I'm on a work trip in Texas right now, but I have a free afternoon with no access to a car, so I'm taking advantage of the time to hang out in my hotel room. And since I have been so derelict in blogging recently, I thought I'd post.
Things that have happened in the past month:
My mom came to visit and we hosted a 30th birthday/housewarming party
I went to Ohio for work
I became aware of a dog park controversy that is sweeping the neighborhood
Sal had dental surgery again and had two of his cute little fangs pulled out
Jason was jumped by a group of neighborhood teenagers
Because of that last one, my crime fears and wariness of the neighborhood have become even more intensified- and they were already quite high. I don't know what to do to get over this, or be constructive about it. Bad stuff is happening all the time, all over the city, and it's basically all I can think about. Everyone told me it would get better once the weather cooled down. Well, it hasn't. It feels like right when we bought a house, DC descended into lawlessness. Twice a week, neighbors post to our police district listserv to ask about sounds of gunshots they called in. (This is just in our police district, so, by definition, near the house.) Half the time they are in the middle of the day. I was already afraid to go out at night, and now I'm afraid during the day as well. Even in neighborhoods that I considered fully "transitioned," people have to duck from bullets while eating at an outdoor cafe.
Thankfully there was hurricane weather when my mom came to visit, which kept the crazies inside- well, off my street anyway. DC had the same amount of shootings as usual.
My life is basically a gentrification satire right now. The dog park thing is annoying because it has set the new, younger residents, against the older, more established residents. Everyone is trying to be civil, but there is a lot of animosity about it- at meetings, on the listservs, and on the NextDoor app. It's sad to me how active people can be in opposing things, rather than being active in making things happen. I don't have a dog, and so I don't care all that much about the dog park itself, but I am pro-community investment and development, pretty much always. Bikeshares, dog parks, restaurants, heck, in-fill metro stops- bring it on, I say. So, I think the anti-dog park arguments are dumb. And I hate how an opportunity to spend city money on an investment in the neighborhood has degenerated into a self-righteous fight about which side can be more "inclusive and accommodating" to the vocal minority that opposes all change on the grounds that it is change.
I'll try to end on a positive note. The party went really well. It was great to be able to host my mom and Monica overnight and still have plenty of space. And to have space on the first floor for something like 30 people at a time, since it is an open floor plan. We're having at least six houseguests for Thanksgiving. That is one positive aspect of having bought a house.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Monday, September 7, 2015
Very long weekend
On Friday, I "flexed," so today is my fourth day off of work in a row. I've basically been waiting for this stretch of time since I changed my schedule about four months ago. Seeing as we are on a travel moratorium, my plans included things like painting my nails, going for a run, checking out the neighborhood library, and happy hour-ing on a patio. I did not actually go on the planned run, but it's the thought that counts.
Since it was our anniversary and we are on a stay-cation, we did some restaurant exploring in our new part of town, and went to Republic (Takoma Park), Crane and Turtle and Chez Billy (Petworth), and Denizens Brewing and Moorenko's Ice Cream (Silver Spring). Although Republic is great and walking distance, Crane and Turtle comes closest to filling the hole in my heart left by Rose's Luxury. It's tiny, adorable, and has really good and interesting food. Chez Billy was good, but not good enough to make me want to go back. Denizen's is fun because they have a beer garden, but in terms of local breweries, I'd much rather get a growler from 3 Stars or Hellbender, which are also much closer to us. I'm so happy that DC now has so many good local breweries!
As an aside, I love the bus stop in front of our house that gets us to Petworth in 10 minutes or the Takoma metro in 5 minutes. It has such a direct route and never sits in traffic. It also makes it so I can go out at night without having to walk from the metro, which I am now afraid to do. Provided I don't get attacked on the bus itself, this might be my favorite bus in DC.
Last night, we decided we'd make a fancy Italian meal to celebrate at home, with a bottle of wine we brought back from Italy. But we were hot and tired from walking to Silver Spring, so we made a fancier version of our normal dinner. Pesto, goat cheese, and sun-dried tomato pizza, with arugula, prosciutto, and mozzarella salad. We have pizza, salad, and wine for dinner probably once a week, but I don't get tired of it.
And homemade chocolate mousse, not pictured, which we brought over to our neighbors' house later in the evening, for a four person dessert and cocktail party. We like this couple a lot, and they have two little kids, so they describe themselves as captive in their homes after bedtime. This works out for us since we are home a lot also. We've spent a couple nights hanging out in their house after their kids are asleep, and we've had a really good time. They make really good and plentiful drinks.
This weekend was decidedly not crime free in DC, although I now expect that from summer long weekends. Even in my beloved upper NW! It's sad that I am eager for bad weather because I hope it will temper the crime wave. There was a homicide in our neighborhood on Saturday night. However, this only caused me to lose one day to spiraling anxiety, instead of weeks. Progress!
In other news, our alarm company swore that nothing under 30 pounds would set off the motion detectors. Guess what 9 pound ball of fur has set it off THREE times? We hid it in a drawer for a week (the sensor, not the cat), and now have it set at a less sensitive setting, so we'll see if that helps.
Next on the agenda today is making homemade salsa, with some jalapeños a neighbor gave me from her CSA, as well as some make-ahead pasta dishes. This upcoming week should be relatively busy since I have a mentor training session on Tuesday night (trying out this program, NOT my previous terrible one), and we are going to a concert on Wednesday night.
Since it was our anniversary and we are on a stay-cation, we did some restaurant exploring in our new part of town, and went to Republic (Takoma Park), Crane and Turtle and Chez Billy (Petworth), and Denizens Brewing and Moorenko's Ice Cream (Silver Spring). Although Republic is great and walking distance, Crane and Turtle comes closest to filling the hole in my heart left by Rose's Luxury. It's tiny, adorable, and has really good and interesting food. Chez Billy was good, but not good enough to make me want to go back. Denizen's is fun because they have a beer garden, but in terms of local breweries, I'd much rather get a growler from 3 Stars or Hellbender, which are also much closer to us. I'm so happy that DC now has so many good local breweries!
As an aside, I love the bus stop in front of our house that gets us to Petworth in 10 minutes or the Takoma metro in 5 minutes. It has such a direct route and never sits in traffic. It also makes it so I can go out at night without having to walk from the metro, which I am now afraid to do. Provided I don't get attacked on the bus itself, this might be my favorite bus in DC.
Last night, we decided we'd make a fancy Italian meal to celebrate at home, with a bottle of wine we brought back from Italy. But we were hot and tired from walking to Silver Spring, so we made a fancier version of our normal dinner. Pesto, goat cheese, and sun-dried tomato pizza, with arugula, prosciutto, and mozzarella salad. We have pizza, salad, and wine for dinner probably once a week, but I don't get tired of it.
 |
| Anniversary dinner, same as the other dinners...but better. |
And homemade chocolate mousse, not pictured, which we brought over to our neighbors' house later in the evening, for a four person dessert and cocktail party. We like this couple a lot, and they have two little kids, so they describe themselves as captive in their homes after bedtime. This works out for us since we are home a lot also. We've spent a couple nights hanging out in their house after their kids are asleep, and we've had a really good time. They make really good and plentiful drinks.
This weekend was decidedly not crime free in DC, although I now expect that from summer long weekends. Even in my beloved upper NW! It's sad that I am eager for bad weather because I hope it will temper the crime wave. There was a homicide in our neighborhood on Saturday night. However, this only caused me to lose one day to spiraling anxiety, instead of weeks. Progress!
In other news, our alarm company swore that nothing under 30 pounds would set off the motion detectors. Guess what 9 pound ball of fur has set it off THREE times? We hid it in a drawer for a week (the sensor, not the cat), and now have it set at a less sensitive setting, so we'll see if that helps.
Next on the agenda today is making homemade salsa, with some jalapeños a neighbor gave me from her CSA, as well as some make-ahead pasta dishes. This upcoming week should be relatively busy since I have a mentor training session on Tuesday night (trying out this program, NOT my previous terrible one), and we are going to a concert on Wednesday night.
Friday, September 4, 2015
A House Story, Part 4
What was the continuation of the house story I promised a couple of months ago? I think what happens between putting in an offer and the closing, when you officially take ownership of the house. For us, this was a 30 day period. It involved providing a lot of documents we had already provided many times, and paying for lots of services that are required to close on the house and get the loan, on top of closing costs, which are many thousands of dollars (I still don't really understand what closing costs are). It's kind of a weird limbo time, where you are officially under contract for a house, except any number of things could go wrong. Do you tell people you bought a house? Do you give notice on your lease? Hire movers? One good thing is you usually have a month grace period on your mortgage payment, so giving 60 days notice on our apartment wasn't a big problem. We made the offer end of May, closed end of June, and made our first payment on August 1.
Inspection
The main thing after your offer is accepted is the inspection (about $600). We had a general inspection contingency, meaning we were buying the house "as-is" but could withdraw our offer based on the inspection. In less competitive markets, the norm would be to have a regular inspection contingency, and make the seller pay for any needed repairs, but the norm here is to actually waive the inspection completely in your offer. Our inspector was generally happy with the condition of the house, but found a small patch of water damage in the basement. It seemed to be concentrated in one small area, so we weren't too worried about water issues in the basement (KNOCK ON WOOD). This inspection was also after weeks of severe thunderstorms in DC, so we felt pretty confident that if the basement hadn't flooded under those conditions, it was pretty solid. We also had a termite inspector, but waived the radon inspection, mostly to save money. After we moved in, we had a contractor look at the basement, and he determined that the way the deck was built was funneling rainwater to that particular wall. So we had someone add flashing to the bottom of the deck, and repair the drywall in that section of the basement. The deck itself definitely needs some touch-ups and modifications to better stop rainwater from coming into the house, but I think the main issue is fixed.
There was a long list of other fairly minor things that the inspector found that we planned to do right away- like getting rid of the rust on the outside window sills and re-sealing them, but we just haven't. We tried to get as much done as possible before moving in, and during the first few weeks, because I knew we would lose momentum soon, and we did. It's just really unpleasant to spend all of your weekends doing tedious things like rust removal, and if it's not pressing, it's just not happening.
Appraisal
The other big thing during this time is the appraisal (about $500). You can't get a loan for the sales price of a house if it doesn't appraise for that price. So, if it appraises for less than you bought it for, you need to cough up the difference in cash, or the sale will fall through. Again, many people in DC simply write this contingency out of the offer and pay the difference in cash- which is often necessary when there are bidding wars and the comp sales haven't caught up. But we didn't have any extra cash, so we needed the house to appraise, which it did- I think for about 7k more than the sales price. I think this whole practice is really fishy and subjective and just a way for another third party to make money in the process, especially because the assessor knows the sales price, and often properties are assessed at exactly that price. What a coincidence!
