Outfit:

Turquoise tee (gap)

Levis

Boots

Vintage mexican silver choker

Menu:

Breakfast: oatmeal with banana

Lunch: wheat thins with cream cheese; salad

Dinner; breaded chicken cutlets; brussel sprouts, rice; wine

Finances:

$20 at the market

FILM

I’m not sure if I mentioned but I watched District B13, a sci-fi last weekend.

Then we started renting (through Netflix) the Battlestar Galactica tv series, season 1. We are HOOKED. I love it. I also love Edward James Olmos. I had an opportunity to meet him once and I still am thrilled about it. I was in awe. I whipped out my Spanish and flirted a tiny bit (even though I am so happily married) by saying “El gusto es mio” (the pleasure is MINE!) when I met him. He rocks.

On My Nightstand

The lovely Stephanie at Bonjour Madame sent me Mireille’s new book, so I am looking forward to digging into it.

Also, Mama Gena’s latest, Owners and Operators Guide to Men.

The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith (you might recall I received this recommendation from reading The Daily Connosseiur.)

Slam by Nick Hornby is the last book out of the box my friend sent me that I think I will like.

Outfit:

Black Tunic (thrifted)

Levis

Black sandals (lauren by ralph lauren) thrifted

Leopard print hoop dangly earrings (garage sale)

Menu:

Breakfast: hard boiled egg; slice toast with apricot preserves

Lunch: banana and peanut butter sandwich; water

Dinner: pasta salad (penne with cherry tomatoes, sliced olives and vinaigrette); wine; one scoop Haagen Daz vanilla

Finances:

$0

On my nightstand this week

Happiness is a big stack of books by my bedside!

While waiting for a book from the library to come in I began this book:

When will there be good news? by Kate Atkinson — so far I love it, but because I own it, I set it aside for a library book that came in:

The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq. Those of you in the FC group might be interested in how I came across it. Please forgive my sloppy attribution (and you can be sure if I were publishing a book I would track this fact down) but it was possibly in Entre Nous or French Women Don’t Sleep Alone (or maybe even another book — if you know which one let me know) that it mentioned this French author. So I tracked him down online and then ordered this book from my library. So far it is fantastic. I am concentrating on this exclusively since it it borrowed and has a due date. I have the dictionary by my bed to look up words in this book I am not familiar with. So far I have looked up  the word “hirstute.”

After I run out of library books I am going to start on two books that came in a big box of books from a friend:

Loop Group by Larry McMurtry (the author of Terms of Endearment)

and

Here Kitty Kitty by Jardine Libaire

FILMS

Pretty much the only thing I like better than a good book is a good movie!

I think I mentioned a few weeks ago I saw Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino’s new flick and loved it so much I’m going to mention it again!

I also rented Munich last week – an intense film that really illustrates a feeling of ongoing hopelessness surrounding the situation in the middle east and just how sad it really is. It is easy for people who live in the United States to tune it out and not realize how dramatically it impacts so many people.

I also borrowed Breathless from the library yesterday. I has previously rented it on Netflix, but had to return it because the disc was scratched. I’m looking forward to watching this classic. I think I may try to watch it tonight.

Sunday

Outfit:

Turquoise top (SO) garage sale

Black skirt (Target)

Black sandals (lauren by ralph lauren) thrifted

Vintage Mexican Opal bracelet, silver hoop earrings

Menu:

Breakfast: small dish whole milk plain yogurt; banana; coffee (out of milK!)

Lunch: pepper jack cheese slices; summer sausage slices; crackers; water

Dinner: Roasted chicken with roasted red onions, garlic, cherry tomatoes and carrots; green salad with red wine vinaigrette; slice fresh baked bread; pinot grigio

Finances:

$0

SATURDAY

Outfit:

Navy scoopneck tee (Jcrew)

Levis

Black sandals (Lauren by Ralph Lauren) thrifted

Vintage Mexican silver choker

Menu:

Breakfast: one banana pancake; cafe au lait

Lunch: Costco polish dog*; lemonade

Dinner: Yummy Italian food* … lasagne; several bruschettas with basil, cherry tomatoes, parmesan; something that looked and tasted like a mushroom lasagne, but my Italian was so limited all I could understand was that it was raddichio, which still has me baffled as I was convinced it was mushroom!; prosecco; pinot grigio; san pellegrino

Finances:

$38 for a new tire*

$10 for a school book for child

$8 for lunch at Costco

Saturday/Italian Birthday!

