Random Love Affairs

Love Affair #1
I love coffee mugs. I'm not a fan of the little weenie mugs that typically come with your 20-piece dinnerware set. (You really just buy those for the dinner plates, bowls and salad plates. But, lucky you, you get the bonus cups and saucers. Seriously... Who uses saucers anymore?) I love fat mugs. Fat as in "big." (Not "phat", for all you younguns.) Ya know the kind of mug that you don't have to refill 4 times to get your fix. Just one big ol' mug. I like that a lot.

I decided a couple of months ago that I needed to, once again, kick the caffeine habit. I've done this too many times to count; at least 8 times in less than a year. Part of that was the result of the quarterly budget review when we discovered that, on average, we spend around $90 a month at Starbucks. ($40 in one week on vacation.) Ouch. For Christmas, our "to us, from us" gift was a fancy schmancy espresso maker. Thanks to our friend who works for Starbucks, we were able to pick up a $600 machine for $180. (That was 50% off the machine on sale, plus the employee discount, plus the $40 we got off by buying $200 worth of Starbucks gift cards at Costco for $160. We actually only paid $160 for the machine, and gave our friend a $20 tip.) But, even then, realizing that I was brewing up 3-4 shots of espresso each morning, I thought, yeah, it's probably time to give it up... again. I'm going on 2 months without so much as a sip of coffee. (Well, ok... actually I picked up a Frappuccino from the corner market the other day, which I quickly discovered was a mistake once the tummyache kicked in.) I believe I have kicked the habit. For now.

Nonetheless, I love my fat coffee mug. I use it for tea and ice water. Currently, I'm enjoying a diet 7-up. It's attractive. It's stylish. It rocks the logo of my previous employer (which is actually a pretty nifty logo, and comes with a ton of hilarious memories of the once-marketing & sales manager and all of our road trips to various homebuilder associations and the crazy music we'd listen to on the way). I love my mug.

Love Affair #2
I also love St. Patty's Day. I don't really know why. I pump a tad o'Irish blood in my veins, but probably not enough to really brag about. (My maternal grandfather's family name was Greene... He was pretty much hash, too, but we do know there is some Irish in there somewhere.) I fell in love with St. Patty's Day when I lived in Billings, MT of all places. (Billings is a neat place for a variety of reasons. Not the least of which is because they find things to celebrate all the time. Seriously. There is ALWAYS something happening in Billings. 130,000 residents celebrate whatever they can celebrate. They'll celebrate nothing. It makes no difference.) They have a St. Patty's Day parade every year through the center of downtown, complete with bagpipers and dancers, etc. After the parade, the bagpipers visit all the taverns... From about 11:00 am until midnight, you'll hear them somewhere in the city. Typically, I worked the day of the parade (because I worked for large tax firm, and St. Patty's Day always falls at the height of tax season), but we'd all head down to the streets to watch the parade, enjoy some lunch, and often I'd take off early to belly up at Tiny's Tavern waiting for the Bag Pipers to join us. They'd squish in amongst us, rock the joint, and we'd all pitch in to buy them all a pint. Them's some good times. Then, later, we'd head to Pug Mahon's - the lone Irish Pub in town - for the real party. Seriously, some of the most fun times there. (By the way, Pug Mahon's got its name from the Gaelic "pog mo thoin" which means "kiss my..." um... back side.)

If you ever make it to Billings, ya gotta eat at Pug's. They have an INCREDIBLE breakfast menu, for super reasonable prices (particularly for the amount of food you get). Lunch and dinner is equally delicious. Worth the trip. Trust me.

I've long since left Billings, but I love St. Patty's Day still. Every year, with or without company, I cook up an Irish feast of corned beef and cabbage, potatoes (can't have an Irish meal without some sort of potato dish) and Guinness. This year, I'm baking a chocolate cake made with Guinness for dessert. Probably not so much "authentic" Irish. But, who cares? Yum. I look forward to this about as much as I look forward to Oktoberfest. With much joy, we'll be entertaining some close friends for St. Patty's Day (thanks to a quick schedule change on their part). I can't wait.