Other Annoying Stuff
We also had to pick a home insurance provider, which was relatively painless. Much of my time at work was spent downloading bank documents, printing, signing and scanning documents, and emailing back and forth with the lender. Jason and I filled out our mortgage application in the lobby of my office building so that we could scan and email it back the same day. There was a lot of urgency, although I'm not really sure what was happening on the back end, any why it took 30 days. I felt lucky during this whole process, including the search, that we both have relatively flexible jobs. I cannot imagine two surgery residents trying to purchase a house. So much had to be done during the day, in person, and with a tight turnaround.
The day of the closing is when the buyers, sellers, their agents and lenders, and the title company, all sit together in a room and sign reams of papers. I can't remember what most of them were, but they sounded legitimate enough at the time. It was the first time we met our lender. Our closing was really pleasant- we knew the sellers already (my co-worker, by chance), their realtor told funny stories about her pet baby goat, and there were bakery treats and sparkling water. A good deal of effort had been put into making it seem like a casual meeting where no one had hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake.
One thing I am still surprised about is how much money we were approved for. We are both public sector employees, and Jason is buried in student loan debt, so I thought we were going to be limited in our choices by the amount we qualified for, even if we felt we could afford more. Isn't that what you hear in the news? Not so- we limited ourselves by the amount we felt we could afford monthly. (To be clear, the amount we qualified for is less than what most houses sell for in DC.) This house was at the very top of our budget- our monthly housing expenses (with utilities) have roughly doubled- and it was a good 75-100k less than the maximum we could have borrowed. This seems sort of insane to me. In addition, I never thought about utilities! The last time I paid utilities was.....never- so this was just not something I really thought about. It turns out they are really expensive! I think our first home improvement project will be to add some insulation.
Anyway, the sellers gave us a key after the closing, but stayed on as tenants in the house for a couple more weeks. During that time, they hosted a party for us to meet the neighbors, which was really, really nice of them, and which I appreciate more and more as I sit on my porch and talk to the people who walk by.
The last official thing is the walk-through to make sure the house is in the same condition after the closing as it was during the inspection. One scary thing during our walk through was that the house was FULL of HUGE flies! The seller assured us that it was because they had left the doors open for several hours during the move, and the house didn't have a bug problem. I mostly believed them, because this was our fourth time in the house and we had never seen any bugs, but I still was panicking about it. But, we bought a bunch of fly paper and soon the house was mostly bug-free, thankfully.
A few weeks later, we moved in, the shootings happened, and I lost my mind, but we're past all that now. Right?
Inspection
The main thing after your offer is accepted is the inspection (about $600). We had a general inspection contingency, meaning we were buying the house "as-is" but could withdraw our offer based on the inspection. In less competitive markets, the norm would be to have a regular inspection contingency, and make the seller pay for any needed repairs, but the norm here is to actually waive the inspection completely in your offer. Our inspector was generally happy with the condition of the house, but found a small patch of water damage in the basement. It seemed to be concentrated in one small area, so we weren't too worried about water issues in the basement (KNOCK ON WOOD). This inspection was also after weeks of severe thunderstorms in DC, so we felt pretty confident that if the basement hadn't flooded under those conditions, it was pretty solid. We also had a termite inspector, but waived the radon inspection, mostly to save money. After we moved in, we had a contractor look at the basement, and he determined that the way the deck was built was funneling rainwater to that particular wall. So we had someone add flashing to the bottom of the deck, and repair the drywall in that section of the basement. The deck itself definitely needs some touch-ups and modifications to better stop rainwater from coming into the house, but I think the main issue is fixed.
There was a long list of other fairly minor things that the inspector found that we planned to do right away- like getting rid of the rust on the outside window sills and re-sealing them, but we just haven't. We tried to get as much done as possible before moving in, and during the first few weeks, because I knew we would lose momentum soon, and we did. It's just really unpleasant to spend all of your weekends doing tedious things like rust removal, and if it's not pressing, it's just not happening.
Appraisal
The other big thing during this time is the appraisal (about $500). You can't get a loan for the sales price of a house if it doesn't appraise for that price. So, if it appraises for less than you bought it for, you need to cough up the difference in cash, or the sale will fall through. Again, many people in DC simply write this contingency out of the offer and pay the difference in cash- which is often necessary when there are bidding wars and the comp sales haven't caught up. But we didn't have any extra cash, so we needed the house to appraise, which it did- I think for about 7k more than the sales price. I think this whole practice is really fishy and subjective and just a way for another third party to make money in the process, especially because the assessor knows the sales price, and often properties are assessed at exactly that price. What a coincidence!
Other Annoying Stuff
We also had to pick a home insurance provider, which was relatively painless. Much of my time at work was spent downloading bank documents, printing, signing and scanning documents, and emailing back and forth with the lender. Jason and I filled out our mortgage application in the lobby of my office building so that we could scan and email it back the same day. There was a lot of urgency, although I'm not really sure what was happening on the back end, any why it took 30 days. I felt lucky during this whole process, including the search, that we both have relatively flexible jobs. I cannot imagine two surgery residents trying to purchase a house. So much had to be done during the day, in person, and with a tight turnaround.
The day of the closing is when the buyers, sellers, their agents and lenders, and the title company, all sit together in a room and sign reams of papers. I can't remember what most of them were, but they sounded legitimate enough at the time. It was the first time we met our lender. Our closing was really pleasant- we knew the sellers already (my co-worker, by chance), their realtor told funny stories about her pet baby goat, and there were bakery treats and sparkling water. A good deal of effort had been put into making it seem like a casual meeting where no one had hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake.
One thing I am still surprised about is how much money we were approved for. We are both public sector employees, and Jason is buried in student loan debt, so I thought we were going to be limited in our choices by the amount we qualified for, even if we felt we could afford more. Isn't that what you hear in the news? Not so- we limited ourselves by the amount we felt we could afford monthly. (To be clear, the amount we qualified for is less than what most houses sell for in DC.) This house was at the very top of our budget- our monthly housing expenses (with utilities) have roughly doubled- and it was a good 75-100k less than the maximum we could have borrowed. This seems sort of insane to me. In addition, I never thought about utilities! The last time I paid utilities was.....never- so this was just not something I really thought about. It turns out they are really expensive! I think our first home improvement project will be to add some insulation.
Anyway, the sellers gave us a key after the closing, but stayed on as tenants in the house for a couple more weeks. During that time, they hosted a party for us to meet the neighbors, which was really, really nice of them, and which I appreciate more and more as I sit on my porch and talk to the people who walk by.
The last official thing is the walk-through to make sure the house is in the same condition after the closing as it was during the inspection. One scary thing during our walk through was that the house was FULL of HUGE flies! The seller assured us that it was because they had left the doors open for several hours during the move, and the house didn't have a bug problem. I mostly believed them, because this was our fourth time in the house and we had never seen any bugs, but I still was panicking about it. But, we bought a bunch of fly paper and soon the house was mostly bug-free, thankfully.
A few weeks later, we moved in, the shootings happened, and I lost my mind, but we're past all that now. Right?
Saturday, August 29, 2015
A House Story, Part 3
Progress is being made! I purchased a comforter set online. And mostly decided which mattress to buy, although I am waiting for the next credit card statement, so I can spread out major purchases. (Last months' major purchases were the Ikea bed frame and the alarm system. October's major purchase will be Sal's dental bill. He may not have any teeth left after this round of cleaning and teeth pulling, so maybe then we can get around to buying a couch.) It is kind of pathetic that minor errands count as life progress for me, but it is what it is. It means I am thinking about things other than gun violence and urban decline!
Even though last night was a very bad night in DC (http://www.popville.com/2015/08/multiple-shootings-friday-night/), I am not panicking, and I sat out on my front porch for an hour this morning, amidst the sirens and police helicopters, and enjoyed reading the paper. Jason is still annoyed with my fear mongering since I made him look up the addresses of all of the shootings to assess how far we are from them, but I think I am doing better. It's clear to me that we would have had these issues in any neighborhood we bought a house in, and neighborhoods we were priced out are having even bigger crime issues. This was probably the safest neighborhood we could afford* to buy in. It is very sad that "safe" here is a relative term meaning less gun violence vs. more, but that is just the situation right now. The only area of DC where this really isn't happening is my beloved upper Northwest, west of the park. We could have bought that small condo with bad views, in an old and creaky building there...which I actually was in favor of...and, I don't know. Even after the fact, the home buying process still befuddles me.
Last weekend, armed with wedding gift cards, we went to Friendship Heights to make some home purchases and...came back with two hand towels and six forks. I can't buy things anymore without reading 1500 online reviews first. We made the mistake of stopping into a mattress store to get a lay of the land, and practically had to run out of the store because both the salesperson and the manager were demanding that we make a purchase. I had the same experience when I called ADT to get a quote. I had to hang up on them because they would not let me off the phone without making an installation appointment, and then they called me back every day for a week. It almost makes me want to tell them, "look, I am a millennial. I can't shop this way. You are driving me to the internet." So we went with Simplisafe for our alarm, and I think we will go with Tuft and Needle for our mattress. If you have experience with one of these online mattress companies, let me know! I know people who like Casper, but Tuft and Needle seems similar enough that I'm willing to try them out for $200 less.
Food:
Despite moving and my descent into crazy-town, we've still been really good about cooking and not going out to eat, although I feel the need to support the fledgling businesses in my neighborhood, so I'm buy more little things like coffee and muffins than I used to.
I highly recommend making this recipe. I didn't take a picture, because it just looks like an unremarkable bowl of pasta, but it was delicious! I'm super excited to eat the leftovers for lunch today.
This weekend is our anniversary. We initially had big plans to take an overnight trip to the Inn at Little Washington over Labor Day weekend, but that has been shelved for more robust financial times. We are going to try out this place tomorrow instead, which is just a 10 min bus ride away. (Note the commitment to public transit- we take the bus on our anniversary.)
*Afford, like safe, is also a relative term.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
A House Story, Part 2
I know, I know, I never followed up on all of the details after the closing, including moving in. Well, this has turned out to be a much harder transition than I anticipated, and I've been thrown for a loop. I've been a ball of anxiety of the past month or so, and it takes all of my emotional energy to go to work, come home and make dinner, and then surreptitiously stare out of my windows, on neighborhood watch while listening for gunshots. Hence no blogging. But I think I am making at least a partial recovery.
We like the new neighborhood a lot, but it has been affected by the crazy crime wave that has been plaguing DC this summer. Within a week of moving in, we heard two shootings from the house. I read on neighborhood listservs about houses being robbed, carjackings, and gunpoint muggings (more so than usual). I realized that being on a corner lot means you're exposed to two streets, plus an alley, and that the street the house faces is busier than I expected, and I can't sleep at night without a white noise machine. The neighborhood kids have a habit of walking around setting off firecrackers, which sound indistinguishable (to me) from gun fire. All the while, things like this are happening, which temper my hope that the city is making progress, and it wasn't a reckless idea to buy a house here.
I started checking crime updates and neighborhood blogs every ten minutes, went to a neighborhood crime watch meeting where I was told to get glass-break sensors on my second floor skylights because someone could easily break in through there, and bought a cellular alarm system for the house. I alternated between drowning out outside noise with fans and the TV, and silencing everything so I could listen to anything happening outside. I stopped going outside after dark.
