Home Sweet Repair

Home. Six weeks with a proper roof over our heads and I have developed a specific sigh for when I think of what a friend said to me after we closed. "Welcome to home ownership where every week is a chance for something new to break."

Oy to the vey.

Day 1: Roof leaks causing damage to master bedroom ceiling. (ah but it's a condo, so we don't own the roof, but we have to deal with the red tape of repairs.)

Day 2: Microwave begins strange perpetual buzzing. Pay for repairman to tell us motherboard is fried, but we can still cook with it if the buzzing doesn't drive us crazy. Will be cheaper to buy a new one than repair.

Day 4: Wood floor boards begin to pop up near balcony. 

Day 7: Dog breaks mirror on door.

Day 10: Dog crushes first door handle.

Day 11: Dog pulls eye hooks out of door from opposite side.

Day 15: Dog begins destruction of door and frame.

Day 20: Switch starter for gas fireplace stops working. 

Day 27: Water damage appears on first floor new floors.

Day 25: Dog crushes second door handle.

Day 33: Leave for Paris.

Day 40: Discover repairs not completed while gone. Summon contractors who begin at least phase one of repairs. At least 2-3 more weeks before other work done. Told 9 foot wall of glass doors and windows will need to be replaced in the next 1-2 years for sure.

Thank God for Paris. Weim anyone?

Home

The ache in my feet and shoulders verify what the piles of paper and boxes strewn about could also tell you... we moved.

Let's not discuss the guest bedroom, but it seems strongly possible (insert jinx here) that we may actually get through the bulk of the unpacking by the end of next weekend.

What I relished this weekend was waking up Saturday morning and walking down to Dupont to grab breakfast in the early hours before the city is really awake, just morning delivery guys and locals bustling about. My love affair with this city continues and after arriving here in August 1997 I can finally say we're home.

Living in a Cardboard Paradise

The list of things I learned from buying our first place is growing by the day. Not quite proportionate to the number of cardboard boxes in my house right now, but oy veh. Things keeping me afloat as I fill my time with managing contractors, other vendors, changing plans, etc. are I'm totally indebted to our friends who hooked us up with boxes and packing material. You know who you are and I am very grateful the "booze for boxes program" was a success and you can all certainly call in babysitting, random chore assistance, or dinner on demand just about anytime you want. I also keep trying to imagine the luxury of just walking down to Dupont to get coffee, snack, or whatever I want because it's walkable. yippee. And two thumbs up to DH for putting up with my chicken little the sky is falling mentality of late.

The move is three days away and we will be ready and Goodwill will be a substantially more stocked. I can say with confidence that the closet purging(s) of 2010 that coincided with DH's trips have helped with the packing tremendously. Seriously, do not neglect a good all closets yearly clean out. Even though I will still have made three additional trip to donate items before we move, it's not nearly the master disaster it could be.

Also, I'm realizing there's a whole lot of stuff we have that we only use once in a blue moon. Particularly in the kitchen serving and/or preparation department. I either need to start making more homemade pasta or let other folks borrow it to make their own because the beautiful little Italian hand crank machine it wasting away in a cabinet (but I refuse to part with it). So if you want to make your own ravioli, just let me know and we can work out a pasta maker lease program (will accept payment in fresh pasta).

I've developed all kinds of thoughts on negotiating with vendors, specifically contractors, but I'll save that for another day. Instead I'm going to continue packing the kitchen and wondering if I really do need that many serving bowls.

Amazing Women

Perhaps the most tangible part of social networking for me is the wide range of friends and ideas I'm able to reconnect with or discover at my fingertips. I wanted to share a few of amazing things some of these women are doing.

Bee-utiful

Maybe it was the "Save the Honeybees" campaign on the side of a häagen-daz container or some random news bit, but when I saw that my friend Tiffany had started keeping her own honey bees, I thought how cool. I've enjoyed reading about her updates and it's gotten me to pay attention to the apiary movement popping up at work and following Vanishing Bees. 

Run, Recycle, and Yum

Her enthusiasm has been contagious as long as I've known her, so I love that my friend Kelly's blog tackles everything from how to make a fabulous quilt to homemade granola; how to train for your first half marathon to composting. Her energy makes my day brighter every time I have a chance to hear what she's working on.

Brilliant and Raising Three Boys
What I love about catching up with my friend Sarah's life through her blog is I get the perfect balance of real life peppered with her brilliant rhetoric commentary (because she's a rock star PhD). It also reminds me that life is way more fun with laughter, chaos and the ones you love.

