The past week has been pretty good. Mostly thinking about and planning for the holidays, and trying to start closing in on the end of my book. I tracked down some holiday presents, including a present I can’t wait to give Mikey (but I’m still waiting on it in the mail).

An afternoon walk in South Philly with my nanny baby.

 

Finally able to get a braid that’s long enough to justify the side braid. I always did look good in braids I wore braided pigtails every day for 6 years, through middle school and high school.

 

On Friday night, Mikey and I went over to The Mitten, where they were having a birthday and going away party for our friend Ryan, who just moved to California. That’s Ryan on the right. He’s the nicest.

 

I like how serious Nick looks about petting Scabby the cat.

 

Abbey presenting Ryan with a double layer vegan cake that she made for his birthday. It was delicoius!

 

Scabby in a bag.

 

Abbey looking pretty witchy.

 

On Saturday, we had a Mikey-centric day. He’s been such a trooper about me working on my book that most of the time we’ve spent together in the past month or two has either been at an event, or at my house over work. I’ve barely been able to spend time at his house these days. He’s also been out of town on weekends a lot, so he felt like he hadn’t had a full weekend day at home in a while. We planned to spend the day working on his room, which had gotten pretty neglected because of the reasons mentioned above. But first, we went out to brunch. I found this on the way.

 

As we were about to go buy plants and some hardware for Mikey’s room, we remembered that the Girls Rock Philly after-school programs showcase was happening that day, so we headed up there instead. My roommate Laura has worked really hard with Girls Rock Philly on their first fall with an after-school program (it was previously just a summer camp.) It was really inspiring to see all the work they’ve done and watch the bands the girls they worked with had formed. I’m really glad we were able to make it!

 

Then we went on our way to buy some big house plants and other things from box stores we don’t go to often.

 

Mikey spotted this lovely lady in Ikea.

 

Finally, just before dinner time, we got back to his house. Rover, too.

 

On the drive home, we decided we would make latkes and homemade applesauce. So we stopped for groceries and got to work.

 

So greasy, but delicious.

 

While we were cooking we lost track of Rover. We realized he had gone into the back room but then a bag swung in front of the door entrance. Rover is really weird about pushing through doorways if he thinks he’s not supposed to. That little bag was enough of a barrier to make him feel stuck.

So polite.

 

A kings’ feast. It was so good.

Sunday I just spent the whole day being productive at home. Photoless.