Phew!

Matt and Hobbes look how I feel! Tuckered out!

Today was a momentous day at work for me. Since the beginning of last summer I've been working on an entirely new curriculum for a program that I run for middle school girls. Today was their last day of class with me, and they gave an in-class performance based on what they had learned. Many of my co-workers, as well as the girls' families were in attendance. The whole thing went off without a hitch!

I was so nervous all week, because this was the culmination of not only my students' work, but A LOT of work on my part. I should've realized that I had nothing to worry about. The girls carried it all! I was a very proud teacher today.

Feeling Sentimental

I was going through some old photos today, and I found some primo, hilarious ones of me and my friend Mark. I wish that my scanner was working, but alas, it is not cooperating. So that you can put a face to the name, here's a picture that I *do* have of Mark and our friend Megan at my wedding.



Instead of silly photos, let's walk down memory lane together instead.

Mark and I became tight pretty much the instant that we met. I was a senior in high school when he was a freshman. He was dragged by a gaggle of girls to the "Swing Club," which I happened to be the president of (NERD ALERT!). We *were* in the height of the swing revival. Remember the Gap Khaki Ad?



I wasn't sold on Gap's khaki's, but man I was sold on swing dancing!

But, I digress...

So, me being the president of the swing club, and Mark being one of the only boys, (certainly the best-looking, least smelly and lightest on his feet), he became my dance partner by default, and soon enough a very good friend. We had a much in common, including a mutual obsession with a certain poet named e.e. cummings.

Oh e.e. cummings...Mark and I spent many an afternoon sitting on the stone wheel between the main building of St. Thomas Aquinas High School and Notre Dame Hall reading e.e. cummings aloud to each other, and analyzing it to bits! We would bust into giggle fits at the less weighty words in e.e.'s poems, "flatulence" being one of the ones that comes to mind. Seriously! How can you read "flatulence" out loud in the context of a poem and not die with laughter?!

Tonight, I went to my bookshelf after flipping through my pictures and picked up my much dog-eared copy of 100 Selected Poems by e.e. cummings with "Sarah Duclos" written in silver ink on the top right hand corner of the front cover. I opened it, read, and remembered back to a time in my life where every trivial matter was "major" and so steeped in seriousness, and yet, so fun.

Here's one of my all time faves:

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
( touching skillfully, mysteriously ) her first rose

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

Ten years later, I barely had to refer to my book to type that out!

Tomorrow's a big day at work. Time to get some rest for a big day, goodnight!

Style School :: My Style Profile

NAME: Sarah aka Geek+Nerd

STYLE ICONS:

Famous Peeps

Dita Von Teese





Audrey Tautou



>

Zooey Deschanel







Audrey Hepburn







Kate Hudson









Flickr Peeps

Verhext
Made by Tess
Mame*
Ann LaLa
Becktress
Keiko Lynn

DECADE:: a weird mash-up of 40's 50's and 60's

FAVORITE COLORS:: Red, Green, Orange, Brown, Blue, especially light turquoisey blue!

INSPIRATION SOURCES: My Flickr Faves , Etsy, Craftster, the 1,000,000 blogs that I read daily, here are inspiring pages that I've bookmarked on del.ico.us.

3 WORDS TO DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE: Quirky, Vintage, Girly

STYLE GOALS: I want to spruce up my wardrobe and continue to work on making our new apartment homey.

Fighting the Winter Blues Playlist

Tonight I worked on a mix for the "Fighting the Winter Blues" CD swap on Swap-bot. This is my niece's fiance's first swap-hosting experience ever, so I was glad to sign up. I think this mix might possibly be one of the weirdest mixes that I've ever made, and I'm not sure that I'm entirely happy with the "flow." There are a few tracks that I could not find on Playlist.com. Track 09 would be Science? Showbiz? Who Cares? by Less Than Jake, and the version of Hip Hip Chin Chin that I have is better. These are all songs that make me want to bounce around and sing! Just the prescription to take the winter gloomies away!

Thoughts? What are your go-to happy dance songs?

Chores, chores, chores

Today I:

• had my first rehearsal with my dance company in a few months. It was nice! Now I am sore.


• came home and did SO MANY DISHES. Seriously, I washed like five sinks full. My kitchen was out of control.


• washed my lace tablecloth, above, because I spilled coffee on it yesterday. I can't really tell if I got the stain out :( I'll be able to really tell when it's finished drying. Cross your fingers!


• made kale and potato soup with chili for lunch this week. I divided it into containers, putting some in the fridge and one in the freezer. I'm going to experiment with sticking one soup container in the freezer every time I make a batch, so that I can get a soup rotation going. Usually I eat the same pot of soup for lunch for days in a row, and that routine is getting BORING.


