This blog is not dead.

Three months. That's a new record.

Lots going on, not a lot of time to post. All good, just busy.

Am blogging about cooking with Andrea (Showem, of Toytown fame) here. Interestingly, I've never met Andrea, but we e-mail, and go back and forth on facebook and have enough in common to blog together. She's married, with a toddler so our lives are really different in a lot of respects, but we both love good, fresh food and I am hoping the blog reflects that.

Anyway, off to finish dinner and polish off a nice glass of wine.

Amazing week for me. Monday I got a phone call from Joanna, who is working on the Presidential Transition Team, offering me a ticket to the Inaugural. Off I went with another friend of Joanna's named Roseann, who I have known for years. I like Ro alot. She's a good egg. We drove down on Monday afternoon and were fine until we hit DC and a massive amount of traffic. Jo and her colleague Tim actually walked to us and drove the car into some parking lot where they'd scored a parking space for us, which, considering the amount of people converging on Washington, was an absolute miracle. We stayed at Joanna's apartment and had a quiet night for the most part and got up at the crack of dawn to walk to the Capitol with two milliuon other people. We had tickets which put us right at the Capitol steps - amazing but had to line up for hours in the freezing cold with thousands of other people. We were with Joanna's work crew - a really fun and diverse group whose company I enjoyed immensely. Everyone around us appeared to be part of the Government and I enjoyed hearing snippets of their insider conversations. The Inauguration itself was amazing and I had the chills as it unfolded. Tears were running down my face as Barack took his oath of office. I was overjoyed and absolutely moved. There are no words to describe how I felt, and how happy I was to be part of such a transforming moment in history. Well worth the cold.

We had planned to leave shortly after the Inauguration ceremony but we didn't count on all the streets around us and our parking spot being closed until early Wednesday morning so we stayed on and celebrated! Fantastic!

On Thursday, I flew to San Francisco to meet Chris who is working here. We're staying in San Jose at the Fairmont which is a fairly swish hotel. We had a great day on the Coast yesterday and are headed to see friends in Walnut Creek this afternoon. I head back tomorrow and Chris comes home on Thursday. I love California. I could live here.

Anyway, gotta dash. It's been overcast and there's some blue sky peeking out and I want to feel the sun on my face!

It's freezing and I have a pounding headache. That's all.

It took three whole days for me to fall off the Blog 365 wagon...got to be a new world's record or something.

We've been sick and just lazing about the house. We overdid it - to put it lightly - during the holidays and are now paying with colds and coughs and general inertia. Though I am feeling better today. Chris is headed to California for a week of work and other than the usual smattering of work, knitting and exercise, I have nothing planned.

There's a threat of a snow storm but of course it's after one in the afternoon and nothing has materialized yet. I'm thinking that the more sophisticated the weather equipment becomes, the less likely it is to be right. It was supposed to start at dawn. In any case, we're both nursing colds and are hunkering down for a nice quiet day at home. I am braising a pork shoulder in cider with onions and apples and it smells great. I am serving it with a mashed white bean puree I saw Nigella whip up on her show, brussels sprouts and a spinach salad. I am itching for a sweet but trying to refrain!

Just back from Pilates which probably wasn't such a great idea considering my cold. It was a real struggle to do even some of the basic stuff. We've got a quiet weekend on tap - small family celebration for Lily's 15th birthday tonight and then nothing else. I need some stay at home time and I think Chris does as well. His new assignment is in California. Great! Not only will he be gone all week, but three times zones away which makes phoning difficult. C'est la vie!

As usual, my impetus to start blogging is the lovely Alison from Wales, who I recently saw at a wedding in Ireland. Al always is at me to blog and she's right. So I am going to be really bold and try Blog365 which means blogging every single day. Let's see how long I last with it. I might flake out and use lists, but it's still blogging.

Here's some questions from Thursday Thunks to get me going today.

1. Are you a celebrity news junkie?

Ridiculously so, even for the British reality star celebs. I love them! Fave celeb - got to be Britney.
2. Have you or anyone in your family ever had braces?

Just the kids

3. Name 4 things in your garage that you don't think anyone else has in theirs.

No garage!

4. Do you order Girl Scout cookies?

Hell yes, Mint is my favorite!

5. If you have a cat or a dog, what brand of dog/cat food do you feed them?

Purina

6. When you cook, do you use measuring cups/spoons?

Always use 'em while baking, hardly ever when cooking main courses. i can eyeball things well. I also improvise.

7. If you were stranded on a desert island, how many sand castles would you build?

Probably none

8. Whats one thing you own too many of?

Balls of yarn.

9. If given the chance to go to the moon, would you?

No.

10. Talk radio - listen or not?

Not standard AM type stuff, but NPR. The highbrow stuff, natch!

11. When you put silverware in the dishwasher or in the drainer to dry, do you put the handles up or down?

Down.

12. Video Games for kids - good or not?

Not. But if I had kids they'd probably be parked in front of them all day. My one *kid* loves them.

13. Share a website with us.

www.ravelry.com

14. Water - bottle or tap?

Tap!

15. Have you ever eaten a giant jawbreaker, the ones that are the size of the palm of your hand, all the way to the end?

No.

That's all for today. Fingers crossed. Again.

We're off to New York for the weekend tomorrow after I get back from a Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance event Lynn and I are attending on Bob's behalf. Spent the past two days running in circles preparing and I sincerely hope we are able to hold our own. I've really been out of touch with this one particular project, but Bob brought us up to speed today and barring any questions out of left field, we ought to be okay. Fingers crossed!

Lisa and Mike will be with us on Friday night and we're going to a lovely little French place called Gascogne which I read about on Chowhound. Saturday, we're on our own and I suspect we'll do something ethnic. I'd like to go back to Tia Pol in Chelsea, a great tapas joint we've been to in the past, but I'm open minded. Or we could just find some corner bar to inhabit - we love doing stuff like that!

Here's to the weekend!

I'm having a real bout with melancholy this week. The weather is changing and it's getting dark really early and that doesn't help at all, but mostly I'm feeling bad for some of the more important people in my life who have suffered serious and real losses like losing parents and long standing relationships coming to an end. Having been through both experiences, I can empathize. I just want everyone to feel better and loved and secure, but the truth is that they have to go through their trials to get to the other side. Very tough.

There is some happy news on the horizon. We've got a nice trip to Munich coming up after Thanksgiving and we're looking forward to seeing our loved ones over there. We're staying with Lise and Richard and though I'm happy to be seeing them, the one I am most looking forward to seeing is their absolutely beautiful daughter, Stella! I'm also happy to be seeing the Plants and their boy Hugo, who is full of personality. I enjoyed seeing him in Bratislava and here this summer - he's a sweet child, full of happiness and light. Babies are good. It makes me sad that I couldn't give Chris a child. If only we'd gotten together eleven years ago when we first met. But neither of us was ready then - funny how things work, isn't it?