All of this was combined with expected and usual new home stressors, such as not having enough furniture, not having an easy way to get basic home supplies without a car, and not having the money to get the things we need for the house because, well, we just spent all of our money on the house. Also, utility bills suck.
So, I basically lost my mind. Capitol Hill has been affected by this crime wave as well, especially the H St. corridor, which we were pretty close to. But moving to a new area where you don't feel at home can amplify fear of the unknown. And I don't feel at home because I don't know these streets, we have all this empty space, our pictures aren't hung, and things just aren't in their right places yet.
So here we are. I am far from relaxed, but I have made an effort to meet my neighbors and try to feel like a part of the community. We've been invited over to hang out in our neighbor's houses a couple of times, and I sit on my porch a few times a week while reading the paper so that I can talk to passerbys. I try to believe the people who have lived here longer than us (with their babies and their dogs) that all of this police activity is an unusual blip, and that things will be better once school starts. I am baking cookies to weasel my way into the graces of other neighbors, especially retired ones who sit outside all day and can take a special interest in keeping an eye on my house, should they be so inclined. I go to yoga in the park at the rec center, walk to the farmer's market, and walk home, and when I do that, I feel like the neighborhood is everything we wanted. And I think about how this crime wave is bigger than my neighborhood, bigger than DC, and that a lot of people are invested in making this right and keeping cities safe for people to live in. That things change, and sometimes they are bad, and sometimes they are good, and I don't have any control over it.
We like the new neighborhood a lot, but it has been affected by the crazy crime wave that has been plaguing DC this summer. Within a week of moving in, we heard two shootings from the house. I read on neighborhood listservs about houses being robbed, carjackings, and gunpoint muggings (more so than usual). I realized that being on a corner lot means you're exposed to two streets, plus an alley, and that the street the house faces is busier than I expected, and I can't sleep at night without a white noise machine. The neighborhood kids have a habit of walking around setting off firecrackers, which sound indistinguishable (to me) from gun fire. All the while, things like this are happening, which temper my hope that the city is making progress, and it wasn't a reckless idea to buy a house here.
I started checking crime updates and neighborhood blogs every ten minutes, went to a neighborhood crime watch meeting where I was told to get glass-break sensors on my second floor skylights because someone could easily break in through there, and bought a cellular alarm system for the house. I alternated between drowning out outside noise with fans and the TV, and silencing everything so I could listen to anything happening outside. I stopped going outside after dark.
All of this was combined with expected and usual new home stressors, such as not having enough furniture, not having an easy way to get basic home supplies without a car, and not having the money to get the things we need for the house because, well, we just spent all of our money on the house. Also, utility bills suck.
So, I basically lost my mind. Capitol Hill has been affected by this crime wave as well, especially the H St. corridor, which we were pretty close to. But moving to a new area where you don't feel at home can amplify fear of the unknown. And I don't feel at home because I don't know these streets, we have all this empty space, our pictures aren't hung, and things just aren't in their right places yet.
So here we are. I am far from relaxed, but I have made an effort to meet my neighbors and try to feel like a part of the community. We've been invited over to hang out in our neighbor's houses a couple of times, and I sit on my porch a few times a week while reading the paper so that I can talk to passerbys. I try to believe the people who have lived here longer than us (with their babies and their dogs) that all of this police activity is an unusual blip, and that things will be better once school starts. I am baking cookies to weasel my way into the graces of other neighbors, especially retired ones who sit outside all day and can take a special interest in keeping an eye on my house, should they be so inclined. I go to yoga in the park at the rec center, walk to the farmer's market, and walk home, and when I do that, I feel like the neighborhood is everything we wanted. And I think about how this crime wave is bigger than my neighborhood, bigger than DC, and that a lot of people are invested in making this right and keeping cities safe for people to live in. That things change, and sometimes they are bad, and sometimes they are good, and I don't have any control over it.
Saturday, July 4, 2015
A House Story, Part 1
On Thursday night, we had our final walk-through, to make sure the house was in the same condition as it was when we had the inspection. And then just like that, it officially became our responsibility. All through the hellish storms of the past few weeks, I have worried about the house, and then consoled myself with the fact that it was still technically the seller's responsibility. Not anymore! Every leak, every paint scuff, every roof repair- all ours. Stressful!
The story of finding the house:
The second weekend after we came back from Italy, we started the search again. I personally was in a get it done or move on mood- house-hunting is just not how I wanted to spend all my time indefinitely. I think we had seen close to 100 properties over the course of the search. Jason- who has been infinitely more optimistic and diligent than me throughout this whole process- compiled a list of six or seven places to visit on Saturday with our realtor. Something that made it easier: while we were gone, our target neighborhoods moved on without us. There just wasn't anything (livable) on the market in Brookland or Petworth, near the metro, in our price range anymore.
So we saw a lot of houses in the Brightwood/Takoma area. Brightwood is relatively affordable, but only a couple blocks that are adjacent to the Takoma neighborhood are walking distance to a metro. Takoma is a nice area with mostly historic old homes that we can't afford. Brightwood is...eh. I'd never even heard of the area before we started the house-hunt. The houses are generally livable, but not updated. It's not an area that developers and flippers have focused on. We didn't love the idea of getting a fixer-upper, though. We are not handy, and we don't have a lot of cash. We were already planning on a small down-payment, so getting a less expensive house didn't really leave us that much extra cash for repairs. The houses in the area definitely needed new kitchens and bathrooms at minimum, which is not cheap. This house-our new house- was a lot more expensive than others we saw in the area- at the top of our price range. This was unusual because we usually didn't even bother going to see houses at the top of our range; we wanted to leave ourselves room to offer over-asking and have an escalation clause. We'd done that with our previous offers and still hadn't been competitive. But, since it was only a few blocks away, we put it on the list.
Walking up to it, I was cranky- why was this house so much more than the others we'd seen, just around the block? It was much cuter from the outside, but I am not one to be taken by porch swings and potted plants. When we walked in, all three of us were taken aback. It was so much nicer than any of the houses we'd seen. I didn't even really pay that much attention as we walked through it because I assumed we'd have no chance of getting it- I just remember thinking that every room was really nice, and it felt a lot bigger and more tastefully done than any of the other houses we had seen. We did the walk to the metro to make sure it was doable, and although it's on the long side, about 15 minutes, it's a nice walk.
The offer situation had been going two ways- either the sellers took the first offer they received, in which case a property went off the market within hours of being listed, or the sellers accepted offers through a certain date and picked one. The latter situation was our experience with our previous offers. Since this house was so nice, had been on the market for a week, and was at the top of our price range, I assumed they had multiple offers and we had no chance of being competitive by adding one more to the pile. So we moved on to see other houses.
A couple of hours later, our realtor called, breathless, with the news that he had talked to their listing agent, and they had no offers, and could we please put one in that night so they didn't have to host an open house the next day? (It was Memorial Day weekend. And being on the market in DC for a week with no offers is like a year in most other places. So they were desperate, it seemed.) Jason had plans with friends that evening, and I was home, so our offer was composed via group text message. We lowballed them a little and they countered. My realtor called me to ask if we accepted their counter-offer and I said yes, and he said ok, great. Pause. Does that mean I just bought a house?
It was kind of a surreal night. Jason wasn't home, and it was a little anti-climactic. I couldn't believe I was under contract for a house that I had seen for 15 minutes a few hours earlier in the day. I could barely remember what it looked like. I called my mom and she asked me all these detailed questions, like how much closet space it had and whether it had a lot of electrical outlets. I had no idea. I've spent more time considering the purchase of a sweater.
Up Next: What happened in the 30 days in between going under contract and getting to settlement.
The story of finding the house:
The second weekend after we came back from Italy, we started the search again. I personally was in a get it done or move on mood- house-hunting is just not how I wanted to spend all my time indefinitely. I think we had seen close to 100 properties over the course of the search. Jason- who has been infinitely more optimistic and diligent than me throughout this whole process- compiled a list of six or seven places to visit on Saturday with our realtor. Something that made it easier: while we were gone, our target neighborhoods moved on without us. There just wasn't anything (livable) on the market in Brookland or Petworth, near the metro, in our price range anymore.
So we saw a lot of houses in the Brightwood/Takoma area. Brightwood is relatively affordable, but only a couple blocks that are adjacent to the Takoma neighborhood are walking distance to a metro. Takoma is a nice area with mostly historic old homes that we can't afford. Brightwood is...eh. I'd never even heard of the area before we started the house-hunt. The houses are generally livable, but not updated. It's not an area that developers and flippers have focused on. We didn't love the idea of getting a fixer-upper, though. We are not handy, and we don't have a lot of cash. We were already planning on a small down-payment, so getting a less expensive house didn't really leave us that much extra cash for repairs. The houses in the area definitely needed new kitchens and bathrooms at minimum, which is not cheap. This house-our new house- was a lot more expensive than others we saw in the area- at the top of our price range. This was unusual because we usually didn't even bother going to see houses at the top of our range; we wanted to leave ourselves room to offer over-asking and have an escalation clause. We'd done that with our previous offers and still hadn't been competitive. But, since it was only a few blocks away, we put it on the list.
Walking up to it, I was cranky- why was this house so much more than the others we'd seen, just around the block? It was much cuter from the outside, but I am not one to be taken by porch swings and potted plants. When we walked in, all three of us were taken aback. It was so much nicer than any of the houses we'd seen. I didn't even really pay that much attention as we walked through it because I assumed we'd have no chance of getting it- I just remember thinking that every room was really nice, and it felt a lot bigger and more tastefully done than any of the other houses we had seen. We did the walk to the metro to make sure it was doable, and although it's on the long side, about 15 minutes, it's a nice walk.
The offer situation had been going two ways- either the sellers took the first offer they received, in which case a property went off the market within hours of being listed, or the sellers accepted offers through a certain date and picked one. The latter situation was our experience with our previous offers. Since this house was so nice, had been on the market for a week, and was at the top of our price range, I assumed they had multiple offers and we had no chance of being competitive by adding one more to the pile. So we moved on to see other houses.
A couple of hours later, our realtor called, breathless, with the news that he had talked to their listing agent, and they had no offers, and could we please put one in that night so they didn't have to host an open house the next day? (It was Memorial Day weekend. And being on the market in DC for a week with no offers is like a year in most other places. So they were desperate, it seemed.) Jason had plans with friends that evening, and I was home, so our offer was composed via group text message. We lowballed them a little and they countered. My realtor called me to ask if we accepted their counter-offer and I said yes, and he said ok, great. Pause. Does that mean I just bought a house?
It was kind of a surreal night. Jason wasn't home, and it was a little anti-climactic. I couldn't believe I was under contract for a house that I had seen for 15 minutes a few hours earlier in the day. I could barely remember what it looked like. I called my mom and she asked me all these detailed questions, like how much closet space it had and whether it had a lot of electrical outlets. I had no idea. I've spent more time considering the purchase of a sweater.
Up Next: What happened in the 30 days in between going under contract and getting to settlement.
