Jolie laide (or pretty-ugly)

I love the French-- they manage to make a back-handed compliment sound enchanting. I am trying to branch out from ballet flats, and lately I have become obsessed with slightly ugly shoes. I'm not talking extremely unattractive (i.e. high-heeled gladiator sandals or peep-toe ankle boots). Right now I'm attracted to shoes that are very low-key, almost dowdy, plain, and a bit clunky. Just this side of flattering:


Those ARE little star-shaped cut outs on the sides. I love the combination of girlish/mannish. Not sure I could pull these off with a skirt-- they might be too high-cut on the ankle.


These may be a bit too orthopedic-- I think the white heel saves them.

These are too pretty! Not sure how these ended up here. I just love them. I wish they didn't cost $300. Why?


Now here's a dowdy shoe. Unadorned. Clunky heel. Love it.


I may actually die without these. I have a pair of ankle boots with 4.5" heels. I can wear them for about 10 minutes. These look perfect.

Holiday

I have eight days off! Actually, it's seven full days, two half days (today and next Thursday) and eight nights. Bliss! I plan to:

• Post every day
• Rid my apartment of some excess baggage
• Possibly purchase some new baggage on an IKEA pilgrimage
  
• Get my save the dates sorted out and work on my wedding info blog
• Knit like CRAZY. Vickie's present is almost done, then there's Mother's day and Sarah's birthday right around the corner. I will trot off to the yarn store tomorrow like a good girl.
  
• Attend various cultural events. Tomorrow a poetry reading at T.A. and Friday some art openings.
  
• Drink lots of wine

It will be heaven on earth to sleep at night for a whole week-- though I have to admit taking a perverse pleasure in sleeping during the day. My bed is calling to me-- I'm going to resist it for another hour and get some exercise so I can be utterly lazy and pointless tonight.

Ok, ok

8 things I'm looking forward to

• My wedding in October
• My honeymoon in November (Vieques, PR)
• My trip to SF in August
• My trip to VT in two weeks!
  
• Baking more chocolate chip cookies this afternoon
• Mother's Day 5k (after working Saturday night!)
• My eight-day stretch of days off starting Wednesday
• Summer

8 things I did yesterday

• Fell out of my shoes on the way home from dinner (technically this happened Friday, but it's too priceless not to mention-- I have hideous painful scraped knees to show for it)
• Watched Minnie Cat bounce off the window screen
• Finished one of Vickie's extremely belated birthday gifts-- I promise I'll have them in the mail before the end of April!
• Ate a very bad veggie burger at Gritty's while sitting out on the patio-- spring is finally here!
• Bought a second pair of matchstick jeans and an adorable skirt at J.Crew in Freeport
• Read about the different moral underpinnings of liberals and conservatives
• Walked around Wolf's Neck Woods-- for about 15 minutes. It is not quite mini skirt weather, it turns out.
  
• Watched three episodes of MI5 on Netflix

8 things I wish I could do

• Apply mascara without smudging it into my eyelid every g-d time
  
• Sew
• Get rid of 50% of my material possessions
  
• Decide whether or not I want kids
• Be frugal consistently
• Stop complaining
• Spend a year travelling
• Write a novel

8 things I can do well

• Bake
• Cook
• Knit
• Form opinions
• Choose gifts
• Catheterize female patients
• Make scathing remarks
• Give directions

8 shows I watch (mostly on DVD/internets)

• The Biggest Loser-- don't judge me
• The Amazing Race
• MI5 (Matthew Macfadyen is dreamy)
• The Wire
• Six Feet Under
• Deadwood
• The Daily Show
• anything involving makeovers sucks me right in-- good thing I don't have cable

8 favorite places I've been

• Bay Area
• Rome
• Paris
• Montreal
  
• Portland, OR
  
• The old IA building at Thornton Academy
• Pratt House and Sewall House, Williams College
• Ok, Maine. Whatever.
  

8 things I covet

• A.P.C.
• J.Crew ballet flats
• NYRB Classics
• Cheez-its
• Dark chocolate
• Independent wealth
• Wine
• The European lifestyle
  

Cute overload

This is Hannah's Lucille baby set:

Back in the kitchen

Eric has been the chef in our house since late February, but I am still the domestic goddess. Behold:

Spring!

Enjoying it by:

• Having a very satisfying run on the Back Cove trail. I passed a man singing along with his iPod operatically, with arms flung wide. I think it was Nine Inch Nails, but it could have been Christian Rock of some nature. Not quite sure.
• Reading and knitting in the car with Eric at Fort Williams. We shared some bread and cheese (and hot pepper jelly).
• Opening the windows and turning off the heat. And then closing the windows again after 10 minutes. Turns out it's not that warm yet. And the cats can't handle the added stimuli.

I'm lazy, therefore I link

• Wish Hannaford had these
• Yuck
• I will be making this, minus the vinyl letters
• Mmmm, homemade yogurt
• Not sure J.A. would approve
• I want to be her