I suppose I touched on the subject of getting a job recently. I didn’t really go into details and there isn’t any reason to now, but it does have something to do with my lack of bloggy enthusiasm lately. I work 9-6 weekdays. Ivan leaves the house shortly before 6am. If I want to get a run in, I have to do it before Ivan leaves since I don’t want to lock up the dogs sooner than necessary. So that means that I get up somewhere between the hours of you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me and oh-god-that-can’t-be-my-alarm-already. Or, 5am, if you prefer.
In those four early hours, I exercise, feed and walk the dogs, clean up the house, prepare for work, trudge through the rigmarole of balancing our finances and catch up on them internets.
When I get home, I accomplish little more than cooking, eating and watching a little TV before crashing for the night. So I haven’t actually stumbled across a nice chunk of time with which to sort through and edit my photos from the week and write up a little blurb about our goings-on.
Until now.
We had suspected (and sort of anticipated) moving to Brooklyn for some time now. Sure, we didn’t get confirmation that we were moving here until mid-April (way to keep us on the edges of our seats, SGU), but it seemed pretty likely up until then.
For over a year, I’d had my eye on a pretty flippin’ neat steel cuff featuring an engraved map of the Brooklyn subway. I really wanted to get it, but held off for a couple reasons: we weren’t 100% sure we were going to end up in Brooklyn, and, as with all unique artisan gifts, it was a little bit of an unnecessary expense.
So I held off. And when our anniversary came, Ivan wanted to get it for me, but he held off. It’s hard to squeeze something like that into the budget when we’re trying to be frugal.
Finally, though, our concerns were a little alleviated and I ordered the cuff.
And I’m pretty happy I did. It’s a unique accessory and one that’s actually a practical piece of jewelry—the map is entirely accurate.
Check out the website: Designhype.
I’m too lazy to skim through my previous posts to find out if I’ve mentioned Owl’s Head Park, but I’m thinking that I have. In fact, I posted some photos from that very park during our first week here.
In Owl’s Head Park, there is a dog park for social pups to romp with other friendly dogs. The last two weekends, we’ve taken Ajax into the park. Unlike Babe who is food- and people-driven, Ajax is toy- and dog-driven. He is a social butterfly and wants to say howdy to every dog he meets.
When we let him into the park, Ajax looked like a kid jumping in his first bouncy castle. On both occasions, the park had 4-6 other large dogs (labs, pits, weimeraners, boxers, bulldogs, etc.) and when we loosed Ajax into the pack, I sort of felt like I was putting my kid in daycare for the first time: That’s my boy, right there, stealing the Frisbee from that other fat kid.
While every day he struggles up and down the stairs to our apartment and, at least once a day, either Ivan or I have to carry him up or down at least one flight, it is so comforting to see some of his energy return and his big dumb grin while he’s out playing and sniffing butts.
I know I’ve mentioned this book before, but if you are inclined to bake wholesome and rustic breads, pick up Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day.
Last week I baked one of my favorite desserts of all time: Chocolate Cinnamon Babka with Cranberries. It is just the thing after a long day at work.
