So one thing you really ought to know about me is that I love to shop. Specifically, I love to shop online – I’m not much of a crowds person; the mall isn’t a soothing place. I love being able to get whatever I need via point and click; I love not having to drive around to multiple stores because my local one is out of the color I want; I love shopping in my pajamas.
Besides, it’s lovely to receive packages in the mail, isn’t it? Sometimes enough time passes between ordering an item and its delivery, that I forget completely what I’m expecting – it’s a whole new surprise! Our UPS guy is insane, but I adore him. He squeals that brown truck around the neighborhood as if he owns it, and let me tell you: the man could parallel park that big brown truck in a space the size of a smart car. Oh, adoration! He’s about 6’2”, well-built, and good looking, and every week I get to hear the familiar screech of the truck as it stops in front of my house, and then the soothing thud of the box hitting my front door as UPS guy wings it onto my porch from the sidewalk. Then, he runs up to the door, hits the bell, and calls out, “UPS!” From here, I listen to him deliver the neighbors’ packages via my porch. What you have to understand is that my neighborhood is over 120 years old. It’s called the Ford’s addition to the Cole neighborhood in Denver, so all the houses are very old and very close together. Close, as in I can touch my neighbors’ houses if I reach out my windows; our roofs touch; my dryer blows laundry lint into my neighbor’s bedroom. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow and whatnot.
But! But but but TODAY! Today I received three boxes with items in them that I am using to re-do my kitchen. No, my kitchen isn’t getting a typical make-over. My tile counters are fabulous and I have no need for granite (I did, however, have need of an ostentatious wedding set, so let’s not pretend that I’m noble). No, I can’t justify remodeling my kitchen when everything works perfectly as is. And as is traditional in Victorian homes, each room in my house is painted a different color. The kitchen doesn’t even have a pronounced color scheme going – there is a lot of royal blue, but there is also pumpkin/marigold, brick red, white, cobalt blue, terra cotta, and almond. And we have light maple cabinets! I almost want to say it’s slightly patriotic, but truthfully the schemata is just too eclectic to pin down.
Anyhow, so I have decided to reorganize instead of remodel. I’m bringing in all kinds of new things -- in bright red! Red is an auspicious color; it’s a color that makes me happy. I have a red microwave oven and I just ordered a Kitchen Aid stand up mixer in Empress Red. Other red accessories are on their way, too – measuring cups, a kitchen twine holder, a spatula set from Le Creuset. But what came in today’s boxes are . . . cookbooks! That’s right, I’ve decided to reorganize my kitchen with cookbooks – not a stretch by any means. I mean, it is a kitchen. I expect on Monday my UPS guy will be winging a box containing a new bookshelf for my new cookbooks – it’s a tall, thin little bookshelf in a strange size for a strange place in my house - a little corner niche just outside the kitchen in the dining room, next to the piano. My friends, let me show you what new – classic, really! – cookbooks I now own:
Mastering the Art of French Cooking – Volumes 1&2 by Julia Child
Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom by Julia Child
How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson
Better Homes and Gardens New CookBook – 15th Edition
The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook – 3rd Edition
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham
Two more cookbooks are outstanding and I hope they arrive on Monday:
Crème de Colorado – 25 Years of Culinary Artistry by the Junior League of Denver
Great British Cooking: A Well-Kept Secret by Jane Garmey and Calvin Trillen
So, I am reorganizing my kitchen so as to redecorate myself and the way I feed my family. I think it is entirely possible to eat well (read: eat good tasting food, lush food) and still maintain one’s health. Auspicious! So what is my grand, brand new appliance? That Kitchen Aid stand mixer I mentioned before – I’ve already decided my first tried recipe is going to be Julia Child’s French bread. Simple, lovely, and delicious! I’ve always been rotten at making yeast breads. With a stand mixer with a dough hook, let’s see if I can change that shall we?
So my goal for Monday is to actually walk into the gym. That’s correct-a-mundo - I just want to walk inside. It’s been nearly two years since I’ve worked out regularly, and while I’m pretty savvy when it comes to the gym, I just have not been able to make myself get started. I have everything I need: my bag, my shower supplies, a bath towel, hand towels to mop up the sweat, my exercise journal, my iPod, my iPad with iBooks, my water bottles, and my workout clothes.
I was very responsible about choosing a gym – I chose this 24 Hour Fitness because it’s blocks away from my kids’ school and I figure I can get to the gym around noon, have time for cardio, weightlifting, stretching and cooling down, a shower, and a quick change of clothes before I have to pick up the kiddos at 2:30. When I’m doing well at working out, I can easily knock out an hour of cardio. I like to take my time at the gym – I always allow myself two hours. I must admit that I’m mourning the loss of my prior gym, which was the gym through the City and County of Denver, in the Wellington Webb building. After leaving my job in July, I obviously cannot use those facilities any longer. Such a shame! It was a spectacular little wellness center. Anyhow, my goal for tomorrow: walk into the gym.
Also, my 24 Hour Fitness is right next to a Super Target, and you already know how I love me some shopping *nodnod* Just being in the general vicinity of a Target is enough of an excuse to stop in.
Second goal for tomorrow: For breakfast, yogurt and fruit. You’ll hear about my whack eating habits as we go along. But, yes. I have to make it an actual goal to eat yogurt and fruit for breakfast.
Ta!
FATG
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