Rant
The weather has me in an extremely foul mood. According to Capital Weather Gang, this was the second wettest June on record! And July hasn't been any better- we had a hurricane-level surprise storm this past Tuesday night. I am from Florida- I can deal with constant rain during the summer. But this has been on another level. Driving rain, flooding, hail (?!), dangerous winds, constant lightening and thunder. It's just dangerous to be outside on a frequent basis. And the weather forecast has been totally off, even more so than usual. Several times now it has said something like 20% chance of rain, and then it rains for most of the day. Last night there was only a 20% chance of rain yet it rained on and off for the four hours we were outside for a free concert. At least there was no lightning. The rain has also had an uncanny ability to predict when it would annoy me the most to downpour. Several times at work, it's been sunny all day and then right at 5:30 pm, it starts to storm. And this morning, it poured for the hour that was supposed to be the Barracks Row 4th of July parade- since this is my last 4th in the neighborhood, I really wanted to go. (Secondary rant- nice job on absolutely no Twitter updates on rain delays, Barracks Row.) I can't take it anymore! I wish we could ship some of this weather to the West Coast, but in the absence of that, maybe I will ship myself there.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Recipe Round-Up (April-June?)
Since whenever the last time I did this...
New recipes we made and liked enough to make again, in no particular order:
Lemon Chicken Soup
Egg Lemon Soup
Herbed Summer Squash Pasta
Yogurt Marinated Chicken Kebabs with Aleppo Pepper
Italian Sausage Burgers with Garlicky Spinach (I might make this again this weekend- to approximate an bbq meal)
Roasted Red Pepper Panzanella (More for a dinner party side or appetizer, not for a meal)
Turkey and Zucchini Burgers
Thai Red Curry Pork
Pasta with Chorizo and Chickpeas (we make this all the time now)
Almond Apricot Chicken with Mint Pesto
Mushroom Ragout with Pasta (Jason did not like this, even though he made it)
Peppery Pasta with Arugula and Shrimp
Skillet Bruschetta with Beans and Greens
Spiced Lamb Patties with Nutty Garlic Sauce:
I'm sure there are more! But they are casualties of memory and spotty posting.
New recipes we made and liked enough to make again, in no particular order:
Lemon Chicken Soup
Egg Lemon Soup
Herbed Summer Squash Pasta
Yogurt Marinated Chicken Kebabs with Aleppo Pepper
Italian Sausage Burgers with Garlicky Spinach (I might make this again this weekend- to approximate an bbq meal)
Roasted Red Pepper Panzanella (More for a dinner party side or appetizer, not for a meal)
Turkey and Zucchini Burgers
Thai Red Curry Pork
Pasta with Chorizo and Chickpeas (we make this all the time now)
Almond Apricot Chicken with Mint Pesto
Mushroom Ragout with Pasta (Jason did not like this, even though he made it)
Peppery Pasta with Arugula and Shrimp
Skillet Bruschetta with Beans and Greens
Spiced Lamb Patties with Nutty Garlic Sauce:
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| Jason whipped this up on a weeknight-fancy! |
I'm sure there are more! But they are casualties of memory and spotty posting.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
A Nice Story
Before I forget.
Two weekends ago, my mom flew into DC and we drove up to New York for a family reunion. We took the scenic route through Pennsylvania, both to avoid tolls and because we like to eat in Pennsylvania. On the way up, we stopped at a place we'd been to before and loved, Alvaro's, an Italian bakery in Harrisburg. Later, as we drove past Allentown, my my told us how my great uncle on my dad's side had moved there from Long Island in 1940 to open a cheesesteak shop. She hadn't been in touch with any of the Allentown cousins in at least 25 years. This was mildly interesting information, since we like cheesesteaks.
On the way back from the reunion the next day, about 20 miles before Allentown, we decided we were hungry. (Alvaro's is closed on Sundays, sadly.) My mom vaguely recalled the name of the cheesesteak place, so we yelped it to see if it still existed, and pointed our GPS in that direction. It was a spur of the moment, casual decision, but once we were headed there, I was a sort of nervous. It seemed like it had the potential to be awkward.
It turned out to be cash-only, dashing my plan to use my credit card as a subtle way to reveal my unusual last name. We went in and ordered from someone who definitely did not look related to us, had delicious food, and read the articles posted on the wall to make sure this was the right place and was still owned by the same family. Once we were done, we noticed another staff person and asked him if he was one of the owners and he was- the original owner's oldest son. I think that makes him my dad's first cousin. So, my mom told him who we were and...it was really nice. He was happy we were there, he wished we had said something earlier, and told me I had been to the restaurant when I was three. He and my mom talked about family members for a while until he had to attend to other customers. We left feeling happy and satisfied with how the whole spur-of-the-moment situation played out.
Before we got back to the DC area, we decided to give Pennsylvania one last opportunity to serve us delicious food, and got ice cream at Handel's in York. It was excellent, but such large portions that we had to cancel one of our three orders. We explained that in DC, at these prices, you usually get one or two micro scoops, so we weren't expecting five generous scoops of ice cream-each. We like Pennsylvania.
Just because:
Two weekends ago, my mom flew into DC and we drove up to New York for a family reunion. We took the scenic route through Pennsylvania, both to avoid tolls and because we like to eat in Pennsylvania. On the way up, we stopped at a place we'd been to before and loved, Alvaro's, an Italian bakery in Harrisburg. Later, as we drove past Allentown, my my told us how my great uncle on my dad's side had moved there from Long Island in 1940 to open a cheesesteak shop. She hadn't been in touch with any of the Allentown cousins in at least 25 years. This was mildly interesting information, since we like cheesesteaks.
On the way back from the reunion the next day, about 20 miles before Allentown, we decided we were hungry. (Alvaro's is closed on Sundays, sadly.) My mom vaguely recalled the name of the cheesesteak place, so we yelped it to see if it still existed, and pointed our GPS in that direction. It was a spur of the moment, casual decision, but once we were headed there, I was a sort of nervous. It seemed like it had the potential to be awkward.
It turned out to be cash-only, dashing my plan to use my credit card as a subtle way to reveal my unusual last name. We went in and ordered from someone who definitely did not look related to us, had delicious food, and read the articles posted on the wall to make sure this was the right place and was still owned by the same family. Once we were done, we noticed another staff person and asked him if he was one of the owners and he was- the original owner's oldest son. I think that makes him my dad's first cousin. So, my mom told him who we were and...it was really nice. He was happy we were there, he wished we had said something earlier, and told me I had been to the restaurant when I was three. He and my mom talked about family members for a while until he had to attend to other customers. We left feeling happy and satisfied with how the whole spur-of-the-moment situation played out.
Before we got back to the DC area, we decided to give Pennsylvania one last opportunity to serve us delicious food, and got ice cream at Handel's in York. It was excellent, but such large portions that we had to cancel one of our three orders. We explained that in DC, at these prices, you usually get one or two micro scoops, so we weren't expecting five generous scoops of ice cream-each. We like Pennsylvania.
Just because:
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| Sal enjoys the towels fresh from the dryer |
Sunday, June 28, 2015
A List
Things I am looking forward to about moving:
Things I will miss:
- Space! Space for having friends over and for hosting overnight guests
- Getting to do whatever I want with painting, fences, doors, etc.- not that we plan on making any major changes to the house
- So. Many. Bathrooms.
- A pantry
- My own washer and dryer
- Sitting on the swing on the porch
- Being able to grill
- Learning about outdoorsy things like rain barrels, composting, mulch
- Having an herb garden, and possibly more once I get the hang of it
- Being near Rock Creek Park again
- Feeling invested in a neighborhood, trying to make friends with neighbors, expecting to be there for a while
- Becoming involved in local politics, although I hear that will change after my first ANC meeting
- Exploring new neighborhoods like Takoma Park, but also getting to know some of DC's less precious areas like Kennedy St and upper Georgia Ave
Things I will miss:
- Capitol Hill in general- the grand old rowhouses, the brick sidewalks, the dogs and babies everywhere
- But Eastern Market and Lincoln Park specifically
- Being so close to work and being able to walk home most days
- Being walking distance to the H St. corridor and Navy Yard
- Proximity to four metro lines, and not ever relying on the red line to get to work
- Being able to clean the entire apartment in less than half an hour
- Keeping possessions pared down and being motivated to de-clutter to be comfortable in a small space
- The building's rooftop view of the Capitol
- Rose's Luxury
- Not ever worrying about repairs or appliances beyond calling the management company to complain
- Not ever worrying about damage from weather events
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Homeowners
House:
It's official! We are homeowners! Well, I guess we are technically landlords now since the sellers are still living there for a little bit longer. But we did get a key! But we can't use it yet. The closing itself was...extremely stressful followed by fun and celebratory.
For the past month, the closing had been scheduled for Tuesday morning. Last Friday afternoon, our lender realized that a form we had signed had a wrong number on it, and it's a law that buyers need three full business days to change their minds after receiving any new information. So, the closing had to be moved to Wednesday (in Bethesda! ugh), which is...not a big deal, but sort of is, scheduling wise, when you need to get eight working adults to be somewhere for a few hours in the middle of the day. First it was Wednesday afternoon, then it was first thing in the morning, 8 am. We made it work, and I was even happy about it, because I could go to my work picnic on Tuesday. Then, Monday night, somehow, we were told we would have the closing Tuesday morning after all, at the original Capitol Hill office location. So, Tuesday morning, 15 minutes before the closing (the office was a 10 minute walk for us) our realtor calls us and tells us the location has changed to 14th St. and to please get in an Uber right away. We made it, only five minutes late, and everything was fine from that point on. We signed lots of things, had snacks, joked and laughed a lot (agreeing to exchange hundreds of thousands of dollars is so funny!) and took pictures. The settlement company gave us a bottle of champagne, our realtor gave us a bottle of champagne, and our realtor and lender took us out to lunch and ordered another bottle of champagne. It was all very festive and convivial. I haven't felt any buyer's remorse, but check back in a month when I get my first mortgage bill and realize utilities are not included.
More house posts coming: the actual process of finding and getting the house, as well as what I am looking forward to and not, about the move
Cooking:
As planned, I made the lemon chicken soup, and the herbed summer squash pasta. Both were delicious. The pasta was especially delicious because I used cream instead of milk for the sauce, and was pretty heavy handed with the salt shaker. It also served the wonderful purpose of using up all of the leftover herbs I had bought to make the zucchini burgers and chicken soup.
Last night we had a celebratory dinner at Rose's Luxury, since it's our favorite place in the neighborhood (well, in DC in general, but it's nice that it's in the neighborhood) and once we have to pay the mortgage, we won't have any money left for fancy dinners out.
Other:
Facebook is so annoying. Yay for gay marriage, but most (heterosexual!) people on my feed are using this as an opportunity to be even more smug than usual about their wonderful marriages. Surely, it is your our own pure-hearted love for your husband or wife that swayed the Supreme Court.
But maybe I am just a cranky person.
It's official! We are homeowners! Well, I guess we are technically landlords now since the sellers are still living there for a little bit longer. But we did get a key! But we can't use it yet. The closing itself was...extremely stressful followed by fun and celebratory.
