I made this up

Geoff was on another shoot on Saturday and I had yet ANOTHER day to myself. (Lovely. Am getting spoiled.) I made up a slightly random dinner. Even though I rarely cook, it is mostly because I never have the time. When I do have time, I actually enjoy it.

Poured myself a glass of wine, and put on some country music (going back to my roots a lil' bit - it makes me happy) and decided on zucchini, yellow squash and red onion, sauteed with olive oil and garlic. Again, chick food that I wouldn't really make if Geoff was here, but it's one of my summer favorites.


Also got pretty proud of myself for this additional feat of engineering. You know how when you are prepping food for cooking, you end up with trash - ends of veggies you don't use, onion & garlic skins, trimmed meat fat etc.... Well I turned my (unplugged) blender into a mini, temporary, counter top trash can. Way easier than negotiating getting things properly into a plastic bag when your hands are messy. Probably everyone else has thought of this already, but....I was still pleased with myself for getting the idea. That blender lives on the butcher block anyway - might as well make it multi-functional.


I'd bought a roasted chicken from the grocery store (which Geoff hates the smell of....I think because we had it a little too often on summer salads last year...overdid it a bit). I threw that in the pan too to warm it up a little. Put it all in a bowl and added a little salt and pepper and some crumbled feta cheese on top.


Kind of random to have all that in a bowl together. As opposed to: chicken with a side of squash & zucchini. But tasty. I would make it again.

Catching Up

I've mentioned we've been swamped the last few months. I think it may calm down a bit once June rolls around. In the interim....here are things you've missed in our lives.

Since we have limited cabinet space in the kitchen (the ones you see here are the ONLY ones we have, which is why we also have a bakers rack), Geoff came up with the idea of using the top of our cabinets for both artistic, and functional purposes. This is the beginning of it. Food & wine storage are key. Those wine bottles cost between $5 and $7 each and we actually really like them. Economical AND Tasty. An excellent combo.



We went to see the Norman Conquests (very funny British comedy) and stumbled upon another Accidental Paparazzi moment. Who knows who the woman in the trench coat is? And again, we were really taking a picture of the crowds and the review quotes behind her.


We had lunch with our friends Rich & Kelly who were in town celebrating their anniversary. He's a photographer, she's a physical therapist. Geoff shot their wedding, and Rich taught a photography seminar that we went to back in March. Which I STILL haven't blogged about. Ugh. OK, someday....but how cute are they?


We met this (brand new, JUST home from the shelter) puppy. Please. Could you just die?



I've decided that when I become a dog photographer, this will be the picture on my business card.


We've had brunch whenever possible, as it is often our only time together in a given week. Geoff likes to take pictures of me at brunch.



I like to take pictures of brunch at brunch.



We are into purchasing cheap flowers and produce whenever we pass them on the street. Bought some flowers today in fact. $8 for two bunches of chrysanthemums & spider mums and they'll last at least 10 days. Yes please.


My sunglasses did this again. Does this happen to anyone else? I bought new ones and they have been featured in nearly all of these pictures, as I mostly like to wear them as a headband.

I got my hair cut. Finally! Mom, here's the picture you asked for. Sort of. Geoff snapped one of me squinting into the sun, so it wasn't really for purposes of seeing my hair. Can't really fully see the cut, but you get the idea.



We have gone on two excellent biking trips into Manhattan for the day. More on those in another post.

Other than that we've been working like crazy people. And it's Saturday and I'm heading into the office for more of it right now.

Ghetto or Genius?

I have to confess something. Though I have organizational skills for sure, I'm also slightly a mess. Geoff has always affectionately referred to me as a ragamuffin. Which is a nice way of saying, "a slight disaster, but in a charming way".

I never send birthday cards on time, if ever. Or anniversary cards. Even though they are marked on my calendar. Important dates always sneak up on me. I haven't been to the dentist in over a year and a half. Not because I'm afraid of him but because I just can't get around to it. I need new contacts and really want new glasses. Can't get to the eye doctor either. Despite the fact that Geoff refers to my current pair of glasses as my "fat girl glasses". Meaning that they don't look like something his sexy wife would wear. They look like what the sad fat girl wore in middle school. And he's not wrong. But I still can't get to the glasses store for a new pair.

I once wore this pair of sunglasses all the way to work before I realized that they were broken.



And then I bought another pair and the exact same thing happened. Seriously? Seriously.


I have about 12 gift cards, some for significant amounts of money that we got as wedding presents that just sit in my purse because I don't have time to go to Bed Bath & Beyond. There are STACKS of folders with headshots near my desk that I just can't find time to file. I've only done half the thank you notes from our wedding. And the rest of them just give me the evil eye every time I get in late from the theatre and have to just fall into bed. Geoff has given me an "Inbox" in an attempt to organize my desk at home and I always forget to look in it. I go FAR too long before doing laundry. Which results in some questionable outfits. I always put my makeup on every morning on the subway on the way to work, as I inevitably run out of time while I'm getting ready at home. Despite introducing myself as Kate Boka, and having changed my work email, I've not even legally changed my name since the wedding because of all the paperwork and the running around all over the city to get it done. I have one black dress that I have worn to basically every opening night I've gone to since I've started this job over 4 years ago. As Geoff has pointed out on many occasions (in a nice, but slightly sad voice), I am not very good at doing the dishes, as apparently I consistently miss a spot. Or multiple spots. And you may remember the "half cocked" painting job I did on our kitchen.

But the most classic example, and truly the moment I realized just how busted I am, occurred last weekend. I was searching for an outfit to wear and pulled out a yellow shirt that I wore a lot in Italy....particularly you might remember it from the pictures of bike riding in Lucca. It has all these pleats on a band at the bottom and I haven't worn it since I washed it last and it was really wrinkled. However, I never iron anything. Mostly because our ironing board is broken and so we threw it out three weeks ago, but also because there's never any time for ironing. I just usually pick another outfit to avoid ironing. Which can take even longer than the ironing itself.

But I really felt this shirt calling to me and wanted to wear it. So there I was, standing alone in our bedroom, half dressed, running late, talking to myself and ironing my shirt with the flat iron that I am supposed to use on my hair. It actually worked pretty well on those pleats but of course, it couldn't reach the rest of the shirt. And I thought to myself....this is ridiculous. And yet.....(picture the lightbulb going on)...resourceful. Who else has to iron a shirt with a hair straightener because they haven't had time to buy an ironing board? Probably lots of inventive New Yorkers. And possibly they should use it as a challenge on the Amazing Race. Or maybe I should send it in as an idea to Real Simple for their "New Uses for Old Things" section. And yes, I totally abandoned the yellow shirt for a different outfit when the flat iron couldn't work past the pleats.

But perhaps we will now view my "ragamuffin-ness" as both charming AND resourceful. In the same way that my lack of dishwashing skills could just be viewed as a resourceful/innovative way to get Geoff to wash the dishes. Wonder what Real Simple would think about that idea....