Persimmon picking, amazing skies

Today was spectacular. Truly, the skies were absolutely dazzling, turning hourly like page after magnificent page of the most incredible illuminated manuscript on which you could ever lay eyes. As Percy and I rounded the turn off of Fordham, back onto Mass Ave, I looked heavenward and was wowed. It was as if M.C. Escher had gotten hold of an airbrush cannon and gone wild.

Meanwhile, a friend I met through one of my canning classes emailed me a post from her neighborhood listserv: someone had a persimmon tree, pregnant with fruit, in her front yard, and anyone was welcome to come pick. By the time I arrived, the lower boughs were bare, but there were some good knobs and forks offering themselves as a crude ladder. Clad in a silk shirt, cardigan and my trusty Toms, I scurried up that tree like a squirrel.

At the apex, my head was in between two electrical wires, but all was well, and I remembered what youthful fun it is to climb a tree. Getting down is another thing. I plucked six persimmons -the squirrels had already massacred so many!- with the intention of giving most away to my persimmon-loving pal, C. I'll try my annual "can I ever love persimmons" test when the remaining ones are fully ripe. They are a pretty fruit.

Then to school to pick up my munchkins (both of whom threw insanely outlandish tantrums today over NOTHING; is this still the aftermath of stupid Daylight Savings? I could kill it.) and then on and through an after-school afternoon. We witnessed a glorious sunset that seemed to grow more incredible by the moment until suddenly, night raced in and with it a perfect crescent moon. Ol said, "you know what would happen if that moon was a full moon? LUPIN!" Harry Potter reference, y'all. Oh lawd.

I finally got those bozos to bed after a complete #momfail when I suggested a competition: "who can get into bed, head on pillow, first?" BOTH, count them BOTH, kids managed to injure themselves in the simple and, wait for it, done-every-night act of getting into bed. Both were wailing about their pain, and honestly y'all, I just said, "goodnight."

Realizing that the flu shot to which I'd acquiesced earlier today was sinking its flu'y tentacles into me (damn you, flu shot!), I took two Advil and poured a little glass o' red. I roasted some broccoli and also an eggplant, two of my favorite recipes running through my mind screaming MAKE US. So I did. Broccoli with pimentón oil, and burnt eggplant with pomegranate. Aah. Both hit the spot in every way!

Tuesday

Today was a true Tuesday: productive yet not overly thrilling; busy yet not overly productive; good yet not overly memorable. As simple and simultaneously as vague as all that. I worked out hard right after dropping the boys at school, and then limped home, an oxymoronic invigorated wet noodle, to make a rejuvenative smoothie. Banana, spinach, coconut, dates and almond milk. Delicious, pretty and easy. I made and slurped it just in time to return a few emails and head out to visit one of my favorite friends who I've not seen in too many moons.

We enjoyed a couple hours of catching up before I realized the time and scurried home for lunch and to pack up for the afternoon: pick-up; orthodontist; market; bank; etc. Jack's expander needs even more expanding! Homework can really be onerous! Not! The cat can eat through any zipper! Sadly true. Jack asked if he could "burn his nuts" which terrified and baffled me until my doubletaking head spied his handful of acorns.

Daylight Savings is still effing with us all, so I put the boys to bed early (actually, kudos to T; he got home early enough to put them to bed for me; I was fried because during bathtime we'd had a ludicrous conversation about balls. Yep, the gender-related ones.) So, whilst princely husband dealt with the loons, I put together some dinner: grits cooked in whey; shrimp marinated in orange and lime juices, garlic and ginger, crushed red pepper and a dash of tamari, and then seared with sherry and butter; spinach Roman style (minus the pignoli). It was delicious, and the cream was Real Time afterwards.

Buona notte tutti!