A much shorter version of the weekly recap coming right up.  You know those days following vacation where your body arrived but your mind took a later flight?

That.

As I cruised down the aisle of Costco I noticed lobster all neatly stacked next to the snow crab. Too soon?

I had a dish last week in Gloucester that was basically lobster alfredo and Super A loved it so I thought hey lets recreate that. So I bought the lobster.

Ta Dah. Made a basic bechamel sauce, added grated parmesan, fresh thyme, handful of chopped roma tomatoes and lobster meat. Served over a combo of (my new favorite) Rustichella d’Abruzzo’s Trofie mixed with their Bucatini. I even boiled down the shells and saved the broth for a future risotto when the weather gets cooler.  So good.

These bottles made me smile.  Recycling at its best. Someone posted that there only 13 more Fridays until Christmas?  Shudder. Correction* make that 15. But still..

Grocery shoppin. Aint no thing but a chicken wing , a little reminder of last week.

10 days … 4 hrs. and 5 minutes until first day of school.

I’m trying to savor these last days, I really am, but a part of me is completely over the lack of structure and abandonment of the daily upkeep (I’m guilty of this too.) My desk is frozen in time, it hasn’t changed since the last day of school. I feel like such a fraud, asking everyone around me to pick up, clean their room and put away their stuff. My stuff has been strewn all over this house since 2001, the year I went back to work and never looked back at the house letting things complete go sideways. I bring this up because secretly I made a pact with myself to clean it out over the summer. I work primarily from home in August so how could I not squeeze in a little reorganization? Well as usual I bit off a little more than I could chew.  There were more boxes than I knew what to do with and oh I forgot to mention my site broke just before I went on vacation so I spent the better part of the week trying to fix everything and coming this close to just pulling the plug.  I mean how could this be happening AGAIN? Didn’t I secure my stuff enough? I can’t even tell you what happened to break my site but there was a few hours of dead space here on the blog. Since then I got real smart and hired a company to take a look and basically rebuild, fortify and eventually move to a new home (virtually speaking) – you should notice that the site is 10x faster (or close to it) … there are a few new features rolling out soon too that I can’t wait to creatively explore. I moved my sister’s site too…

No summer camp for the next two weeks has proven to be challenging. I sprinkle in a few fun things like shopping for school supplies and trips to Justice in between trip to my office.

My son registered for school. He is a senior. We go out for a late breakfast of waffles (pecan for me). He orders coffee and I made a big deal about it.

We break out the phones and unleash a furry of GIFS at each other, that’s what we do from time to time.

He hits me with a million Prince GIFS. Seriously could I love this boy more?

he makes me forget about my cares with stuff like this …

But I have a feeling this is what Prince thinks about GIFS and 46 yr old women who post them on blogs.

ok seriously I need to stop with the GIFS that’s probably what’s killing me on my current data plan.

Later that week….

My sister invites us over for swimming and pizza’s on the grill.

My sisters cling wrap trick – wrap your counter, wrap your rolling pin. No dough left behind! And she claims not to be a cook. Well I have evidence she knows how to grill homemade pizza. First off we both agree King Arthur’s Perfect Pizza Blend Flour is THE BEST. Plus it helps that her BBQ kicks ass. I can barely get a steak to cook evenly, whereas she can probably cook a dozen all at the same time, all the perfect shade of pink inside. Scarpetta sauce and fresh basil are a must too.

The kids break out the kinetic sand, a favorite of Lily’s and mine too. I start the path of potty talk with the sand and pretend my hand is a color and well you get the picture. Lily loved my grossness.

This photo is one of those moments when I’m editing that I sit back and take a deep breath. It brings me such joy to see that smile and her twinkling crystal blue eyes. We talked about Lily’s accident when we drove over earlier. It usually comes up, I’m sure all of us have a small fracture in our soul over what happened in this backyard two years ago. Even my sister brings it up. She shared that it is impossible for her not to think of that day when they invite us over. I admit that we talked about the accident on the way over. I confess that I can’t wear that stripped cover up I was wearing anymore. She smiles and said yeah, me too, some days it feels like yesterday.

Lily and I have these moments where we just gaze at one another. I can feel her trying to connect with me. Her smile will soften and she wont blink, she just sits there and looks deep within. My sister says it happens only with some people. I feel like I’m the luckiest one to get that amount of attention from her. I know my Lil is there trying hard to catch up with everything…. grasping things with her hands, swallowing every time, holding her head up and trying her hardest to find her voice. Its been a long road and some days it must seem like its getting longer. I wonder what she thinks about all of this. I keep telling her I can’t wait to hear her tell the story.

From my sisters balcony that night. We stood there and talked about how the day felt much like that day two years ago. How people come and go out of your life and then disappear altogether. I encouraged her to write it all down, or at least get it out somehow. Sometimes feelings can bind you like chains and prevent you from doing the things that you love or loving the ones you are with.  I sat there and listened to my own advice and decided that this space was worth fighting for, hacked or not.

One more week of summer vacation left. I think I’m going to runaway for a few days, one weekend night with my sister is never enough.

Flashback //Mark2// Maui // 08.10.12

Things I bookmarked this week //

• Rob Lowe on Sending His Son Off To College – I aspire to write like Rob. Also this will be my swan song next summer too.
• Understanding Golden Hour Blue Hour Twilights – explains the colors before dawn, at dawn, before sunset and after. (like the colors above)
• Photographer Ashley Goodwin – Hawaii based and lover of film! I feel like we could be friends. Great blog for other like minded photographers who also call themselves “artieeeests“.
• LA photographer alexprager.com – I saw her work recently, for the longest time I didn’t realize I wasn’t looking at real movie stills. You can see more of her work on artsy.net.
• Pandora, Liquid Mind channel, Healing, Anugama >> Here it is on youtube.
• Salty Chocolate Chunk Cookies on Epicurious (a PMS staple)
• JCREW Wide Leg Crop (they are calling them wide leg I’m calling them culottes), either way hey are SOLD OUT, so I’m checking back to see if they get more.
• IWL.me give them a sampe of your writing nd they will tell you which famous writer your writing style most reseemles. I’m David Foster Wallace so naturally I ordered one of his books off Amazon.

Onwards and upwards! Check back for Week 35 when I completely ditch my obligations and head north to the Sierra Nevadas… coming soon.