New hat

Loving my new hat (excuse my airplane makeup/hair/face). Thank you Target!

Vegas Part II

Yoinks - it's been a while since I promised the follow up to this story (I have been saying yoinks in my head this week - I'm annoying myself with it, maybe if I put it here it will be embarrassing enough to banish it from my head before I head home for Christmas).

When we left off, I had finished up at the spa.

12. Get dressed for dinner early, so that we can go gamble before dinner. And drink - we have vouchers (classier than coupon) for free drinks at the bar.
13. Lay on bed so as not to wrinkle dress and watch random sitcoms while Mr. D works (this is unexpected, and annoying, though one of his co-workers completely gave up an hour of her Saturday night to help him out, since he didn't have a computer).
14. Go down to the bar for a drink. Yes, if we sat at a table we could have a drink for free, but only a well drink.
15. Go to Alain Ducasse restaurant for dinner. It is at the top of the building, and the view is amazing, as we wait for our table when we check in for our reservation. I hate waiting when you have a reservation. The Les Halles on park is really bad at this, which is where we like to go with R&J at the last minute. So we make a reservation off our phones and then head over there. And then wait an hour. But I digress.
16. Tolerate waiter at dinner. I don't know why, but he rubs me the wrong way. At one point he says he likes the chocolate souffle, but not with the pistachio ice cream, he likes it with butter pecan. I don't really like pistachios, but I kept it with the souffle just to not do what he said.
17. We head down to go gamble. First we hit the blackjack tables - the discount blackjack tables - no joke. We found a $10 table, but the dealers were all very...odd. One would deal, and every time she put the cards in the shuffler, she would sit and pick at her fingernails. I won some money, so we got up to go find Pai Gow for Mr. D.
18. No Pai Gow tables open, so he sat down at Let It Ride. I watched for a while, then the dealer convinced me to play. I did not win a single hand. Luckily, I didn't lose more than I won and Mr. D won some, so we headed to bed happy campers.
19. Mr. D was up early, but the poker tables going were full, so he played some Pai Gow. And won. I sat down at video poker and was up a bunch, but got too greedy and lost a little. While I was there, Mr. D hit the craps table and won some more money. We decided to stop there.
20. We headed over to the Bellagio for a crazy buffet. The sushi portion was unexciting, California and veggie rolls.
21. As we are walking back, I start to cross the street on a flashing red. Mr. D stops me, then I decide to go ahead. I'm almost across the street when I eat it. Mostly I fall on my knees. And it hurts. They start swelling immediately, and by the time we get back to The Hotel, they are bad enough for me to put my feet up in the cab. At the airport, it felt like I had an egg under each knee. They are still purple, no skirts without tights in H-town over Christmas.

Random Sasha photo

This is Sasha's WTF face. In this picture it is because she is wearing a coat that is too small. My mom sent it to her, probably because she doesn't have grandchildren (Ree, can you get on this).

Snowy

Well, I left my phone at home yesterday, so the rest of the post if Vegas is forthcoming.
In the meantime, lovely snow has been falling here, which reminds me that it will be too cold to take Sasha to the "big park.". My brother-in-law bought Sasha some booties for the cold - I'm not sure if we'll use them, but they sure confused her. Mr. D's parents' dog just froze and wouldn't move once they were on.

Las Vegas synopsis

1. Leave work Friday, fly to Las Vegas
2. Get to hotel - get upgraded to a suite - hooray
3. Grab some burgers an plan to gamble
4. Finish burgers and realize we're about to crash - head to bed
5. Mr. D wakes up at 7 to play poker
6. Go down to play video poker - I'm a winner, Mr. D finishes - he's a big winner!
7. See guy Mr. D won most of his money from; he looks and sounds pissed, but it is slightly comical, as he is wearing a teeny fedora hat.
8. We take our winnings for a walk in the out of doors before lunch
9. Lunch at rm seafood. Food is good, service is bad (when we got our oysters, there wasn't a spoon for the sauces, when asked for, the guy bring two forks and little plates, so we wait again while they go to get a spoon, then we realize they brought 1 each of 6 kinds instead of 2 each of 3 kinds). It's hard to like a seafood restaurant that can't figure out how to serve oysters, but the rest of the meal was amazing - I had a crazy-good tuna melt
10. We go up to the room to get ready to go to our massage appointments, b/c Mr. D wants to go to the gym first, me not so much. Unfortunately, he got an email from work so had to run around to find a printer that worked.
11. Massage was good, but afterwards I got confused. Not that I wanted to be nakie, but the reviews said that that's how the pools were here, so I didn't take my swimsuit downstairs. I walked into the pool room (in my robe), and all the women in the pools had on swimsuits. Hmm. I grabbed a magazine and chilled on the lounge chairs, not wanting to be an exhibitionist. Finally two ladies came out and hopped in to the pool, nakies. After they hopped out, I hopped into the hot pool. It definitely felt weird, but it's not like anyone was watching. Unlike if the topless pool at the hotel, where the hotel charges you money to see topless ladies (if it had been open, I wouldn't have gone topless)

Anyway, this is getting rather long, so we'll have to do a two-parter.

