Thursday Afternoon

I've discovered I love to go down to the Platte River Park on my lunch break and sit within view — or at least within sound — of the rushing river water. Sometimes I drive, sometimes I walk, depending on how much time I have to spare. Today, the water is running high and fast with whitewater eddies swirling in the brown water. The grass and trees of the green space are the resplendent verdant emerald of spring, contrasting with the bright blue sky cheerfully dotted with Magrite clouds and the warm red brick of the walkways, bridges, and nearby buildings. I have found a partially shaded bench mere feet from the rushing tumult of the intersection between Cherry Creek and the Platte, next to a flowering shrub I cannot identify.

I am not alone.

On a sister bench just on the other side of the shrub, an older gentleman in a black business suit sits eating a sandwich from its celophane package. A younger man in a classic white polo and chinos that scream "middle management" sits on a step to my left, munching on an apple and a sandwich on white bread from his brown paper sack as he pours over what can only be a TPS report. In front of me, a woman old enough to be my grandmother is sprawled comfortably on the steps next to her bicycle reading a magazine.

We all look up as a red-winged blackbird calls loudly, swooping over our heads to land on a concrete pillar, partially submerged in the rain-swollen Platte.

Across the river, on a velvet-smooth patch of grass, two young women are sunbathing on a blue picnic blanket. A man stands knee deep in the water, trying to coax his timid dog to join him. I watch it scamper close to the edge, then back away, close to the edge, then back away in a comical dance between nature and nurture.

My business-suited companion has long gone. Mister Middle Management peels an orange and stares out across the water, probably at the sunbathers, as my cyclist dons her shoes and gloves before peddaling away. I check my clock and wish it were not almost time for me to do the same. I envy the dogs and humans, cyclists and kayakers, frisbee players and sunbathers, all of whom have somehow managed to have this gorgous Thursday afternoon off.

Boulder market

What a great weekend we had! The weather was gorgeous (sorry to anyone in the Northeast!), and on Saturday we went to the Boulder Farmer's Market. Apparently, that is like the hot spot of the world up here, because I saw one co-worker and his wife and found out today that another co-worker was there as well! (Note to self: remember not to look like crap when going to the farmer's market!)

It was really fun, with all kinds of cool booths. Not a whole lot of produce yet, but we did end up buying some salad greens, carrots, a parsnip, some fresh mushrooms, some goat cheese, and some peanut butter! Lurrrrrvely.

After stowing our purchases, we took a nice walk along Boulder Creek, which runs right through the middle of town. We were hungry when we got back, so we went to the prepared foods area and got lunch! Such cool stuff. Brandon had an ENORMOUS gyro very drippy with yogurt sauce, and I had chicken and veggie dumplings in a soy ginger sauce that were AMAZING. We shared a fresh lemonade and sat on the grass in the sun to eat. That's when we saw the "Step It Up" National Climate Action Day parade go by, complete with a polar bear in water wings! :( There were people from the Sierra Club and lots of other eco-action groups set up to talk to you about changes you can make. (We felt smug, knowing all our power now comes from the wind — we recently switched over through our electric company for only a dollar more per 100 kw hours!)

I thought the other very cool thing about the Market is that it's designated a "trash-free zone" — instead of trash cans, they have receptacles for compostables and recyclables. No trash! Very cool.

~*~

Our patio container garden is doing quite well. We lost a couple of lettuce plants due to... well, we're not sure why, but the others are thriving. We've transplanted a zucchini seedling to its own pot and have nasturtiums and sweet peas in a second pot. And the raspberry bush has started to put out leaves. Hooray!

Bob and Friends

Bob and Friends
Originally uploaded by LacyLu42.

Ray Bans

Ray Bans
Originally uploaded by LacyLu42.

Emily and Dad sporting their kick-ass shades.

Green Thumb

What an amazing day Sunday was! Have I mentioned how much I love Colorado? After rain all day Saturday, Sunday was bright and shiny and clean and deliciously warm.

