pearl dive.

the other night we FINALLY made it to pearl dive oyster palace, a place i continue to call pearl dive oyster bar, over and over and over again.  the palace is really throwing me off for some reason.  whatever, it doesn't matter.

it's delicious.  the oysters were of course spot on and the fried chicken (yes, they have fried chicken) is divine.  also, the drinks.  gotta give a shout out to the small, but so well done, drink list.  i started with a fleur 75 and ended with a pearl cup.  the fleur 75 was the palest shade of violette - so pretty - and the pearl cup came in a mason jar - totally fitting.  

bathing suits.

for someone who hates the sun, the warm weather and sitting on the beach ... or by the pool ... or anywhere exposed and hot really ... i've a major obsession with swim wear (exhibit a).  so the fact that these might have jumped to the top spot of my must have list is both confusing and completely predictable.

{lauren moffatt swim 2013 via refinery 29}

flats, black ones.

i'm a big believer in having a nice pair of black flats when september rolls around.  i live in them.  for, like, the entire fall and winter.

{cap toe flat, Messeca New York}

still summer here.

typical case of the grass is always greener syndrome.  i'm sure once may rolls around and the temperatures are steadily hovering around 45 i'll wish there wasn't evidence of my saying it, but summer ... go away.

that being said, maybe we need to take summer vacations to places that still have glacial ice?  maybe that is the solution.

{image by olaf otto becker via but does it float}

August in AVL

sometimes i use mas' insane work schedule as an excuse to take a break and head to the mountains.  when we lived in eastern north carolina i was spending what seemed like half of my time in asheville.  but then we moved to dc and i settled in.  found local clients.  found local friends.  and now i'm making it back, what seems like, quarterly.

i'll fill you in on the details little by little over the next few days but the BEST PART EVER was the weather.  my friends, i lounged around in jeans and flannels and light sweaters OVER BUTTONDOWN SHIRTS.  i went for runs and did not want to kill myself.  i had coffee, of the non-iced variety, in the afternoon.

oh dc, you've cooled, but you're not quite where i want you.  winter can honestly not come soon enough ... though i would be willing to settle for fall.

our neighborhood rocks.

the eddy, the bar inside of hank's oyster bar's new capitol hill location, has won my heart.  our neighborhood was awesome before their arrival, but now, now we have a place where we can go and grab a not-too-fancy but utterly delicious drinks*.  also, oysters.  yay capitol hill!  i love you more than ever ... which is saying something.

* to be fair our current favorite, the atlas room, fits the above criteria.  dude is serious 'bout his drinks.  but it's a touch further away, sans oysters and, really, it is always good to have OPTIONS.

{the old salt is a lovely combination of watermelon stuffs and tequila and etc.  so light and refreshing and perfect for these fucking hot and humid days (and nights).}

// i took a break from the internets.
\\ we went to canada, new hampsire, massachusetts, rhode island and new york.  i'm tyring to figure out how to get back to rhode island.
// i continued my break from the internets.
\\ mas' work trips were nixed!
// i decided to quit the internets.  "cancelled" my facebook account, closed my reader "for good," and started writing a farewell to blogging post.
\\ we went to california.  i had a lot of cheeseburgers, mas had a week long class in santa clara.
// since we were on that side of the country, we went to los alamos.  mas is trying to figure out how to get back to los alamos.  ok, i am too.
\\ mas' second round of work trips were postponed!
// i turned 31.
\\ i logged back into my reader.  had too many posts to even consider reading.  unsubscribed to about 50% of my feed.
// i decided that quitting the internet was perhaps just a harsh reaction to a couple of bad days.
\\ we wound up with cable and more importantly hbo.  our one tv is in the basement ... where other people are currently living.  but hbogo runs very well on the ipad.  i've since blown through big love, true blood, and hung.  ok i didn't blow through hung, i stopped watching it.  also newsroom.  we're obsessed.  and game of thrones.

// i missed the internets.  so i came back.  except for facebook.  i think that relationship is over for good.

{photo from our road trip from santa clara to los almos by way of big sur}

NAVY & NUDE.

clutch  /  navy polish*  /  peach polish  /  hasbeens

can't get enough.  and that navy polish is passport blue ... in case it doesn't pop up as such.  by far the best navy polish i've ever had.  though i'm not gonna say it's the best quality, just the best color.

the weekend.

it was only a little bit warm, not quite wanna kill yourself hot.  there was a lot of walking.  to the farmers market and back. with a bag full of cherries! that ended up on my shorts.  which was kind of ok since they were already pink.

there was soba with sesame and veggies and rice vinegar and a sixpoint apollo, my most favorite summer beer.

there was walking to the park, sitting, snoozing, reading.

there was a pizza made of leftover dough covered in garlic scapes and zucchini and garlic.

there was the cutest little guy in the the corner of a sidewalk square.

there was also the wearing of my bensimons, which hasn't actually occurred in a very long time.  i think i've decided to get rid of them.  though i'm not sure.  they just aren't very comfortable.

when your stint as a vegan is over ...

you go all out.  right?

i can't say it was planned.  i think i was in fact going to hold out for a blt with the bacon i just scored from cedarbrook farm  (h street farmers market, i love you).  but when i stopped by our most awesome corner food shop for a boule or baguette (either or as they are equally delicious) and happened upon this ham and cheese croissant i could not help myself.  i had just spent an hour or so in the sun, had a very light breakfast and had been walking to and fro imagining the meals i'd make with my veggies later on.  i was starving.  and it was absolutely worth it.

though so was the week of no animal products.  in fact, that week of no animal products was quite educational.

WHAT I LEARNED :

1.  being a vegan isn't *that* hard.

2.  being a vegan isn't that hard in a time where whole foods, a plethora of independent food shops, and the interwebs exist.

3.  i still love to eat pig and cow and sometimes other animals and i don't really want that to change.

4.  going vegan means i get to force mas to eat asian food.  don't get me wrong, the boy likes everything from thai to chinese to korean to sushi but we NEVER make it at home.  partly because it's been a miserable failure every time we've tried and partly because mas pretends to hate asian flavors when i suggest we make them.

5.  it would not be hard to be a fat/unhealthy vegan, which goes against everything i have ever believed.

6.  we can in fact use all of the produce in our green grocer box before it goes bad.

7.  almond milk makes everything better (though i kind of knew this already).

8. van's frozen waffles are the shit esp. with coconut oil and maple syrup.  we will always have these in the freezer from here on out.

9.  some people kind of judge you for being not really a vegan.  lame.
10.  i can go a week without bread and cheese.  this was really the main reason i went vegan and not vegetarian.  you see we go vegetarian all the time.  it's not a big deal.  and when we do that i mostly find myself snacking endlessly on variations of bread and cheese.  i will, actually, only eat bread and cheese for days straight at times.  but now, now i have veggies as a fall back.  i just didn't realize.
11.  the black pepper tofu from plenty is just as delicious as all of the other recipes in that book, and just as hard to source ingredients for.  i didn't have the three varieties of soy sauce that were called for and our dish kind of suffered.  next time i'll make the trip out to the eden center and buy them all.
12.  the thing i missed the most, hands down, was butter ... and the baked goods that result from butter. oreos are not as good as they used to be, or they are, but i just don't like them as much as i used to? we've been hard core on our version of milk bar cookies recently and i dare say they've spoiled us for anything of less quality (cornflake-chocolate-chip-marshmallow coming your way soon!).  this surprised me ...  i thought cheeseburgers or cheese would be the most missed.