I'd like to see how other people deal with the nakie/no-nakie at the spa.

Woe is Me

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, we had a bit of a crazy week, as we found out that our best couple friends are moving back to Texas- as in leaving in a few weeks. We're going to miss them a lot.

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Christmas tree up!

We put it up while watching Love Actually one of my favorite Christmas movies

Limoncello

After the party we had a few weeks ago, we realized we had bought too many lemons. Instead of lemonade, Mark made Limoncello, which is very easy to do. We use the food network recipe from Giada. Take the zest off 10 lemons with a veggie peeler (cutting out pith - white part) and soak in .750 liters of vodka for at least 4 days. Make syrup - heat 3.5 cups water w/ 2.5 cups sugar until combined and add to the vodka when cool. Wait another day. Strain the vodka and bottle. Yumm! Not really a winter drink, but tasty nonetheless.

Thanksgiving Weekend Synopsis

1. Get out of work later than agreed to on Tuesday (wait for mail instead of lunch). Wash - I can't really complain since I did get to leave early.
2. Sit in traffic for 30 minutes just to get into the tunnel. And listen to Mr. D go crazy yelling at the idiot in front of us (from our car, so it's not like the guy heard).
3. Make long drive to the D family house.
4. Make Thanksgiving dinner (lunch). Mr. D and I contributed home-made green bean casserole ala Alton Brown. We can't get too adventurous with the D family.
5. Mr. D smokes bacon
6. The dogs fight (Sasha, the D's dog, and brother D's dog).
7. It rains - we play some Wii.
8. We eat leftovers for dinner.
9. Wake up to biiiiiig breakfast. French toast and bacon.
10. Check in on work. Not a lot going on - good.
11. It snows. More Wii.
12. The dogs fight.
13. The D's, Mr. D and I go to the casino.
14. Mr. D and I each win $100.
15. We go home, make dinner, dogs fight.
16. Biiiig breakfast @ 9:00 am. Pancakes and sausage.
17. 11:30 - meet Mr. D's high school friend for lunch at best wing place (note small difference between breakfast and lunch).
18. Cook for Mr. D's brother's Mexican-themed birthday party. Refried beans - Win! Spanish rice - Fail! (Truly - never let me cook rice for you - Mr. D is never satisfied, and it's never quite right. I think this was close, but a bit mushy).
19. Watch football.
20. Eat huge breakfast - eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast.
21. Drive home.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband, adorable dog, being out of Holiday traffic, and even though I'm not with them until Christmas - my family!

My brother-in-law bought Sasha some booties - here she is modeling them. Hopefully emailing the video works, if not, I'll fix it tomorrow. :)

Pie

I made a pie over the weekend! From scratch!

Disappointed that there wouldn't be pecan pie at thanksgiving at Mr. D's house, I decided to make one this weekend. I made a tiny one so that we wouldn't be eating leftovers all week. I used the recipe from "Diner" in the NY Times last week, mixing chopped nuts into the filling and putting the whole ones on top. Very yum.

Bacon

Over Thanksgiving, we'll be going over the river and through the woods to Mr. D's parents' house. At which resides a smoker. So Mr. D started curing bacon last night:

Ewww

OK - so Mr. D pointed this one out to me. Apparently, hospitals will harvest foreskins - A.B - can you confirm or deny (not that she works in a hospital, she just had a baby boy). Article here.

Weekend

How is it already Wednesday? We had a little bit of a busy weekend - the kind where you're exhausted, but you didn't really do anything. Saturday we woke up and ran errands before my brother arrived, then we made pizza when he got there and then the boys spent the afternoon watching soccer and football.

We took little brother out for a steak dinner, and the restaurant was a little odd. First, we were surrounded by little kids, though one did seem to be a regular (or his dad worked there), the way the whole staff came around to say hi. Then a waiter carded a woman, clearly in her late twenties, with her husband. She didn't have her purse, so they refused to serve her. The couple had a big problem with that, as it was their anniversary. We thought they would walk out after the manager said he couldn't do anything, but then, 5 minutes later she had a glass of wine in front of her.

The next day, Mr. D and I woke up, then spent the next two hours trying not to wake up my brother on the couch while we took the dog out, got coffee, and ate breakfast.

We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to Grimaldi's and had pizza (yes, again). We walked over to the waterfront and then took the subway back into the city to watch the Bills game at a sports bar by the apartment. The best part was the crazy hockey game on the tv next to it - there were 10 goals and at least 3 fights.

I made dinner at home before we went to the Knicks game that night against the Rockets - our first time at an event at Madison Square Garden, even though we live right down the street. The Knicks were terrible, the Rockets won, and we left early to get my brother home to prep for his interview, so we missed the fans booing the Knicks at the end of the game.

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Knicks vs. Rockets

Sunday

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge w/ mr. D and my brother to get Grimaldi's!

Randomness

We are swimming in pate post-weekend party. Pate, cheese, and cookies, which, in combination make for a bad week on the scale - especially since we'll be out with people most nights this week, so getting to the gym will be tough. I did manage to make a picnic-y dinner of pate, cheese, bred and pickles - trying to evoke future memories of our trip to France next Spring.