My husband was gone for the weekend and so shortly after he left, as fate would have it, I was stranded about 10 miles from my house with a flat tire and two kids. I have 6 brothers-in-law and so I gave one of them a call. He was nice enough to come rescue us, putting on the dinky, mini, child-like spare and then I immediately headed to Costco to have the tire fixed, driving about 40 mph on the freeway!

So I was stuck at Costco for about 2 hours, trying to keep my kids occupied while they fixed my car. They needed to replace the tire, but because I bought it there they only charged me $38. I love Costco! But I did get stuck eating more for lunch than I intended. I had wanted to eat a light lunch, maybe just salad because I was invited to my Italian friend’s house to celebrate her daughter’s 1st birthday. Let’s just say I had an inkling there would be some good food there ; )

That afternoon we walked to my friend’s house. She is from Verona, Italy. Her husband’s parents from Verona were visiting and had spent the ENTIRE day cooking a feast for the party: several plates of bruschetta’s in various incarnations; several platters of some other pastry with meat appetizers; a giant pan of lasagne to die for and this fabulous pan of mushroom or radicchio or whatever it was. I didn’t ask my friend because I forgot and she was so busy and frankly, at the time I didnt’ care what it was made of I just wanted to eat more of it! Her inlaws didn’t speak a lick of English except yes and no and my Italian is severely limited, so I never quite figured out what it was. I’ll ask my friend next time I speak to her.

For some reason my conversation with her inlaws was about me explaining how much Italian I was and which members of my family had come from Italy. For some reason, they were under the impression from my friend that my father had lived in Italy. The other part of our conversation besides me complimenting the food was them explaining a joke about how being called Nonno (grandpa in Italian) sounds so old!

Anyway, the celebration was in my friend’s backyard where they had several tables strung together and covered in pink plastic tablecloths, balloons strung around the yard (I think my kids popped at least two of them — mamma mia!) and lots of San Pellegrino, Italian beer, wine and lemonade for the kiddies.

They brought out THREE, yes three, lovely cakes, with what  looked like marzipan frosting. I, however, did not sample any for two reasons: Mainly that I don’t care for cake and also because my jeans were fitting really well yesterday for the first time in weeks. That is always motivation for me.

After we sang Happy Birthday, the child’s father popped the Prosecco and we all had a smidgen of this dessert wine.

I told my friends about the American tradition of placing a huge piece of cake in front of the new 1-year-old and letting them dig their hands into and eating it with their fingers, smearing it all over their face in the process. They both said they had been told that ODD American tradition and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES was that going to happen today! It was so funny. They were so adamant about it!

And frankly their darling daughter looked precious in one of the most beautiful pink child’s dresses I have ever seen.

Not to mention the fact that after most people had arrived at the party, she made a fashionably late appearance to her own celebration because she was being freshly bathed by her mother.

I love Italians. And Spaniards and French people. My friends from these countries in America have always been such examples of the good life — la bella vita, the sweet life — la dolce vita, to me.

By the way, the Mother-in-Law from Italy definitely had La Bella Figura. An absolutely beautiful woman in her 50s with gorgeous short blonde hair, impeccable makeup, slim fitting white capris; a lovely yellow top, cute leather sandals and beautiful jewelry.

Because my kids and I were a little tired, I went home before they even had the barbecue, so I have no idea what everyone else had for “dinner” yes, the above foods were just appetizers!

After I put my kids to bed I watched “He’s Just Not That Into You” which I found to be a surprisingly sweet little movie.