For the past month, the closing had been scheduled for Tuesday morning. Last Friday afternoon, our lender realized that a form we had signed had a wrong number on it, and it's a law that buyers need three full business days to change their minds after receiving any new information. So, the closing had to be moved to Wednesday (in Bethesda! ugh), which is...not a big deal, but sort of is, scheduling wise, when you need to get eight working adults to be somewhere for a few hours in the middle of the day. First it was Wednesday afternoon, then it was first thing in the morning, 8 am. We made it work, and I was even happy about it, because I could go to my work picnic on Tuesday. Then, Monday night, somehow, we were told we would have the closing Tuesday morning after all, at the original Capitol Hill office location. So, Tuesday morning, 15 minutes before the closing (the office was a 10 minute walk for us) our realtor calls us and tells us the location has changed to 14th St. and to please get in an Uber right away. We made it, only five minutes late, and everything was fine from that point on. We signed lots of things, had snacks, joked and laughed a lot (agreeing to exchange hundreds of thousands of dollars is so funny!) and took pictures. The settlement company gave us a bottle of champagne, our realtor gave us a bottle of champagne, and our realtor and lender took us out to lunch and ordered another bottle of champagne. It was all very festive and convivial. I haven't felt any buyer's remorse, but check back in a month when I get my first mortgage bill and realize utilities are not included.
More house posts coming: the actual process of finding and getting the house, as well as what I am looking forward to and not, about the move
Cooking:
As planned, I made the lemon chicken soup, and the herbed summer squash pasta. Both were delicious. The pasta was especially delicious because I used cream instead of milk for the sauce, and was pretty heavy handed with the salt shaker. It also served the wonderful purpose of using up all of the leftover herbs I had bought to make the zucchini burgers and chicken soup.
 |
| Would probably look better in a baking pan, but I didn't want to dirty another dish. |
Last night we had a celebratory dinner at Rose's Luxury, since it's our favorite place in the neighborhood (well, in DC in general, but it's nice that it's in the neighborhood) and once we have to pay the mortgage, we won't have any money left for fancy dinners out.
 |
| Celebratory ice cream arrangement. Avocado-white chocolate, burnt cinnamon, coffee and coconut. I love this tray. |
Other:
Facebook is so annoying. Yay for gay marriage, but most (heterosexual!) people on my feed are using this as an opportunity to be even more smug than usual about their wonderful marriages. Surely, it is your our own pure-hearted love for your husband or wife that swayed the Supreme Court.
But maybe I am just a cranky person.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Settlement
Today's the day! If all goes well, we will be homeowners in a few hours. (The closing got moved back to today, after being moved to tomorrow afternoon, and then tomorrow morning. Because I am not having enough of a heart attack as-is.) Apparently the buyer's remorse is supposed to hit you hard at closing. We shall see. I would like a break from the the bouts of generalized anxiety.
Other updates:
I don't remember DC ever being this intensely hot + thunderstorm-y before, especially this early in the summer. Today is supposed to be 99 degrees, with a heat index of 104. I still went for a short run last night. Whenever I've spent more than 20 minutes outside this past week, I've had to come home and lay down for a couple of hours to recover. And whenever I work a 9 hour day, go for a run, and cook dinner, I get into bed around 9:45, planning to read for an hour, and am asleep within 15 minutes, often under a pile of newspapers.
Last night I made turkey and zucchini burgers from the Jerusalem cookbook (I don't own it, I just googled the recipe.)
I really liked this recipe. The burgers are more zucchini than turkey which makes them very moist, and the herbs give them an unusual flavor, especially the mint. We got the mint at Eastern Market and it was so strong it was clearing my sinuses while I chopped it. And the yogurt sauce has a ton of sumac (thanks, Rita!) which makes it really delicious. It's almost better without the pita since all the flavors come through better, but I can't have dinner without carbs. Tonight I'm planning to make another version of the lemon soup with chicken, with the stock I made this weekend. And I think I'll make this summer squash pasta with the leftover zucchini.
Hopefully more updates to come on the joys of homeownership, and not on the horrors of doing a walk-through and discovering standing water from all the recent storms in your new basement.
Other updates:
I don't remember DC ever being this intensely hot + thunderstorm-y before, especially this early in the summer. Today is supposed to be 99 degrees, with a heat index of 104. I still went for a short run last night. Whenever I've spent more than 20 minutes outside this past week, I've had to come home and lay down for a couple of hours to recover. And whenever I work a 9 hour day, go for a run, and cook dinner, I get into bed around 9:45, planning to read for an hour, and am asleep within 15 minutes, often under a pile of newspapers.
Last night I made turkey and zucchini burgers from the Jerusalem cookbook (I don't own it, I just googled the recipe.)
I really liked this recipe. The burgers are more zucchini than turkey which makes them very moist, and the herbs give them an unusual flavor, especially the mint. We got the mint at Eastern Market and it was so strong it was clearing my sinuses while I chopped it. And the yogurt sauce has a ton of sumac (thanks, Rita!) which makes it really delicious. It's almost better without the pita since all the flavors come through better, but I can't have dinner without carbs. Tonight I'm planning to make another version of the lemon soup with chicken, with the stock I made this weekend. And I think I'll make this summer squash pasta with the leftover zucchini.
Hopefully more updates to come on the joys of homeownership, and not on the horrors of doing a walk-through and discovering standing water from all the recent storms in your new basement.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
June is the new January
Or something like that.
For the past couple of months, I've felt like I'm waiting for some major event or other to finish before I resume my normal day to day, which is not how I want to live. I also changed my schedule to work 9 hour days so that I have one day a pay period off, which makes for very long days. But, there's always going to be something going on. So, I'm re-committing to my resolutions: blogging, exercising, and trying new recipes. Today, even though it's over 100 degrees out, I just came back from a two mile jog (baby steps) and have some chicken stock simmering for later in the week.
I was reminded of how useful blogs can be when I had to document every city I went to in Spain and Europe while I was living in Madrid (including when I was there and for how long) and the only way I was able to put together even a partially accurate list was because of the blog I kept while there. Even though the posting was even spottier than here, life documentation is so useful! Also, since I haven't had the brain space to menu plan over the past few weeks, it's been really useful to look at the month in review posts on this blog for quick recipe ideas. (We haven't given up cooking, just trying to make only new recipes.) So, I want to keep documenting them, because I've already forgotten all the things I've made and liked in the past few weeks.
The big thing that's happened since my last post is that we went under contract for a house. I'll post more about that if and when it becomes final, since it still feels premature. The closing has already been re-scheduled because of some documentation problem, and even though it's only happening a day later, it caused me an enormous amount of anxiety, as have most aspects of this process. Even though there's a lot of work involved in getting to settlement, it's less work than going to see houses every other day- that was getting to be kind of awful. The sellers are staying in the house for a bit after the closing, so we're not planning to move for another month or so. Lots more on this to come- hopefully soon!
For the past couple of months, I've felt like I'm waiting for some major event or other to finish before I resume my normal day to day, which is not how I want to live. I also changed my schedule to work 9 hour days so that I have one day a pay period off, which makes for very long days. But, there's always going to be something going on. So, I'm re-committing to my resolutions: blogging, exercising, and trying new recipes. Today, even though it's over 100 degrees out, I just came back from a two mile jog (baby steps) and have some chicken stock simmering for later in the week.
I was reminded of how useful blogs can be when I had to document every city I went to in Spain and Europe while I was living in Madrid (including when I was there and for how long) and the only way I was able to put together even a partially accurate list was because of the blog I kept while there. Even though the posting was even spottier than here, life documentation is so useful! Also, since I haven't had the brain space to menu plan over the past few weeks, it's been really useful to look at the month in review posts on this blog for quick recipe ideas. (We haven't given up cooking, just trying to make only new recipes.) So, I want to keep documenting them, because I've already forgotten all the things I've made and liked in the past few weeks.
The big thing that's happened since my last post is that we went under contract for a house. I'll post more about that if and when it becomes final, since it still feels premature. The closing has already been re-scheduled because of some documentation problem, and even though it's only happening a day later, it caused me an enormous amount of anxiety, as have most aspects of this process. Even though there's a lot of work involved in getting to settlement, it's less work than going to see houses every other day- that was getting to be kind of awful. The sellers are staying in the house for a bit after the closing, so we're not planning to move for another month or so. Lots more on this to come- hopefully soon!
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Italy: A List
We're back! Well, we got back on Sunday, but jet lag is, like, lame.
The food and wine, in general, were my favorite part. We did a fair amount of research and basically always had a specific place in mind for lunch, dinner, and the daily gelato. We had excellent food! Because Italy is so touristy, I would say that that more relaxing, walk around until you find a place that looks tasty plan, is not a good idea, unfortunately. (Not that I really ever do that in the US if I can help it.)
Six Highlights
1. Going to the top of the bell tower in Siena + the bus ride itself from Rome to Siena. Tuscany is so, so beautiful, especially in the Spring, and both of these gave us amazing views.
2. Getting to and eating at La Bottega del 30 in Tuscany, about 25 miles from Siena. We had a terrifying taxi ride over with Fabio, who drove in the pedestrian city of Siena like it was a video game, and then sped down the narrow country roads while passing cars on the shoulders and around blind bends. Thankfully, when we finally got there, the restaurant handed me a prosecco aperitvo and that calmed my nerves and made the experience seem charmingly Italian. We did the chef's tasting menu, and sat there for almost three hours with our endless courses and bottle of wine. The chef came out multiple times to tell us about what she was making. And then we got to hang out with her cat in the vineyard outside as we waited for Fabio to come pick us up.
3. Going to a tiny deli in Siena, run by Antonio, the Ron Swanson of Tuscany. Antonio had a curled mustache and made us giant roast pork and pecorino sandwiches. He told us that good pizza in Italy was made exclusively in Naples, that we were wasting our time with touristy activities in Siena, and was generally horrified that we didn't know the specific vineyards our wine had come from over the past couple of days. He tried to rectify this by opening up bottles from his shelf and making us taste them. Apparently saying "Chianti Classico Riserva from a local Tuscan vineyard" is providing no information to an Italian who knows his wines.
4. The 1.5 hour coastal hike from Corniglia, where we stayed in the Cinque Terre, to Vernazza. It's mesmerizing to walk from one cliffside town to another, through the mountains and along the ocean. We walked from Vernazza to Monterosso as well, but on a mountain trail instead of a coastal trail, and that was not a highlight. (Although in retrospect, this six hour hike was not a lowlight either, although I thought I was going to cry at the time.)
5. People-watching with my ice cream cone, in a small plaza outside of a trendy gelateria in the Monti neighborhood in Rome. Italian bambinos are so adorable. And I don't know how Italians manage to wear pants, boots, long sleeves and sleek sweaters when it's 75 degrees out and not melt into sweaty messes. Amazing.
6. Our night out in the Pigneto neighborhood, a sort of eastern suburb that we stayed in on the second leg of our trip, which was blessedly off the map and un-touristy, but filled with really fun bars and delicious restaurants. We walked around eating and drinking for about five hours without even realizing it.
