family portrait!

at wissahickon, because in our spare time we always run into the nearest patch of woods. you know you're doing it right if you get back to the car and realize you're covered in dirt and aren't sure when or how it happened.

a reasonable bag in an unreasonable world

as i've always thought "what's in my bag" posts were pretty amusing and pointless, i was inspired to do one to share with you guys after a particularly ridiculous adventure into center city. basically, walking around with my bag looking like this. it was an epic haul and about damn time we got to a yarn store and a bike shop. we've lived here for two weeks, which is about two weeks longer than that should have taken to happen.

so, crammed in my bag:
- patent leather pouch wallet thing. it used to have a really cool ball zipper pull which sadly broke off because i played with it way too much.
- dog poop bag (oh the glamour)
- keys, yes that's a squirrel bottle opener
- a business card from a particularly handsome engineer with his digits written on the back
- philly dog license tag (not sure why this was in there)
- spare sd card (this either, it's full)
- iphone
- my fabulous shades
- a skein of madelinetosh tosh sock in posy
- a pair of mks touring pedals for my mixte
- philly bike map!
- adorable small dog to assure everyone we encounter is friendly
- my trusty camera which i used to take this pic

far less glamorous than most what's in my bag posts but whatever, i'm not one of those girls who carries three different pretty mini perfumes in their bags anyways. it may look cute in a picture but where would i have crammed the bike pedals? plus i think caring about how you smell and caring about bike pedals might be mutually exclusive activities anyways, right?

"in event of moon disaster" july 18, 1969

source

too. much. stuff.

this is what our little house looks like right now. everything is finally here... but WHERE?! see you on the other side if i manage to survive without getting crushed under boxes of records and boots and books and dishes and years worth of homemade valentines.

pic

mini garden

here it is, us beautifying our deck in the city. from left there's oregano, basil, zinnias, a day lily, and more zinnias. i got enough pots to also plant greens, mint (cocktails!) and parsley because home depot didn't have those but i don't know where else to buy plants around here. it's a little late in the season for veggies but i've got plans for next year, big tomato, pea and strawberry themed plans.
here's the before pic, taken right before i got dirt all over myself.

my uncontrollable excitement was only rivaled by how quickly the heat killed the flowers. i moved them to the shade... hopefully they'll make it. they're supposed to be full sun so the thought of them getting fried immediately hadn't occurred to me. the herbs on the other hand are lovin' life. i hope i manage to find more herb plants before the season is beat, i found this really cool little article about how to preserve them if you can't use them all quickly enough that will totally make cooking post growing season more fun.

ridley creek

our first free second in pennsylvania not working on moving related activities was spent hunting down the nearest state park. we walked down the street to nab some awesome hoagies so we could have a picnic and then drove straight out of the city. the woods here are so different from rhode island, the jungle tangle is so green and soft looking and the trees are all SO tall. while we were feasting we even heard a crazy bird call i'd never heard before, weirdly exciting.

afternoon well spent. next we're going to find some mountains, i want to go camping before i learn what the natural predators in the area are. totally chupacabra territory.

new home, new sheets

as i've gotten older i've realized more and more that yes, i am actually a stereotypical female in more ways than i would care to admit. i've slowly accepted that there is nothing wrong with wanting to wear heels around the house for fun, buying one too many tubes of near identical red lipstick or day dreaming about cooking amazing dinners for db when he gets home from work.

this slow acceptance of what women in our culture have been raised to believe is gender decided weakness or 'lesser' valued qualities has only lead me to realize that i care even less about what everyone else thinks of my choices than i originally thought... which was very little to begin with.

it's silly the things that can trigger such wondering thoughts about your own life. this all began with really wanting all new sheets and some non-teflon pots and pans for our new adventure in philadelphia. in the scheme of things these are small and unimportant (ok, the pots and pans are because we're tired of boiling chemicals into our pasta), but it seemed important to me. i also knew we were going to have one week between getting here and having our stuff delivered, which isn't a big deal, but it came as a surprise what i've realized i miss. db is like "almost time to get our bikes back!" (please know, we actually have a bike each here already) and me? i'm counting the days until i get the kitchen back. seriously. pots, pans, dishes, silverware.

past laura, don't worry... we thought about this and we're not a sellout. true feminism is having choices and refusing judgement. i cannot wait to cook dinner next week and i don't care how lame that may sound. lentil tacos, hell yes.

4th

the only thing cooler looking and more exciting than a firework is one that totally misfires. don't worry, no one was maimed even though this happened more than once.