week in the life | sunday

Good morning!


It's another glorious day out!


Larry sleeps in.


So I paint my toenails on the back porch. (And admire my flip-flop tan!) The chipped red polish that's been on my toes half the summer has to go, in favor of my favorite (discontinued) shade: Vintage by Revlon. (It looks magenta in summer and cranberry in fall.)


Breakfast on the back porch.


Croissant with chocolate butter. It's AMAZING, even if Larry says it looks like a "bowl of dookie" and opts for cereal instead.


I drive to the Mosaic District to meet girlfriends for lunch at Matchbox. (Fun fact: Larry and I had our first date at the Matchbox in Chinatown in 2003.) I'm the first to arrive (this NEVER happens), so I sit outside the restaurant to wait for my friends.


When your friends are also bloggers, there's a lot of photography going on. Here's Sarah in action.


We all whipped out giant cameras at the same time. "Whoah!", exclaimed our waiter. It reminded me of an action movie when everyone draws a gun at once. Click!


I had crabcake benedict with breakfast potatoes and a lemonade. Might as well continue my gluttonous Sunday.


It was a wonderful afternoon of chatting, eating, and window shopping with Ashley, Sarah, and Sarah. We left promising, as always, to do it more often. (Color coordinating of outfits was inadvertent!)


Arriving back home.


While I was gone, Larry did the dishes, cleaned the stove, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, and made homemade guava BBQ sauce. We spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning up and prepping food together before Mom comes over for dinner.


I pick up the house (mostly Larry's shoes) and wipe down the kitchen counter.


Also, Larry is over Week in the Life!


Mixing a new cocktail for tonight: the Lilikoi Itch. Guava nectar, passionfruit juice, rum, vodka, triple sec.


Mom arrives. The dogs LOVE her. (Also, she has dog treats stuffed in her pockets and purse.)


Me and Mom.


Larry mans the grill. The ribs are marinated with sherry in a spray bottle.


We hang out on the patio before dinner, drinking cocktails and eating guacamole. Gravy gives out wet willies to unsuspecting guests.


Here's me shucking corn in a dress in front of a collection of dead plants and an unmowed yard. Glamorous, glamorous.


Sun starts to set. Per usual, it's dark before dinner is served.


Last summer backyard meal: Chinese-Style Ribs with Guava Barbecue Sauce; Spinach, Watermelon, and Feta Salad; Corn-on-the-Cob.


Mini coconut cake split three ways for dessert! (I am usually opposed to store-bought cakes, but make an exception for Wegman's coconut cake. Yum!)


Perfect company, perfect evening.


After Mom leaves, we retreat to the sofa.


The week is done. Here's what my To Do list and planner look like by the end of the week. I never come anywhere close to crossing everything off. And yes, I realize I should make a shorter, more prioritized, and more realistic list - but have always gone with the 'brain dump' technique instead. Lots of thoughts swirling in my head this week on how to make my days more productive.


End the week in bed with another episode of Scandal. Season 2 is getting INTENSE.

Another week in the life, done!

P.S. Did I mention that Larry is SO OVER Week in the Life???

week in the life | saturday

Welcome to Showerless Saturday!

I start the day by packaging up more shop orders. One downside to self-employment/working from home is that my weekends often aren't all that different from my weekdays. Something to work on.

One of our summer weekend traditions is that Larry and I go to the Falls Church Farmers Market together almost every Saturday morning to pick up produce for the week and breakfast for our bellies. I love walking along the path to the market and admiring the historic buildings along the way.

Today we're in search of summer's last corn on the cob. We're planning to barbecue on Sunday night. Despite my desire to prolong summer, the weather is getting cooler, and we'd like one last sit-outside-and-eat-with-your-hands meal of grilled ribs and corn-on-the-cob.


On the way home from the market, we have a couple of errands to run. Typical suburbia. Guess where we're going? Nope, not Massage Envy. (Whaaaat?!) Yup, the ABC Store. (I need Triple Sec for a new cocktail I want to try.)


Next stop: The grocery store. AGAIN. Giant this time. If you're keeping track, I've been to four grocery stores (Whole Foods, Safeway, Wegmans, Giant) AND the Farmers Market this week. Ridiculous. Something else to work on: Not spending my entire life shopping for food.


Milk, TP, beer. As Larry says "Now we're ready for a snowstorm." (Not shown: a bag of spinach and a container of feta. More nutritious, but less important for snowstorm survival.)


Errands done, so we drive home. Another beautiful day!


Back at home: Gravy tears up the paper bags from the liquor store.


We eat lunch together on the patio: more egg salad. On a croissant. Larry wasn't cooperating with my attempts to document our meal, but Banjo was.


Larry drags his smoker out of the shed to clean it out. Guess what's inside? A RAT'S NEST! Who wants to come over for dinner???


Shredding is tiring.


I call Mom to invite her over for dinner tomorrow night.


And admire the beautiful day from our patio. Time to get out of the house and do something outside!


We take the dogs for a walk in the cemetery across the street from our house. Another challenge with working from home: on weekends I am ready to get out of the house in search of adventure, while Larry is tired from commuting every day and just wants to stay local.


It is a multi-cultural/multi-religions cemetery, so there are lots of interesting statues and monuments to see.


The cemetery might seem like a morbid place for a walk, but it's peaceful and scenic.


The dogs love walking here.


Today we are in search of the pet cemetery, but our path is thwarted by a funeral. We accidently find the baby cemetery instead and this makes us sad, so we walk home via the sidewalk.


Big tongue = sign of a successful walk.


Making guacamole! My favorite non-traditional guac recipe includes pears, grapes, and pomegranate seeds. Yum!


Spread out my quilt on the front lawn for a snack/reading break.


Stuff my face with guac.


Larry brings Gravy out to join me. Recipe for a perfect September Saturday: a beer, a book, and a snuggly puppy.


Showerless Saturday comes to an end, when I finally take a shower and put on real clothes...just in time to go out for dinner! It's gotten chilly out, so I force myself to put on jeans for the first time in six months (my legs feel like they're being strangled), but I won't give up my flip flops.


I wanted to go to a cocktail bar in Arlington that I've been dying to try, but Larry wants to stay nearby, so we walk down the street to El Tio - our favorite local Mexican dive. The waitress here always recognizes us and tonight she greets us with "Haven't seen you guys in a while! Where have you been?!" Love that!


Tonight's dinner: beef chimichanga platter + fixins, chips and salsa, big ass daiquiri.

After dinner we walk home.


Back at home, Banjo practices personal hygiene.


Meanwhile, our exciting Saturday night continues. I put away some dishes, and we fold laundry. Yes, chores happen on weekends, too. :(


Evening floor time with the pups. "Don't forget where my tongue just was, Mom!"


Banjo has perfected his technique of standing next to you until your hand reaches out to pet him without you even realizing it. He's a magnet for affection. He can even finagle some petting from the other side of the couch. The speed of his tail = the speed of the hand that pets him.


My hair is still wet from my shower earlier today, so I decide to blowdry it before bed. (It takes forever to dry - Larry calls me "Sponge Hair".) I only blowdry/straighten my hair about once every five years - the rest of the time I just embrace the natural curly air-dried mess. (It may seem weird to blowdry at night, but since the process takes several hours it is not something I ever have time to do in the morning.)


Hair straight, time for bed. (After an episode of Scandal on Netflix!)