9 to 5

All of you who read my blog know I work full time. You may have picked up that I work in politics. I try not to bring my job into this blog but.... Today, because it's my blog, I am going to brag just a bit.

I am a business lobbyist, or advocate as we like to say so that people don't think we are evil. I advocate for local business for the Chamber. This means I get to work on a great variety of issues that  help strengthen our community. But of all the issues I work on my favorite is transit. I love transit and have since the first time I stepped foot onto the Paris metro. This love was deepened when I lived in DC and took the metro everyday. The reason my Job has been so Crazy for the past several months is because I have been creating and implementing a campaign to support the expansion of our local transit system. The expansion of our system has been a highly controversial issue locally.  Two weeks ago the city council voted 7-1 to move the project forward. This was a huge win for the community and the local economy.

The most exciting part of this project was the coalition of community members that came together to support this project. I got to work with two amazing people that I hardly knew before this project who are now my friends. And 2 years from now I will take miss Margot to the library on our great transit system. And at the end of the day this is why my job is so great. I get to work everyday on issues that make our community stronger for my daughter who I hope will choose to live here.

Living it up

Here I am in Las Vegas. I am writing this at 6:15 am from my soft cushy king size bed. I am drinking my earl grey tea and eating chocolate biscotti. I am staying at the aria. It is nice. My husband once said that Las Vegas is Disneyland for grown ups. I thought of that this morning when I walked outside along a wall of falling water at 5:30am to get my tea. It was warm and balmy and there were lights off the strip and twinkle lights and I couldn't help but feel happy amongst this over the top manufactured beauty. Or perhaps it was simply the afterglow of a whole nights sleep after an afternoon reading chic lit by the pool while drinking a margarita:)

Long story short I am enjoying my bit of luxury. And as long as I stay in the resort avoiding the strip and walk outside to get my coffee I can almost forget that I am in Las Vegas.

I am really excited for the conference to begin today. A political conference 30 days before a tight presidential election in a swing state is bound to be good, especially for this political junkie!

bye bye baby

This time next week I will be on a plane to Las Vegas. I am going to a national Public Affairs/lobbying conference for work. While I am ecstatic to go this conference and have some time away from home I am also dreading leaving my baby. I have never been away from Margot for more than 8-10 hours. And that is pretty rare, usually I see her at lunch making our time apart more like 4 hours. Needless to say 3 nights and 4 days is going to be a bit of a shock to all of our systems. I know I'll miss her like crazy. I'm sure Chris will really miss me like crazy. And a small part of me is worried that she will be completely traumatized by my absence and think I'm never coming back. I'm also super excited -NOT- for four days of pumping, storing and then transporting breast milk in an air plane. And truth be told Vegas is not exactly my favorite destination.

But putting all my worries aside for a moment lets me look at the positive side. So here's my list of things I'm looking forward to about my impending departure:

• Time on an air plane to read a book--such luxury
• almost a whole day in Vegas before the conference starts to hang out (hopefully by the pool)
• 3 nights of sleep without anyone to wake me up
• a luxury hotel
• the jacuzzi bath tub in my luxury hotel room
• fine Vegas dining
• stimulating adult conversation about politics with cocktails

So while I'm sure I'll by missing my baby like crazy by the end I am going to try really hard to enjoy all this me time and luxury while I have it.

Lately

I have had the busiest and most stressful month at work in my career. However, I'm very happy to report that the month is ending with the biggest success/accomplishment of my career. And so the Potter's are taking a 4 day weekend mini vacation in Portland. Chris had to come up for a CLE anyway so I took a few vacation days and we are enjoying lots of R and R at my in laws. Yesterday included lunch out in the City, showing Margot off to my Mother-in-laws co-workers, and IKEA. Today Margot and I are enjoying a relaxing morning in. Then we are going to venture out to Powell's. Tomorrow we are going to take Margot pants to the Zoo! So here's to some much needed down time.

Margot 10 Months Old

Margot Pants,

You are 10 months old! Here you are at 10 months. You have really grown this month. You are longer, leaner and you have learned so much. This has been a very exciting month for you. 

                                    

Most notably you started crawling several weeks ago. You are a very methodical crawler. However you are now quite capable of moving around on your own. You crawl all over the place as long as Mommy and Daddy are with you.

Crawling quickly turned to pulling yourself up and cruising. You are so thrilled to be able to pull yourself up. You love to stand and walk (with someone helping you). I fear you will be walking in no time.

With your new found mobility you are getting into all sorts of things. You especially love to pull all of the magazines out of the coffee table shelf. You seem to share our love of national geographic. You spend a good deal of time turning the pages and looking at the pictures.

You have become attached to this little doll, Francie. You squeal with excitement when you get her and you have the sweetest way of hugging her.

You got to do lots of fun things this month. We took you to Wild Life Safari where you got to ride on an old school bus which you LOVED. You were so excited on that bus. Then we took you to Grampa and Nonna's where you loved riding on the tractor with Daddy. 

