Tasting Cleveland

Last weekend, after the kiddos left with their father, J & I prowled around the outdoor mall. We sat on teak furniture with luscious deep orange cushions to people-watch. We stopped at a little bakery stand for beignets & café au lait. Well, J had coffee, I had Mexican hot chocolate with cinnamon & just a smidge of cayenne. I added a great deal more & liked the drink much better. Love that kick! Then, we did a little shopping at Trader Joe's before stopping for Indian food. The rest of the evening was spent in, watching Failure to Launch, which was a decent rental movie, largely due to Matthew McConaughey's personal charm & not much due to excellence in scripting or anything silly like that.

In the morning, we stayed in bed late, enjoying each other's company & our books on the last weekend before our weekly separation would begin. I just finished Jennifer Weiner's Little Earthquakes, which is wonderful, as are all of her books & J was reading C.J. Cherryh's Chanur trilogy. When we finally emerged, we went to A Taste of Cleveland, which was great fun even in the rain. I had some fabulous chicken tikka masala from Saffron Patch, my favorite taste of the day. J's favorite bite was the pizza margherita from Holiday Pizza. We also got to watch Hungarian dancers & a Japanese drum troupe, who were amazing.

We spent the evening shopping. It drives J nuts that I rarely buy myself clothes, so I did buy a couple of things at Marshall's. I found a neat long jacket with a Mandarin collar, red trim and lovely orange & red embroidery and also a long-sleeved t-shirt with a spangled mermaid on it. We stopped at Red Robin for dinner, then headed home to read more. I also did some advance studying.

Sunday morning, we went to church, where we ended up sitting with a really cool woman who turned out to be involved with the national offices. We had a great conversation about sexuality education with her as we ate delicious chocolate cake in honor of the darling children who had been baptized. After our dessert, we had lunch at Panera before doing some antique shopping. There wasn't much in the way of vintage photos, but I did find a darling hot pink velvet hat for 4 bucks! I also found a white 1920s sideboard I loved, but we just don't have the space here. Perhaps some day. I spent the late afternoon studying while my beloved napped. When the kids got home, we went to the pool, where I studied. Then, I made braised chicken, Cuban-style, for dinner before more studying.

We spent Labor Day morning shopping for more clothing for my darling oldest, who has become quite the clothes horse. He absolutely adores clothing! I love that the kinds of clothes he wants these days are button-down shirts and polo-style shirts. He even wants a pair of cuff links. I would love to find him some elegant gold ones for his birthday. I wonder what he would make of monograms on his cuffs, like my church history prof favors. I finally broke down & got the rolling backpack I had admired at Marshall's. Then, we took the kids to Taste of Cleveland, which they seemed to quite like. Boot had pizza & pulled pork, while Pie chose ribs & a huge burrito. My choice was pulled pork & a fabulous éclair. Pie got so full he said that he felt like aliens were getting ready to come out of his stomach. He said, When I get into the pool, I'm going to sink like a rock!" On the way home, he was having fun playing with the wind, his hand out the window. He was exclaiming, "I'm grasping the wind!" ecstatically. Boot was much disturbed, convinced Pie would lose his arm. He kept up a steady holler & moan routine of "Put it in!!! Roll the window up!!! You're going to give me a heart attack!!! I hate you, Pie!!!" I am certain the game went on longer than it would have had Boot not objected. He was incredibly cranky for the rest of the evening, hollering at Pie & throwing things because he thought Pie should be cleaning instead of watching Sci Fi.

We did go to the pool, after I did some editing work, and Pie did not, in fact, sink like a rock. We had a good time, although I spent much of the time there reading about the Reformations. J made patty melts for dinner. Before we went to bed, I finished editing the last chapter of the book, a fitting end to the summer.