Poco-Cocoa

1. Finding three amazing vintage dresses at Cream Vintage today

2. Sticky Toffee Pudding

3. Scooting around at night, and the breeze being so cool I was almost chilly

4. Knowing that fall is just around the corner (for the rest of the world, anyway)

5. New cookbooks

6. Saturdays

I tend to have very vivid dreams, and lots of them. Many times, they’re nightmares, but sometimes I can actually change them as I’m dreaming. I might be running away from someone and realize, “Hey, I can fly!” And so I’ll fly away. I actually dream that I’m flying quite a bit, so sometimes in the mornings I still think I might be able to.

I dream in color, and I can taste and smell in my dreams, too. I remember dreaming once that I was laying on the ground crying, and I remember the grit of the dirt in my teeth.

I wish that I could draw well, so that I could capture all these dreams. I remember most of them…dreams that I had years ago, and dreams I had last night.

I often dream of the weirdest houses, and I wake up thinking, “I need to draw that floorplan!” I still haven’t done it.

But last night, I dreamed up something food-related. I dreamed I was at a little cafe, with a garden patio. They served a “water flight,” with three tastings of drinks that were mostly water. The first was in a carafe like this:

And it was ice-cold, but there was no ice in it. I could see the sweat on the glass. The carafe was pretty large, and there were half-lemons floating in it. There were two women working at this cafe, Spaniards, maybe. One of them poured the lemon-water in a glass for me, and it was just a bit cloudy. I tasted it, and told them (in Spanish…sometimes I dream in Spanish) that I could taste the crispness of the lemon, and what I thought was olive oil. And they laughed, and said, “You’re right! It’s a very light emulsion of the best quality olive oil, lemons, and water.” I remember the light film it left on my tongue, and that I was really looking forward to the rest of the water flight.

Is that weird or what? Have any of you ever heard of a drink like this? Would it even work? I doubt it, but it was so lovely in my dream.

Happy dreaming, everyone.

And sometimes things don’t go so well. Last night I stubbed my toe, the little one, and it hurt, but eh, whatever. Today I woke up and it still hurt. And I tried to take a step, and it hurt worse. Upon closer inspection, it’s swollen and black and blue. I think I broke my tiny toe! Poor thing, it’s so small and helpless, and now it’s maimed. I’m going to have Justin tape it up I guess, because there’s not much you can do for a toe, you know.

Today I stayed home from work, all fevery and achy and sore-throaty. I hate sick. It’s like you can feel the little ickies in your blood, zooming around, wreaking havoc, making you tired and generally grumpy. I’m hoping that the massive amounts of TLC I’m getting from Justin will help me feel better by tomorrow morning, so I can make it to work. We’ll see.

Here’s something to keep you busy when you’re bored: Mygazines. Online scans of magazines, everything from Better Homes & Gardens to National Geographic. I read Real Simple last night, and am looking forward to browsing more tonight. I’m a magazine junkie, but I hate buying them, because I feel like I’m spending to spend (I always want to buy whatever I see in the magazine). So now at least I’m cutting out the middle man. 🙂

Thanks for your anniversary wishes…I will pass them on to Justin, too. Happy Monday!

Yesterday was our 9th anniversary. I keep thinking of that song by Shania Twain…

They said, I’ll bet
They’ll never make it
But just look at us holding on
Still together, still going strong…

And they did say that. Justin and I met in high school, and we’ve been together ever since. (Take that, nay-sayers!) We’ve been together for 13 years, almost half of our lives!

He sent me flowers.

He knows that I adore the fall, and I’ve been pining for maple leaves and pumpkins and such.

He says that he’s “fallen” for me again…

To celebrate, we ate dinner at Zoot last night, the Farmer’s Menu with wine pairings.

Our menu:

Roasted spaghetti squash with cacio cheese, pecans and sage

Heirloom tomatoes with frisee, fennel marmalade and almond butter

Basil spaetzle with fresh tomato, saffron cream and roasted eggplant

Seared zucchini “scallops” with black beans, quinoa and pickled radicchio

Flourless chocolate cake and vanilla panna cotta

Holy moly, it was all so delicious. Unbelievably delicious and perfect. And each glass of wine was excellent, and perfectly paired with each dish.

And then I look across the table, and there he is, beautiful and sweet and perfect.

(Sigh.)