August 29, 2007

On the Menu

First, I'd like to note that school has started, which to me means gone are the high schoolers gumming up the Berkeley sidewalks with their sticky attitudes (so long as I avoid going outside during their lunch hour). Let us all bow our heads and give thanks for that. Unfortunately, although the teenagers are gone, the new and returned college students fill in for them three-fold on the streets of this university town, and that means the start of another season of lunchtimes spent at the burrito shop in long lines behind freshly minted "adults" in various stages of dedication to their "emancipation": the noncommittal (Kool-Aid dye jobs and homemade T-shirts), the semi-committal (crushed-velvet tophats paired with lingerie peeking out of full-length crushed-velvet dusters (those can't come cheap)), and the committed (an entire head of hair trained into a single dreadlock, flat and wide like a beaver tail, reaching clear to the wearer's waist). Ah, youth. You remind us how far we've come.

***

To my knowledge, no one has looked me up and down, assessed my composition, and said, "What you need is a good spoiling." A spanking, sure, but never a spoiling. And yet, I'm getting rottener by the day.

Last night Simon prepared a "nice meal" with specialty ingredients he'd picked up at the local grocerygasm. We have a houseguest all week, and if there's one thing Simon does best--no, make that two things he does best--one of them is showing visitors a good time. While Teddy and I tackled the jobs usually assigned to children (plucking oregano leaves, setting the table, cutting the cheese, staying out of the way), Simon prepared a meal of London broil steak in a marinade of soy sauce, sake, and peppercorns; roasted squash, zucchini, and red peppers; sauteed mushrooms; husk-grilled corn on the cob; and, what stragely turned out to be the pièce de résistance, a salad of baby arugula, fresh figs, Manchego cheese, avacado, and a balsamic vinaigrette using fresh Meyer lemon juice (from you know where). After eating, while Teddy and I stacked the dishes in the washer and patted our full bellies, Simon warmed up the hot tub and poured the champagne.


Coming off a weekend spent following my orders, Simon should be praised unceaslessly and given a pony for his astounding patience and generosity. We took apart, then painted, then put back together (in several different configurations) The Library, and this is what it sounded like: "Move the bookshelf half an inch this way...now back a quarter of an inch the other way...a little more to the left...push in some shims...no, not like that...actually, you know, now that I see it from over here I think we should put the whole thing against the other wall, don't you?" I'm lucky I didn't come out of it with a paperback lodged in my skull.

Anyway, here's a partial view of the one room that, although I was allowed complete creative control, I couldn't have done without his help:


More on Flickr here and here. Posted by Leah at August 29, 2007 08:09 PM
Comments

I see the book 'Oh The Places You'll Go' on your bookshelf . . . yet, I can't see a damn thing when I drive at night, go figure!
Anyway, I'm not sure how I got to your blog, but I'm glad I did, I love it!! Have a great day!

Posted by: Ryan the Girl at August 29, 2007 10:37 PM

I have to say it again, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this room! You have inspired me to dust off our playroom/library/craftsroom this weekend!

Posted by: Super Sarah at August 30, 2007 02:08 AM

Hee hee. Cut the cheese. Hee hee.

I'm 12!

Posted by: Doola! at August 30, 2007 06:16 AM

Your food for houseguests makes my visitor fare pale in comparison. I'm usually like, "Hey I have a Lean Cuisine in the freezer with your name on it!"

Posted by: hello insomnia at August 30, 2007 06:19 AM

I have a request: Will Simon cook for me on Sunday? You know, while I lick your hardwood floors and laze around in your hot tub...

Posted by: Heather B. at August 30, 2007 06:37 AM

I love, love, love and also love that room. It makes me want to pluck a book (any book; I'm sure they're all good) off the shelf and curl up in the chair and wait for Simon to cook me a salad I would pay upwards of twenty dollars for here in the city.

So, uh, can I borrow your life for a little while?

Posted by: Clink at August 30, 2007 06:41 AM

Wow, I'm in love with your library. It makes me want to go home and caress all my books. And also have a library.

Posted by: Janssen at August 30, 2007 07:13 AM

Complaining about the kids? When did you turn 70?

Posted by: will at August 30, 2007 09:57 AM

Grover! So much better than Elmo. (oh, yeah, nice books, too. Ho hum ;) )
I actually came over here to be all Beavis and Butthead about "cut the cheese," but someone beat me to it. Seems the kids are lining up and messing around in your blog comments, too.

Posted by: Elgoodo at August 30, 2007 11:57 AM

I've had that Grover since I was born. Aw.

Posted by: Leah at August 30, 2007 12:49 PM

Wow, I would love a library. I have always had the picture of the perfect library in my head and it would be a room lined in built in bookshelves, with one of those brass rails around it with the ladder that slides long it and turns corners. Well, I know what I mean.
Anyway - great room, I just love your house!

Posted by: theotherbear at August 30, 2007 04:02 PM

That's the only thing that's missing: a ladder on a track. And a waterfall (composed of some magic substance that wouldn't damage the books).

Posted by: Leah at August 30, 2007 04:05 PM

I'd love to just stand there and inspect your shelves for a couple hours one day. I see two copies of a few things... Every time I hear of people merging their collections I always think of Ex Libris. Did you organize according to genre? Or alphabetically?
Ooh, and I'd add those emerald green library lamps with the gold clicky chain.

Posted by: Shirley at August 30, 2007 07:41 PM

Shirley: It's just barely out of the frame, but I have "Ex Libris" right above those copies of "Oh the Places..." I love that book and should read it again STAT.

All the fiction (the shelves with Grover on top) is alphabetical; everything else is by genre, with the genres organized so they flow one to another in a way that makes sense. I used to work in a bookstore.

Posted by: Leah at August 30, 2007 07:57 PM

I LOVE figs and manchego cheese together. (Search for "figs" in my photostream on Flickr, and you'll see a photo of a fig and manchego concoction.)

The library looks great!

Posted by: Lori at August 31, 2007 07:49 AM

Pony=free fertilizer=an even more bountiful garden. Just, uh, watch where you step.

Posted by: Texas T-bone at August 31, 2007 01:30 PM

We just made the salad tonight--so good. Thanks for sharing that. I've been craving it since I saw the photo in this post.

Posted by: m at September 9, 2007 01:44 AM