Author: Lara

The past month has been an absolute blur, and I’ve been meaning to write – and feeling guilty for not – an update for a while now and just haven’t had the motivation, on the rare occasion time wasn’t too scarce. It hasn’t been all busy and stress…really. We’ve managed to have a lot of fun in the past couple of weeks – by ourselves, with our friends, etc. It’s just a really wild time at work and we’re making some pretty explosive changes in our home life and Ted’s work life that are requiring careful attention and diligence. But aside from all of that, here’s what we have been up to since May 23rd (which feels like an eon ago, am I right?):

– ZooBrew! We went on a cool Friday evening that was threatening rain, and it turned out to be just perfect because it was nice and cool but it didn’t rain, so it kept the massive crowds away that made our trip to ZooBrew last year rather difficult to enjoy. ZooBrew is on select Friday evenings during the summer for adults ages 21+. You buy a few beers, walk the zoo, and enjoy the animals with your pals…sans kids! Awesome. And the sea lions and lions were super active and vocal, which we loved! While we were inspecting the snow leopards, I leaned over a short, stubby tree and heard tiny muted chirping. I parted the shrub’s leaves to discover a nest with three baby robins in it. When we backed away from the nest, mama robin waited until we were at a safe distance, flew into the nest, dropped some grub to her babes, and flew off. It was such a cool moment, and a really nice, relaxing way to jump-start Memorial Day weekend after a crazy week at work.

– Saturday we got some contract work squared away in the morning, hit the public market for lunch and came home with a gorgeous bundle of asparagus, and two cartons of the most plump, juicy, and flavorful blackberries. In the afternoon we ran around the city doing some Birkenstock sandal shopping and other errands, and finished off the night with stargazing and pinpointing constellations out on our back deck.

– Sunday we drove out to Williamson to play a round of mini golf, swing at a few buckets of balls on the driving range, grab an ice cream cone at a sweet little ice cream stand, and drive back along the lake with the sun shining and the wind blowing through the open windows of Ted’s truck. I also whipped up the most decadent (yet easy!) rhubarb cheesecake…that I am still enjoying over a week later. I used this recipe, which is incredible. I added a few drops of orange bitters and some instant tapioca pearls and, if you love rhubarb, I’d highly recommend doubling the amount of it in the recipe to 6 cups for a more equitable rhubarb-cheesecake ratio.

– Monday (Memorial Day) we spent the day at Hidden Valley Animal Adventure, about an hour and 15 minutes outside Rochester. We went on a wonderful safari ride through the property where we got to pet (and feed! and pet!) water buffalo, zebra, longhorn, ostrich, and a bunch of other awesome animals! It was so great! And the weather was amazing! We shared a water buffalo burger at the lodge (no, not from the water buffalo who live at the ranch), which is lean and juicy and slightly sweet, along with some honey butter sweet potato fries, and we enjoyed the petting portion of the ranch where we cozied up with a camel, baby goats, donkeys, a mini horse, bunnies, a tortoise, and some screechin’ peacocks. We discovered that tortoises love to eat dandelions…and that I love to feed tortoises dandelions! And cuddle goats and longhorn! It was a fabulous way to spend the day together. I have a bunch more pictures that I’ll post this week.

– Wednesday I met my wonderful friend Kristen for ice cream cones (coconut almond crunch, you have my heart!) at the rustic-chic Pittsford Farms Dairy. It was so great to finally catch up with her and have some dedicated girl time. I came home and Ted grilled the most delicious, succulent steaks for us on the grill. Total perfection of a Wednesday!

– Thursday we hit up a small town carnival in Mendon in support of the local fire department. A big band was playing some jazzy music, I got a basket of fresh buttery clams and salted potatoes, Ted got BBQ pulled pork and coleslaw, and we walked around, watching everyone enjoy the rides, which we would have happily ridden if we weren’t so convinced they’d make us instantly puke up our dinners. Carnival rides are a little harder to stomach once you reach your mid-20s.

– Friday Ted and I met our friends Chelsea and Andrew at the Red Wings baseball game. We ate nachos and hot dogs and peanuts and calzones, we talked, we watched baseball and fireworks and had a totally fun and lovely evening with them, as we always do!

– Sunday we walked the pier at Lake Ontario and did a few laps around the park.

– And Monday I met my wonderful friend Shawnda for dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant in town. The food was completely divine (and utterly enormous), and we’ve vowed to return soon because it was so delicious and great to catch up since we’ve both had so much going on lately. We split a vegetarian combination plate and two lamb dishes and talked for about two hours. Pretty much what every Monday night needs.

So, in a nutshell, there’s all the fun we’ve been having lately! Looking back, I’m kind of amazed we’ve actually been able to fit all that in with everything else we’ve had going on!

