Obama's White House China

By way of confession, we are total White House nerds. This week has been an especially good week for nerds like us because we had the White House correspondents' dinner over the weekend and the  unveiling of the Obama State China Service Monday, although I should clarify that only the girls and I really care about the china unveiling.  To further come clean, the china patterns of past presidents has been an oft frequented rabbit hole of yours truly, and the only reason I haven't purchased one of the many books documenting the china of the White House is that I cannot decide which one to select. Plus, I would want to use the book as a coffee table book and, well, colorful, inviting books do not always fare well with William George.

Otherwise, I am fascinated with the China Room. Basically, if I were allowed into our nation's capitol, for the "good" tour, my priorities would be 1) Oval Office; 2) residence; 3) the China Room and 4) the Situation Room. For some reason, the "sit room" seems like it would be just another bad conference room, albeit with state-of-the-art technology, whereas the China Room would be lovely. Since there is no "good tour" looming on the horizon, this tour will have to suffice.

Some very lucky ladies were invited to the Obama State China unveiling. You can read Design Sponge's recap, as well as Apartment Therapy's write up.  See the full collection here. Clinton's and Woodrow Wilson's are my personal favorites.

Also, how adorable is Curator Bill Allman? He's like a modern-day Carson from Downton Abbey. 

The Greatest Hoodie Ever

I'm not really a hoodie person, what with being over 30 and all, but I do love a good sweatshirt. When the sweatshirt made a comeback last year, I was ecstatic because I had already transitioned from the cashmere sweaters I used to wear to work to the more durable and stain/laundry/mom-to-young-children resistance of the sweatshirt. And to be clear, Comfort Colors is the best. I purchased several Comfort Colors sweatshirts emblazened with logos (e.g., Seaside, Alabama Crimson Tide, etc.), and then realized I could find them on Amazon or possibly picked up on a buyer's direct type of site, devoid of logo and without the extra trademark surcharge.

An important aside and PSA: know the difference between pigment dyed and garment dyed, friends. Pigment dyed is a chemical-free process and usually has a deeper, richer color. Pigment dyed sweatshirts are gorgeous. However, a deal-breaking downside is the dye rubbing off... on one's skin, on one's tan leather car seat, etc. Garment dyed is a slightly less impressive in terms of color (it's a little washed out when compared with the richness of pigment dye), but does not turn one's upper torso forest green, as an example. Not that that happened to me... on vacation... on Marco Island... leaving my arms looking a little fungal green or anything.

The newest sweatshirt item of interest is the "greatest hoodie ever made" from American Giant that I have been hearing about for months.  Slate declared it the "greatest sweatshirt known to man" back in 2012, a mere ten months after the company's formation. After the Slate article, the company's four US-based plants were inundated with orders, causing an up to four months long backlog, as described in this 2013 Business Insider article. CEO Winthrop's desire to create a sweatshirt reminiscent of his father's Navy sweatshirt from the 50's has a storybook feel. Not surprisingly, a former Apple engineer (he worked on the first iPhone) is the American Giant creative director who helped design the hoodie, as explained by Wired's 2014 article discussing the two year old company. Omar Shahine included the company's video demonstrating how the product is made in his 2014 post. Finally, Men's Fitness nabbed an interview with the CEO.

Certainly, we know what Fran Liebowitz would think of this pajama-wear, and I doubt Anna Wintour will be featuring it in the sacred pages of Vogue any time soon. But I am intrigued.

Photo credit: American Giant

Weekend Update

Happy Monday, friends. Are you as shocked as I am that the month of April is over? We are always excited to see May roll around, even if it tends to be exceptionally busy. This past weekend was the calm before the storm, and we spent it as low key as possible.

Lauren and Grace had a class field trip on Friday, and I tagged along as a chaperone. We left school at 8:45 and took the bus to the McWane Center. I had forgotten how loud 45 children on a bus can be... or how loud they can be once inside McWane. It sounded like children had taken over a busy Vegas casino! Our group consisted of five girls, and I have to admit they were incredibly sweet, well behaved and posed minimal flight risk. Well, one was a moderate flight risk, but that just kept us on our toes.  They were the most awesome group of girls ever.

