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Love: Rookie Yearbook One, which gathers the best of crazy-talented, crazy-precocious Tavi Gevinson's teen girl site's content from September 2011-May 2012 into one well-designed package. I love Rookie's use of monthly themes("Secrets," "Girl Gang," "Transformation"), its writers' breathless discovery of, and quasi nostalgia for, things I actually did grow up with (the band Heart is "Literally, the best thing ever"), its exploration of the emotions and angst of teen girldom ("How to Approach the Person You Like Without Throwing Up," "How to Look Like You Weren't Just Crying in Less Than Five Minutes," "How to Survive a Small Town") and its mapping of the all-important little details ("Midnight Snacks: A Taxonomy," How to Clear Your Room In 10 Minutes.") Rookie Yearbook One is hands-down one of the most fun and vibrant things I've read through in ages.

Like: Portland's Olympic Provisions sausage. Double like that you can now buy it in certain Bay Area gourmet shops, like Oakland/Berkeley's Pasta Shops.

Discovery: Temescal Alley, or, as Erich brilliantly dubbed it, Hipster Deadwood.™ Tucked away behind Pizzaiolo, parallel with Telegraph Avenue, it features, among other things, a solid mid-century antiques store, a vintage clothing shop, a dry goods store, a horticulture shop (for your terrarium needs), and, yes, a barber shop.

Obsession: Horses.  Back when I was a kid, like most girls, I spent hundreds of hours playing with horse models, reading horse books like Misty of Chincoteague, and researching the feasability of turning our garage in Milwaukee into a stable (a no-go).  Stella is now playing with my old models, which had been carefully boxed in the attic all these years, and for her birthday was given a wonderful gift by some good friends, the next best thing to having her own horse: partial sponsorship of one at Sunrise Horse Rescue in Napa, outside St. Helena.  The horses they've saved have heartbreaking stories with happy endings.  This weekend we decided to contribute toward the upkeep of thoroughbreds Richie and Stryder, and plan to visit them every couple of months.

Complaint: After years and years of avoiding it, I'm going to have to suck it up and subscribe to Showtime because of Homeland.  We are rolling through Season 1 on DVD, it's gripping, the acting is bang on, and we just can't bear to wait a year with the promise of brand spanking new episodes starting this weekend.  This will likely push our monthly Xfinity Xtortion/bill past $275.

List 85

Love: The version of gazpacho created by Verjus, a lovely 3-story restaurant tucked away behind the Palais Royale, run by two ex-pat Americans: Green garden tomato and chili foam, with chunks of heirloom tomatoes and a masa cake.  It was maybe the culinary highlight of our recent Paris trip.

Like: The beautiful children's clothes at the equally beautiful Bonpoint store on Rue de Seine. I only wish they made adult sizes of some of their pieces.

Stella in her Bonpoint shirt

Discovery: The simple, casual pleasure of a warm summer evening picnic along the banks of the Canal St Martin - a bottle of rosé from Le Verre Volé and pizza from Pink Flamingo, who give you a balloon when you order and use it to find you along the canal to deliver your pizza.)

Obsession: The Galerie de Paleontologie et d'Anatomine Comparée and the Galerie d'Evolution in the Jardin des Plantes. Dead animal heaven for those of us into taxidermy and bones.

Complaint:  That my normal, everyday life doesn't involve stopping at Bon Marche's Grand Epicerie de Paris for groceries for dinner, then a quick Metro ride to an apartment in the 6th, complete with big windows and herringbone wood floors. Oh, and Sundays spent in the Luxembourg Gardens watching Stella play.

List 76

Love: A brilliant film or television show title sequence.  I was very happy to find the Art of the Title website, which goes deep with directors and the artists who create title sequences to dissect their inspirations and thought processes. A sampling from their pieces on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Mad Men:

http://www.artofthetitle.com


Like: To shop local, and a regular stop is Oakland's Bella Vita.  It's a good resource for vintage jewelry and purses (like this color block purse I picked up), vintage and new clothing from small area designers, and kids' clothing and gifts. 

Discovery: Bouche, a fairly new restaurant next to the Tunnel Top on Bush. It's super tiny - the size often described as "jewel box" but really "cigar box" seems more appropriate given its stripped-down, more masculine vibe - and incredibly good.  That everything we ate elicited a sigh should not be surprising given chef Nicolas Borzee's pedigree (Coi, and time with Alain Ducasse, Michel Troigros and Joel Robuchon back in his native France.)

Obsession: Graham and Green's Odyssey Writing Desk, based on a 1940s Italian design, which might nicely fill a spot in the back of the living room.

Complaint:  Why did I go 5 years without a watch?  After my last watch broke in 2006, like so many people these days, I had fallen into using the ever-present cell phone to check the time.  That is until last weekend, when I finally and very happily got a new timepiece: Nixon's The Time Teller in matte black with dark tortoise.  

List 69

Love: My new winter coat.  Now if only Indian Summer would give way to Fall and Winter. 

 Like: The Charlie Brown holiday specials - from Halloween and Thanksgiving to Christmas to Easter. I forgot what a cool cat Snoopy is and am glad to be rewatching these (over and over again) via Stella. The Mayflower Voyages bonus feature on the Thanksgiving DVD is a nice Cliff Notes on the story behind turkey day.

Discovery: Zombies are giving vampires a run for their money as the monster du jour, and I really enjoyed Isaac Marion's smart, breezy book Warm Bodies.  It imagines a zombie named R who has a rich inner life, longs for more than an existence of shuffling around and brain-eating, and lives in an old Boeing 747, listening to Frank Sinatra records.  It's being made into a movie right now, with John Malkovich, Nicholas Hoult (from About a Boy and A Single Man) and Rob Corddry.

Obsession:  Making meatballs at home that are as tasty and amazing as Pizzaiolo's.  The Williams-Sonoma Catalog and Esquire magazine both recently published meatball recipes that look, at least, like they are in the ballpark.

Complaint: Why is it that framing a poster costs 2-3 times the poster itself?