We also took you to the beach this month. You loved the sand, the fish house and the hike through old growth cedar trees.

You have really loved your books this month. You love to sit with a pile of books and turn the pages and look at pictures. We took you to the book store to buy more board books and you were thrilled to look at so many books. Your favorite book seems to be Good Night Moon and My World

You have also started to say Ma Ma and Daddy in context this month as well as "uh oh". You learned to drink out of your sippy cup unassisted. You are learning so much every day. You are happy as a clam and you just love to spend time at Grammy's, play with your little baby friends, and go to new places.

We love you so much Margot Pants!

Mommy and Daddy



Our Weekend in Recipes

This weekend we ate A LOT. Saturday I made crab cakes. But as soon as I'd mixed up the lump crab meat with all of the ingredientsI realized it was going to be way to much food for us. So we had an impromptu fancy pants dinner party.

We decided that crab cakes were worthy of the "nice" dishes, candles, crystal and even a gold table cloth.

Our crab cakes were topped with a fresh corn and tomato relish and to go along

 with our crab cakes we had several small plates. Beets with fresh marjoram and a balsamic glaze...

 Baked eggplant...

and carrots with butter and thyme...

 We even drank our beer in these crystal glasses...

 Margot decided that she loves fancy dinner parties!

 And if all of that wasn't enough culinary excitement for one weekend we spent Sunday afternoon making my Dad Indian food.

Our menu: Chicken saag, southern Indian dahl with fresh vegetables, tomato chutney, rice, naan and mango lassi

 The stand out was the chicken saag.

And now for some recipes:

Crab cakes with tomato corn relish*

3 eggs

one small onion diced

2 TB Dijon mustard

1 bunch cilantro chopped

1 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp lemon zest

2 cups fresh lump crab meat

salt and pepper to taste

2 TB butter

Mix all ingredients except butter. Form into cakes. Melt butter in skillet at medium heat. Saute crab cakes 2-3 minutes per side.

For corn relish: mix 1 cup frozen corn, or 1 cup fresh off the Cob (blanched) corn, 1 cup fresh tomatoes chopped, 1/4 cup chopped onion, one garlic clove chopped, 1 fresh red chili with seeds chopped, 1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro, salt and pepper to taste.

*crab cake recipe is adapted from Nourishing Traditions. Corn relish is my own recipe.

Beets with marjoram and balsamic

4 beets scrubbed, ends trimmed

1 Tb butter

1 tsp fresh marjoram

1 TB good quality balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

place beets in small pot. cover with water, bring to boil, cook for 30-45 minutes until tender. remove beets and rub off the peel, cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Melt butter in small pot and add beets. season with salt and pepper. Add vinegar and let cook one minute to reduce. Add fresh marjoram.

Baked eggplant

1 eggplant

1 cup whole milk

1.5 cups bread crumbs

3 Tb melted butter

salt and pepper

preheat oven to 350. slice eggplant into 1/2 inch thick slices. season bread crumbs with salt and pepper. dredge each slice of eggplant into the milk and then into the bread crumbs to coat. place onto baking dish. drizzle melted butter over eggplant slices. bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. raise temperature to 375 and bake for additional 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

The era of mobility and other tidbits

1. It's official our child is mobile. Margot started crawling last Friday and now she is proficient at getting into pretty much anything and pulling herself up on all the furniture. She hasn't mastered cruising yet but I fear it won't be long. It's both hilarious and terrifying to watch her explore her ever growing world.

2. I am loving convention season, both for the spectacular political commentary and the excellent material it provides Colbert.

3. I am trying to work on routines. Over the past two or three months Margot has really settled into a routine (it only took her 7 months). Becoming aware of her routines and being forced to follow them has led me to notice my complete and utter lack of routines. My morning routine is basically get out the door as close to on time as possible while looking the best I can with the smallest amount of effort. There is ZERO consistency. And my bedtime is just as bad. Usually I decide I'm utterly exhausted and must go to bed this very instant forget flossing or washing off my make up. Not only is this just silly but I believe it's bad for my skin. So for the next week I'm going to make myself fulfill a semi-proper bed time routine: jams, brush teeth, floss and wash my face at least with a baby wipe. Baby wipe is at least an improvement, no?

4. This weekend we are attending our first children's birthday party. One of Margot's birth to three friends is turning 1. I don't know what to get a one year old boy for their birthday. I'm thinking picture book, safe?

5. I was recently looking through some ladies home journal magazines from the 1950's. Besides excellent decorating they have spectacular ads. I was particularly drawn to the ads for Ponds cold cream. Now I want to use Ponds cold cream. But do they still make Ponds cold cream? what is it? what do you use it for? I suppose I should know this but I honestly have no idea. However, I'm very interested in incorporating Ponds cold cream into my newly established bed time routine. Does anyone use this stuff?