Oh, I also forgot, on Friday night I saw Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds (sic)

I love Tarantino and loved this movie so much. It was fabulous, even though I did have to turn my head away about half a dozen times because of a few really gory, violent scenes. He’s so good, he doesn’t need to add in those gratuitious violence snippets, but I guess other people like that.

On my nightstand this week:

Books

I whipped through fellow blogger (www.fortyisthenew20.com) Phyllis Bourne Williams’ book “A Moment on the Lips”  — a very readable sweet love story.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have as much luck with the other books on my nightstand. I don’t know if it is my mood and I’m not in the mood for nonfiction, but I will be returning “Bella Lingua” and “The Audacity of Hope” to the library. I really, really want to read Obama’s book, but every time I picked it up, it didn’t hold my interest. It was even worse with Bella Lingua. To me,  it seemed like a text book you would read in a crash course before you moved to Italy. I just couldn’t get into it. Why can’t someone write a book about the Italians along the lines of all the fun books about the French (Entre Nous, French Women Don’t Get Fat, Two Lipsticks and a Lover)?

Happiness Sold Separately – I’m still enjoying this book. As I mentioned before, I pick it up whenever I don’t have a library book to read because I don’t have to return it to my SIL anytime soon.

The Historian — I haven’t even picked this up yet. A SIL loaned it to me. It looks too heavy to bring on the airplane when I go on vacation in a few days.

Movies

This week was not a big movie week. I watched “My House in Umbria” and that was it.

Outfit:

Black crochet bodice tee (Marshalls years ago)

Black jersey skirt (Target)

Black sandals (Lauren by Ralph Lauren at thrift store)

Dangly leopard print earrings (garage sale)

Menu:
Breakfast: slice of homemade bread toasted with peanut butter and honey: cafe au lait
Lunch: leftover pasta; wheat thins; chips and salsa; two oatmeal cookies
Dinner: scrambled eggs with salsa; homemade bread toasted (no wine tonight) I hesitate to open a new bottle since I am leaving on vacation. Plus maybe it will be small compensation for my overindulgence in food this past weekend.

Finances:

$17 for food at market

$7 for new sunscreen

Saturday

Outfit:

Levis

Black gauzy tunic (thrift store)

Turquoise sandals (Target)

Leopard print dangly earrings (garage sale)

Menu:

Breakfast: small dish plain whole milk yogurt with 1/4 sliced banana and raisins

Lunch: Chips and Salsa and two beers (we went to a friend’s house!)

(It’s funny. I will go all winter without thinking about chips and salsa and as soon as the warm weather comes, I eat them constantly — blue organic chips and super hot fresh salsa made by a woman in my neighborhood but sold at our national chain market)

Dinner: Pork Chops on the grill; corn on the cob; green salad; wine. For the first time we grilled the corn out of the husk. It carmelized the corn kernels and tasted amazing. Then my dh had the great idea of cutting some of the corn off and putting it in my simple green salad (romaine with a red-wine vinaigrette). Delicious.

Finances:

$17 at wine store for wine and beer

$65 for a STOVE PART that FIXED MY STOVE. Oh blessings of blessings, my brother-in-law came over Friday night and took apart my stove, found a part he thought needed to be replaced and voila! he was right. On Saturday, I had a functional stove again. Hallelujah! I had procrastinated on bringing in a repairman because everyone told me by the time I paid his fees and replacement parts (assuming it could be repaired and didn’t have to just be replaced) I would have paid for 1/2 the price of a new stove.

Thank God one of my many BIL happened to stop by Friday and knew a little about gas ranges! I am overjoyed to have my stove back. I love it even more now that I had done some online research and saw my range (which came with our house) was nicer than I realized and if I had to replace it I couldn’t afford one as nice.

On my nightstand and in my DVD player

I am a voracious reader and avid film watcher — or more honestly I am a complete bookworm and film freak!  During the summer I often sit outside on my patio while my kids splash in the kiddie pool and read my latest book. Rather than watch TV, I almost always prefer to curl up with a good book and a glass of wine after the kids are tucked into bed. I can usually be talked into putting down the book, however, if we have a good movie in the mail from Netflix.

