persuaded all of my friends to buy from me.... i am slowly trying to figure it out. i found a skin-care company that i really like & have done a bit of research on..... i like their products & their philosophy. so, i had my first party last night. first, my friend that hosted did a rock star job!!! she was a great host & a huge support.... it made my first one very easy. second, the friend that introduced me to the company came along and helped fill-in the gaps of my presentation. it was so much fun.... ladies doing facials, drinking wine, and yummy food....... could this really be called work?!

you should never ask him if he is having trouble getting it up.....even if you are referring to his kite....even if it is in the park on a windy day. he might just respond saying, "no luck at all, but that is rather personal." i think it was david cross from arrested development ....not sure, but it looked & sounded like him.

there is a definite protocol here in the big apple....look but don't touch. around the corner from our house is a patisserie....yummy chocolate croissant - thus the impetus for venture out this morning. in the store was joey slotnick....the guy to the right. he has been seen on nip/tuck , boston public , the single guy , etc. he was getting coffee - very exciting. of course, he is not an a-list star; therefore, it is quite explainable why no one but me was oogliing....but i think that is part of the new york culture. no one bothers jennifer connelly who is said to live in our neighborhood....john has apparently seen her twice, but since i have not....i'm not sure i believe him. i still get a kick out of seeing famous people.... well, at the least ones i know are famous.

micah's feet that is. every once in a while, my husband is brilliant. this was one of those moments. puts the knock-off crocs in the dishwasher.... brilliant. give the boy a bath to get all the park dirt off him and see the ring around the tub... nasty. ah, summer! we all start taking our showers at night. we are close to getting out the window air-conditioning units....very close.

so, this is what i made for the birthday dinner....scallops with hazelnut and browned butter vinaigrette over spring lettuce (from epicurious.com ) for the main dish....starter was a gorgonzola cream fettucine (page 194: essentials of classic italian cooking ). the scallop recipe called for white balsamic vinegar...never heard of it. i went with the regular kind....which changed the flavor just a bit and didn't really go with wine that had been recommended as a pairing. of course, this was all colored by the fact that john did not really like his present.... he was kind & gracious....i was a pill. i let it ruin the whole evening.... even the yummy food. this made me realize (the morning after) that the gift giving had been about me, not him. it was about me trying to find the "perfect" gift, the most thoughtful present....and was totally paralyzed when it did not solicit the reaction and praise that i was seeking. i love being human. i love learning once agai...

there are a couple... 1. we passed assessment... phew! now, we just get to figure what comes next.... this may be harder than assessment. it far less invasive than expected, but still somewhat probing (in the way that they are suppose to be). i felt like i had just been hit by a bus when i woke up saturday morning..... it was intense....but over! 2. i made my first carrot cake and used my husband's grandmother's recipe..... it is his 31st birthday today. 3. i took my first run this morning. argh! it was on the treadmill so i could appease the pain with some VH1. it only slightly helped. i went extremely slow...walking warm-up; walking cool down.... 1.4 miles. my legs rebelled.... they tingled & itched. i realized after walking home in my shorts that i had scratched them all up while i was running - to try and relieve the itching.... i'm sure i was a beauty to behold. but, i got back out there.