• cleared my dining room table and put a fresh tablecloth on it. This is one of my favorite chores to do. I love pretty tables :)

It is still early, Matt's not home, and I feel like there is still more cleaning to be done, but my feet are getting tired on me!!! I think maybe I will have a little tea and check out the new issue of Readymade that showed up in my mail this week.

Hope your Sunday was as happy and productive as mine!

Chipping away...

...at the mess that is my house right now! Hurray for small triumphs!



This is my clean fridge with food in it.

((( Is this not *THE* most thrilling blog post you've ever read in your life?!?! )))

In actuality getting the aforementioned food to my fridge was a triumph of epic proportions today. Here is why: I did a huge shopping trip, after my dance class this morning, and when I went up to the register and swiped my trusty debit card it was DECLINED. Not once, not twice, three times my friends.

Now, I was embarrassed, but not worried at this point. My card has been compromised in the past, and a quick call to my bank's customer service usually fixes the situation. The people at Whole Foods kindly offered to stick my groceries in the cooler while I gave my bank a call.

I went out to my car, hopped on the phone, called customer service to be told, "Oh, we shut that card off."

"Umm, why?"

"Well, we are switching over from Mastercard to Visa debit cards. We sent notification of the switchover and your new card to you weeks ago."

"No you didn't."

"Well, we're sorry about that. Is there anything else that we can do for you today?"

"Uhh, yes, I am sitting outside of my grocery store, with a load of groceries inside. Could you reactivate my card so that I can at least pay for my groceries?"

"I'm sorry miss, we can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because we are longer using Mastercard."

"WELL CLEARLY I AM STILL USING MASTERCARD."

It didn't get any prettier from there. There were loud, tense words involved. No four-letter ones, I kept those in, with no benefit to my blood pressure, which was skyrocketing.

The best thing my stupid bank is doing for me is over-nighting a new card to me on Monday, which I will receive on Tuesday. They wanted to charge me $25 dollars for this, to which I replied "THERE IS NO WAY I AM PAYING FOR A SCREW UP THAT YOU MADE." As it stands, they still have to deduct the charge from my count, but "a supervisor will credit it back right away." Hmm. We shall see. I'm going to be one pissed off puppy if I have to call the bank again to squabble over $25.

Meanwhile, the dear sweet Whole Foods employees agreed to take my husband's credit card numbers over the phone, so that I could grab my groceries and go on my merry way.

Citizens Bank=FAIL...Whole Foods=WIN

Anyways, this is all to say, that aside from that unpleasant customer service experience, today was a much better day than yesterday. I slept like a rock last night, took a nice dance class today, made a delicious tuna melt (from a new cook book, more on this soon) and I'm making minor headway on cleaning my house. Tomorrow, I have my first rehearsal with my dance company since summer and then a full day of washing dishes and cooking when I get home. Bird by bird my friends, bird by bird.

Five Senses Friday

smelling:

last night, honey mustard bbq wings

hearing:

a plane taking off from Logan Airport

tasting:

too much takeout, again, and not enough home cooked goodness.

seeing:

stuff EVERYWHERE. dishes EVERYWHERE.

feeling:

OVER-TIRED and OVERWHELMED. bad bought of insomnia last night. thinking, thinking, thinking, until 6:00am. Looking forward to a restful weekend and happy at the prospect of reclaiming my house.

Making Do and Mending

For the most part, I wear hand knit socks every day. Since my hand knits literally get many miles put on them, sometimes they need a little TLC. My mending pile was becoming overwhelming to look at, so I jumped in and darned a few pairs of socks this past week.







I was struck by how unbelievably bright my darned patches look on the socks. Man those puppies have faded! Mr. G+N said to me, "Pfft, don't buy that wool again!" To which I retorted, "No, no hun, that is the nature of a well loved sock!"

I have not been feeling particularly crafty the past few weeks. Perhaps it's the holiday let down. When I don't have the energy to make something entirely new, I love to mend. It's nice to be able to resuscitate something handmade, like a pair of well loved socks. :)

What about all of you? Are you menders? Or do clothing repairs scare you?

Five Senses Friday

smelling:

scones baking in my kitchen

hearing:

rediscovering old cds that I haven't *really* listened to from start to finish since college. some goodies that came out were: ben folds five: whatever and ever amen and bjork: post

tasting:

butternut squash soup for lunch today. another splurgy date night on sushi (i've cooked every other night this week I swear!), tasty guava goddess kombucha before bed.

seeing:

fear and loathing in las vegas. i'm not quite sure that i liked it. i'm not quite sure what happened in that movie at all really!?!

feeling:

an overwhelming sense of sadness about all of the news streaming out of haiti. when I heard someone say on the radio that the national palace was to haiti as the white house is to the united states, and now it is in ruins...my heart sank, and I felt pain just as I did when our country was attacked on 9/11.

this interview with Governor General Michaëlle Jean of Ottawa, Canada reduced me to tears.