Gracie enjoying the bubble zone

Lauren and friends catnapping during the ride back to school

The duo had a game Saturday that we were certain would be canceled due to rain, but it was not. Parents at the game wore the same expressions of children whose snow day dreams have been dashed when they awaken to clean streets and yards. Although it had rained all night, we were clear to play in the mud. Gracie got on base three times -- twice with doubles -- and ultimately scored twice, earning two of our team's four-point total. Unfortunately, the other team scored 8 points for the win. Although Lauren struggled with batting, she had some good offensive plays as pitcher and at second base, earning her team a couple of outs. William George is learning some good lessons about patience in the dug out. He enjoys a snack on the bench while the team is batting, and then he and I play while they are in the field. So far he has been a total champ.

Skip pitching to Lauren

After the game, we picked up lunch at Burger King (don't be envious of our extravagant tastes :), came home and crashed. Skip visited with his mom who has been sick and was not feeling well at all Saturday, and the trio had some quiet time while I attempted to restore order to our home.

Footage of one of the doubles:


Softball (Grace) 2015 from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

Skip says Gracie can play this clip to a future therapist one day...  complaining about how he gruffly told her to advance to second complete with an aggressive hand gesture. She can also bemoan the fact that her mom missed the crucial first two seconds of the whole swing/contact part.

Later when Skip went out to pick up dinner, he ran a loooong-anticipated errand. By way of backstory, Skip has always been a Blackberry man. He loves the product and has mourned their decline over the last few years. His company has debated continuing to provide support for their use, and during one of those times when it seemed unlikely, he made the move to an iPhone. That was two years ago, and he has never really loved the device. He loves his iPad, and he appreciates my iMac. However, he says the phone is difficult to type on, and the screen is too small (whatever that means). He has a list of complaints that I don't particularly agree with, but I celebrate and embrace obtaining the device of his choice. He certainly tolerates my handbag obsession. However, he does ridicule it, and I tend to do the same with his Blackberry preference.

Anyrate, when he went out for dinner, he stopped by the store and picked up a Blackberry Passport. The store had stocked a total of three (HA!) in its inventory, and Skip nabbed their last one. I'm trying to talk him into writing a review for the blog.  Skip enjoyed exploring his new device while we had dinner and a movie night.

We also spent the weekend avoiding key areas of our small town. We had a festival in town this weekend, but the event was kind of a muddy, wet mess. We normally go, but decided between the rain and the McWane fatigue we would wait and catch it next year. We strategically avoided the carnival equipment and other telltale signs of the festival in order to preserve sanity. While writing about dodging a fun festival, I feel like a stick in the mud; however, we have three games this week, as well as two school activities, making my self-preservation seem like a smart move overall.

A Few Days in Phoenix

Last week I tagged along with Skip on an work trip to Phoenix. We had a blast!

Here's what transpired:

Day One: We spent the morning traveling (early flight to Phoenix through Atlanta). I don't want to brag, but I think I successfully established that I am fun to travel with. I'm not sure how Skip will handle his next work flight without me. (Just kidding, obviously.) We landed and met up with the rest of his group at the rental car area. We checked in, and then grabbed lunch by the pool at the Arizona Biltmore. The property was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is as spectacular as one might imagine. After lunch, we went shopping (one of many perks of traveling with two women!), and then we had dinner at The Henry.

Day Two: Skip worked all day Thursday. I slept in, ordered room service and spent a leisurely morning showering (read: longer than the usual two minutes), getting ready and packing. We relocated to a resort, and I spent the day reading by the pool. It was heavenly.

After Skip's day concluded, we went to Scottsdale for dinner. Since Skip was having a Chinese or Thai craving and since I am very suggestible, we settled on PF Chang's. I know... a chain... don't judge. When a craving strikes, you have to satisfy it.

Day Three: Skip took Friday off. Since I made the afternoon at the pool sound so enticing, Skip and I repeated it on Friday. We read, lounged and took in some desert sun.

Later we went to Cowboy Ciao. We started with the famous Stetson Salad (smoked salmon, dried corn, lettuce, couscous, black currants and pine nuts), and then followed up with the filet and the pastrami-style smoked short ribs, the latter of which was a show stopper. It blew my filet away. We'll be spending significant amounts of time trying to recreate the magic of their three-day brine.

Day Three: On Saturday, we struck out for the mountains. Ideally, we would have planned this outing for Friday and then lounged on Saturday, but the weather for the mountains was clearer on Saturday. We had gotten lots of opinions about scheduling a day trip to the Grand Canyon from Phoenix, most of those were of the don't-do-it/it's-too-hard variety. Ultimately, we decided we were relatively too close to pass it up, and so we left early Saturday morning. We went by Sedona and Flagstaff, both of which are beautiful, making the drive fun in and of itself. We arrived at the Canyon and did more of a driving tour in order to get the most out of the day. We were unable to hike or do the mule sightseeing, but we were able to walk out onto the rocks and take in the spectacular view. We had a late lunch and made our way back to the desert.

