Registry Wars

When Minh and I were about to be married, we registered for a number of household items at Crate & Barrel. Although Minh balked at the idea of actually registering, he found immense pleasure spending the months leading up to the wedding constantly checking the registry online to see which items had been purchased.

In one of his many registry checks he found a new item added to our list. An espresso maker. Neither of us had added that to the registry, so we were perplexed. Even more confusing was the fact that it had been purchased. The quantity listed in the "wants" column was 0 and the quantity in the "has" column was 1. That just about summed it up--we didn't want it, but we had it.

It arrived soon thereafter and we discovered who the culprits were. Apparently, they went to Crate & Barrel with intentions of buying us something off our registry, but then decided they did not like any of the items we had selected, so they picked out the espresso maker instead.

We seriously did not want this thing. So, after the wedding we hauled this rather large and heavy appliance back to Crate & Barrel and exchanged it for items remaining on our registry. What pain in the ass, honestly. Luckily, we know the folks who did this to us well enough to not only admit that we returned the item, but to give them a hard time about putting us through that. And now they are about to be married.

Game on.

Minh happened to be at a meeting last month right near a Crate & Barrel, where these lovely friends are now registered. So he popped over to get them their gift. What did he buy them? An espresso maker? Nah, they might actually want one of those. Minh searched that store for the largest, most useless appliance he could find, and then made sure they had not registered for it. He even specifically asked the salesperson to make sure this item was added to their online registry so that the happy couple could log on and see this....

Oh, yes. They are now the proud owners of a counter-top pizza oven. At least, that is, until they haul it back to the store and exchange it for something they actually want.

Celebrity Spotting

Last night Kristen and I had the pleasure of attending a pre-reading reception with Augusten Burroughs (thanks to my neighbor who pulled strings to get us in!) It was a strange little event with Augusten standing in the middle of the room while small groups of people took turns accosting him. At one point, 15 people actually lined up to have books signed. Other folks made him pose for pictures. I felt bad for him.

Although Kristen practically makes Augusten Stalking into a part-time job, she was nervous being in the room with him and made it clear to me that she was content not to approach him at all. But I knew that if we did that I'd regret passing up the opportunity. So we went over and made some lame comments about liking his work, and his shoes.

Augusten, however, was not the only celebrity in the room. The other one was....me. At one point, a woman I don't know walked right up to me and said, "You're on the cover of Business to Business." Taken aback, I simply said, "No." And she looked perplexed. "Well," she said, "She looks just like you."

I, of course, went home and Googled Business to Business so I could see myself. And I don't think it looks anything like me. Minh said maybe a little, around the eyes. What do you all think?

Slurp Slurp

That was the sound Tai made drinking up his Cream of Everything Soup, with a straw. He loved it. That kid just consumed more vegetables in a single meal than he has in the last month (but don't tell him that!)

Despite being a slightly off-putting shade of taupe, the soup was really very tasty. I am looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow....

Several Interesting Tid-Bits...

...None of Which Warrant Their Own Post:


1. Saturday morning we took Tai to the JC Penney Portrait Studio for his first-ever professional photo shoot. Now I know why people do this when their kids are 3 months old -- they can't run away. Tai was not scared or freaked out at all, but wholly uninterested in sitting still on this little red dot in the middle of the backdrop, where the lighting was best. Five minutes into the session, the photographer actually called out to her colleague in a somewhat exasperated voice, "we've got a runner!" which made me (a) think of the "we've got a bleeder" line from There's Something About Mary and (b) wonder why she seemed at all surprised. Are there 17-month-olds out there who sit in one spot for more than 5 seconds?

2. When Minh requests coffee and donuts for Father's Day breakfast everyone wins. Tai and I especially like the chocolate frosted donuts.

3. After consuming his Father's Day breakfast of caffeine and sugar, Minh took quite a while to contemplate whether he'd rather spend the morning shopping at Costco or doing yard work. He really knows how to live it up. In the end he chose yard work and specifically requested that I help him with a labor-intensive task during Tai's nap. In this case, not everyone wins.

4. Later that afternoon we attended a 40th birthday party for a friend, held atop a hill in a beautiful grassy conservation area. The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, there were balls to kick around and other kids to play with....and Tai could only focus on touching all the food that was laid out for the guests and picking up the giant knife that was set out with the dessert.

5. At that same party, Tai somehow lost his balance and ended up falling onto his butt --directly on another child's slice of rhubarb pie. (This is why we always have a change of clothes with us!)

6. In other news, the farm share is going pretty well. We've had two pickups so far and last week I picked strawberries for the first time in my life. The fruit and veggies are tasty and we've been forced to cook alot more than we had been. Our bodies are a tad freaked out about all the veggies though. The farm keep sending us emails with recipes for the veggies, but no information for how to deal with Kohlrabi gas.

7. On a related note, simmering in my crock pot right now are the following: chicken stock, garlic, onions, celery, broccoli, turnips, spinach, shredded carrots, and 3 very small beets. It started out as Cream of Broccoli soup and turned into Cream of Everything in the Fridge. I'm scared. Minh will get home before me today and he has been instructed to (a) add the milk (hence the "cream of") (b) taste it, and (c) call and let me know if I need to bring home a pizza. I'll report back on how it turns out, if I live to tell the tale.

Greens, Anyone?

We are officially hippy-dippy.

We just picked up our very first share of farm veggies. I parked my Subaru among the other Subarus and the Priuses adorned with rainbow bumper stickers and walked my Dansko-clog-wearing self right on in. Now all I need is a baby in a sling and a kayak on my roof and I'll be completely incognito.

Since it was the first day, we went as a family of three so that we could all get the lay of the land. And it was a good thing too--I'm not sure how just one of us could watch Tai and gather veggies at the same time. It was very crowded and Tai was toddling all over the place, inside and out, visiting the chickens and pausing only to ask for more free samples of hummus.

The eventual plan was to be that I pick Tai up from daycare on Wednesdays and then he and I go to the farm together. Now I'm not so sure that will work, but I'm willing to try. There's always the ergo.

As for the veggies themselves, we came away with lettuce, baby salad greens, braising greens, bok choy, radishes, and turnips. I sure hope Tai learns to like salad!