old or older.

Whoa. Did you see this piece in the Washington Post today about the Grand Canyon?

A new (controversial) paper by some scientists at the University of Colorado proposes that the Canyon is 70 million years old! Quite something considering the general talk has always been it is a mere 6 million years old.

Which brings me to my next point. I really want to go to the Grand Canyon! In truth, I have been there before. But, I don't remember it.

So, it is back on the bucket list!

food for thought.

Our friend, Amanda, posted this video. For all of us finding our way, good food for thought...

taking flight.

Scott is going to Iraq. He nailed a job with the International Rescue Committee and leaves on Tuesday. Talk about fast moving. For anyone with book recommendations that he can download, music that will keep him company, and any other tips, send along! I am so proud and impressed. Not to mention, now we can both say we've worked for the same organization, mind you, I would say Iraq is quite a different challenge than Uganda...but still! The IRC doesn't know what a brilliant choice they made!

good company.

I forgot to mention that over the Thanksgiving weekend, Ben's parents decided to take the plunge and come join Ben and me in Barcelona. They are actually now making much more of a trip out of it and will be exploring the coast and Pyrenees as well. Looking forward to the back streets of Barcelona and tapas...

initialed.

Ever heard of Mark and Graham? I had never heard of them until yesterday when I got their catalog in the mail. If ever you are looking for something personalized, seems like that is their specialty.

Flipping through their catalog, I came across their signet rings. I never got a college ring but have always loved my Mom's Vassar ring. And, I really love this type of look...

Take a look at this Mark and Graham ring...very simple and classy.

listed.

Kaufman Mercantile has some great stuff going on. If I were looking for some unique, useful gifts,  particularly for the gentlemen, I would go here!

Handmade Cedar Wood Rope Swing

Enamelware Ladle

Lemon Peel Baseball

Hand-finished Stoneware Mixing Bowls

salad queen.

Our friend Sarah is the queen of salads. She invites me over for a BBQ now and I immediatly wonder, will she be making salad? When she is like "let's grab a drink or dinner", I think, why don't you invite me over and make me salad?! If she ever asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I would be like, "hey Sarah, why don't you make me salads for lunch every day this year". Seriously.  They are so good.

She told me last year her secret is to just add more ingredients. Pack that salad bowl full of stuff!  Anyway, I have been craving salads and vegetables for the last couple days. And last night on my walk home, I got the brilliant idea to ask her for more salad secrets and figured I would share with all of you her sage advice.  You're welcome!

"Alright do you want a sweet salad? more savory? I would go with either a romaine/spring mix blend with beets, pistachios, apple, pear and goat cheese OR romain/spring mix with cherry tomatoes, hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, olives, feta. Dressing for the first: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, honey, salt and pepper. Dressing for 2: olive oil and balsamic glaze drizzled over top." 

planning wise.

Morocco planning continues in earnest. The number of spreadsheets and lists I have going is really quite impressive. I am getting more excited by the day and there is so much to share. So far, we have locked down our itinerary for 4 days and 5 nights in the desert. We are going to be sleeping in berber tents, riding camels, watching the sunrise over the dunes, and sitting by a campfire at night!

We also have a place to stay now in Marrakech, Fez and Casablanca. More complicated than one would think since the holiday season is actually very busy. Take a look at the tile work and our great room at the Riad we are staying in Fez in the Medina at the Dar Roumana! Gorgeous. I can only imagine how many pictures will be taken of tile while in Morocco.

buffered.

Back to work means back to constant talk about the looming fiscal cliff. This op-ed by Buffett in today's NYTimes is worth your read.

recapped.

Back to the grind! How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Ours felt long but also too short. I went home to Denver and got some beautiful Colorado sky and that nice cold between fall and a true winter.

Scott picked me up from the airport. We fit in a quick dinner at Root Down before he left town and caught up on best of friends type stuff with fantastic drinks!

Thanksgiving day was a group effort with everyone bringing something to the table and a lot of hands in the kitchen. My Mom has been wanting us all back in Denver around her dining room table for too long and I think this might have been the first time she also got to see the next generation at her table too. Look at Stella's little hands with my Mom's little silver set for kids on top of the beautiful table cloth that her great Aunt made by hand. So cute!

We also listened to music, the classic way though, with good old records.  

 

And like the children we are, we sorted through photos. This one is just awesome, isn't it?! Kind of want to make a big copy and frame it.

My only regret is that I didn't get out that much on this visit. I had planned to get up to Red Rocks to run the stairs, convince some folks to go to Kittredge for brunch, or even head over to some of the antique/vintage stores on Santa Fe, but it wasn't in the cards. There was this beautiful sky on the way to dinner on Friday night though...

And, we also celebrated Stella's upcoming 2nd birthday! We went with Mom to get some ice cream and found this fantastic vegan based ice cream parlor on West Broadway called Sweet Action.

We also celebrated a little at dinner too!

Speaking of South Broadway, the area has blown up. While we were there, we popped into a couple cool stores, including Fancy Tiger Crafts. It is this great little crafts store..definitely the knitter's paradise. And, I also went to get coffee a couple of mornings with Jordan and Hannah at Happy Coffee.

