dudes,

blogger's got me buggin', yo! first it reverted back to the beta-like version, making uploading photos/editing verrrry tedious. THEN it just stopped working all together. so, just know that this lapse has not been my fault! really! exclamation point! it's back up today, but still only the crap version. ugh. let's hope it's fixed by tomorrow, when i may have some fun pics/vids to share from my chorus concerts (more on that later)!

today, although i had vowed to sleep in as late as i wanted to, i was up at 7:30. that's ok though, because we've got a lot to do: first, unload our old, giant breakfront/liquor cabinet thing that's been in the living room. it's been real, but it's time for something way smaller in that space, and luckily we have someone to take it off our hands. then we're off to - you guessed it!- work on the home reno project. we'll pick out fabric for our dining room chairs and annoy anyone and everyone involved in making the last pieces of furniture, with the intent of reminding them to finish. now. then prep for tonight's concert, sing at said concert, and then dine with some friends who are kind enough to come watch said concert.

later on!

a song for thursday

heard this version of 'accentuate the positive' on the premier of treme's second season & loved it.  love john boutte.  happy thursday!

a weekend re-cap

this weekend was a low-key one for ben & i.  it started off with a royal celebration on friday night - for the big wedding, of course!  did you watch?  i most certainly did, even drank a cup of tea to mark the occasion.  of course, having been in london a few weeks back, i couldn't help but pick up one little piece of memorabilia being sold on the streets (actually, i found this in tk maxx)... and i almost forgot i had it, until we sat down for dinner on friday night...

ben's not terribly impressed

the happy couple

the remainder of our weekend wasn't quite as exciting, though we did spend the majority of saturday meeting with the folks who will design & build our new couch & chair & ottoman for the living room.  then we had to find a fabric to cover said furniture, and that was no easy task!  there are lots of fabric shops in siteler which the couch-makers deal with, but of course in turkey, people opt for news-print suede  far more often than say, a deep earthy orange, so we ended up settling (no, not for the news print!).  you'll have to wait to see what we ended up with - should be finished in 20 days, give or take - but i think you're going to like it!  

saturday night we entertained a couple of friends for a spring dinner.  i made a very special recipe which was taught to me by a binghamton friend & chef - chicken with a blueberry balsamic reduction sauce - along with roasted asparagus & salad.  i also tried a cook's illustrated recipe, a potato galette, which failed miserably upon inverting it onto the cutting board, despite following the instructions to a t... but i tossed it into a bowl & it still tasted great!  for dessert i baked a pound cake (my first, which turned out much more perfectly than the galette, and was delicious topped with a fresh strawberry compote).  all in all it was a fun evening and we were all stuffed silly afterward.

this week we haven't much planned, ben will be in istanbul for one night on business, and we have plans to celebrate a very special 2 year old boy's birthday on saturday.  i will try to take some pics & post them here, because aunt aydan in australia made it very clear that i need to get back to posting more pictures, more regularly!  happy tuesday, folks.