Late again. I don’t have an excuse, but I do have four books linked below. All finished this weekend.

🍴:

Mon – Lemony Summer Squash Orecchiette plus shrimp. I may or may not have made a bad choice about not using a cut glove with our new mandoline. Never question. Just do it. Not an affiliate link.

Wed – bavette with grilled potatoes and a shredded Brussels/kale salad

Thurs – chicken chasseur with mash and a salad

Fri – jaegerwurst from Smoke City Meats with a creamy sage spaetzle, kraut, and a salad

Sat – maple-mustard salmon feat. that bourbon barrel syrup from Incendiary and a three-Rancho Gordo salad, shaved brussels

Sun – pickle-brined spatchcock chicken and a take on a creme fraiche/balsamic/pancetta potato salad from and old TJ’s cookbook, peas cooked with pancetta and chicken fat and then tossed with some feta aka the only way Hampton will ever eat peas from now on.

🥃:

🐶: I hate that this is out of focus but to be fair, I was shooting blind, over my back. Nobody gets as comfortable as the Libby dog, as seen here on two pillows and me bum.

📚: it was a good weekend for Available Now white lady thrillers starting with “The” on Libby feat. The Truth About the Devlins (Lisa Scottoline), The Unwedding (Ally Condie), and The Clinic (Cate Quinn). Special shoutout to a great YA ghost story — Deep, Dark, and Dangerous (Mary Downing Hahn).

🎭: I snagged the last two staff comps for the UNCSA production of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 and, wow. It was in thrust seating and we truly felt like part of the action from our floor seats facing the back wall. Obviously, I am 100% here for contemporary musical theatre where every single female part is written for a high belter, but even Hampton was highly entertained — though he DID wish the turntable spun a bit more (: I was especially impressed at how many of the cast members were also instrumentalists, and now it’s a goal to have to play somethin onstage myself. So great to see some of my As You Like It kids before they graduate and be introduced to some younger faces — and we ended up sitting near some of my opera kids and seeing a colleague who was going to another show in the same building on the way in. I just love this small little world.

Related — on the way out, we ran into another AYLI castmate who was in the third show in the space and who did a random event with Hampton a few months ago and recognized him at TJ’s late last week. They had a lovely chat both times, and it was very sweet. It was extra exciting that another UNCSA drama grad had already been talking with Hampton at the store, so he got to see Hampton be recognized for his work.