There are plants in the window and diamonds on my finger

Last night I got engaged to be married. This afternoon, inspired by all the gardening I'm reading about everywhere as we usher in Spring, we planted a little herb and tomato window garden.

Adventures in "gardening," take one: "Early Girl" tomatoes, basil, rosemary, and sage.

Your Heart is as Black as The Night

Forgot how much I like Melody Gardot, until I heard a song of hers at work today. Sultry and sexy, way to interrupt my day for the better, thank you very much.

Excellence: yes, please.

Take your pick. George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom Playboy Magazine, July 1961 (via The Selvedge Yard)

Happy Spring

It's a gorgeous day in the City, so put on a sundress, paint your nails the perfect shade of red, and listen to this playlist:

*California Stars -Billy Bragg & Wilco
*What Light - Wilco
*To Be Young -Ryan Adams
*Golden - My Morning Jacket
*Fake Palindromes -Andrew Byrd
*Gone for Good -The Shins
*O Valencia! -The Decemberists
*Wagon Wheel -Old Crow Medicine Show
*Chicago -Sufjan Stevens
*You Are The Best Thing -Ray LaMontagne
*Candy -Paolo Nutini
*I Turn My Camera On -Spoon
*Naked As We Came - Iron & Wine
*For Emma -Bon Iver
*Spanish Stroll -Mink De Ville
*White Winter Hymnal -Fleet Foxes
*In The Aeroplane Over The Sea -Neutral Milk Hotel
*The Littlest Birds -The Be Good Tanyas
*July, July! -The Decemberists
*Missed The Boat -Modest Mouse

Baby There's A Shark In The Water

Ryan Adams Makes Metal Record

via pitchfork.com:

Ryan Adams Makes Metal Record

Over on Ryan Adams' website, the alt-country vet has a fun little piece of news: "We're going to begin pressing ORION -- my most legit METAL record -- on vinyl next week. Have a listen to the song below and let us at PAXAM [Adams' label] know if you'd be interested in purchasing one."

The "legit" qualifier is in there presumably because Ryan has played around with joke metal before, primarily through his goofy web-only Werewolph side project. But the song streaming at Adams' site does indeed sound fairly serious, though it probably tilts more toward messy late-80s Pacific Northwest proto-grunge than toward actual metal. There's no soloing, no bottom-heavy riffage, and no lyrics about dragons, but Adams' scratchy growl/whine is pretty impressive. (The Soundcloud tag seems to indicate that the song is called "Electrosnake", which does push us a little further back into "joke" territory.)

Over on the site, there's also a poll where fans can vote on whether or not they'd buy the record. Whatever our intentions, we should all probably vote "yes," if only because the world's a slightly more interesting place when Adams is pulling unabashedly ridiculous moves like this one.

"The world's a slightly more interesting place when Adams is pulling unabashedly ridiculous moves like this one." --A-freaking-MEN.

The Art of Simple Food

I long for a life filled with good friends, good conversation, good food, and good music. Tonight, I had all four at one time, and it was lovely. A wonderful end to a wonderful day.
Switched it up a little and went to a different church this morning. It was a great chance for me to remember all the people that God has made and placed here, serving, living, sustaining; also a great chance to remember where God has placed me.

"If we could sell our experiences for what they cost us, we'd be millionaires."
-Abigail VanBuren

Barrel Tasting

Just got back from a lovely afternoon in Healdsburg, where we barrel tasted at Francis Ford Coppola. It was a perfect blend of warm and sunny, and all the rain we've been having has left the hillsides green and gorgeous. We strolled through the vineyards on the grounds and found a hidden picnic area to lounge around in the sun and sip our Reserve Cabernet. After Coppola we decided to try (at their suggestion) their neighbors, Trentadue, and then went into downtown Healdsburg for a quick sip from Rosenblum, a beer at Bear Republic, and a gelato in the square.
Simply a perfect afternoon.

Even my baseboards sparkle

The tenacity with which I cleaned yesterday has left me with four things:

1. Three new shelves and a wonderfully functional desk/vanity
2. A clean, well-organized apartment
3. Two happy roommates
4. A back so stiff I can hardly move

It's like sometime in the middle of the night last night, I became 50, and am wishing I lived in a world that had easy and free access to muscle relaxers and pain-killer cocktails. Instead I am laying in bed with my heating pad on my back and an actual cocktail. Icy to dull the pain, hot to melt it away?

Shake Shake Shake Sonora

Had an amazing weekend building new friendships and relaxing in Sonora this weekend. What a rejuvination of my soul.

We booked it out of the City Friday night, and met up with two other couples for dinner and piled into one big car for the drive out, and arrived at our gracious host's a few hours later, ready for the weekend to come. Saturday morning we drove up the hill to Yosemite, down into the valley floor and up to Badger Pass, where we spent a not so lazy afternoon cross-country skiing, before hot chocolates at the posh Awanee hotel, not without waterfalls, a very wolf-looking coyote, and all of the splendor of the Yosemite Valley. Spent a fanastic night back in Sonora, with wine for the not pregnant, pizza and conversation for all. Family style church Sunday morning, and then boys and girls did boy and girl things (like burning the yard waste pile & riding motorcyles and reading & chatting under blankets), before heading back to our seperate lives in seperate places.

cross country

I don't know if I ever brought this about from our last little day adventure in winter; we're headed off to another, this time for a weekend, and with four others. Yosemite bound, to passively enjoy nature [and friends], and have some cocoa after we dry out from all the snow that's supposed to fall on us.

Donner Lake Nat'l Park, January 2010

Fashion Week

Alberta Ferretti Autumn/Winter 2010 -- I love this dusted pink, so feminine and elegant.
via {this is glamorous}