Three Lowlights
1. The Vatican. Easily the worst sightseeing experience of my life. The crowds, panhandlers, and heat at most of Rome's major sights were unpleasant, but I have never wanted to cross something off my "to-see" list and get the heck out more than when I was in the suffocating forced march through the Vatican Museum to the Sistine Chapel.
2. Eating in the Cinque Terre. Our research failed us here. These five tiny towns are just so touristy, they are basically resorts. There was no off the beaten path that we could find, and the tourists were so...awful. Like, yelling recommendations to each other on where to eat based on whether the staff had good English. One night I think I had the dreaded frozen and microwaved pasta. I mean, we didn't starve or anything, and actually had rather excellent breakfasts at the cafe owned by the woman whose apartment we rented, but eating mediocre pasta in Italy makes me so sad.
3. The huge fire in the Rome airport, the day before Eddie was supposed to fly in from Paris to hang out with me. They canceled his flight! Luckily, our international flight the next day was not affected, although the inefficiency of the Rome airport could be a separate item on this list, if I were feeling in the mood to criticize...
Overall, a very good trip! It made me miss Spain a lot, especially Madrid. (Pigneto reminded me a lot of Madrid.) I think even the major sights in Spain are less popular than minor sights in Italy, and being able to communicate freely with locals when I travel is important to me. Too bad I am not going back any time soon, since we spent all of our money!
The food and wine, in general, were my favorite part. We did a fair amount of research and basically always had a specific place in mind for lunch, dinner, and the daily gelato. We had excellent food! Because Italy is so touristy, I would say that that more relaxing, walk around until you find a place that looks tasty plan, is not a good idea, unfortunately. (Not that I really ever do that in the US if I can help it.)
Six Highlights
1. Going to the top of the bell tower in Siena + the bus ride itself from Rome to Siena. Tuscany is so, so beautiful, especially in the Spring, and both of these gave us amazing views.
2. Getting to and eating at La Bottega del 30 in Tuscany, about 25 miles from Siena. We had a terrifying taxi ride over with Fabio, who drove in the pedestrian city of Siena like it was a video game, and then sped down the narrow country roads while passing cars on the shoulders and around blind bends. Thankfully, when we finally got there, the restaurant handed me a prosecco aperitvo and that calmed my nerves and made the experience seem charmingly Italian. We did the chef's tasting menu, and sat there for almost three hours with our endless courses and bottle of wine. The chef came out multiple times to tell us about what she was making. And then we got to hang out with her cat in the vineyard outside as we waited for Fabio to come pick us up.
3. Going to a tiny deli in Siena, run by Antonio, the Ron Swanson of Tuscany. Antonio had a curled mustache and made us giant roast pork and pecorino sandwiches. He told us that good pizza in Italy was made exclusively in Naples, that we were wasting our time with touristy activities in Siena, and was generally horrified that we didn't know the specific vineyards our wine had come from over the past couple of days. He tried to rectify this by opening up bottles from his shelf and making us taste them. Apparently saying "Chianti Classico Riserva from a local Tuscan vineyard" is providing no information to an Italian who knows his wines.
4. The 1.5 hour coastal hike from Corniglia, where we stayed in the Cinque Terre, to Vernazza. It's mesmerizing to walk from one cliffside town to another, through the mountains and along the ocean. We walked from Vernazza to Monterosso as well, but on a mountain trail instead of a coastal trail, and that was not a highlight. (Although in retrospect, this six hour hike was not a lowlight either, although I thought I was going to cry at the time.)
5. People-watching with my ice cream cone, in a small plaza outside of a trendy gelateria in the Monti neighborhood in Rome. Italian bambinos are so adorable. And I don't know how Italians manage to wear pants, boots, long sleeves and sleek sweaters when it's 75 degrees out and not melt into sweaty messes. Amazing.
6. Our night out in the Pigneto neighborhood, a sort of eastern suburb that we stayed in on the second leg of our trip, which was blessedly off the map and un-touristy, but filled with really fun bars and delicious restaurants. We walked around eating and drinking for about five hours without even realizing it.
Three Lowlights
1. The Vatican. Easily the worst sightseeing experience of my life. The crowds, panhandlers, and heat at most of Rome's major sights were unpleasant, but I have never wanted to cross something off my "to-see" list and get the heck out more than when I was in the suffocating forced march through the Vatican Museum to the Sistine Chapel.
2. Eating in the Cinque Terre. Our research failed us here. These five tiny towns are just so touristy, they are basically resorts. There was no off the beaten path that we could find, and the tourists were so...awful. Like, yelling recommendations to each other on where to eat based on whether the staff had good English. One night I think I had the dreaded frozen and microwaved pasta. I mean, we didn't starve or anything, and actually had rather excellent breakfasts at the cafe owned by the woman whose apartment we rented, but eating mediocre pasta in Italy makes me so sad.
3. The huge fire in the Rome airport, the day before Eddie was supposed to fly in from Paris to hang out with me. They canceled his flight! Luckily, our international flight the next day was not affected, although the inefficiency of the Rome airport could be a separate item on this list, if I were feeling in the mood to criticize...
Overall, a very good trip! It made me miss Spain a lot, especially Madrid. (Pigneto reminded me a lot of Madrid.) I think even the major sights in Spain are less popular than minor sights in Italy, and being able to communicate freely with locals when I travel is important to me. Too bad I am not going back any time soon, since we spent all of our money!
Sunday, April 26, 2015
A Very Long Post to Make Up for My Negligence
I'm back!
I'm sorry for the long silence! I've been positing less and less with each passing month. I do think the past couple of weeks, along with the upcoming couple of weeks have been/will be uncharacteristically busy. (And this with the caveat that I hate claiming to be "busy.") I had work travel for a few days, and then we went to Miami for Marta's wedding. We're off to Italy in a few days, and when we come back, we head to New York for Julia's wedding.
Food
We haven't been doing much interesting cooking since I don't want to buy a lot of fresh ingredients when we are out of town so frequently. Thank goodness for avocados, tortillas, cheese and eggs. These are my staples of eating at home without recipe planning or big grocery trips.
Some new recipes we have made over the past couple of weeks. I just realized they are all pasta-based.
Pasta with Chorizo and Chickpeas. Extremely easy, extremely delicious, highly recommended. Spicy!
Lemon Avocado Pasta with Shrimp. Not quite as delicious as I'd hoped, but I like that it has very few ingredients and is pretty healthy. It probably would have helped the texture of the sauce if I had a food processor to whip the avocados.
This is three recipes in one! Almond apricot chicken with mint pesto + goat cheese and asparagus pasta. The chicken and pesto were great (I used yellow raisins instead of apricots because that's what I already had) but the pasta was just ok.
Peppery Pasta with Arugula and Shrimp. This had surprisingly strong flavors, likely because of the raw garlic, and was more delicious than I expected. I would definitely make it again.
Other Food Highlights
We went to DCity Smokehouse a couple of weekends ago, which Google describes as a "buzzy five seat BBQ counter." It actually has six seats, but it's true that it's buzzy. Even though it is on one of the sketchier intersections of DC, and it seems as though the owner has to regularly escort homeless people out of the place, there was a constant long line during the time we sat and ate on our coveted seats. The food is really delicious.
Last night we had a supremely excessive meal at Ambar, by taking advantage of their all you can eat and drink option with a group of friends. I think we got our money's worth, considering I alone ordered five cocktails, and we ordered almost every single dish on the menu. I think this was a really fun thing to do, especially with small plates and a big group because you can just order without worrying about who can eat what and if it's fair to split the bill at the end. My head is spinning a bit today from those cocktails, though. This excessive food and drink is becoming a theme- I felt the same way after Marta's lunch reception last weekend. My only wine-restraint factor then was my impending toast, since I didn't want to stand up and tip over.
Travel
I'm excited about our trip, and realizing that I have not been to Italy, or Europe, for almost seven years. People keep asking me if everything is planned, which... it is, in the sense that we have plane tickets and accommodations. Because we are old and fancy now, we even have some restaurant reservations. What else am I supposed to do? I think I have forgotten how to travel internationally. I just bought a plug adaptor and those excessively touristy money-belt thingies since we'll be waiting in a lot of lines to see some of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. See? I am a lady with a plan. The last time I traveled in Europe, it was always on last-minute weekend trips on a student's budget. And it was always great.
When I came back from my year in Spain, I really thought my adult life would involve a lot of travel, both personal and work-related. I kept up the momentum slightly with a slap-dash, extremely fun trip to Peru the next year, but since then, nothing. It's so surprising to me that I haven't been back to Madrid in these seven years. I don't know that I can articulate why, other than that travel is expensive, I had and have other priorities, and the prospect of paying for grad school weighed heavily on me. (And now the prospect of a house weighs even more heavily on me.) Work-wise, even though my previous job was for a State Dept. contract managing international education programs, I was never one of the lucky ones who got to travel. I'm scared that this might be my last international trip for a long time.
Other
I am really enjoying this local-turned national controversy over free range parenting. Each side is so indignant! Think of the children's safety! Think of the children's development! What has our society become? Personally, as someone who knows nothing about children or parenting, I think kids will turn out how they're going to turn out, regardless of whether they walk home alone or not. (And regardless of of most parenting ideologies that people preoccupy themselves with.) My sympathy is with busy adults. How much more all-consuming can we make raising children? I very much like the idea of letting Hypothetical Future Children walk to a park when I would like some peace and quiet in my home, and I would like to not be arrested for this. I also think Montgomery County acted criminally the second time it picked up the kids and kept their whereabouts a secret for several hours.
Sal
He's enjoying the spring sunshine, when he's not hiding in the closet.
I'm sorry for the long silence! I've been positing less and less with each passing month. I do think the past couple of weeks, along with the upcoming couple of weeks have been/will be uncharacteristically busy. (And this with the caveat that I hate claiming to be "busy.") I had work travel for a few days, and then we went to Miami for Marta's wedding. We're off to Italy in a few days, and when we come back, we head to New York for Julia's wedding.
Food
We haven't been doing much interesting cooking since I don't want to buy a lot of fresh ingredients when we are out of town so frequently. Thank goodness for avocados, tortillas, cheese and eggs. These are my staples of eating at home without recipe planning or big grocery trips.
Some new recipes we have made over the past couple of weeks. I just realized they are all pasta-based.
Pasta with Chorizo and Chickpeas. Extremely easy, extremely delicious, highly recommended. Spicy!
Lemon Avocado Pasta with Shrimp. Not quite as delicious as I'd hoped, but I like that it has very few ingredients and is pretty healthy. It probably would have helped the texture of the sauce if I had a food processor to whip the avocados.
This is three recipes in one! Almond apricot chicken with mint pesto + goat cheese and asparagus pasta. The chicken and pesto were great (I used yellow raisins instead of apricots because that's what I already had) but the pasta was just ok.
Peppery Pasta with Arugula and Shrimp. This had surprisingly strong flavors, likely because of the raw garlic, and was more delicious than I expected. I would definitely make it again.
