Monday, October 25, 2010

Of the Spinach Lasagnas


Dear Mom,

Although you already make a mean spinach lasagna (there's a reason we have it for Christmas Eve), if you ever feel like switching things up a bit, I recommend this one. Same spinachy idea, sans sauce.

love, Cats

Funny story...After what felt like an already busy day, I decided I should put a hot meal on the table, hence the lasagna. Only later did I realize Nathan would be at a kickball game tonight and would miss out on fresh-out-of-the-oven lasagna. So that gigantic piece that is missing? Yep, I ate that. By myself. Bam.*

Also, sorry for the pathetic lack of blogging. Stuff has been going on, I just haven't been writing. My bad.

*In my defense, that dish isn't quite as big as it looks, not a standard 9x13...if it matters.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Staycation


I'm so excited because my parents are going to be here to visit tomorrow night! :) They packed up the van with some furniture to bring us and are driving through. Today they were in Montreal, tonight they are in Vermont, and tomorrow night they'll be with us. I'm still deciding what fun things we will do. I took 3 days off work next week for their visit, and in addition my boss gave me the whole weekend off just to be nice! It's like I'm on vacation!

Today Nathan and I got a zipcar and went to Home Depot. I have been wanting to do some gardening and this full weekend seemed like the right opportunity. I loaded up on tools, bulbs and pots of mums....and tonight I'm reading up on what the heck I'm supposed to do with those!

Yesterday it rained and rained, drizzle then downpour. Fortunately we're not flooding like much of the East Coast, but it sure made things soggy. Nevertheless, we braved the rains to go out last night and see Portico Quartet in Cambridge--so worth it! I have followed up here and there on this band ever since I saw them playing outside the Pompidou in Paris in 2006. When I saw their name in this week's concert listings I knew we had to go. The sound in the intimate venue was great.

Nathan's heard me say it enough, but if you're British, play unique jazz and travel the world with your buddies, can you really get any cooler? I think not. You can hear "Clipper" below....definitely worth a listen.



Secret Agent Woman




My good buddy out in Seattle has gone back to school for a graduate degree in Criminology. I decided this merited some special encouragement and sent her a package with a few helpful "secret agent" tools. It was really fun making this little themed package. I love how mail can make people so happy.

I typed up a mini document and put it in a mini file folder (with photo of her partner in crime-fighting, Paddington). Stuffed into a padded envelope were: this totally awesome vintage kids book about the secret service; red string for blood spatter analysis (Dexter fans?); a trail mix bar; a small notepad and pen; glassine bags for evidence; a mini magnifying glass; and a secret agent id.