His most beautiful feature

This is a post just to say that I have a phenomenally humongous crush on my husband. Yes, the hug 'n kiss, hug 'n kiss some more type.

I'm not usually one to notice facial features, but Marcos has gorgeous wrinkles at the corners of his eyes when he smiles . If I'm excited by wrinkles now, imagine how aging together will be. YES!!!

Dear Body...

Dear Body,

I have some bad news. I went to Target today, and swimming suits are already on display. I know, I know, you're not ready for that season yet. I saw how much you enjoyed the holidays, and I respect that, I really do. I just think it might be good if we, you know, start to exercise. They just don't make swimsuits these days like they used to...

Yours,

Metta

We're MOVING!

It was all sort of a spontaneous blur, but today we signed a lease! We actually intended to simply check out different local apartment options in Chapel Hill and scope out the possibilities, but anybody can do things the rational way. We will be moving an entire three-minute drive down the road, so get excited.

Our current lease is up at the end of July, so there's no immediate move on the horizon, but our new apartment is definitely something to look forward to when the ants here start to eat our crackers at the beginning of the summer. We have been happy with our current little home, but the managing company is a royal pain and we are ready for a bit more space. The new place has a fireplace, two bedrooms (the master bedroom is very spacious and has a massive walk-in closet) and two bathrooms, a good-sized kitchen and its own washer and dryer. I know that for most of you that seems pretty basic, but for us that is palatial. My only question now is: how will we fill it?

Luckily, we have six months to fit in a trip to Ikea.


For those of you living in the Chapel Hill area who are considering a move at the end of the summer, come live with us at Shadowoods! One of the clinchers for us was that there is currently an incredible move-in deal, and we will be paying $200 less than the going rate for every month of the one-year contract (almost $2,500 savings). I think that the deal is up in a few days, but please give us a call if you want more info. I'm so tempted to put the price here because it is so good, but I'm constrained by my internal tackiness censor...


So, maybe not the dream house yet, but we're making progress! Here's a picture of the pool area, just because I like the tiers:

Redemption Song

To redeem myself from the last cake fiasco, I set about to use up my bucket of ganache by trying out a new recipe, bittersweet chocolate and pear cake, from Smitten Kitchen, a foodie blog I am starting to love. How did Deb know that my heart sings with these two lovebirds meet?

Maybe you don't believe this, but I adore the combination of pear and chocolate so much that I swayed a professional cake baker to experiment with the lovebirds as a potential batter for our wedding cake. Sadly, the basic batter she used was an intense chocolate chocolate chip ditty, which overpowered the pear and didn't make it worth the extra cost in the end. But ah well, the perfect recipe has flocked home at last. This time? The batter is made with browned butter and eggs whipped to oblivion, with all of the other ingredients of a light, yellow cake batter, so the pears and the chocolate have space to leave their flavorprints.


Changes to the recipe: I used ganache instead of the chocolate chunks, so the batter took on a marbleized appearance on top where the soft chocolate fell through the batter as the cake was rising. It tasted amazing. Also, I found that three pears were a bit much for the recipe. I cut up all of them, but only used about two.

The Documentary

I was thinking today about documentaries, and a question came to mind: If somebody made a documentary about my life, what would it be about, and what slant would they take? What would the title be? What would make it educational and worth watching for anybody but myself and my close friends and family?


What would you name your own documentary?

Locale Highlight: Guglhupf Bakery & Patisserie

Although I am no connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, I am always on the lookout for local eateries with atmosphere. Food just tastes better when the presentation is beautiful and the surroundings are pleasant.

Today I re-scoped out a Bakery and Cafe in Durham called Guglhupf, which means "bundt cake" in German. After my in-home parenting therapy sessions, I have taken to doing my paper work at Guglhupf as often as possible, to beat the alternative of sitting at the ice-age computer in my window-less office. To tell you the truth, it's such a unique, stylish place that I feel classy just walking through the doors.


Guglhupf has two parts: one is a small bakery which sells the most beautiful, genuine, hearty, fragrant German-ish loaves of bread you've ever experienced, and the other part is a cafe. The cafe is very uniquely decorated, and shows off walls of eye-candy art and local funkiness. Unfortunately, the very few things I've eaten there have been only an 8.5 on a scale of 1 to 10, but there are so many other gripping factors...


Such as the desserts...


...free internet access...


...and the decor.


P.S. Exciting News! This post was my 100th post!

Let it Mildew

I just changed the piece on the right "about the authors" because I felt like the old paragraph was getting stale and I no longer liked it. I asked Marcos to come read the new blurb and tell me if he thought was funny, or just weird. He made a face and said, "Well, just leave it. We'll let it mildew for a bit", and he walked away.

I guess he meant "simmer", or "settle" or "sit"? But "mildew"....

I once asked him if I could make a running list on the blog of all of the funny things he says, much like parents make lists of the funny things their kids say. He said no. Bummer.

SnObama Day!

Tuesday was a day of many "firsts" here in the exotic state of North Carolina. It was the day of the Presidential Inauguration of the first black African American President of the United States, and the first time in years that our state received more than four inches of snow during the winter. In order to celebrate both exciting events in one clever title, North Carolinians have dubbed the historical day "SnObama Day".


It might has well have been an arctic blizzard out there, for the response from the Chapel Hill community. I woke up, got ready and caught the bus into school for my class, which was attended by a whopping six students. There was barely a car on the road. It was absolutely fabulous: quiet and snowy, and beautiful. Our class was intimate, engaging and short, as we were dismissed early to head to the auditorium to watch the Inauguration ceremonies. Marcos met me at my building so that we could watch the event together, and I sat sandwiched between my Brazilian husband and my friend Darshan, who is a Rotary World Peace Fellow from India, and his Rotary-World-Peace Fellow-friend Paulo, who is from Italy. Me and the UN on one row.


If my experience with the UN there on the bench was anything like the party world-over, then it was one heck of a day! Darshan nearly cried at the swearing in of the President, and kept yelling, "I love you Obama!" every time he came on the screen. Although the entire auditorium was hollering, there was nobody louder than my friends from India and Italy, who are princes of peace in their own right, and more than ready for a change...