some stuff i'm grateful for today

i swear i didn't want to post this pic of me in yoga shorts. 

lula made me.

1. pink & red together.

2. lula, who made the most delicious cream puffs i've ever eaten, and cleaned up afterwards, too.

3. the ability to say (almost) anything without fearing for my life.  read this from sunday's nyt magazine about an afghani women's secret poetry group.  here's an excerpt:
Poems are the only form of education to which she has access. She doesn’t meet outsiders face to face.

“I can’t say any poems in front of my brothers,” she said. Love poems would be seen by them as proof of an illicit relationship, for which Meena could be beaten or even killed. “I wish I had the opportunities that girls do in Kabul,” she went on. “I want to write about what’s wrong in my country.” Meena gulped. She was trying not to cry. On the other end of the line, Amail, who is prone to both compassion and drama, began to weep with her. Tears mixed with kohl dripped onto the page of the spiral notebook in which Amail was writing down Meena’s verses. Meena recited a Pashtun folk poem called a landai:

“My pains grow as my life dwindles,
I will die with a heart full of hope.”

“I am the new Rahila,” she said. “Record my voice, so that when I get killed at least you’ll have something of me.”

4.  labor rights.

5.  women's colleges.  my husband and i both have degrees from one (that offers co-ed grad programs), and both of my daughters chose them.

6. led zepplin.  especially on vinyl, but even on mp3.

7. c., for playing the piano so well, fixing my computers, planting new trees, putting moses to bed every night, being so smart & a million other things.

8. my yogis.

9. a job that i'm proud of and enjoy very much.

10. a watermelon picnic basket that makes it easier to pack lunch and leave for work in the morning and stephen colbert who gives me something to look forward to at the end of every day.

lula=sweet genius

christian getting all bassa nova with quebbeman-turley on drums

honey locust trees, especially the one planted yesterday pictured here

the prez likes lady colleges, too.  yes.  it's not a practical joke.  he really is the speaker.

game on: the locust salon

lalage performing at karnatic lab in amsterdam--with pre-show dutch yahoos & steven ricks

woke up this morning & cooked.

it felt good.

here's what i made:

lemon tart (from the chez panisse dessert cookbook given to me by me dear friend and kitchen mentor, the artist alice dubiel)

red lentil dal

cucumber raita

hummus & hand made pita

this is all in honor of tonight's locust salon.  i wanted to go all out because

c. has composed a set of the most beautiful bassas which he's playing tonight with drummer jesse quebbeman-turley & bassist zoe jorgenson,

our piano's tuned,

we have some new lalage sounds,

& it's spring time.

every change of season sends me to the kitchen to cook & the notebook for new poems.

that's my inspiration for today.

tonight's outfit is yet to be determined.