Other Food Highlights
We went to DCity Smokehouse a couple of weekends ago, which Google describes as a "buzzy five seat BBQ counter." It actually has six seats, but it's true that it's buzzy. Even though it is on one of the sketchier intersections of DC, and it seems as though the owner has to regularly escort homeless people out of the place, there was a constant long line during the time we sat and ate on our coveted seats. The food is really delicious.
 |
| My fried chicken sandwich was probably the best I've ever had. |
Last night we had a supremely excessive meal at Ambar, by taking advantage of their all you can eat and drink option with a group of friends. I think we got our money's worth, considering I alone ordered five cocktails, and we ordered almost every single dish on the menu. I think this was a really fun thing to do, especially with small plates and a big group because you can just order without worrying about who can eat what and if it's fair to split the bill at the end. My head is spinning a bit today from those cocktails, though. This excessive food and drink is becoming a theme- I felt the same way after Marta's lunch reception last weekend. My only wine-restraint factor then was my impending toast, since I didn't want to stand up and tip over.
Travel
I'm excited about our trip, and realizing that I have not been to Italy, or Europe, for almost seven years. People keep asking me if everything is planned, which... it is, in the sense that we have plane tickets and accommodations. Because we are old and fancy now, we even have some restaurant reservations. What else am I supposed to do? I think I have forgotten how to travel internationally. I just bought a plug adaptor and those excessively touristy money-belt thingies since we'll be waiting in a lot of lines to see some of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. See? I am a lady with a plan. The last time I traveled in Europe, it was always on last-minute weekend trips on a student's budget. And it was always great.
When I came back from my year in Spain, I really thought my adult life would involve a lot of travel, both personal and work-related. I kept up the momentum slightly with a slap-dash, extremely fun trip to Peru the next year, but since then, nothing. It's so surprising to me that I haven't been back to Madrid in these seven years. I don't know that I can articulate why, other than that travel is expensive, I had and have other priorities, and the prospect of paying for grad school weighed heavily on me. (And now the prospect of a house weighs even more heavily on me.) Work-wise, even though my previous job was for a State Dept. contract managing international education programs, I was never one of the lucky ones who got to travel. I'm scared that this might be my last international trip for a long time.
Other
I am really enjoying this local-turned national controversy over free range parenting. Each side is so indignant! Think of the children's safety! Think of the children's development! What has our society become? Personally, as someone who knows nothing about children or parenting, I think kids will turn out how they're going to turn out, regardless of whether they walk home alone or not. (And regardless of of most parenting ideologies that people preoccupy themselves with.) My sympathy is with busy adults. How much more all-consuming can we make raising children? I very much like the idea of letting Hypothetical Future Children walk to a park when I would like some peace and quiet in my home, and I would like to not be arrested for this. I also think Montgomery County acted criminally the second time it picked up the kids and kept their whereabouts a secret for several hours.
Sal
He's enjoying the spring sunshine, when he's not hiding in the closet.
 |
| Finding just the right beam of light to bask in. |
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Notes on a Week
Tuesday: I thought my tutoring program was on spring break, so I agreed to go to a work happy hour. It turned out that my tutoring program was not on spring break. What to do? Then, around 4 pm, I got an email that a pipe had burst in the building and tutoring was canceled. I was thrilled. The happy hour was at Fado, an Irish bar that I thought was lame, but it turns out they have amazing food specials- I paid $5 for a pretty good sized basket of fish and chips, and $5 for a Guinness "Blonde" which was surprisingly delicious. I am a sucker for good happy hour food specials. I came home, ate a brownie, and called it a night.
Wednesday: The weather was a worst-of-both-worlds combination of cold and humid. Now that we are on a house buying break, and the prospect of writing very large checks hangs less ominously over my head, I am spending money lavishly. On Monday, I went shopping on my lunch hour and bought a dress and a top. (Both on clearance, don't worry, I haven't totally lost it.) On Wednesday I bought (delicious delicious) coffee in the morning and Potbelly in the afternoon. The turkey, bacon, and cheddar "flat" is the most delicious lunch that $6 will get you. Then I came home, hung out with Sal, and watched Better Call Saul with some leftovers.
Thursday: I worked from home and went for a short run during my lunch hour, which was good because it motivated me to put in my contacts and brush my teeth. I'm not sure I could work from home every day without falling apart. After I showered from my run, I thought I got dressed, but when I looked down, I was still wearing pajamas. Thank goodness for life obligations that mostly keep me from spending my days lying on the couch eating cheddar bunnies.
I made skillet bruschetta with beans and greens, which was really good, better than I thought it would be. I highly recommend it for an easy, healthy, and cheap vegetarian dinner.
Friday: There was a smorgasbord of free food at work, of which I partook freely/excessively. After work, I had beers with Adam and Julia at Cantina Marina on the Southwest Waterfront and then ate at the new Navy Yard Bon Chon, before seeing Adam's new condo.
Rita took pity on my housing and grocery store woes and sent me my missing ingredients. Very exciting!
 |
| Pretty Spring Flowers |
Wednesday: The weather was a worst-of-both-worlds combination of cold and humid. Now that we are on a house buying break, and the prospect of writing very large checks hangs less ominously over my head, I am spending money lavishly. On Monday, I went shopping on my lunch hour and bought a dress and a top. (Both on clearance, don't worry, I haven't totally lost it.) On Wednesday I bought (delicious delicious) coffee in the morning and Potbelly in the afternoon. The turkey, bacon, and cheddar "flat" is the most delicious lunch that $6 will get you. Then I came home, hung out with Sal, and watched Better Call Saul with some leftovers.
Thursday: I worked from home and went for a short run during my lunch hour, which was good because it motivated me to put in my contacts and brush my teeth. I'm not sure I could work from home every day without falling apart. After I showered from my run, I thought I got dressed, but when I looked down, I was still wearing pajamas. Thank goodness for life obligations that mostly keep me from spending my days lying on the couch eating cheddar bunnies.
I made skillet bruschetta with beans and greens, which was really good, better than I thought it would be. I highly recommend it for an easy, healthy, and cheap vegetarian dinner.
Friday: There was a smorgasbord of free food at work, of which I partook freely/excessively. After work, I had beers with Adam and Julia at Cantina Marina on the Southwest Waterfront and then ate at the new Navy Yard Bon Chon, before seeing Adam's new condo.
 |
| Korean Fried Chicken! |
Look what I got!
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| Spices in the mail! |
Monday, April 6, 2015
Easter weekend
I've been wanting to make egg-lemon soup for a long time now- that was my favorite meal at Salonica, a Greek diner in Hyde Park. Whenever I went (and I went often) and the egg lemon soup wasn't being served, I was crushed! I've also been wanting to make soup from scratch, meaning not using store bought chicken-broth. So Easter Sunday seemed as good a time as any for this cooking project. I used this recipe although I substituted orzo because that's what I remember Salonica using. This was delicious.
Making stock from scratch was not that hard, and definitely tastes better, but it took several hours (mostly inactive) of my time, so the next time I want this soup, I will likely do something like this.
Tonight Jason made asparagus subs with smoky french dressing. Fast, easy, and vegetarian, but for the last minute addition of some crunchy bacon.
I like all the different strong flavors on this. The only downside is it doesn't pack up well for lunch tomorrow.
____________________
Overall, this weekend was good. We didn't see any houses. I got my nails painted bright pink at a suburban mall while Marta bought final accessories for her wedding. I threw a temper tantrum in her kitchen about not buying a house, and she made me ginger tea and took me to have delicious Indian food at Bombay Curry Company. I went for another short run in the sun with no rib pain, and also for a long walk around Capitol Hill to see the flowering trees, and small children in brightly colored dresses. I saw a surprising number of adults my age, wearing bow ties and playing hacky sack on front lawns. Is this a thing? They looked pretty ridiculous.
Sal does not approve.
Making stock from scratch was not that hard, and definitely tastes better, but it took several hours (mostly inactive) of my time, so the next time I want this soup, I will likely do something like this.
Tonight Jason made asparagus subs with smoky french dressing. Fast, easy, and vegetarian, but for the last minute addition of some crunchy bacon.
 |
| With raisins, scallions, and feta |
____________________
Overall, this weekend was good. We didn't see any houses. I got my nails painted bright pink at a suburban mall while Marta bought final accessories for her wedding. I threw a temper tantrum in her kitchen about not buying a house, and she made me ginger tea and took me to have delicious Indian food at Bombay Curry Company. I went for another short run in the sun with no rib pain, and also for a long walk around Capitol Hill to see the flowering trees, and small children in brightly colored dresses. I saw a surprising number of adults my age, wearing bow ties and playing hacky sack on front lawns. Is this a thing? They looked pretty ridiculous.
Sal does not approve.
 |
| Sal says, get it together, everyone. |
Friday, April 3, 2015
Yesterday was a good day. I worked from home and went for a short run during lunch. It was my first run in three months, and it was warm and sunny out. No rib pain! Then we saw a condo in the magical and happy land of north Connecticut Avenue that was affordable and had no offers, which made me happy. We decided not to bid on it because it's much smaller than we'd like to buy, but it's nice to close out the first chapter of the search by seeing a place that I would be happy to live in and could likely submit a competitive offer for.
Then we broke the restaurant moratorium and had dinner at Ambar, a Balkan small plates restaurant on Barracks Row. I know Balkan small plates sounds terrible and ridiculous, but this place is surprisingly delicious every time I go there. (Jason tried to see if we could get a table at Rose's and I waited outside because I was embarrassed to even be asking.) I had a smoky pear cocktail, and toasted to the fact that I could afford the drink because I have not yet written over my life-savings to a mortgage company. To renting, to not cooking, to overpriced but delicious cocktails in the middle of the week!
The only problem with that is no lunch leftovers. What will I do if I ever work somewhere that is not next to a Potbelly?? Luckily, this has not been an issue in my three DC office locations.
Tonight was back to cooking, although not a new recipe, because Jason wanted to have these sesame meatballs with chickpeas again. We jazzed it up with lemon yogurt and flatbread.
We make these a lot, but I've never found sumac or aleppo pepper in the store- I substitute lemon zest and paprika. I bet it would be delicious with the original spices, though.
Then we broke the restaurant moratorium and had dinner at Ambar, a Balkan small plates restaurant on Barracks Row. I know Balkan small plates sounds terrible and ridiculous, but this place is surprisingly delicious every time I go there. (Jason tried to see if we could get a table at Rose's and I waited outside because I was embarrassed to even be asking.) I had a smoky pear cocktail, and toasted to the fact that I could afford the drink because I have not yet written over my life-savings to a mortgage company. To renting, to not cooking, to overpriced but delicious cocktails in the middle of the week!
The only problem with that is no lunch leftovers. What will I do if I ever work somewhere that is not next to a Potbelly?? Luckily, this has not been an issue in my three DC office locations.
Tonight was back to cooking, although not a new recipe, because Jason wanted to have these sesame meatballs with chickpeas again. We jazzed it up with lemon yogurt and flatbread.