Love Affair #3
I love pajamas and bare feet. If I could go through my day in pajamas, I would. My mother-in-law buys me the cutest jammies every year for Christmas. Always so soft and comfy. My favorites are these red jammies - long sleeved, v-neck top and draw string loose pants. I don't care for elastic waist bands. I prefer draw-string cuz you can make them as loose or as tight as you want. The first thing I do when I get home is kick off my shoes and socks, and change into comfy PJ's. Love them.

Love Affair #4
Costco sells the biggest and sweetest grapefruit on the planet. They're bigger than softballs, and as sweet as an orange. I have memories of my grandparents eating grapefruit and coffee every morning. I never understood that. Grapefruits were always so tart that unless I smothered them in an inch of sugar, I couldn't stand them. Yuck. A few years back, my grapefruit loving husband (who LOVES sour/tart) discovered these 10 pound bags of grapefruit at Costco. He went on and on about how sweet they were. I never believed him... until I finally drummed up the nerve to ask him for a bite. Good Lord in Heaven, Creator of all things delicious, I was instantly converted. I still am not a fan of grapefruit. That is, unless they come from Costco (and only certain times of the year). They are simply the best. And I love them.

Love Affair #5
Lately, I haven't been much of a morning person. Well... by "lately" I mean since the birth of our son (some 20 months ago). I really miss getting up at 5:00 in the morning. Actually, let me qualify that by saying I miss getting up at 5:00 in the morning in spring, summer and early fall. (See, I hibernate in the winter. I hate cold, rainy and wet. Cold and dry, great. Cold and sunny, even better. Cold and rainy sucks.) This is when I get to garden. I love to garden. Now, when I say I love to garden, I'm not sure that conveys the true passion and need to garden. I LOVE to garden. I love to garden in the same way Annie loves to run, Chef Ramsey loves to yell at people, and Scott loves to use big words that no one understands. I love, love, love to garden. Truly. I love getting up before 95% of the rest of the world and getting my hands into the earth, tilling up the soil, breathing in the fresh air, listening to the stillness in the morning air and the world as it awakens to a new day. I love finding Praying Mantis on my hydrangeas, and killing slugs. I love dead-heading all the spent blooms, and fertilizing in anticipation of new, bigger blooms. This, to me, is a form of worship. It's where I get alone with my Creator, in His creation. We talk. I listen. I sing. Sometimes I cry. But always, I feel a deep sense of joy and contentment. I get lost in time... I could easily spend an entire day in my yard if left uninterrupted. It's after a day in the garden when I'm at my very best. I'm renewed, refreshed and restored. I can sit back and look at what God and I accomplished together and say, "Yeah... that's good." Few things make me feel as happy as I feel when I'm alone in my garden.

This year, I'm looking forward to having a little helper. Jeffrey was given his own little garden tote so that he can help mommy in the garden. Last year, that didn't work out so well. (He was too little and wanted to eat everything he got his hands on, including the slugs.) But, this year, he's older and wiser, and can be relatively trusted to not put such things in his mouth. I'm looking forward to passing on my love for gardening to my son. We're going to grow herbs and tomatoes, and maybe a few other veggies so he, too, can be proud of what he's accomplished in the garden.

I've been watching with great anticipation as spring slowly arrives the bulbs that I planted last year begin sprouting from the ground. This will be the first year I have spring flowers in my front yard. My forsythia hedges are already beginning to bloom their beautiful tiny yellow flowers, and the buds on my cherry blossom are becoming more pronounced. Life is returning to the desolate yard of winter, and I welcome it with open arms. I'll be transplanting and dividing some Shasta Daisies this year, and will likely transplant my tiny Star Magnolia to a place it will grow and thrive... We'll build some planter boxes for my herbs and veggies. I'll visit my favorite local nurseries (Egans and Terra Gardens) for the annuals I'll be planting in all my hanging planters and colorful pots. Hopefully we can afford new mulch and some rich soil to spread around. Watering, fertilizing, weeding, tilling, pruning, clipping, mulching... I love it all.

I have many other loves, but those are the ones that are tugging my heart strings today.