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Love: The Cato-Clouseau scene from The Pink Panther Strikes Again. One of the great physical comedy bits of all time, I'm reminded of it daily watching Clara and Fritz stalk and attack each other around our house.

Like: Craspedias, the Nelson Bubble Lamps of flowers, which look as clean, modern and nice dried as they do when they are fresh. 

Discovery: The next must-try San Francisco restaurant meal, this one from the new spot Rich Table in Hayes Valley. To start, watermelon and squid salad with olive vinaigrette. In the middle, order two different pastas and trade bowls half-way through - we had both the rigatoni with smoked eggplant and ricotta and the spaghetti with peas, mint and goat cheese. To finish, their caramelized olive oil cake with roasted strawberries and cream cheese.  (The menu is seasonal so it's likely these particular versions are gone, but the variations are bound to be as good.) Rich Table also has stellar cocktails and a well-done rustic-y space.

Obsession: Traveling to Ghent and Bruge, thanks to last month's issue of Travel and Leisure.  Sometimes one photograph is all it takes and you're desperate to be somewhere.

Complaint: That the excitement of back to school - buying supplies, finding out who's going to in your class, picking out what you'll wear the first day - can only be experienced vicariously now.  Sharing in it is one of the cool parts of having a kid, but it can make you ache for those innocent, carefree days of childhood yourself.  

Stella's back-to-school shirt from Gap Kids

Her new backpack from American Apparel

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Love: My lovely and amazing father, Terence Evans, aka T, who passed away quite suddenly a year ago this Friday.  I've got a pretty big hole in my life and my heart now, and am only just beginning to comprehend the finality of the loss.  The best way to fill the void is to remember, so I love it when my friends who knew him bring T up, and the old stories and memories are trotted out. 

Like: The orange movie theater marquee letter I bought on etsy and keep in our kitchen as a reminder of the great man.

Discovery: My Sopranos- and Green Bay Packers-loving guy's-guy of a dad had a softer side.  One compelling piece of evidence: his deep love of David Lean's epic romance-cum-historical drama Dr. Zhivago. (T might have appreciated The Selby's recent train trip from Paris to Shanghai on behalf of Louis Vuitton, which involved many days in Russia, a more glamourous version of the horrible train ride Zhivago and his family take as they flee Moscow for a cottage in the Urals.)
The Selby Part 1    The Selby Part 2

Obsession: T was a Democrat through and through, but he couldn't help but find constant amusement in Howard Dean's self-destructive 2004 Iowa Caucus election night speech.  Dad bought a novelty "Scream the Dream" bottle opener which plays the meltdown speech every. single. time. you. open. a. bottle. The opener, still going strong, is my fondest inheritance and makes me smile whenever I use it.

Complaint:  With T gone, and my mom moved to Seattle, where my sister lives, I miss Milwaukee. It's strange to no longer have a place or family to return to in the city you grew up in and visited regularly, for decades. 

When will I ever see its (modest) skyline and lovely lakefront?      

When will I walk through Lake Park then down to the lakefront, looking at all the big houses on Terrace, Wahl and Lake Drive along the way?

When will I catch a movie at The Oriental Theater? Bowl and drink next door at Landmark with Admiral Ackbar (David) and Big Sal (Erich)?

Count mullets and mesh shirts in the crowd at Summerfest?

Eat greasy but delicious Mexican at Conejitos or a burger and frozen custard at Kopps?

Go to that antiques store I liked in the Third Ward? 

Spend an afternoon at my beloved Milwaukee Public Museum amidst the dioramas?  

Milwaukee, I sure hope I don't lose you too.

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Love: The Boxcar Children was a childhood favorite of mine - to read and endlessly play act - so it's been lovely to re-read it this past week with Stella. The idea of four resourceful kids fending for themselves while living in the abandoned train car in the woods (storing bottles of milk in their cold creek "refrigerator", gathering mis-matched cracked dishes and pots from the town dump, finding eggs in the woods for supper, etc.)is as appealing now as ever.

Like: Tasting Table's Year of the Dinner Party series, which promises to provide ideas and inspiration for entertaining for the coming year.  Based on the first two entries, I'm hooked.

http://www.tastingtable.com/multipart_article/national/121

Discovery: Friskies' brilliant Cat Fishing app, which played a small part in keeping our poor cat Clara sane during her 8-week confinement following surgery (she was hit by a car in January.)  As of today, she's a free girl and authorized to be a normal cat again. 

Obsession: The current post-advertising fantasy gig is owning a small, modern urban inn above a bar or restaurant. Not unlike Longman and Eagle in Chicago or Detroit's Honor and Folly.

Complaint: That I don't have a picture of the finished dish to help convey this, but I swear this recipe for Guinness-Braised Beef Brisket is the easiest and most delicious centerpiece to a St. Patrick's Day dinner, if you are so inclined this Saturday.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/guinness-braised-beef-brisket-10000000577146/