One of the best things etrace regularly does for me is roast me a chicken (over a bed of vegetables) every Friday night for Shabbat dinner. He's refined his technique over the past 3 years until he has it pretty much perfected. Which means it's kind of a pain in the ass relative to the "throw it in a pan and turn on the oven" I used to do, but he does it ( Read more... )

We didn't actually go see Wonder Woman last Sunday when we had the babysitter. The morning of, as we were getting ready, Etrace said "I don't think we're going to be able to enjoy a movie if we're listening every instant for the phone to ring," so we shifted smoothly over to Plan B and went on a lunch date in the courthouse square in Crown Point ( ( Read more... )

(Oh, poor neglected LiveJournal. I still love you best, but that siren Facebook makes lazyposting so easy. I am backdating this by 3 weeks for ease of reference in future.)

Aria Grace was born Sunday, July 26 (Tisha B'Av observed) at 3:50 a.m., healthy and strong.

( Photos )

I meant to acknowledge this (here and not just on Facebook) closer to the occasion, but... two Saturdays ago, Valentine's Day, was our first wedding anniversary ( Read more... )

My husband is a music teacher. He was a music teacher when I first met him 20+ years ago. I've gone to see him perform in bands. More recently, I have performed with him in bands. I've seen videos of him playing in high school talent shows. He made me this recording for my birthday last year. We have in the house an entire room dedicated to housing ( Read more... )

September 19 may be Talk Like a Pirate Day, but it is also, as etrace calls it, "Happy Erica Day!"

One year ago right now, I was getting off a plane in Chicago on the first day of Sukkot.

One year ago tonight, I walked through etrace's front door (possibly for the first time ever) and threw my arms around him (for the first time in almost 16 years ( Read more... )

Heavens defend me from ever being one of those proudly-incompetent "LOL I let my husband handle that" women.

However... it is at times wonderfully strange and reassuring to find myself partnered with one of the few people in the world genuinely more smart and capable than I am ( Read more... )

... I attended, along with my mom, the wedding of a dear friend I'd known since grade school ( Read more... )

I thought I would have tons of time to write once I was here, and the answer is probably that I *do* have time to write, but I have not really felt the inclination.

I have instead spent a lot of time doing crosswords, reading Game of Thrones, watching Game of Thrones, drinking coffee, dicking around on Facebook, practicing/learning songs for ( Read more... )

We've been married almost a month. Four weeks this Friday!

In that time, I've been rereading A Civil Campaign and then Pride and Prejudice, because it's been so delightful reading about other people's successful culmination of their improbable but eminently suitable matches. :-)

It had been some time since I read P&P (I thought about picking it ( Read more... )