home and lists

making
lists. hundreds of them. what to take on the plane part of the journey (which is like FIVE HOURS!!!!! we're definitely not in Cali anymore...) a list of songs to listen to if the plane seems like it is going to crash (three songs: all magical, all from the same magical album: automatic ;) a list of must-have rainy-day diesel-infused Manchester songs. a list of treats in case the onboard veggie option is awful millet and hay, ie , squeezy apple sauce, monster munch and ginger cat cookies. what shops i HAVE to go in or i will die. where i MUST eat or i will die. a list of confectionery requests from neighbors and friends. and a pointless list of just one pair of shoes on it (i can buy more there:)

listening
to 'Meat is Murder' (but roast beef flavor crisps are not) by the Smiths. did you know i have every Smiths/Morrissey song ever released? and not because i ever bought any - noooo: because i married well :) there are few people in the world more fascinating and funny than Morrissey

thinking
it's over between me and spotify :|

wearing
a flannel shirt i found in the boys' good will pile. and hand-me-down small paul pjs from the same pile. hey, i didn't say it was a good look, but it's warm and soothing on a blissfully grey rainy Sunday such as this ;)

hoping and praying
no-one knocks at my door :) unless they have cake. or a gift

needing
to dye my hair. and whiten my teeth. and fake bake. and biore the hell out of my nose. and not eat for a week. and figure out the cloud. and get a shellac manicure. and run up and down the stairs for hours on end. and finish the Christmas card - i'm this close > < to finishing it

feeling
really heartbroken for a sweet friend and his children

going
to get more coffee and make more lists

this pub isn't called the Charlatan but i always think it is (and it really smells like Ireland)


i love that soda bread. i had soda bread for breakfast too :)


dear driving-back-home-on-a-Friday-night light... i love you :)


our house from our neighbor's house (and car... we drove ;)


i looooove his hair


the road to Rhode Island


what yesterday looked like


how to not lose children at the Dollar Tree


it's been this long since i last went home...

Manchester chester and manchester

going.......
to ENGLAND!!!!  next week!!!!!  i neeeeeeed a Cath Kidson polkadotty-crossbody purse.  and that's a good enough reason, right???!!  right!

dying......
for pizza express fiorentina (with no olives).  thanks Tarnya, it was just the little nudge i needed to press "quit procrastinating and book it already" :)

neeeeeding....
to buy those HUMUNGOUS 10KG Cadbury bars - like 100 of them!  i don't care how much it costs to ship back

also dying......
for spud-u-like.  the one in Chester.  with the roman ruins in the basement  (we did a latin field trip to there in school ;)

and absolutely dyyyyying.......
to walk the cobbled diesel-y streets of Manchester with Smiths songs in my head   

kinda wanting.....
to get my hair cut at Vidal Sassoon.  in Boston or Manchester - i don't care which.... i just want perfectly precision cut fall-into-place flippy shiny hair


definitely wanting
another vampsterdam shellac manicure

hoping.......
i can figure out Coronation Street.... it's only been 17 years.  i hope it's not all secret love-children and buried bodies these days....

pretty skies (i don't miss the constant blueness of California skies one bit)

 10 seconds after his Wimpy Kid book arrived (he hasn't put it down yet....)

 bookmarking UK places on yelp and drooooooling over the pictures

dreamy Friday morning

 did i mention.... i'm going home?????!

lunch pails, school uniforms and albums from 1973

neeeeeeeding
to go back to Trader Joe's, and this time not get distracted by the pretty orchids and tulips, not buy ginger cookies and not stop at the tasting hut (TWICE) to sample mozzarella sticks i had no intention of buying, and go straight to the lunch pails and actually buy them this time (i went in for one thing - ONE THING!!!  lunch pails)

loving
on Spotify - because she should have music wherever she goes :) 

listening 
to Morrissey cover David Bowie's Drive-In Saturday... i haven't heard that song since like 1980!  but i still know all the words ;)

preferring
the Aladdin Sane version (don't tell Morrissey :)

needing
to go back to Ocean State Job Lots.  favorite store ever.  i need Portuguese muffins to wean myself off pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting...

