it's awards season.

This past week has been especially busy for me and Ian because it's awards season — for architecture, that is. Ian was busy assembling several project submissions, and I was busy proofreading text for all of the office's submissions.

We did make time, however, to keep our tradition of watching the Oscar-nominated animated shorts. In fact we were more successful this year than the past two years (2009 and 2010) thanks to a Coolidge Corner Theatre showing of all five plus two highly commended shorts.

Day and Night — Pixar is always solid, and this has a great message about not fearing the unknown. It reminds me of Dr. Seuss's "What was I Scared of?" The animation and soundtrack also were brilliantly unique.

Let's Pollute — This project involved several Pixar people, so, as you can imagine, it's a solid short, conveying a green message using a little reverse psychology. Like educational promo spots, it encourages Americans to keep up our great heritage of pollution by purchasing more than we need, treating everything as disposable, and not thinking twice about our actions. The treatment and humor make this unforgettable. (This is Ian's favorite.)

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage — One of the most artistically stunning shorts in an elite collection, it incorporates everything from watercolor to embroidery to toy cars in it's portrayal of the creator's interaction with a foreign culture. This is a journal entry - more like a poem or snapshot than a story, but it is beautiful and I wouldn't be surprised if the Academy awarded this for the artistry.

The Gruffalo — A charming children's book turned into a British television special, it's a fun story about a mouse outsmarting all of the predators he runs into during his search for nuts. The clay animation is lovely, and the humor, both in dialogue and in animation, is endearing. However, the competition is tough, and I'd be surprised if this came out on top.

The Lost Thing — This wistful tale follows a young man who finds a lovable lost thing and tries to get it back to where it belongs. It has a moving story, beautiful animation, and a haunting message about what we miss when we're too busy to notice the little things. This is my favorite (but just barely — they are all so good).

The highly commended shorts were also entertaining. "Urs" was beautiful but the story was slightly depressing. "The Cow Who Wanted to be a Hamburger," on the other hand, was hilarious while still communicating the danger in blindly pursuing what society pushes (while channeling The Story of Ferdinand). The credits reassure viewers this isn't just vegetarian propaganda, as each contributor's dietary preferences are listed under their names and they eat meat.

We've also actually seen a few of the Best Picture nominees: Inception, The King’s Speech, Toy Story 3, and Winter’s Bone. We enjoyed and would highly recommend all of them, but I have my fingers crossed for The King's Speech — the acting and the story were both brilliant. I haven't left a theater that content in a long time. (We also saw the documentary Wasteland which was incredible.)

Have fun watching the Oscars, and may the best films win.

*update: we were right — The Lost Thing took home the Oscar!

2009 | 2010

and Wuv, tWu Wuv...

For Valentine's Day, Ian went the experiential gift route. So last Saturday, we packed our bags and checked in at The W Hotel downtown — sleek, modern, and beautiful.

We signed up for the points program (Ian sometimes travels for work), chatted with Noah while he assembled our packet and keys, then headed up to the 12th floor. The elevator mat said "good afternoon." Yes, they change it three times a day.

We explored the amenities, guessed prices of items in the snack bar, and settled in for some afternoon tv viewing on the signature W pillowtop bed before our dinner date. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

A hotel employee greeted Ian with a plate of chocolate covered strawberries and a note from Noah welcoming us to the Starwood Preferred Guest program (lesson — when signing up for hotel rewards programs, do it at the higher tiered one).

Five minutes later, we heard another knock. This time, we received a plate of fruit with no explanation. Did we sign up for some package without realizing it?

Five more minutes brought yet another knock. "Excuse me, can I check your minibar?"

A couple hours later, we got ready for dinner and headed to Lumiere in Newton, courtesy of a Groupon + Ian's Christmas present gift certificate from Dane & Micki. A cozy French fusion restaurant, the award-winning chef serves dishes created with local and sustainable ingredients.

We ordered the chef's tasting menu, supplemented with an additional first and main course. An amuse bouche of a Scrabble-sized bit of grilled cheese started the evening. And I died.

Our taste buds danced through the menu — sea bass carpaccio, scallops cooked to perfection and served over a carrot purée with a hint of Asian kick, braised duck ragoût over turnips with a soy-ginger jus, pork pavé that took Ian back to his childhood (imagine Anton Ego's experience in Ratatouille), hanger steak drenched in a sweet but subtle braised beef marmalade, a cheese and marmalade paired with wine that made it sing, and a humble apple crumble, baked to perfection, that turned it's wine pairing to caramel. And the check comes with perfect chocolate chip cookies.

