palace of winds

I just got the best phone call from my little nephew, who’s two and a half. “I want to ride Everett!” he declares (and yes, a toddler handling ‘Everett’ is as impossibly cute as you’re imagining). I ask if he has a helmet; that’s the discussion we had last night, that he could come out and ride Everett as soon as he has a helmet. There’s a pause, and then, “I have helmet — I want to ride Everett!” I ask him when and he considers this, declares again he’d like to ride Everett, and upon further application, “Tuesday!” Incidentally, when he and my mom were making banana bread last night, it was going to be ready on Tuesday. So, I’m not sure when, but I should soon have pictures of my two guys.

I talked with Mel about riding him too, now that she can. It’s one of the many joys of horse-ownership, I think, being able to share them with other people. Well, a joy of owning a generally laid-back horse, anyway. I can think of a few I sat on while shopping that I don’t think I’d stick my non-horse-riding friends on.

So I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows shortly before 2 a.m. on Sunday. Jo and her sister and sister’s friend and I went to the party at the Calhoun Barnes & Noble, which I think was less fun in itself than the Minnetonka Border’s has been in the past. Probably down partly to the size of the store; much smaller than Border’s, and just not set up very well for mobs of people. Still, I had a blast with Jo & company — we got Thai at Thanh Do and ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s, then spent an interminably long time wandering around Barnes hunting for trivia questions and waiting impatiently for midnight.

I am utterly in love with the ‘I am on the phone‘ness of this.

I just noticed I have 59 items out from the library. How did this happen? (Well, it’s really not much of a mystery. My latest must-studies, in addition to the usual assortment of miscellany and general cookbooks: Peru, upholstery, Japanese prints, sewing, pies, horse riding, and Mexican cuisine.)

My nephew is so beautiful. As Mel left for her meeting he plunked right down in my lap and we paged through stacks of books — he loves books, always has, and I’m unbelievably delighted by that, and I hope it never changes. Especially since I’ve been buying them for him from the library store for over a year now, and I already have one for when he’s a preteen, which is perhaps jumping the gun a little but it’s dragons! and wonderfully illustrated! But don’t worry — I don’t allow myself in the kid’s section much any more.

We played with stuffed animals (he was not at all sure about the dino puppet, though, so we put that one away) and shoes and my aerobics step and the rolling chairs and the big mirror in my hall and puzzled over a scrap of paper he found on the floor, and he helped me put away the dinner leftovers. Shortly before 7:30 he conked out in my lap, and I spent the next hour just hanging out on the couch with him, listening to his woefully rattley breathing (he’s all congested, poor boo) and watching his eyes flicker (they sometimes open just a little while he’s sleeping, like Mel’s do) and contemplating the reddishness of his eyebrows. Well, and listening to the radio and then watching House, because those things can be done while still marveling over the perfection that is Alex.

I highly recommend nephews to everyone.

Yesterday I came out of the library wrestling my big messenger bag overflowing with books, another stack of them clutched to my chest, and three bags of puppets. I’m babysitting next week and realized I have hardly anything in the way of toys — and what’s better than books and puppets? And I’m going to make scattered sushi, I think, because what toddler doesn’t need gobs of sticky rice to play in?

I also got a few Mexican cookbooks (the tamales were the biggest hit yet at fam dinner night, so I’ve roped Bryce into helping me make more when he visits — which is next week already, ee!), and some sewing books. This week I’m obsessed with kitchen aprons a la Jessie Steele and Anna Wang, and I feel inspired to learn all about the particulars of patterns and fit and the finer points of sewing. Inspired enough that I added some sewing books to the holiday list I gave my mom, though I realized yesterday that means a two month wait. But I can be patient! Especially since it coincides so nicely with being lazy, and I’ve been very much feeling that lately.

Though last night I did, despite the mood o’ doom, force myself to work out, which was an excellent idea, and made me feel a little less bad about the cookie and ice cream I then had. And tonight’s my riding lesson; I always seem to get a better workout during my lesson than when I’m just puttering around on my own, though it’s still nothing like what I get from those Firm amazonistas. Those ladies know how to wring it out of you. I swear my biceps were bigger this morning.

Tomorrow Jo and I are going to go watch men skate around and hit each other with sticks. I can’t wait.