sharpie lovers, unite

I have a confession - I love back-to-school time. I'm not in school anymore, and the husband and I don't have any little ones. So why do I love this time of year? Two words -

Office.

Supplies.

My obession with seemingly petty products is well known in my office because I'm so vocal about them. Generic sticky note pads? No way, sister. They have to be Post It brand Super Sticky notes. Sharpie pens? Yes please, but I prefer the capped ones, not the retractable variety. Though I have both - in mass quantities!

Today at Target I moseyed through the office supply section, maneuvering through the parents and kiddos with their school supply lists. I found an exciting item - Sharpie pens in new colors!

If only they made a nice dark pink... that would be great. I have a Bic dark pink pen but it's no Sharpie!

After looking at the Sharpie website, I noticed I've never seen the Sharpie Pen Grip - does anyone use them? Do tell...

i heart pickles

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I love pickles. If you like pickles as much as I do, you're certainly my friend!

Some time ago, I stumbled upon a recipe for dill pickle spears on the blog Annie's Eats. I've made them many times since then, but a few weeks ago I read a pickle post on Fly Through Our Window. I got some fresh dill and bought some ingredients, and one night I made the pickles.

Oh. My. Word. They are so good! They're slightly sweet, but not overly so, and the onion and mustard seed adds great flavor. I followed the Bon Appetit recipe pretty closely except for white pepper - my grocery store didn't have any so I just used a smaller amount of black peppercorns. I agree with Darby that I didn't have enough liquid, so I added some water to fill the dishes (I didn't use jars and went for rectangular glass storage containers with plastic lids instead).

I am almost done with my second batch of pickles and will be making some more. I wish my cucumber vines were cooperating but no veggies yet! If you're a pickle person, make some and tell me what you think!

you need to buy this

I love this cardigan. Ordered it from Old Navy, of all places, along with its two other colors and four pointelle-trim cardigans. They're all cute, fit well, but best of all, they're CHEAP. I wore the yellow one on Friday and got lots of compliments. Definitely looks like more than $26.50!

it's been awhile

Hello, world. It's been awhile. I took a little break from blogging. I was burnt out and tired, not from blogging, but from life's little annoyances and stressors that get in the way. Instead of filling each post with my complaints and diatribes, I took a step back. It was nice.

The husband and I have been busy around the house, whether it's yardwork, cooking, or vacuuming the endless amount of dog hair that shows up. Sometimes I really wonder if the dogs have friends over when we're at work - where does all the hair come from?! This weekend I have big plans of being lazy and catching up on my magazines.

But I do have things to tell you, including a recipe for the best refrigerator pickles EVER and my new cardigan wardrobe. Yes. Wardrobe. There are that many. It would be embarassing if I wasn't so giddy about them. So until next time - have a wonderful weekend!

signs of growing old, concert edition

You know you're getting old when you eschew lawn concert tickets for pavilion seats so that you can avoid being around high schoolers. And when you pay a premium for said tickets, one of the perks is an air-conditioned VIP bathroom, which you are overly excited about.

Forget the days of getting lawn space or tailgating in the parking lot. I'm excited about not waiting in line for the potty! Is my AARP card in the mail yet?!

napa valley food review

So - you want to eat well in wine country. The Napa Valley area has no shortage of delicious food and drink, that's for sure. When I made our dinner plans, I had two objectives - 1) I wanted to eat well; and 2) I didn't want to completely break the bank. So any chains were out, as was the French Laundry. Some day, Thomas Keller, some day! I like fresh food with local ingredients, especially seafood, so any menu with inventive seafood caught my eye.

This was not my first trip to Napa, and my parents have been there many times, so I had some idea of what areas we wanted to visit. I then checked Tripadvisor for current reviews and Open Table to see if there were reservations available. In some cases, I had to call the restaurant directly because of our party size. I started this as soon as the plane tickets were purchased, which was about 2 months in advance. On to the goods...

Tra Vigne, St Helena

I really liked this choice for our first night in the area. We had great service and there were several standout menu items - the mozarella cheese 'al minuto,' short ribs, and a special of the day - scallop risotto. The pasta was very good too. I would eat there again.

Redd, Yountville

This was our best meal of the trip, in my opinion. The fish was the highlight of the menu (halibut, skate, and John dory), as were the desserts. The boys mixed it up that night by having local beers and I had some fun mixed drinks. Unfortunately, I don't have more than 3 photos of the evening because we were so busy eating! I would definitely eat at Redd again.

Brix, Yountville

I have mixed thoughts about Brix. On one hand, the scenery is amazing. There is a lovely garden behind the restaurant that made for a nice little walk while waiting for our salads. And the sunset with the view was great, especially since we sat outside. But. The food wasn't great. It was good, but not great. I had two appetizers instead of an entree - the mussels and the onion pizza. The pizza was not very good, even though I love onions and everything that was on it. I think it might have been undercooked, but it seemed to be browned enough. Other dishes were better but not as good as our previous nights' fare. I would probably not eat at Brix again.

Girl and the Fig, Sonoma

I really wanted to like the Girl and the Fig, but it fell short. The dishes were good but nothing particularly stood out, aside from the cheese platter. Our table also didn't like the pickled figs - maybe we're in the minority but they were pretty gross. I probably wouldn't eat there again for dinner. Maybe for lunch though.

So that's a brief overview of our dinners - we also ate at Rutherford Grille, Cafe Sarafornia, and Pica Pica at Oxbow Public Market. If you're going to Napa I do have some brief points of advice:

1. Make reservations. You don't have to, but restaurants get busy quickly and you won't want to wait 3 hours to eat dinner.
2. Don't be afraid to stay at the bar. If you're not interested in a full meal, sit at the bar and enjoy a drink and appetizer or two.
3. Keep your wallet open because food and drink will be expensive. It's the way it is! That doesn't mean that you blindly turn over your Amex, but just realize that you will pay more than you expected. You get what you pay for in most cases.

weeks that suck and other nonsense

This week has kicked my ass. It's Sunday and I'm tired. I was out of town Thursday morning through Saturday afternoon for work, and now I have one day to rest, get my stuff together for the week, and fix my hair issues because tomorrow at work is PICTURE DAY! We are having photos taken for the new website. I probably have note told you about my old website photo, but it is terrible. You know it's bad when you meet people for the first time and they say "You look nothing like your photo on the website! You look a lot better in person!" Seriously. It's that bad.

I begged my hairdresser for a Saturday afternoon appointment yesterday and she left me with highlighted, golden locks with a hint of curl. Just like the photo I showed her.

But when I try to do my own hair (because duh, I have to practice before photo day tomorrow), this is what I come up with.

If you couldn't tell, they're not the same. I have spent the last 5+ years using primarily a flat iron, so using a curling iron is a little foreign to me now. Also add to the difficulty that new hair requires the hair to be curled back, away from the face (a la Farah Fawcett) instead of toward the face a la 1995.

I now have our spare bathroom outfitted with curling irons, flat irons, and hair potions and it looks like Mission Control for hair. It is going to get fixed and I am not spending another three years on our website looking ridiculous.

I might need reinforcements. Or alcohol. Or a sick day with a retake. Please say a prayer.