Whew!

How’s your life been lately?

Immunizations not covered by insurance are more ludicrously expensive than they have any right to be. As a side note, why would any insurance plan not cover any and all preventative immunizations? Public health fail. Also, I don’t like to pay for not fun things. I mean, I know it keeps us alive and all, but still…

Also not pleasant – physicals, blood work, peeing in a cup, x-rays, etc. Fortunately, insurance is kind enough to cover those.

Passport-sized and qualified photos for legal documents are inappropriately expensive when you need 18+ of them. Fortunately, you can also do them yourself for 1/200th of the price. DIY for the win.

Estate planning lawyers are expensive. And depressing (the content, not the lawyers). And there’s a lot of difficult, overwhelming decisions to make when you draw up a will, and durable powers of attorney, and health care proxys. Did I already say they were expensive?

The social security card office is, in fact, way more awful than a DMV.

Whhhhhhhyyyyyyy is it still, in 2014, such a freakin’ zoo of hassle for a legally married woman to take her very own maiden name as her middle name in Ohio, New York…pretty much everywhere I’ve lived since getting married? Maiden-name-as-middle-name is not uncommon, and it should totally be included as an easy option in every single state when a women changes her name because of marriage. Ugh, law making humans are the worst.

What’s wrong with my totally legal and valid birth and marriage certificate? Why does it have to be attested and authenticated by several levels of government agencies for the low price of EXPENSIVE?

Meetings with a financial advisor to hash out budgets, financial goals, investments, and insurances are helpful – and thankfully free – but make me feel like I’m a zillion years old. Who uses a financial advisor at the age of 27 when you have no finances to speak of anyway?

Figuring out specific details of tax law is, in fact, just like rocket science. It’s frustrating and feels impossible. And when I do find the answer, I’m only about 50% sure I can trust it and that I haven’t overlooked some other loophole or pertinent requirement that’s going to mess everything up.

Research. So. Much. Research. Probably missing a million things too.

This is what has been consuming my life for the past two weeks or so. You know, in addition to my actual job and other familial responsibilities. We are feeling so overwhelmed!

In other words, this is what I’m trying to do now…

But, despite how necessary and good all of the above is, this is what I’d much rather be doing…

This weekend was the BEST. We’ve had a really overwhelming past couple of weeks, so a gorgeous, relaxing weekend together was exactly what we needed.

We slept in on Saturday, enjoyed a late breakfast of sweet raspberry-lemon curd and guava pastries and savory sausage, egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches outdoors in the sunshine at the public market, strolled the stalls browsing the produce, went to Mendon park to play a few rounds of washers in a soft, green, grassy field, and walked around the edge of the cool blue pond to spy on a sweet family of geese with their fuzzy newborns learning to navigate the waves. We also stopped for ice cream, ran a few low-key shopping errands, went to church, and settled in for an evening of mac n’ cheese, wine, and The Amazing Spider Man. Sunday we headed to Webster park for a few hours to play washers, lawn darts, frisbee, and fly our kite, then we c00ked steak, corn on the cob and green beans on the grill for dinner, followed by fresh strawberries for dessert. We finished the weekend at the Vintage Drive-In for a double feature of The Other Woman and Draft Day. There was also a great rain storm on Friday night, which was so blissfully peaceful and relaxing while we slept, and all weekend the weather was breezy and sunny and just the right amount of warm and cool during the day.

I adore these long, late spring/early summer weekends when you have no plans and you can watch sunsets and star gaze and just go where the wind takes you. I wish they could last forever, but I know their impermanence is part of their beauty.

 On Saturday Ted and I (well, technically TORVentures ) spent all day providing sound equipment and run crew for a local Cupcake Bakeoff Competition.

Clearly, it was delicious. This was our takeaway – cupcakes for DAYS!

I need a salad stat.

{Guess where?}

{House brew}

{Brisket topped house salad with candied pecans, cayenne buttermilk ranch, and cornbread}

{Ribs, coleslaw, baked beans, cornbread, and one very happy dude}

{Pecan pie with chocolate chips, whipped cream, and topped with a shot of Jack Daniels}

We basically never treat ourselves to evenings out like this, but on some rare occasions, a celebration is totally called for.

This little gem accompanied my Chinese takeout shrimp w. broccoli, a viewing of the movie Tangled, three episodes of Parenthood, and a game of Scrabble last night as part of our weekly Sunday “Family Night”.

The universe has impeccable coincidental timing.

{All images are from my inspirations pinterest board and I’d be happy to credit them…if I had any idea where they actually originated from. If one of these images is your creation, please let me know so that I may properly credit it.}