I hung an Indian tapestry - which is made up of pieces of vintage saris - on my bedroom wall. I'm really pleased with it. Yesterday I bought upholstery fabric to get the seat pads on my dining chairs recovered.

I took my 3 year old to a pool party. He had a great time even though it was a little chilly. He cried when it was time to leave. He's a little fishie in the water and has a cute Coppertone tan line/white bottom in spite of the sunscreen drenching he gets daily. So yeah, a good day.

Not having much fun myself, in fact this will go down in history as a crap weekend, but I will mention the only bright spot -- my first ripe tomatoes. Almost ripe, anyway. Sweet 100 cherries.

Had a big farewell brunch for a friend who is moving to Chicago today. It was fun, although the "unlimited mimosas" were suspiciously light on champagne.

Went to a patio christening party at a friend's new house. Bunch of CMU geeks sitting around drinking beer and eating cupcakes. They have a classic Pittsburgh house, a little tiny red brick cape cod on a street of what had been identical houses fifty years ago.

I bailed on going to watch my dance teacher perform at some cafe after it took me over an hour to go 5 miles on 495.

I'm planning on making pizza and tortellinis later today. I like cooking. I just wish there were more people to eat my stuff.

I saw a friend who is in town from Atl, went to a fun concert in central park, went to the beach at Coney Island by myself for the morning, and snuggled with the bunny. That was the entertaining stuff.

Then I did a bunch of house stuff today: I removed the mini-bookshelf that had been holding some of my shoes in my closet and put it in the hall where it can take the overflow of my books that don't fit on the bigger shelf.
Then I hung a wall-mount shoe rack in the closet and quickly filled it up (OMG I have too many shoes), then hammered in a bunch of nails to hang my scarves on one side of the closet so my belts can hang more freely on the other side.
I also found a new place for my socks and my nailpolish.
I changed some long burned-out lightbulbs.

Now I have to mend some clothes, do the laundry, and go grocery shopping.
It's a very fix-it type day. I hope I get it all done before I get burnt out.

I went to a wedding last night and was seated right next to Tracey Ullmann and her husband (the bride and groom met when they were both working on her show). She's a HOOT (natch) and they were both as sweet as could be, and she and I both involuntarily gave the same little giddy shriek/jump of joy when the DJ put some Bowie on.

My glamourous Hollywood lifestyle continues today: I took the dogs for a walk and am now going to the gym.

This week, our "weekend" is Sunday & Monday.

So far:

- made a floor cushion from scraps of fabric, extra batting, and decorated it with vintage buttons. Love it!

- bought fixin's for tapas for tomorrow night. Will soon go make goat cheese terrine with tapenade & capers (to serve with pan-seared tomatoes and bread), caramelized onions (to serve with sherry-braised mushrooms & sage as bruschetta), and white bean dip.

- Cleaning and tidying and making the place look pretty. Also: painting my scroungy-looking toenails.

- Tomorrow, we have guests over for tapas. Yay!

Scody, I could not sit next to Tracey Ullman without turning into the adoring teenager I once was. I'm glad to hear she's as funny and engaging as she seems!

Last night we enjoyed an outing to a Single A local Baseball Team for the Phillies with a large group of (my) work friends. It was a comfortable night, we had the picnic bench seating with free food, soda, and water, with great friends. And "our" team won!

Today, more thunderstorms forecasted and a lazy Sunday feeling kept me inside, leisurely perusing the newspaper, admiring my garden, and enjoying my life.

I spent an 11-hour day Friday finishing up getting out of the old house, including lawn care, cleaning, and moving all the little things I didn't realized I'd forgotten. Then I spent Saturday with friends--first a visit with a gal who is thisclose to having twins. Then another friend came by to give me her old bed. Then in the evening I went and hung out with a woman I'd not spent time with before. Today I had another friend over to do some garden consult and pie-making (tart cherry, turnover style). She helped me set up the bed and figure out where to put the rest of the kitchen stuff I couldn't figure out. Great weekend!

Today I went and saw Target Practice: Painting Under Attack 1940-78, a fairly new show at the Seattle Art Museum. This show was really quite good, looking at various ways that artists tried to subvert, extend and ultimately transcend traditional notions of paint on canvas. Lots of nice Jasper Johns (who also is currently featured in a show at the Henry which I have yet to check out), Rauschenberg's and probably the most compelling Warhol I've seen yet. Lots of artists I was unfamiliar with (I was particularly taken with Shozo Shimamoto whom I was clueless about prior to this) with many compelling and interesting works. I urge all Seattle area bunnies to check this out.

Had to work yesterday for an event, but managed to escape to the beach for a few beautiful hours in the late afternoon and early evening, with LT. Went for a run and swam a bit. Then we came home and had dinner of burgers on the grill, lettuce and onion and pickles, plain fresh ripe sliced tomato with basil, and fresh corn on the cob - some version of which dinner I hope to basically survive on through September.

Today we went to a wedding of some friends - it was wonderful! They got married at a really neat swimming hole in Northern NH, and after the ceremony they stripped to their swimsuits and took a plunge off a rock ledge into the water - and then invited all their guests to do so, too. Kids, teens, fortysomethings, aunts, cousins, grannies, uncles - most people did it! After the swim we met up at a barn for a delicious summer dinner and some boogieing.

All in all, a pretty great weekend.

Does missing out on a family reunion because of a passport snafu count as fun? (At least the appearance of the sperm donor makes missing it not a complete bummer.)

Does having insurance cover all the redecorating costs but none of the plumbing problems count as fun? (New paint and flooring and maybe a new bathroom vanity - yay!)

Does not having the thousands of dollars the plumbing repairs are going to cost count as fun? (At least we have a credit card.)

Does moving all your bedroom furniture into the living room because you're going to have to live there for at least two weeks count as fun? (Actually, having to sleep in the living room is kinda fun.)

kodama, thanks for the heads-up re: that painting exhibition at SAM (and the Johns show at the Henry... I love me some Jasper Johns!) -- looks like we'll get to catch it right before it closes when we're up in Seattle at the beginning of Sept. Which Warhol was it that you liked so much?

I went camping with my boyfriend, his brother's family, and their aunt. It sucked SO HARD. No air mattress, hardly any sleep, cold hard rain, boyfriend poked his eye on a spruce tree and thought it would fall out.

The Warhol was Oxidation Painting (1976). I can't find any images of the specific one at SAM, but a Google Images search brings up similar. Basically Warhol painted a canvas with copper metallic paint and then the Factory crew urinated on it. That conceptual aspect wasn't the appealing part to me, the oxidation effect captures all that attracts me to things like rust, corrosion and the decay of constructed artifacts. Anyway its in the final room of Target Practice if you make it to the show. There is definitely lots to see in Seattle for the Johns fan right now.