all i need is some sunshine

Every time I listen to this Timber Timbre song (hat tip, Andie) I think of the extreme hotness that is Eric Northman.
Yay for the June return of True Blood.

the opposite of loneliness

Have you guys read about Marina Keegan? She died in a car accident on Saturday right after graduating from Yale, before she started a job as an assistant at the New Yorker, at the young age of 22. She was a talented writer. Here's an bit from "The Opposite of Loneliness," the commencement piece she wrote for the Yale Daily News.

We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. What I’m grateful and thankful to have found at Yale, and what I’m scared of losing when we wake up tomorrow and leave this place.

It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt.

So young. So young.
And so talented.

[photo taken from Facebook]

the sisters brothers

I started The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt last night. Wow. I blew through the first 100 pages before going to bed and woke up a little early this morning to get back to it. I'm loving this tragicomic western and I can't wait to see how it ends.

troentorp wright

I am so tempted...

i heart you, oakland

Oh my god, Oakland. You are killing me with this amazingly beautiful weather. Seriously. I might never leave you again (until actual summer hits and the weather goes all mopey again). 

Walking up and down the stairs and carrying around a 21-pound Stella is the extent of my exercise routine. But this week my girls Shayna, Celia, and Joey convinced me to walk the 3 miles around Lake Merritt (2 days in a row!), which was totally awesome and fun. Except on the second day when Stella started crying half way around the lake and I had to carry her the rest of the way. But whatever. It was great to be out with the ladies getting some exercise and enjoying the sun. It reminded me how much I love Oakland. 

Really. Oakland, I heart you.

the library, a hotel

A whole hotel dedicated to books and the pleasure of reading? Um, yes...

The Library, Koh Samui, Thailand.

[via book patrol]

scenes from sunday

Just reading the Sunday paper

Kinfolk + oranges

New cookbook: Poulet

Tiger needs naps too

Chewy lemon-coconut cookies with lemon icing

all fancy

We got all fancy last Saturday to go to a fabulous wedding in the city. There was a pizza truck and a Kara's cupcake truck (the banana cupcake was heaven), and dancing, and mint juleps, and a photo booth situation. It was awesome.

[top photo by my dad and Instagram, all others by: Austin Rhodes]

ken burns: on story

Sometimes 1 + 1 = 3. Just excellent.
Short film by Sarah Klein and Tom Mason. Read more about the video over at the Atlantic.

[via Kottke]

lemon-coconut cookies

I'm nearly always in the mood for a sweet treat these days. My friend Jen pinned these chewy lemon-coconut cookies with lemon icing [recipe from Bryant Terry's The Inspired Vegan] this morning and they look seriously DIVINE. I think I might need to make them this weekend...

[photo: Jen Martine]

happy mother's day

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom. I love you very much and so appreciate your curiosity, your warmth, your generosity, your wellspring of strength. You continually amaze me.     

Being a parent is hard work, and being a mom is especially hard... But endlessly rewarding. So Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there. You too amaze me.

book purchases today

Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding

 "[The Art of Fielding] is not only a wonderful baseball novel--it zooms immediately into the pantheon of classics, alongside The Natural by Bernard Malamud and The Southpaw by Mark Harris--but it's also a magical, melancholy story about friendship and the coming of age that marks the debut of an immensely talented writer...Mr. Harbach has the rare abilities to write with earnest, deeply felt emotion without ever veering into sentimentality, and to create quirky, vulnerable and fully imagined characters who instantly take up residence in our hearts and minds. He also manages to re-work the well-worn, much-allegorized subject of baseball and make us see it afresh, taking tired tropes about the game (as a metaphor for life's dreams, disappointments and hopes of redemption) and interjecting them with new energy. In doing so he has written a novel that is every bit as entertaining as it is affecting....You don't need to be a baseball fan to fall under this novel's spell, but THE ART OF FIELDING possesses all the pleasures that an aficionado cherishes in a great, classic game: odd and strangely satisfying symmetries, unforeseen swerves of fortune, and intimations of the delicate balance between individual will and destiny that play out on the field." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times )

Ann Patchett's State of Wonder

"A superbly rendered novel...Patchett's portrayal is as wonderful as it is frightening and foreign. Patchett exhibits an extraordinary ability to bring the horrors and the wonders of the Amazon jungle to life, and her singular characters are wonderfully drawn...Powerful and captivating."
— Library Journal (starred review)

What's on your to-read list?

josefina caramel

Coclico Josefina Caramel

a few things i'm loving right now

The new Beach House album, Bloom, on NPR First Listen

My Malta sandals. I wear them every day.

The lovely scent of Siberian Snow

My newly planted herb and vegetable garden, which did remarkably well during my week and a half away

Season 2 of Sherlock, finally. Benedict Cumberbatch is awesome.

These seriously cute Livie & Luca sandals I just got for Stells

These bold typographic World Cup 2012 t-shirts my friend Sam just released

heart + nyc

Central Park, NYC

Time flies.

The week before last we flew down to Southern California at the last minute to support my Mom and visit my Dad in the hospital and where he was undergoing test after test for issues with his heart. The worst part was the not knowing, not knowing what the problem was and not knowing if it was treatable. Luckily and thankfully he is on the mend with a cocktail of meds to keep his heart beating at a regular pace and keep everything else in check. Phew.

And then last Sunday we flew to New York for the week. While Jordan worked I visited with my sister and various friends, explored Carroll Gardens (hello beautiful brownstones), took Stella to the park and Central Park Zoo, and took lots of walks. Some highlights: the current Blue Bottle fruit buckle (carrot and coconut) and the saffron snickerdoodle (always a favorite), lunch with my sister at Prime Meats, a trip to the Central Park Zoo with friend Caroline and her daughter Thea, Rouge Tomate food cart burgers with my sister in the park, delicious dinner with my sweets at Frankie's Spuntino 547, Jack Tilton gallery show opening with friends Anna and Kambui followed by an evening stroll through Central Park and dinner at Kefi, amazing challah french toast at Watty & Meg, browsing through the lovely clothes et al at Bird, catching up with friends Sam and Andrea over brunch at Clover Club, and discovering Bengali Tiger (Sixpoint Beer).

Now we're home. This morning I'm looking forward to a well-crafted coffee from Subrosa, enjoying the warm 80 degree weather, and making some yummy food for Stells who came home from New York with a runny nose.