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Love: Erich Pfeifer, whom I had the good fortune to marry twenty years ago today, on July 31st, 1993. I'm kind of in shock that it's been two decades, but in many ways it's equally not surprising at all since it's difficult to remember life before he came into it. We were engaged after six weeks. We just knew. Cut to today and we still know. He's my best friend, a wonderful partner and father to our Stella, and keeps making me laugh. 

Like: Erich's way with a playlist. He's a genius at capturing mood, time and place with his mixes. Erich's been working on one for the anniversary dinner party we're having this weekend with a handful of close friends, and in doing so he turned me onto my new favorite jam, Don't Kiss Me Goodbye by Ultra Orange and Emmanuelle. (It's actually from 2007 but was new to me.) Listen to it here.

Discovery:  An Inverness get away.  For our tenth anniversary, we went to the secluded, cozy Manka's Inverness Lodge.  Ten years later, we're heading to Manka's Fishing Cabin and will be toasting two decades together over dinner at Sir and Star, the new and wildly well-reviewed restaurant from Manka's owners, Margaret Grade and Daniel DeLong, which features dishes like A Neighbor's Quail Plumped with Kale, Nestled in Wild Greens Pilliaged Within Reach and Crab Plucked from Surrounding Seas, Clawing at a Dip of Local Meyer Lemons.

Obsession: The Paris Photo show, which brings together hundreds of galleries from all over the world to a lovely spot in Paris each November.  We last went in 2004, right before I got pregnant with Stella, and have been aching to go back ever since.  This November our return is finally on.  Twenty is supposed to be the china or platinum anniversary gift year, but for us, it will be photography.

Complaint: I had a fleeting thought of engineering a closet makeover for Erich as an Anniversary surprise, but couldn't pull it off.  I would have used Beastie Boy Mike D's Brooklyn Toille wallpaper in the closet, which I think Erich would have loved.  Maybe for 25.

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Love:  The Cindy Sherman exhibit that just opened at SFMOMA. She has created such an amazing and wide-ranging body of work,spanning three decades. Rarely have I gone through an exhibit and fantasized about stealing so many pieces.

Like: My new everyday breakfast: 1 packed cup of kale,  1 packed cup of spinach, 1 cup of light vanilla soy milk, 1 frozen banana, 1/2 a granny smith apple and  tsp honey.  The fruit masks the greens, but it's not overly sweet.  It keeps you full until lunch. And by 8 am you've already knocked off 4 servings of fruit and vegetables.

Discovery: What I've been missing in my recent detour into dystopian YA novels: good writing, well-developed characters, thoughtful story telling.  This lesson was driven home by my welcome return to critically-acclaimed adult fiction via The Art of Fielding, which reads like an instantly classic American novel.

Obsession: Buns, for some reason.

Complaint: Newsroom haters.  It may be more like a top-flight Big Three Network show than an HBO (or AMC) series - especially this past week's episode, what with all the hanky panky - but Aaron Sorkin does that thing he does, and it's working for me.

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?

List 67

Love: That the Milwaukee Brewers have won the NL Central - their first division win since 1982.  Aside from the Brewers being the team I grew up with, it's hard to not love a team whose home stands feature a "sausage race" in the bottom of the sixth inning - a bratwurst, a kielbasa, an Italian sausage, a chorizo and a hot dog, racing around the field.

Like: Tavern League, a book of artful photographs of old school Wisconsin taverns, many of which are cooler than any big city bar could ever try to be.

Discovery: This portrait of Milwaukee artist Jack Madsen and his wife from 1955, found at Milwaukee's Riverview Antiques store a few years ago. They look super chic and timeless.  

Obsession: The Thorn Miniatures at the Chicago Art Institute.  Whenever I'm in town (as I was for business these past few days), I make a stop here to see these little rooms. The level of detail at this tiny scale is pretty amazing.

Complaint: That Top Shop has yet to open in San Francisco.  I went through their flagship U.S. store in Chicago and there was the potential to need to buy an extra suitcase. I know you can shop online, but I prefer to wander a store.

List 65

Love: 1930s fashion. Especially the styles sported by Faye Dunaway's Bonnie Parker.

Like: Kit Kittridge. If you have a daughter, inevitably you will have to deal with the American Girl phenomenon. Looking at the catalog, I cringe when I imagine factory workers in China putting together miniature salon chairs for dolls. But the historical dolls pass muster with me - at least little girls in 2011 can learn a bit about the past. Aspiring reporter Kit's Depression-era story appeals to me most, and I am doing my best to convince Stella that Kit should be the girl for her.

Discovery: Rules of Civility, the debut novel by Amor Towles, a 40something banker-with-an-M.A.-in-English, who channels a bit of F. Scott. The book is about three friends in New York who meet on New Year's Eve in 1937, and features a wonderful lead character in Katey Kontent. Time to see Midnight in Paris again to get over the "I should have been born in another time" feeling the book inspired.

Obsession: 1930s photography. From the documentary portraits of Americans struggling to get by, by greats such as Walker Evans and Dorthea Lange, to Margaret Bourke White's WPA architecture shots.

Complaint: A decidedly modern one:  I wish publishers and sellers would come up with a scheme by which one could get both a hardcover book and a kindle/digital version for one price (maybe just $2 more than the hardcover on its own.) I enjoyed Rules of Civility so much that I wanted to get it off my iPad and into my permanent library, and was forced to pay twice.