the friendly confines.

photos by fatalysis

can't wait to visit the land of lincoln later this summer. i already have my cubs v. cardinals tickets at wrigley field.

i love the sights, smells and tastes of baseball in the city.

go cubbies!

what are you looking forward to this summer?

teacher let the monkeys out.

it's the boy's last day of kindergarten. can you believe how far we've come since then? it went really, really fast.

here he is last summer, meeting ms. carter for the first time at the popsicle party. she's so wonderful.

and here he is on the first day of school. he just could not wait. he loved every single day and never cried, not even once.

and here he is this morning, on his last day of kindergarten with his beloved teacher ms. carter. we'll never forget her. We've made new friends and learned new things. This has been an awesome year. Let summer begin!

west end cafe. definite possibilities.

The new-ish west end cafe as been on my radar ever since i found out they have brunch, aka, the best meal of the day. it's in the former baja fresh on broadway/west end, and the facility has a new look and feel. lots of aged barn wood has been used to attempt a more rustic feel around the main counter area.

we started with fresh squeezed orange juice and by "we," i mean me, the boy, and his alien in a jar. the oj couldn't have been fresher. next time i'll take advantage of the fresh belinis and mimosas.

the boy had this belgian waffle with fresh in season strawberries and whipped cream. my normally picky eater wolfed down every single bite and licked the place clean. a good sign.

the bongo java coffee comes in these wonderful heavy coffee mugs emblazoned with the company name. the server admitted that people have been stealing them. a lot. i of course didn't steal one (it was too big to fit in my bag) but may buy one next time i go in.

the room is open and airy. i liked the wood touches, but wished the tables weren't made of a shiny faux wood material. i guess faux wood is easier to keep clean than the real thing.

i had this vegetable omelet, which was much to my liking. fresh spinach and tomato, creamy and delicious (they were out of mushrooms, so that was a slight disappointment). the sourdough toast was to die for - hand painted with melted butter (i haven't had toast this good since pie and burger in pasadena).

to reiterate: omelet = good. coffee = great.

waffle + OJ = stupendous.

i'll definitely be back. it's conveniently located across from the indigo hotel, and there's loads of parking in back.

the west end cafe is trying to expand beyond simply the breakfast crowd. they are working on a tapas menu, dinner entrees, happy hour specials, etc., so we'll see how that goes.

for me, brunch is enough.

random. hilarious.

adorable image property of the Tennessean 

chance the rally beaver is bringing my vanderbilt commodores baseball team luck in the SEC tourney this week.

really? a beaver? kind of random.

but i say, hey - whatever works!

ps follow his antics on twitter @vu_rallybeaver.

buchi.

i discovered buchi, a new brand of kombucha at whole foods over the weekend, and boy was i excited.

i've talked about kombucha before: it's a medicinal drink that i'm obsessed with. once upon a time i drank synergy brand, until a completely overblown and ridiculous controversy took it off shelves, culminating in a new formula that tastes flat.

i also shared with you about the local brewer who makes booch, a very refreshing and rejuvenating version of this age-old fermented asian tea. but the cost was prohibitive, and i've kind of gone off the kombucha bandwagon.

well, i'm back on it, after finding, completely serendipitously, that whole foods actually has buchi on tap, so i asked to try a sample and was blown away.

the two flavors they offer are "air" and "fire." i liked "air" so much, i decided to buy a gallon of it.

it's a mix of echinacea, pineapple, herbs and mint. it has a fizz to it, and a slight burn going down, which i love. it tastes like a tonic, but it's refreshing too.

for me, it produces the effect of feeling relaxed and uplifted at the same time. very zen.

and no, even though it's fermented, and in a "hooch"-like jar, it's not an alcoholic beverage.

just sayin.

happy monday! be watching for my review of sunday brunch at the recently opened west end cafe later this week.

UPDATE: my friend young jenny just tried it and said it tastes and smells like nail polish remover. clearly, it's not for everybody.

moms should have work-at-home days and here's why.

if it weren't for a new mom working at pixar, an entire movie would have been lost. watch.

field day.

field day at the boy's school was fun. perfect weather.

it was fun watching the parents screaming pull! pull! pull! while taking video and snapping photos of their little angels.

i guess some people are super intense and feel the need to document every moment of their child's life.

i wonder what that's like.

april and may words.

I love the pictures the boy brings home for me each month. they do a lot of art, but my favorite are these words of the month.

and who doesn't like a lovely mother-son portrait?

now i'm looking for flights to go see my folks in illinois in late July, which will culminate at wrigley field for a cubs v. cardinals game.

i'm super psyched and so is the boy. we can't wait to load up on cubs gear for our first mother-son trip to the friendly confines.

peace and love today.
j

change.

sometimes things change.

sometimes they go away completely.

this is a shot of what used to be tower records, formerly the most happening spot in all of nashville.

this is what's left of the iconic comic book and record store, great escape.

this is the suite where i've worked for the past 7 years. (i'm next door now, and many of my buddies have moved a few miles up the street.)

sometimes change makes me sad. read about it here.

ps good news ... my lovely friend kelly gave me a camera! so i'm back in business. change happens but so do miracles!

mother's day post mortem.

brunch is the best meal of all, and that's what i wanted for mother's day.

brunch, and this bloody-tooth-shaped pottery from my adorable child.

this card came with it. precious.

the boy and i went to our lovely friend kelly's house. her husband was busy saving lives at the hospital, so we made chocolate chip banana pancakes and the moms drank blood orange mimosas.

we made the boys go around the table and say all the reasons they love their mamas. it was truly sweet. even if their reasons for loving us came down to the various gifts we've given them or things we let them do, such as eat candy and play on the wii.

hey. i'll take it. hope your day was lovely too.

peace and love this week.

only a week and a half left of being a kindy mom. see how i'm faring here.

here we come.

just booked my tickets to the beach! can't wait to see my sis charlotte and her awesome BF john! click here to see a video of kelle hampton's adorable girlies on the beach where the boy and i will be frolicking come june.

look out gopher tortoises, here we come!
xoxo

craziness.

rustybreak.tumblr

we're on all kinds of crazy deadlines this week, and it's commencement here on campus, so you may not hear from me very regularly this week. i'll be back soon, i promise.

in the meantime, please enjoy this beautiful photo and think good thoughts.

back soon.

peace and love.

j

happy monday. and a missing camera.

i'm so bummed i left my camera somewhere. presumably it's on the table at romano's macaroni grill at opry mills, where i dined friday night with young jenny.

i took all these gorgeous pictures of the food we had, but you will just have to imagine for now.

it's deadline day, so i'll have to put my focus elsewhere for the moment, but i hope to get my camera back so i can get things back to normal around here.

xoxo my lovelies,
summer is coming ....
j
PS: this is a picture of sgt. pepper, love and olive oil's kitty, for you to enjoy. i just thought he was cute. ok. bye.

its avengers day.

i'm going to see the avengers tonight with young jenny. what are you up to this weekend?

chess pie.

photo from king arthur baking flour. 

 this morning, for some reason, i woke up thinking about chess pie. it's a southern treat, made from the four essential southern food groups: flour, butter, sugar and eggs.

there are different variations, like lemon chess pie and buttermilk chess pie.

but i like just plain old chess pie.

photo from ibelieveicanfry. 

it's so simple, probably even i could make it.

but for now, i'll just dream about it ... mmmm.

the weekend is almost here. what are you dreaming about today?