We slept in the next morning, enjoying a late brunch in Beacon Hill as we discussed our life in Boston. We wandered through the Common before heading to Copley to shop for Ian's big switch to old-fashioned shaving. More on that in another post. We picked up a RedBox movie (cheaper than renting via the hotel) before heading back to the W and dinner.

Two blocks away from the W is The Dumpling Cafe, a new restaurant in Chinatown. The Gourmet Dumpling, while tasty, didn't have dumplings that could substitute for the juicy pork dumplings we discovered at Din Tai Fung in Singapore and miss so desperately. So when we read about The Dumpling Cafe, we had to sample. It's much closer to our Singapore experience. If only they had kaya jala and bananas tempura, I might never leave Boston.

The next morning we slept in, packed up our meager belongings and all the complimentary travel-sized Bliss Spa bath amenities, walked out the door, passed three limos, and hopped on the T home. I'm still amazed at how relaxing vacation can be when you take away the travel part.

Thanks Ian, for the perfect Valentine's gift!

Will you be my valentine?

[ ] yes

[ ] no

We enjoyed a full Valentines weekend.

We made oreo truffles using my new mini food processor and Ian's arm muscles.

We custom framed my anniversary present to Ian (yes, it's 1.5 months later — why do you ask?). The Framers Workshop measures and custom cuts all the materials, then you can DIY the rest in their studio (your labor = less $). We're worried this could become an addicting hobby. Please intervene if we start framing our grocery lists.

We overdosed on sweets while playing celebrities + BANG! — read more at Micah and Marianna's blog.

We discovered Parish Cafe. Grant would recommend Rowdy's Famous chicken sandwich, but you really can't go wrong.

Tonight, we get to spend the big day with our community group and are baking quiche for the occasion.

Who needs Hallmark and a dozen roses to have a happy Valentine's Day?

It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.

A few weekends ago, the weather and our schedules cleared up at the same time, so Ian and I went shopping with our Christmas gift cards. As Ian browsed the dress shirts (while 24+ other dress shirts hung in the closet), we had an epiphany - we didn't know what would improve our wardrobe/apartment. We hadn't "fun" shopped in a while due to debt-pay off mode, so we hadn't given it much thought.

Ian picked up dress socks (a definite need) and we headed home to assess and plan. Following principles I’ve learned through some recent adds to my Google Reader (Kendi and Makeunder My Life), we went through Ian's clothes, then my clothes, completing #20 of this year's concrete aspirations. With Ian's help I weeded out more than 28 items. I don't shop much but had lots of old clothes that didn't match our life in Boston (i.e. didn't look professional enough for work) and/or “made me look young,” as Ian informed me after I requested brutal honesty. (Those had to go - I already have trouble convincing people I’m not in high school.)

And we wrote a shopping list to spend the rest of our gift cards.

Motivated by that happy closet feeling, we started in on a few other decluttering concrete aspirations. We went through the living room again, selecting books to sell and catalogs to recycle. I tackled a few piles in the bedroom, started going through iPhoto, and lost 2 GB in iTunes.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been inspired to simplify, but this is the first time I’ve followed through so well. I'm a saver - if something could be functional, I keep it "just in case." I forget owning too many functional things isn't functional.

To put myself in an appropriate mindset, I applied my (ruthless) copy-editing skills: sometimes you have to get rid of good bits to make a great story. I also remind myself we don’t need it all, and it's selfish to not pass it on to someone who does (we have a big pile of t-shirts to donate for the DR trip - more on that soon).

We’re not there yet, but I like where we're going.

70.1 inches and counting

We've had a lot of this.





And not enough of this.



We're almost up to Shaq's shoulders in snow, and more is in the 7-day forecast. At the beginning of February, we're 37.5 inches away from the record, which counts snowfall through April. They trucked off piles to snow farms, i.e. empty lots, to make room for this week's predictions. Last night, we were the middle of a snowstorm sandwich.

Thankfully, my boots arrived yesterday with the first flurries — Wellies with warmers.



A cheery butter color, they're comfy, not too heavy, and did great commuting in this morning's "wintry mix." I'm anticipating I'll love them even more in our chilly, rainy springs. This is an investment in something that will last (unlike my previous cheap pair), so there's less waste (inspired by my Christmas present from Nathan). But if they do crack, L.L. Bean has an amazing guarantee and return policy.

I know it's not the same as "real" snow boots, but thanks to our winter, the cute-yet-functional options are sold out everywhere. I still ordered a pair so I'll have them for next winter. But at the rate we're going, we'll still have snow when those arrive in April — I don't trust Phil.

We're trying not to let the snow get to us. It helps we don't have to shovel and we have no car to perpetually dig out. Ian summed it up when we heard this week's forecast. "Go big or go home."