The husband and I spent the whole morning poking around local nurseries. We have exciting plans for a container vegetable garden out on our patio. We were hoping to buy seedlings, but realized that it's still pretty early for vegetables here; one lady told us that the last freeze isn't predicted until Mother's Day weekend. Yikes! But she did give us some good ideas for crops we could start now, like lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and kale.

We had to stop for lunch, having become overwhelmed with our options, and once we had some food in us, we decided on a plan of action. We purchased two beautiful wooden window box-style planters on sale, some lettuce seedlings, a raspberry bush, a bunch of seeds, and those cute little pop up soil thingies for starting seeds. Oh, and some soil.

Our plan is to start a bunch of seeds indoors and wait out the 4-8 weeks for them to mature and for the weather to warm up some more. By then, we should be able to transplant them outside easily, and we should also be enjoying our first lettuce crop!

I can't even tell you how excited I am to try my hand at vegetable gardening, even if it is only in pots on our patio. The last time I grew vegetables, I was probably about eight years old, and my parents did most of the work! But I still remember the pleasure of eating fresh peas and carrots straight from our back yard.

There's something so satisfying about growing things. Gardens have a lot to teach us, like patience and responsibility. Nothing happens on an artificial time table with a garden; things grow in their own way, in their own time, and they depend on you for food and water and care.

We plan to grow lettuce (as I mentioned), spinach, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, green onions, basil, oregano, thyme, cilantro, nasturtiums, zinnias, and sweet peas.

And then, today, You Grow Girl posted a review of seed-starting techniques! Must be that time of year.

~*~

The Mister Waters our Lettuce Crop

 

The Lettuce Crop (box one of two)

 

Seeds!

Announcement

An auspicious day for auspicious news.

I wanted to wait until it was all completely final before announcing this, so not to jinx it, but starting today I am officially a copy editor with the publisher of official visitor's guides for dozens of cities and states across North America.

I started with this company a little over six weeks ago as a contract proofreader through my placement agency. The company, managing editor and I clicked, and several weeks ago, they started talking very generally about whether or not I would like to come on full time as a regular employee. Naturally, I was thrilled –– not only because, hey, employment, but also because I really like the company and the work I've been doing here.

So, on my birthday (when I am now closer to 30 than 20, as my husband so kindly pointed out), I have a real job and a first step towards a real career that I'm actually excited about. I am a salaried employee for the first time in my life. I have benefits and a 401(k) –– also for the first time in my life.

I attended my first editorial department staff meeting this morning and had orientation this afternoon where they went over all our benefits (BENEFITS!) and company policies. I have an employee handbook, I ordered desk supplies, I get an email address. Then we went on a tour of the office which was good, because I hadn't actually been around to meet everybody yet, but also a little awkward as I was doing the orientation with three new advertising sales people from New York, Boston and San Jose (as we introduced ourselves, as they said, "Hi I'm Christine from New York," I would say, "And I'm Lacy from downstairs."), and also more than a little silly when we toured the editorial department where I live and work.

And did I mention the benefits? Health, dental, AND vision? Just checking.

Needless to say, I'm really excited about this. Although my title is copy editor, I'll also be assisting on the visitor guides for several markets and writing whenever anybody needs some help, and there's huge potential for growth. My managing editor has already started talking about grooming me to take over my own market as editor.

I swore when I started this job search four months ago that I would not take a full time job if I couldn't picture myself at that company for at least the next five years. It's a little scary (and very grown up) to say, but I really think I could be happy here for at least that long, and it could be a wonderful stepping stone to whatever comes after that.

Also? I'm writing. For a living. Yeah, baby. :D

Ladies and gents, I am going to admit to being DESPERATELY bored today. It's 70 degrees and gorgeous outside, and I'm sitting in a cube proof-reading. The weather people keep cautioning us that March is our heaviest snow month, but it's a little hard to believe with nothing but warm days and blue skies as far as the eye can see.

Also, it was so dark when I got up this morning, I don't think I've ever fully woken up.

nigella

Last night, I found a very exciting deal at the bookstore -- Nigella Lawson's cookbook, Forever Summer was in the bargain section––for eight dollars! I have no idea why it was marked so far down, but I snatched it up.