We make these a lot, but I've never found sumac or aleppo pepper in the store- I substitute lemon zest and paprika. I bet it would be delicious with the original spices, though.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
March Month in Review + Past 10 Days
March Recipes in Review
New Recipes:
Gourmet's Chicken Curry with Cashews
Pasta all'Amatriciana
Beef Noodle Soup
Gourmet's bean burritos
Deb's cornmeal fried porkchops and goat cheese smashed potatoes
Spicy shredded pork from Slow Cooker Revolution
7th Hill inspired pizza with mushroom, red onion, goat cheese, capicola, sausage, and oregano
Roasted chicken with shallots and vinegar
Slow cooker pork with egg noodles and apple relish
No-knead bread
Avocado and white bean salad wraps
I think I am getting better at selecting the new recipes to try- we liked everything on this list enough to make again, except the porkchops. Those were good, but they were too much work and created too many dishes.
This is not as paltry a list as I expected it to be, although I feel like we are cooking a lot less. House-hunting takes up all of our free evenings during the week, and combined with tutoring and the occasional happy hour, I feel like I am never home during the week. The restaurant moratorium has not been lifted, however! I am getting very adept with leftovers, and we still eat at home basically every night, just...much later than we used to. Leftover pulled pork became tacos and sandwiches on multiple occasions, and leftover chicken and vegetables became pasta.
Basically, I am a pioneer woman- right?
Highlights and Lowlights of the Past 10 Days
Ummm, I think that was the only highlight.
New Recipes:
Gourmet's Chicken Curry with Cashews
Pasta all'Amatriciana
Beef Noodle Soup
Gourmet's bean burritos
Deb's cornmeal fried porkchops and goat cheese smashed potatoes
Spicy shredded pork from Slow Cooker Revolution
7th Hill inspired pizza with mushroom, red onion, goat cheese, capicola, sausage, and oregano
Roasted chicken with shallots and vinegar
Slow cooker pork with egg noodles and apple relish
No-knead bread
Avocado and white bean salad wraps
I think I am getting better at selecting the new recipes to try- we liked everything on this list enough to make again, except the porkchops. Those were good, but they were too much work and created too many dishes.
This is not as paltry a list as I expected it to be, although I feel like we are cooking a lot less. House-hunting takes up all of our free evenings during the week, and combined with tutoring and the occasional happy hour, I feel like I am never home during the week. The restaurant moratorium has not been lifted, however! I am getting very adept with leftovers, and we still eat at home basically every night, just...much later than we used to. Leftover pulled pork became tacos and sandwiches on multiple occasions, and leftover chicken and vegetables became pasta.
Basically, I am a pioneer woman- right?
 |
| Lemon cream pasta with chicken and asparagus |
 |
| Pork with apples, brie, and caramelized onions |
Highlights:
- Julia's bachelorette party. We rented a cute cabin on a working farm in Madison, VA and got up close and personal with the cows and chickens. Rita fulfilled her dream of cuddling a chicken and we learned that roosters actually do make a cock-a-doodle-doo sound. Very fascinating. We ate a lot of farm-fresh eggs and went on a beautiful hike. I made pies, among other things.
 |
| Black bottom oatmeal pies |
Lowlights:
- Tuesday was a bad day. Tuesdays are always bad, because of their general Tuesday-ness, plus tutoring, but last Tuesday I was going to find out if I got my preferred project assignment at work, as well as the outcome of the house we bid on in Brookland. Neither of these things went my way.
- I think we are going to take a break from house-hunting after this week. Mostly because we are going to be out of town for something like four of the next six weekends. But I also need some time to get my head straight. I still struggle with the things I wrote about before, but it's more than that. All of a sudden, the city I loved has become much less attractive to me. I feel resentful all the time, and then I get mad at myself for feeling that way. I used to admire the cityscape, walkable lifestyle, and quaint streets for their lovelyness and charm and now all I can see are twee neighborhoods that I can't afford. Just two months ago, I thought my life was pretty perfect! I used to be able to tune out the type-A crazies and opt out of all the competitive nonsense, because I just do not care. But now I care, and have entered into the fray and I can't compete. It's like Black Friday shopping, where every time you reach for something you like, a mob throws themselves in front of you and steals it away, leaving piles of cash in their wake. (I'm guessing, having never participated in Black Friday, in the tradition of opting out of competitive nonsense.) So all I see is what I can't have, and that is not the frame of mind I want to have. Then I think, DC is not even that great! (Defense mechanism?) How can they get away with these prices? Half the city is a bombed out construction pit, and even the nice part has some pretty lame stuff. If I am going to pay this much to live here, I want some pretty nice amenities, not an [expletive] SuperWalmart. Why am I fighting to give all of my money away?
To conclude on a high note, Sal:
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Hot Yoga Fail
How Sal spent his weekend.
I was able to exercise again for the first time since the rib incident. I was feeling better a few weeks ago but then thought I was having a relapse so I held back. I hope whatever is going on is over- I'm tired of feeling like a geriatric couch potato. On Friday, I did a workout class at my office gym during lunch- it was a "buddy workout" with a co-worker, where we used each other as resistance and for balance. I think that was a bonding experience? And today I used my Groupon for the first of my five hot yoga classes.
I'm going to give the studio at least one more shot, but I think I may hate hot yoga. I spent at least 60 percent of the 90 minute class with my head down on the mat trying not to pass out. I also kept having flashbacks to my internship in New York in the summer of 2006- the smell of sweat and waves of intense heat always brings me back. Other things that remind me of that summer: Starbucks iced coffee and croissants and corporate indoctrination.
Anyway, I came home, took a shower, and then had to lay down for about two hours. I'm not sure my body responds well to extreme heat- and I don't even feel like I got a workout!
Cooking:
This was a great few days for cooking. On Friday, I made Gourmet's Chicken Curry with Cashews and it was the best curry I've made at home. You grind up the cashews and that's what thickens the sauce- genius! I used boneless chicken and greek yogurt, but otherwise pretty much followed the recipe.
Yesterday, Jason made the best homemade pasta sauce we've had- Pasta all'Amatriciana. This only needed to simmer for about 40 minutes and was more flavorful than the slow-cooker tomato sauce we made last month. Probably all the different pork products help!
And tonight we had this slow cooker Beef Noodle Soup. I'm not sure I used blade meat- the meat stall at Eastern Market had already cut-up "stew beef" so I went with that. I'm not sure it was the best soup I've made at home (in keeping with the theme) but if not, it was close.
Week Ahead:
Rita is coming to visit for Julia's bachelorette party!
I was able to exercise again for the first time since the rib incident. I was feeling better a few weeks ago but then thought I was having a relapse so I held back. I hope whatever is going on is over- I'm tired of feeling like a geriatric couch potato. On Friday, I did a workout class at my office gym during lunch- it was a "buddy workout" with a co-worker, where we used each other as resistance and for balance. I think that was a bonding experience? And today I used my Groupon for the first of my five hot yoga classes.
I'm going to give the studio at least one more shot, but I think I may hate hot yoga. I spent at least 60 percent of the 90 minute class with my head down on the mat trying not to pass out. I also kept having flashbacks to my internship in New York in the summer of 2006- the smell of sweat and waves of intense heat always brings me back. Other things that remind me of that summer: Starbucks iced coffee and croissants and corporate indoctrination.
Anyway, I came home, took a shower, and then had to lay down for about two hours. I'm not sure my body responds well to extreme heat- and I don't even feel like I got a workout!
Cooking:
This was a great few days for cooking. On Friday, I made Gourmet's Chicken Curry with Cashews and it was the best curry I've made at home. You grind up the cashews and that's what thickens the sauce- genius! I used boneless chicken and greek yogurt, but otherwise pretty much followed the recipe.
Yesterday, Jason made the best homemade pasta sauce we've had- Pasta all'Amatriciana. This only needed to simmer for about 40 minutes and was more flavorful than the slow-cooker tomato sauce we made last month. Probably all the different pork products help!
And tonight we had this slow cooker Beef Noodle Soup. I'm not sure I used blade meat- the meat stall at Eastern Market had already cut-up "stew beef" so I went with that. I'm not sure it was the best soup I've made at home (in keeping with the theme) but if not, it was close.
Week Ahead:
Rita is coming to visit for Julia's bachelorette party!
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Grand (Non) Unified Theory on Home-Buying
I've lived in rented apartments for most of my life, so I've never really had occasion to have thoughts about home-buying. And now all of sudden, I have all of these thoughts, some of them contradictory.
I am trying to sort them out:
I am trying to sort them out:
- Primarily, it is making me confront my sense of entitlement, which is I guess is a good thing. I knew going into this that prices were crazy and finding something affordable that we liked would be difficult. I am not owed a house. But a small part of me still (irrationally) thinks that I deserve to own a cute small house in a cute neighborhood near a grocery story and a metro. Why? I don't know. I never go shopping and I didn't take out student loans! Other people my age buy houses they like, so why not me? All good logic, I know.
- This is the first time that not having enough money has been a problem for me. With a lot of luck, and some scheming, I have been able to have the travel experiences, education, and lifestyle of someone who comes from a lot more resources than I do. Even in high school, when my journalism class went to New York, Desiree and I were able to sell enough Costco candy bars in the school hallways to mostly fund our trip. So I've never had a reason to think that money was a limiting factor in getting what I want. (Luckily, I don't want fancy bags or jewelry.) This is pretty much the opposite situation- people with a lot more money than me can get something that I want but can't afford. I guess it's surprising that it took this long for me to have that experience!
- On the other hand, it's not like we're poor. In 95% of the country, we'd be attractive buyers and would be able to afford something relatively nice. Why do we live in DC again?
- Similarly, I think it's a Bad Thing (from a policy perspective? a human perspective?) that a walking and transit-centered lifestyle is this elite luxury amenity that we are trying (and failing) to buy for ourselves. Like, bad for America, for public health, for expanding and supporting public transit, for community. But maybe this is just my sense of entitlement justifying itself.
- I know that DC is sharply stratified by income, sadly, but it becomes so stark when you try to buy a house. There are just giant swaths of the city that we are completely priced out of- and we are not poor! That intense socio-economic clustering is frustrating. (And it would frustrate me even if I were wealthy enough to afford to live wherever I wanted.) I don't have coherent thoughts on mixed-income housing, but it is insane to me that the same house on different sides of the river can have a price differential of (literally) a million dollars. I supposed this is related to my outrage over public school disparities which I just won't get into.
- I don't understand the psychology of people (not developers) who would use half a million dollars in cash to buy a tiny, undesirable house. I suppose to rent it out? I know there are a lot of people in DC that make a lot of money (and save all of it??), but so many that they can flood a pricey market with all-cash offers?
I don't feel stressed out or upset by this, at least not yet. We don't have any sort of time pressure or deadline, we have a lovely apartment, and we could just rent for the rest of our lives and it would be fine. I also feel hopeful that this is a bit like a job search- you apply and apply and it seems hopeless, but then something works. It just takes the one.
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