I will be making a small donation to Boston-based Partners in Health, who have been operating in Haiti for over twenty years. Boston has the third largest Haitian population in the country, so I feel that I must rally around my surrounding community to help the relief effort. I urge you to do what you can too, even if it's just lighting a candle and saying a prayer.

Hug your loved ones tight! I know I have this week.

Resolving to COOK

One of my resolutions this year is to cook more often, take out less. Finding a balance between work and home has been a bit of a challenge since I found myself in a nine to five job for the first time in, oh, six years, a few months ago. Home-cooking has slipped away in favor of convenience these past months, but that is not a habit that my health, conscience or wallet can sustain!



Matt gave me a 52 week meal planner by The Small Object for Christmas. (It does not appear to be in stock on the website). I am so excited to use it because a) I think it will hold me accountable to cook the food that I buy, creating less waste and b) I will be able to take a comprehensive look at what we ate during the year. I'm very excited about this last point, because I have been thinking how great it would be to keep track of what we ate for a year, then to use that record as a guide to what we should grow, preserve or buy in bulk for the following year. Also, it's a great way to keep track of recipes that were a success, and recipes that were one hit wonders.

I've already been cooking up many dishes this week. Here is what my first entry looks like:

Monday:

Dinner: Wheat pizza topped with olive oil, arugula, prosciutto and Monte Vernon cheese.

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Baked Farmgirl Fare's Cranberry Christmas Scones. I froze half for breakfast next week!

Dinner: Burgers with Baked Fries. If you try the baked fries, follow the comments and only set your oven to 400 F. Last night I coated mine in celery seeds, turmeric and garlic salt.

Wednesday:

Lunch: Turkey sandwich

Dinner: Ordered pizza - but for a good cause. My supervisor at worked got locked out of her office containing her keys, her phone, her husband's keys and their money. Their two children were at the studio, so I ordered pizza to provide dinner for every one. Luckily the locksmith arrived and saved the day, just as everyone's bellies were full.

Currently making Maple Butternut Squash Soup and Cheddar and Rosemary Scones, tweaked from the recipe here.

Thursday

Lunch: Butternut Squash Soup and Scones!

Dinner: Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Lemon, Arugula and Pistachios via Martha

Friday:

Dinner: Same pizza as Monday

Saturday:

Dinner: Swiss Chard Risotto with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

That's all I have so far, and I am excited! I think that this weeks menu is the perfect balance of old favorite and new goodies to try!

What about you, dear readers? Do you have any tried and true dinner stand-bys? Any new recipes you've been eyeing lately? Tell me all about it in the comments. Cheers!

Happy Weekend Recap

The triple birthday party madness was such fun on Saturday night! My friend Zana took some excellent photos...

faulty conscience rocking out in the kitchen



birthday girl #1 liz, clearly having fun!



when looking at the following photo i commented to matt, "sabrina and mcsweeney look like they are walking down the aisle to get married...



which made the next photo we clicked to seem all the more hilarious



birthday girl #2, stef



birthday girl #3, annie, who looked so pretty!



more singing



kisses for liz!



zana, the photographer, and sabrina



Unfortunately the party was cut short by THE COPS SHOWING UP. Oops! So as fun as it was, it was an early night for me and Mr. G+N.

***

On Sunday night we had a little impromptu date night. We went to Sei Bar a Thai/Japanese/sushi bar down the street. It was DELICIOUS. We ordered way to much food and left in a state of happy food coma.

Then we went to go see NINE which was fabulous! I had read terrible reviews for it, and was prepared to be disappointed, however it is one of my all time favorite musicals, so I just had to see the movie anyways. I was so pleasantly surprised! It was well acted, well sung and had a fabulous cast. The cinematography was beautiful and showed such lovely views of Italy. I can't wait until it comes out on DVD so that I can watch it again and again!

I've been having some cooking adventures, which I hope to report on soon! Cheers!

I'm goin' out tonight!

I was feeling a little pin-uppy today.



I attempted a new take on Victory rolls, inspired by this photo on Flickr. It took me awhile to finagle! It's really hard to get a nice smooth roll with super layered hair, like mine. I smoothed the rolls out with a little water and pomade. I just have to slap on a little ruby red lipstick - which I always do at last minute, because after that point the hubs refuses to kiss me on the lips, HA - and I'll be ready to go.