I have to admit, ever since watching her show "Nigella Bites" on the Style Network when I had cable in college, I have had a bit of a girl-crush on Ms. Lawson. She's just so fabulous. She's a great chef, she's incredibly stylish, she's British (I'm a terrible Anglophile) and she eats the most ridiculous food, but manages to remain lovely and slim, but not waifish. She also has two adorable British children and an amazing kitchen.

ANYWAY! I got home and I was looking through my new cookbook and I realized that, although I have a copy of her Nigella Bites cookbook––but I've never made anything out of it! Tragedy!

So, looking through it this afternoon, I decided to make a batch of orange muffins. I had everything on hand except self-rising flour. I pulled out my bible––The Joy of Cooking–– and saw that I could substitute regular flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda. Lovely! Mixed them up, they smelled lovely, popped them in the oven, they baked up lovely, broke one open, slathered it in butter and––

BLEH!

Not Nigella's fault. I double checked the recipe, I double checked Joy and––oh dear. I was supposed to add baking POWDER, and instead nearly TRIPLED the amount of baking SODA.

Bleh.

So. A dozen muffins that are inedible, and no more oranges to try again. I am crushed.

But there's a lovely looking stovetop rice pudding that I might try later this week... Hopefully with better results.

denver restaurant week

This last week was Denver Restaurant Week, where more than 150 restaurants in the metro area were offering prix fixe meals for two for $52.80 (5,280 feet is how far above sea level the mile-high city is). Some of these were incredibly swank restaurants like The Palm; others were less swank but still expensive, like Dave & Buster's. We landed somewhere in the middle with The Village Bistro.

We had talked about trying to go to a nice restaurant sometime during the week, but it began to get away from us. Then, I kept reading that all the participating restaurants were booked for the whole week. So on Thursday, I thought if we were going to try it, we ought to do it on a week night -- we wouldn't have a chance at the week end.

So the Husband called up The Village Bistro, a little restaurant we had seen and read about that is quite near us, and lo and behold, they were able to give us a table at six thirty. The restaurant itself is adorable and wee, tucked into a corner of a new shopping center they are building at Zia and 120th where our favorite Caribou Coffee shop is. It has a lovely sort of nouveau loft look about it.

For starters we received a lovely little crab cake floating in a sea of corn bisque with a drizzle of some sort of herb oil and a little pile of fried onions on top. The onions really made the dish, adding a little zing to an otherwise very nice, but very normal crab cake. We were also brought some little sticks of toast, served upright in something reminiscent of the metal stands they serve cones of french fries in at diners like Ruby's, with a lovely roasted red pepper sauce to dip them in. We also got an entire bottle of Shiraz -- and it was a brand I recognized, but now I can't recall the name.

The main course was an OUTSTANDING pork loin drizzled with some sort of lovely cherry vinaigrette and served with mashed sweet potatoes topped with stewed fruit. If there is anything I like in this world it is pork loin with sweet potatoes, and these were done absolutely wonderfully. We savored every single bite. And proceeded to try very valiantly to drink our entire bottle of wine, because...

Dessert was an individual sized chocolate lava cake topped with vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce, and honey roasted peanuts (a nice touch). The cake itself was lovely and rich, but I didn't really notice much of a "lava" center -- but no matter. I was too busy enjoying the chocolate martini they brought for us to share.

So, all of this -- one appetizer, two dinners, one dessert, a bottle of wine, and a chocolate martini -- for $52.80, as promised. Having glanced at the menu before ordering, I can tell you, it was a pretty good deal. The same meal would have cost at least that much -- without the alcohol.

And speaking of the alcohol? We were quite pleasantly tipsy. Good thing we didn't end up going to some posh restaurant downtown... Much shorter trip home from The Village Bistro.

more photos

Baby Seth at Christmas 06
Originally uploaded by LacyLu42.

A few more photos of baby Seth and his entourage up at my flickr page for anyone interested.