wondering
how on earth a gel manicure knows when two weeks is up... mine peeled off EXACTLY two weeks after it was applied... to the hour???!  how did it know???!!  Mother Nature is a source of never-ending curiosity, fascination and google searches

wondering
what on earth the new subdivision sign will look like... hoping it has a little bench or some kind of place to sit even though i never sit there :)    

regretting
ordering a humungous box of strawberry only Laffy Taffy in a moment of utter weakness.  i cannot NOT eat that stuff.  and 145 pieces will wreak havoc on my fillings and i don't want another of those awful things.  sigh.  what to do.......

waiting
for my school blouses to arrive.  not that i go to school... but i love pretty white Catholic blouses with scalloped peter pan collars and foldover cuffs ;)

wanting 
to try Wen conditioner.  but knowing it will leave my hair limp and blah and disappointing (everything always does...)

loving
that it's a minimum day today!  hip hip horray!!  that means warm bread rolls dipped in garlic and herb olive oil, salad with Italian dressing and slightly charred pizza at Bertucci's :)

finally sending
pics to England from our NYC trip in February (better late than never i always say ;)

things from this weekend

the last episode of Orange is the New Black (soooo.... what now?!)

a sweet thoughtful note to avoid NYC on marathon weekend (you are the best MCJ xoxo)

toast for dinner made from Irish bread from the Irish-est corner shop in the Irish-est corner of Boston

a surprise new Alex and Ani bracelet (buddha)

rainbow loom playdates times a million

a sweet chatty conversation on Etsy that resulted in the sweetest hand-crafted buddha beads

documentaries about TWA 800 (it was hit by three separate missiles with a couple of seconds... huh?) and the Central Park Five (who were innocent???!)

listening to endless Richard Cheese covers (Sunday Bloody Sunday with a latin twist: funny:)

meandering along the entire coast of Rhode Island (my favorite {small} state:)

stopping at every single shining beach and nature reserve (happy parents/woefully unimpressed children)

Portuguese chowda and lobsta rolls for dinner in Newport RI on the most beautiful golden Fall evening (ohhhh myyyyy goshhhhhhh, heaven)

a quick stop at that adorable little church where JFK and Jackie got married

my phone clucking like a chicken (dumbest ring tone ever) as i snuck in to take a picture (God has a good sense of humor, apparently... and you bet i still got my picture ;)

the smell of holy water

delivering thoughtful gifts

receiving thoughtful gifts

vodka and margaritas and coffee with baileys (who am I...? because i don't quite remember ;)

a playdate at beautiful Blithewold Mansion

aran cardigan shopping (zero sales tax on clothes is dangerous but completely awesome!)

Five Below

sour apple laffy taffy

Portuguese chowda again (we got some to-go because it was that good) in crusty little bread bowls

Saturday morning a little east of Westerly

 

Saturday evening at Easton Beach in Newport




Five Below

driving home from Newport

 Blithewold Mansion

see that white farm....?  we live in the patchwork quilt of treetops to the right of it

cemetries, candy and rainbow looms

staying

in PJs for as long as possible today.  the urge to dye my hair the color of wicked is completely overwhelming and i know it'll end in floods of tears... and many handfuls of Joy and ultimately brittle, scarecrow-like, ugly orange hair

going

to Brooklyn this weekend  - there's some big parade going on around here ;)  i've always wanted to go to Green-Wood Cemetry and see the world famous Di Fara man take a pizza out of the oven with his bare hands and then drive across that nice bridge to ride the Staten Island Ferry (which yelp says is free??  how is that possible??!) 

listening

to Your Arsenal.  which i can never read without reading your arse ;)  i blame Viz

craving

laffy taffy.  i loooooooooove laffy taffy. but not the awful banana flavor which is douchey and lame (long story but it will make you hate it too)

going 

to Target for semi-permanent color.... the need for wicked cemetry-stalking hair is too insatiable :) 

the road to Walmart (pretty)

 our backyard (also pretty)

 the road home from Walmart (also pretty)

 in our fridge

 scales used to say 135 as their 'dream weight' - now it's 126.4 or 126.5???  why????!!

 i'm so drinking 3 liters of water today.  after i finish my third cup of coffee ;)

i wonder, could 'liquid' possibly mean diet coke and coffee..........?  probably not :(

  avid bird watchers

 omg???  i want a prairie dog!!!!!

    Trick-or-treating with neighbors in a much more walkable, much bigger neighborhood than ours:)

 too tired to even count his stash of candy

 the rainbow loom comes with very Chinese English directions... 

children apparently can read Chinese English better than grown-ups :)