We're off to a joint birthday party for three dear friends at the punk-house. It's always a raucous affair, we'll see if I make it out alive!

Cheers!

Five Senses Friday

smelling:

my cozy wool sweater. mmm. wool.

hearing:

the whooosh of our heating vent...eek! and now a car alarm! that's annoying! phew it's gone.

feeling:

hugs and kisses from a certain sleepy hubby.

tasting:

a little sandwich i whipped up with some leftover salmon

seeing:

some beautiful pictures on flickr,

spoons
more spoons
paul's homemade chocolates
gift shawl

Inspired by the delightful and talented Abby

Lil' Addiction

I hope that all of you are enjoying the random posts as of late. I've decided that in addition to blogging about crafting, cooking and dancing, that I want to try and capture more of the "little moments" here. I've been really inspired by my sister's blog snippets these days. So yes, that is how I am feeling these days. So here is a random factoid about me.

Factoid.

I have a little major addiction to eating sweetened condensed milk straight from the can. Maybe this isn't shocking coming from the girl who likes to do shots of maple syrup.



Thank goodness this is not an ingredient that is regularly stocked in my pantry. I bought a can to make filling for Christmas cookies, that never ended up being baked due to my insane bout of sickness. Nope, this jar's destiny is a trip to my tummy, one spoonful at a time.

When I was younger, my mom usually had a can in the fridge for recipes. She would poke two holes in the top to pour the syrupy goodness out. Little did she know that I would pour it out spoonful by spoonful when she wasn't home. Sorry, mom.

In other news, Style School starts in a few days and I have a) not done my homework and b) not purchased any supplies (lack of funds) Boy, am I a stellar student already! HA! Perhaps I shall dig into my homework tonight...

HOLY AWESOME

Walked out the door, on my way to work, this morning to find this on my door step:



:::Minus the tomatoes and carrots of course :::

HOLY AWESOME! It's a 23-quart Presto Pressure Canner. You can put 20 pint jars in this baby...it is HUGE! A small turkey could fit inside this thing easily. WOW. Such an awesome way to start my morning. This will allow me to dive deeper into the land of canning this year. So pumped!

Thanks, (I think), goes to my in-laws. Excellent second parents indeed.

That's Not My Name

Last Saturday night, I braved the snow to see my honey's band play at the Lucky Dog Music Hall in Worcester





The Lucky Dog has some of the coolest decor of any venue that we've been to. The interior walls are all painted a deep blue, and saturated with glitter. The walls gleam in the low lighting of the bar, and kitsch is every where adding to the ambience!

Before Mr Geek+Nerd's band, The Swaggerin' Growlers , got up to play I heard one of my new favorite songs come over the stereo system, That's Not My Name by The Ting Tings. It's ridiculous and catchy, as any good pop song should be:



Sometimes when I listen to catchy pop, the music just takes over and I've gotta move. My friend Chesnut captured these hilarious pictures:

they call me girl...



they call me stacy...they call me her...



they call me jane...



that's not my name...that's not my name...that's not my name...that's not...my...name!



Resolution to dance, dance, dance in 2010? Check!

Holiday Handmade Crusade :: January Theme!

I sat down a few days ago to write this post, and it became too epic. I am hoping for 2010 to be a big year of changes and improvements to the Holiday Handmade Crusade, but these changes will be spread over time, instead of packed into one enormous post! Bear with me...

Follow this link to find out more about the Holiday Handmade Crusade...



Welcome back 2009 crusaders, and hello 2010! Let's talk January theme, eh?

Every little thing she does is magic: As we wind down from the craziness of the holidays, let begin to prepare for next year in a little way. Some suggestions include: make ornaments, make stocking stuffers, make cute holders for giving gift cards, make small gifts that you can store away, like those for teachers, co-workers, etc. The point is...just *DO* something.

Leave a comment on this post with a link to a blog entry showing your finished item by January 31, 2010 11:59 PM EST for the chance to win a fabulous prize!

Happy crafting,

Your Craftastic Christmas Crusader

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

Some things that I would like to do in 2010, in no particular order...

1. Make a quilt
2. Write a zine
3. Go on a road trip with Matt
4. Dance, dance, dance
5. Sew a skirt
6. Work to make the Holiday Handmade Crusade bigger and better
7. Make prints of our digital photographs to decorate our apartment
8. Choreograph a new piece
9. Grow a garden
10. Connect with the local food community
11. Join a Stitch n' Bitch in Boston
12. Cook more, fall back on take-out less
13. Enjoy the outdoors more often
14. Knit a sweater

I am sure that there are more things, I am just too sleepy to think of them right now! Happy New Years!