Left: Road trip to Moab, Utah, in August of 2002. Right: October 2006 trip to the California coast.

My beloved sunglasses are officially broken beyond repair. The plastic rim has snapped and the superglue that resurrected them numerous times before no longer works.

A gift from my parents in 2002, they have traveled with me from New Jersey to Arizona for grad school, across the country a year later for graduation in New York (and another cross country trip for my family to meet David), back to New Mexico, then up to Colorado for three years, and finally all the way here to California. They even traveled with us to Mexico for our honeymoon!

I have worn them nearly every single day for the past five years (our five year anniversary would have been next month). I really, really love these babies and I am so sad that they are broken. I guess it’s time to start saving up for a new pair…

Oh, and try to get rid of my raccoon-eyed tan in the meantime!
(It is so bad.)

Gardening season is upon us! Yesterday I headed down to our neighborhood nursery, which happens to sell only organic plants and natural growing supplies. Pure heaven! I exercised such restraint and walked away with only organic potting soil, a small jalapeño pepper plant, and herb seeds (basil, cilantro, mint). This year I will be gardening mostly over at Luther Burbank’s house.

In honor of our darling pepper plant, I thought I would share with you one of my favorite jalapeño dishes. It’s super simple, very versatile, and just delicious.

Spicy Mango Salsa
Adapted from Peter Berley’s Fresh Food Fast (a fabulous cookbook)

2 ripe mangos or 1 bag frozen mango, peeled and diced
½ cup chopped cilantro, plus additional for garnish
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon, lime, or orange juice
3 tablespoons minced red onion (we tend to use more!)
1 jalapeño pepper, with seeds, minced
1 ¼ teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of coarse sea salt

In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients; mix to combine. Serve with black beans, enchilada casserole, on top of nachos, with seared fish or tofu, or whatever else sounds good to you!

I thought it would be fun to show you photos from my mother’s side of my family (for photos from my dad’s side, visit the February archives). My uncle recently scanned lots of family photos and I’ve had such a great time pouring over them. Here are a few of my favorites.

Left: My grandmother Florence Leff (at age 6) in 1937 outside of her dad’s store in Morristown, NJ.
Right: My grandmother at Prospect Park (NY) during high school.

Left: My great-grandmother Minnie at the beach (on the right).
Right: Driving around Camden, NJ in my great-grandfather Ezra’s car in 1923.

David had a fantastic time in Tokyo. Delicious food, interesting new things, good company.

Check out those thousands of paper cranes left as an offering! Reminds me of our thousand paper cranes at our wedding (folded by David and I with the help of family and friends)! I especially like the blooming cherry trees everywhere. Just beautiful!

Tomorrow David comes home from a last-minute, week-long business trip to Tokyo. For him, oddly enough, he’ll be home later today (gotta love those time differences!).

While he’s been gone, I’ve slept in late every day and occupied myself with all sorts of fun activities: lots of reading outside in the sunshine, dips (and laps) in the pool, time spent cooking my favorite comfort foods, and watching oh-so-many movies (pretty much a five-day movie marathon of chick flicks!).

I also visited San Francisco with Christana earlier in the week. We toured the de Young museum, photographed beautiful flowers in Golden Gate Park, savored cheap Chinese food, and met up with Sellayel and Sean for tasty treats down in Little Italy (so fun!).

Today I read several design magazines at the beach. Tomorrow I volunteer at LBH&G.

Yeah, I lead such a tough life.

The biggest surprise of this week is how much David and I have been able to talk on the phone. We’ve talked over an hour a day, every day since he left on Sunday and we’ve both felt like we’ve had quality time with each other. I feel totally in the loop and less left behind (last-minute trip = expensive airfare = I couldn’t tag along!). Not only that, but we have been chatting every day FOR FREE thanks to the beautiful internet chat service that is Skype.

So, yes, I’ve had a good week, but I cannot wait for him to get home. I want him to hold me close for a couple days. Thank goodness for weekends together.

Have a good one!

This post concludes our Week of Design. Please leave a comment if you would like to see more “theme weeks” here on our blog. We’d also appreciate any theme suggestions you may have as well… Thanks for joining us this week and stay tuned for lots more journal goodness coming your way soon.

And, finally, here are some parting night shots…