After a very lengthy day, we were ready for an indulgent meal at Culinary Dropout. Although the food was good and there was live music, the name is the best part of the establishment. To be fair, maybe we were exhausted, or maybe Cowboy Ciao is a tough act to follow.

Day Four: By Sunday, we were ready to get home to our sweet trio. We got in, scooped them up from Gran & Poppa (Thanks again for watching them! Can't thank you enough!) and came home. There's no place like it.

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PHX

We are doing something fun this week. For the first time since the girls were born, eight and a half years ago, we are traveling alone. Skip had a meeting in Phoenix, and I tagged along. He often travels to Phoenix, and he has been after me for years to accompany him. The timing has never been right... the children were too young, etc. This week, however, we left them in their grandparents capable hands (thanks, Gran and Poppa!), and I am sitting by the pool underneath the desert sun while Skip is in a meeting.

We miss them terribly, of course. 

We are signing off for the week. Have a wonderful weekend.

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Living Museum

A few weeks ago, the duo's second grade class put on a Living Museum. Each student was assigned an admirable and noteworthy person to portray, and parents, family and the community were allowed to attend. 

Grace was assigned Eleanor Roosevelt, and she loved it. She researched Eleanor, memorized her presentation and carefully put together her costume. We had to get creative with her hairstyle, and we opted for pin curls to try to create an adult hairstyle. 

Lauren was assigned Susan B. Anthony, and she really enjoyed being an activist. We had a lengthy discussion about Anthony's arrest (for voting) and the notion that sometimes it is necessary to break the law in order to effectuate change.  Lauren, a natural rule-follower, was fascinated by the notion of Anthony, Rosa Parks and other historical figures breaking the rules and being considered heroes for doing so. 

Gracie was very nervous initially but became more comfortable as the morning went on. After two and half hours of performing, she was more tired than nervous.



Living Museum: Eleanor Roosevelt from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

Lauren was slightly less nervous, but her voice was so small during the performance.



Living Museum: Susan B. Anthony from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

This was our favorite project to date, and the entire second grade took their roles seriously and carefully crafted their performances.  We were so proud of all of them.

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Happy Birthday to Grammie

We recently (back on March 16th) helped my mom, otherwise known as Grammie, usher in a new decade (one that won't be specified here, in a public forum).  

Gram, we hope it's your best year yet!

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Easter 2015

The trio awoke Sunday morning and got ready for church (our church no longer has the Saturday night Easter service, and we miss it), and then discovered that the Easter bunny had arrived!  They raided their baskets, had a quick breakfast and then we went to church. 

After church we snapped a few photos. In an effort to be included in the photos, Skip helped me locate the timer option, and we took a few family photos (in the worst light ever - sorry!). There is still some work to do because, apparently, the person diving in the photo at the last minute is destined to be out of focus. I'm including it because Skip is making me, but we have work to do with our timer, friends.

After a quick photo session, we went to Gran and Poppa's house for Easter lunch. We also had an impromptu egg hunt in their back yard. Pixie tried to help, of course.

The Easter Bunny left some goodies for the trio, including a bat and ball set. Having heels and dress clothes on did not slow them down one little bit.

We had a wonderful Easter, and many thanks to G & P for their hospitality!

PS: Remember past Easter Sundays (2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008)?

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Spring Break 2015 (Part Two)

The remaining days of our spring break trip were spent in classic vacation mode. After our last trip (to Marco Island) Grace announced that she liked our schedule there better... "You know, when we spent the morning at the pool and then the afternoon at the beach?" 

Yes, we know, and we are longing for that schedule now that we are back to our regular routine.  

Our typical schedule involved spending the morning at the pool, and then walking around the village, looking at shops, yachts and maybe grabbing lunch. Sometimes there was ice cream (forgive the ice cream splatters on Grace's pants, as sometimes the cone explodes on you :).  William George's swimming improved, and he was swimming from one end of the pool to the other (with a life preserver), and the girls made lots of friends this trip. Those conversations were fun to overhear, and we couldn't help but giggle along with them. 

On our last day, per tradition, we stopped in Seaside for lunch and a little shopping, and then headed home in time for Easter.