If You Ever Get To Nantucket...

Be sure to do the following things:

1. Rent a cruiser with a wicker basket.

2. Explore the bike paths.

2. Ride to Sconset. When in Sconset, be sure to pick up supplies at the market, like cookies as big as your head, water, fudge, and cigars, if you're into that. Enjoy these items at the beach, or store them in said wicker basket for later.

2. Go down strange streets that lead to nowhere.

3. Get some ice cream in a hand-rolled waffle cone at the Juice Bar.

4. Watch the Pats score two touchdowns to come from behind and win their home opener.

These are my personal recommendations on exploring a far away isle in New England. Enjoy the wildlife and the silence. And the ice cream.  And the football dynasty. Make plans to come back again.

On The Topic Of Heydays

Those who know me well can attest to my use of the term "heyday." I find it an apt description of many kinds of happiness and/or periods of time in which the universe conspires in your favor. In a recent text message exchange, my friend on the West Coast and I were contrasting our heydays -- his entailed seeing Phish on their reunion tour, mine meant having friends over for grilled food and pie on the deck. He wrote, "All paths, whatever they be, lead to Hey." Well said.

My love of "Hey" springs from my second favorite children's book of all time, Marie Louise's Heyday. It's an odd little out of print book, but I still love it to this day.

I found an excellent summary on the web to fill you in on why you should care about this overburdened mongoose and her quest to eat a banana.

On this Labor Day weekend, I wish for you a Day of Hey.

Maira Kalman Continues To Be My God

How did I not know about this before?! Maira illustrated my favorite reference guide, Strunk & White's Elements of Style -- a book which not only endorses the Oxford Comma but also gives me the possessive apostrophe I very much deserve, in a one-two punch.

I beg to differ, Maira, I think you come pretty close.

Family members and good friends, please note my birthday is the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I look forward to receiving my copy.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put the finishing touches on my Maira alter.

Chair Excitement

Sorry for the slow posting, I have been at home smiling at my new chairs. Well, they're not new, more like born again, thanks to the help of Lenny Piekarski at Jacob Piekarski & Son Upholstery. He special ordered my my dream fabric, sped over in his furniture ambulance and took my sad hand-me-down chairs to his chair hospital, and delivered them back to me in an almost unrecognizable state.

Here are my grandmother's chairs before. Note the general wordown appearance, saggy cushions, and cat claw damage (not from my cats, Rufus only likes to destroy carpets, knock on wood).

Here they are after visiting Lenny and being worked on by two Italian brothers and Lenny's 90 year old father. (Apologies for the poor lighting, I haven't picked out any new lamps to go with the new look.)

This is my favorite detail on the whole chair, the double piping around the leg. So sexy.

When I look at the fabric, it makes me feel like this.

Here's a little sneak peek at the rest of the room, which I will write about more as the last details come together.

A Gem In The Woods of New Hampshire

Mr. SevPrez just completed a half-Ironman in Laconia, New Hampshire called the Timberman. This was our third time at the race and though our accomodations were lacking (I think people actually start booking their rooms 364 days in advance, which leaves slim pickings for those of us who believe reserving a room in June is plenty early), we found the greatest breakfast place in the Northeast, the Heritage Farm Pancake House.

I have to give you some background here. One thing you must know about half-Ironmans is that it takes the pros more than 4 hours to complete them. Many people will take almost twice as long. Luckily Mr. SevPrez is a superstar so I don't have to hang around all that long, but you add gear set up and take down, these suckers eat up the majority of your day. Pun intended, because as a spectator, if you don't think ahead and bring food from the outside world, you are cruising for a bruisin'. The athlete you are rooting for may end up assisting you back to the car instead of the other way around. And even if you manage to eat a sandwich and a banana, by the time you get showered up and ready to go out into the world again, you will be hungry. You will also be going out to eat with a person who just covered 70.3 miles without any help from a gas powered engine. So you will end up consuming a large amount of fatty foods surrounded by senior citizens who are getting their early bird special on. This will be your only meal of the day. You've been up and at 'em since 6 a.m., and your triathlete companion will be more pooped than you are, so you will go to bed ridiculously early.

Therefore you will need to seek out the assistance of a Pancake House the next morning to restore you to normalcy. We'd been eagerly noting the sign for the Heritage Farm Pancake House since we arrived in Laconia, and our high expectations were met by this quaint, old style family restaurant. Located about 4 miles off the main drag down a windy country road, the ambiance and food were exactly what we needed. I am not going out on a limb by saying these were the best pancakes I've ever eaten. They were nearly an inch thick, with your choice of about twelve flavors. They also came with bacon, eggs, home fries, juice, and coffee. For $10 per person. Here's the menu so you don't think I'm just making this up.

See?

And there's a petting zoo in the back with goats, ducks, hens, lambs, cows, and a donkey. Accordingly, this place is very kid friendly. We left with restored spirits and full bellies, prepared for our long journey home. Lucky for Mr. SevPrez, the discovery of the Heritage Farm Pancake House means I will always be up for rooting him on at the Timberman.