Doing Exactly What She Wants
Anytime I think about what exactly I want to do personally or professional, I think about my friend Jen who's living the dream on the West Coast. Exactly what she said she was going to do. She's looking at our 30s with a serious "take the world by storm, but let's do while having a glass of wine" mentality. Oh, and she's wicked smart about the interwebs. California Dreaming.

Ciao Bella
We never got to spend enough time together in KC, but I love hearing about Caroline's adventures in Northern Italy. Living abroad in Italy. Enough said.

There are so many other women who inspire me and I promise to post links to their online musing soon.

Smiling

I'm really sure what prompted it, but recently I've begun making a point of smiling at people I pass in the hall or on the street. Not a crazy, stalker lingering eye contact smile, but just a bright, brief hello smile. The response has been mixed. It's always pleasant to receive a smile back in the brief seconds you pass someone, but it's not over disconcerting when someone just ignores you. I'm thinking though it's better to put a little happy karma out there than not.

Getting It Down On Paper

The following is a jumble of thoughts that are not fully formed into a singular idea, but it is important to me to capture them in a state of flux and to share them to aid in the formation of a greater idea.
 
Gathered around a computer on Monday night with the women of my book club I realized there needs to be a shift. Sitting in a pew at Sixth & I Synagogue last night I realized that I could help source, not just support a new idea. Perhaps the catalysts seem disparate, but these two statements are now steeping in my brain:

-Only women can manage to be 50 percent of the world's population and still be a special interest group.

-Giving can be an intrinsic part of a for-profit business model.

The first was remarked by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, author of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana a book about an extraordinary woman who created a business in Afghanistan that employed dozens of women during the Taliban rule of the past decades. In discussing her work with her directly surrounded by a group of women I have known for more than a decade I was struck that we could be doing more here and abroad.

Why is it that women have allowed societal pressures to fit in, succeed and advance compromise how we treat each other. Why are we unable to support each other at work, at home, at large without first judging, competitively measuring and compromising our own ethos. For all the examples of women empowerment and support of women's initiatives we may read or even experience, we still limit our own capacity for fundamentally altering society by perpetuating the negative and limiting constructs of the past. We judge ourselves, each other and then blame society.

The second idea came from Blake Mycoskie speaking about his new book Start Something That Matters. The idea that he frames his work with TOMS not as a shoe company, but rather around the one for one idea came into focus for me as he was speaking. For-profit companies can perpetuate societal change, be the subject of cause marketing, and still meet their stakeholder obligations.

From where I sit on a daily basis, I see people view the world in starkly different ways. Those that believe you can connect purpose and profit and those that believe connecting those ideas compromises the profit.

I believe we have an obligation to change business constructs and I believe women can help drive this change from within.

Burger Burger

Vegetables are something I usually prepare to put on burgers, not in burgers. So this weekend when I prepared to host a cook out for a combination of omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans I had to create a different kind of menu.

I wanted to make sure that everyone could enjoy the menu. So our combined efforts includes lots of grilled veggies, gorgeous orzo salad, delicious veggies with hummus and tapenade and chips/salsa. 

I used my small chopper to process the
oats/pumpkins seeds, spice blend, carrots
and black beans.

 Besides the regular burgers, turkey burgers and hotdogs, I attempted my first purposely vegan recipe, black bean burgers. It seemed that most recipes call for a fairly sophisticated spice blend, a vegetable binder, and the beans smashed and whole.

This particular recipe had a bit of a Indian spice profile and the verdict from vegans and omnivores was that it's a keeper.

I found the process of making the burgers simple and intriguing since it's a careful balance of binding the ingredients and adding enough flavor. I'm not giving up meat anytime soon, but I will certainly be exploring more vegan-inspired recipes.

Vegan Bean Burger Recipe from Daily Garnish
Makes 6 burgers.

• 2 cans black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup dry rolled oats
• 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

To Prepare:  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Next, add the oats and pepitas to your food processor and grind until coarsely chopped (they will still be a little chunky).  Let it run for roughly 10 seconds.  Grate the carrots, and then add to your mixture in the food processor.  Add 3/4 of the beans, all spices, and the olive oil.  Once all of this is in the food processor, give it a whir and mix it all together.

Spoon mixture into a mixing bowl and then fold in the rest of the whole, reserved beans.  Wet your hands and then form into 6 medium sized patties.  Place patties on a non-stick baking sheet or into a baking pan, and bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, turning once in the middle.  If you want to grill these, pre-bake them for 30 minutes at 300, and then throw them on the grill to reheat and get a little extra browning.