In the DVD

During the past two weeks I’ve watched:

 ”Broken English” (note to all you francophiles: has a French angle and is a fun movie)

“The Reader” with Kate Winslet — an intense tear jerker worth watching

“Tron” I also somehow got talked into watching this again, but couldn’t sit through the whole thing

“Dead Man” with Johnny Depp. Love to look at the guy but got bored and went to bed

“Slumdog Millionaire” loved, loved this one

“Taken” with Liam Neeson. Intense action, great acting. If you like James Bond flicks, you’ll like this one.

On my nightstand:

“The Book Thief” I just finished this for one of my bookclubs and loved it. It was hard to believe it was written for young adults.  It is not in the picture because I loaned it to a SIL yesterday.

“Happiness Sold Separately” by Lolly Winston. I am a few chapters into this one and enjoying it immensely. It is a great summer read I can put down, pick back up later and get right back into it. I put it down whenever one of the books I have “ordered” from the library comes in. I borrowed it from a SIL so I can take my time with it.

“Firefly Lane” by Kristin Hannah. This is a library book with a waiting list so I am concentrating on this one the most and it is also the one my second bookclub is reading. So far I love it.

“The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama. I’ve only read the introduction to this so far.

Two chess books I keep meaning to re-read

Sunday Outfit

Ann Taylor loft dress (thrifted)

Lauren by Ralph Lauren sandals (thrifted)

Black beads (Target)

Menu:

Breakfast: onion bagel with cream cheese; cafe au lait

Lunch: Strawberries and then tortilla chips with cucumber-dill dip (This chip lunch is becoming a bad habit) at my MIL’s house. We had a birthday party after lunch. I don’t like cake, so skipped it.

Dinner: We had friends over for big Sunday supper.

appetizer: kalamata olives, salami slices, slices of paranno cheese

entre: Rigatoni with ground italian sausage sauce with fresh bread and butter, followed by North African Carrot Salad and then Romaine salad with avocado and honey-mustard dressing; pinot grigio

dessert: Small dish of vanilla Haagen Dazs

Finances:

$ 65 at market

Outfit:

Cream colored crochet bodice top

Levis

Black Dansko sandals (we are walking to the park and library today)

silver necklace with diamond pendant; silver bracelet; silver watch

Menu:

Breakfast: Wheat thins (about 20) spread with cream cheese (just sounded good this morning); cafe au lait

Lunch: Leftover potato salad on top of leftover green salad; a few tortilla chips; coffee

Snack: Oatmeal cookies (2)

Dinner:  Had dinner at a friend’s bbq/parade party: pulled pork sandwich; tortilla chips, taco dip; taco salad; carrots, snap peas, brocolli in veggie dip

Before Sunset style inspiration

I don’t know why but I woke up this morning absolutely obsessed with wanting to wear this outfit to a party on Saturday:

Particularly, the shirt:

I have never, ever been able to find out more about that blouse. Those who have seen the movie Before Sunset, might recall that it closes in one spot in the back and then is open to the breeze. I’m crazy about it. I would buy it in a second if I knew where to find it. Alas, I’ve had no luck.

Well I went to the thrift store and a garage sale this morning. I did not, of course, find Julie Delpy’s top, but I found one inspired by it that I will wear to a housewarming party on Saturday. I also found some Lauren by Ralph Lauren sandals I will wear with it. What typically happens when I shop happened today. I was looking for some clothes to “lighten” up my wardrobe as you might recall. I looked at the tops in my color palette and all the shoes. What did I go home with: A black blouse and black sandals. Hmmmm. But I did spend less than $9.

On another note: I stopped at a garage sale and picked up a multi-colored beaded necklace; a big beaded red bracelet; leopard-print hoop/dangly earrings. $3 total.

So I have a few more accessories than I did yesterday. Yea!