Not pictured was a trip to the park with Stella, dancing with Stella, reading with Stella, and sweet hugs and kisses from Stella. We also hung out at Dad's house, saw Matt&Anne and Erica&Nathan with Eleanor and Aislyn in tow. And, we stood around in the kitchen a lot. It was great, a much needed Colorado visit and makes me realize I need to get home more! 

tgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving! I am off to Denver for a family-infused, dry air, mountains and suburbs, big meal at my Mom's dinner table. I can't wait to go home and get a short fix of dry air and family time. Hope you all have a wonderful, filling holiday!

barcelona.

Slowly but surely, we are making headway on trip planning for Morocco. I am suffering from serious wanderlust (realized last week I haven't been out of the country since I came back from Vietnam), and figuring out our itinerary and trip details is the only thing helping right now!  Morocco plans are exciting and taking most of the time, but we are also really excited to be ending the trip with two days in Barcelona. And, last week, we decided on this great apartment to stay in. At $150/night it is notably less than any hotels we were considering and right in the center of action. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!

Now, have you been to Barcelona and have any restaurant/site recommendations? Taking any and everything right now!

page turner.

This week's read is The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht. I have gotten about 70 pages in and love it so much I can't wait for my long flight to Denver on Wednesday to hopefully plow through the rest of it! So good, have you read it yet?!

outdoorsy.

Busy weekend! It included finally getting out to the Bill Goat Trail with Corinne, Andy and Emily on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day and much needed outdoor activity!

I was loving that Andy chose his red converses for the hike...

And it was surprisingly pretty quiet and not too crowded. 

wallet up.

This is my wallet.

I love it. Dearly. (It is from Target by the way, and I highly recommend it!). Now, guess what happened today?

So, I am in Union Station having a coffee with this Georgetown student. We had never met before but we were talking about Hill life because she wants to do an internship. And all of a sudden, this guy comes sprinting through the tables and snatches my wallet off the table and bolts outside. Well, all I have to say is thank god I was wearing my beloved Cole Haan boots today, because they have Nike inserts in them and I am pretty sure that is how I succeeded in chasing him three blocks down Massachusetts and caught him. Yes, that's right. True story. I chased him down and took my beloved green wallet back.

Embarrassingly, I was sprinting down the street screaming "help". And disturbingly, a mob mentality after I caught him did ensue. But, most importantly, I got my fantastic wallet back as well as high fives from all the people along Massachusetts on my walk back to Union Station and a huge shout out from the women vendors.

And with that, I am very ready for the weekend!

vested interest.

Good stuff J.Crew. High five. 

mccullough.

David David David McCullough. Ben and I  both fell in love with his writing a couple years ago when we read Mornings on Horseback (a must read!). We were just talking about how we want to read more of his books and then he popped up on 60 minutes on Sunday night when we were flipping between channels. The second book he ever wrote was actually about building the Brooklyn Bridge and just listening to him talk about it is captivating. He is such a brilliant story teller. On top of that, in this interview, he talks about our growing illiteracy in history. Put him on my list to have dinner with, I think he is enthralling and genius!

jubilee.

Roy posted this on Facebook this morning, Rolling Jubilee. I am more than intrigued by the idea of this. You should click here and take a look for yourself, really cool stuff going on...

animal love.

While you are at it, go take a look at Tim Flach's amazing photos of animals. They are simply astounding. Here are a couple below but his website and this link have a whole collection as well!

reviewed.

You gotta go read this NYTimes Restaurant Review for Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square, it is really quite the entertaining read...it sounds so bad it almost makes you want to go for the experience!

power up.

In light of last week and no doubt, more extreme weather to come. This seems like a smart investment, no?

second annual.

It was a whirlwind of a weekend. Ben hosted the second annual DC pilgrimage to the Big House. I missed last year's weekend, but fortunately, Emily, Erin and Josh made the trek to Ann Arbor for round two this year! It was a short but packed weekend.

We arrived late Friday night and got an early start on Saturday. Naturally, our first stop was the Washtenaw Dairy (click here and here for background) for game day donuts. Erin confirmed that the donuts exceeded her expectations. We paired the donuts by loading up on eggs and carbs at Afternoon Delight for breakfast!

After breakfast, we moved on to tailgate and over to the Big House. I am happy to report that I made it beyond just the gates and finally had my first Michigan football game.

Not just that, but it turned out to be a gorgeous day and a phenomenal come-from-behind win over Northwestern. Unbelievable actually!

Post-game, we headed to Bill's Beer Garden which just opened a couple weeks ago. It was fantastic...with fire pits around and good beer!

Obviously, we headed to Mani for dinner. Ben's regular status came up big on this parent's weekend and we snagged a table. The pizza (and steak) were spot on.

 We capped the night off with a stop at Kilwin's for good measure.

 

In sum, we basically ate a lot this weekend. Sunday was no exception. We headed over to the Broken Egg for more eggs and coffee to recover.  We did add some culture to our weekend and went to see Sky Fall so Ben could obsess over men's suits. We finished the day with some more football and some healthy fish for dinner before Josh and Erin headed to the airport. 

As a last hoorah and to make sure we finished strong, Ben, Emily and I did head back to the Washtenaw Dairy for milkshakes. 

And now, time to detox from the eating, drinking, football, and overall great weekend!