My brother is in town this weekend - interviewing for a residency spot. Why is it the first things I think about are whig restaurants to go to? Partly, I think, because he came up with his med-school buddies and they did almost everything there is to do. Not the Circle line, though, and it might be warm enough this weekend.

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Aftermath

This is a picture of one of the flower arrangements I made for our cocktail party last night. Tadaa.

Why Jeggings Are Good

In response to my friend's (AB) comment that jeggings are not good, I felt the need to provide reasons why jeggings are one of the best clothing items ever.
First we must define the jegging - the ones of which I speak are very stretchy jeans. They look like denim, and are much thicker than leggings themselves - which is important, as no one wants to see the jiggling that goes on with some people who wear leggings.

Jeggings should be worn under a shirt/dress/jacket that is long enough to cover at least to the apex of the bum. Any shorter and you're just wearing hoochie pants.

The great part about jeggings is, that if worn properly, you can wear them - and look cute - in a casual work environment, while being super-comfy. A great pair of jeggings feels like wearing yoga pants all day.

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A good, good day

You know it's going to be a good day when you're walking down the street to the subway, and all of the sudden your jeggings realize that the button wasn't completely "done" and proceeds to pop open, which also alerts you to the fact that you didn't zip your fly. Luckily, I was wearing a coat, and a sweater dress, so nothing was "exposed," except I had my hands in my coat pockets (without looking like a perv) to hold my pants up for 3 blocks. Fab.

My work cat

Yes, I'm allergic to cats, but the ones at my office haven't bothered me yet. Of the two that have free rein of the apartment, only Maxie seems to like me.

One way NYC is better

This morning was another example of how NYC is better came up the morning. Last night Mr. D took the turkey breast for tonight's dinner in a brine. As I was putting together my lunch today, I asked Mr. D if I needed to do anything aside from dumping the brine out to make sure it was ready (if we had left it in, it would have been too salty).
"Just rinse it off before you put it back in the bowl."
I didn't think about the turkey again until both of us had left and I was 2 blocks away - when I realize I hadn't taken it out of the brine. Since I wasn't on the subway yet, it wasn't too hard to turn around and do it, and I was only a few minutes behind schedule. Had we been back in Austin, I would have been on Mopac in 2 minutes, well past the point of no return, before I had realized I needed to go back.

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Afternoon at the Met

Mr. D and I met up after he went in to work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We had a chance to see the bamboo exhibit, but not take the excursion up through it - see the group of people?

Afternoon

Enjoying the last of the afternoon sun with Sasha and Mr. D walking along the pier (after not enjoying the Texas game).

Why do I never take pictures?

Last night we went to a Rice Alumni event on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, so I was able to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in a few months. Being on the floor of the Stock Exchange was very cool. Every once in a while, the group of us would realize we weren't talking anymore - we were busy staring at our surroundings. Very cool. I should have had someone take our picture, but one of our other friends had just had his picture taken, so I didn't want to draw the process out.

Anyway, it was a bit of a hustle to get there (small urgent matter at work had me leaving a few minutes late, then home to let the dog out, then back on the subway, so I was about 20 minutes late all said and done), and I realized I should throw on a jacket when they sent an email about a red carpet three hours before the event. Luckily no pictures were taken, it was just to show us where the security scanners were. Once we got in there was quite the spread for a Rice event, they even had a carving station. Oh, and the founder of the company that got listed, the whole reason for the event got up and made a speech. A not very fun speech. Honestly i feel bad that no one was really paying attention, but the venue is not really conducive to speech giving because there's a big trading stall in the middle of the floor in front of the podium and behind that was where they had the bar and some appetizers set up. Poor planning.

Leaves

Hi Houston friends - see the mysterious orange leaves :)

Saturday Errands

This morning we headed out for coffee and took Sasha to the dog park - which is pretty standard fare for a weekend morning. Mr. D had decided that he wanted to make duck confit, and luckily, he realized while we were out that he needed some olive oil. Trader Joe's is fairly close, and much cheaper than Whole Foods, so we went there.

To get to Trader Joe's we have to go out of Madison Square Park on the south side, and Sasha always gets confused when we do that - she always tries to go inside Home Depot, and if we don't go in there, she tries to go in Best Buy - silly dog. We finally get to Trader Joe's, but obviously we can't go in there with the dog, so I waited outside.

I was planning on making an apple pie, so I looked up the recipe on my iPhone and emailed Mr. D the apples I needed. A bit later he came out, with only one kind of apple, olive oil, pomegranates and two pieces of frozen fish - he picked those up just because they were "only $10." Silly boy - if I had done that he would have called me cheap.

Now we're back home and I'm getting ready for an impromptu baby shower, then meeting Mr. D at Hill Country for a UT watch party catered by the Law Alumni group - whoo hoo! Then I have the apartment all to myself tonight while Mr. D goes to a men-only dinner party at R&J's house (J is out of town). More on this later...

Commuting

Ok - so I don't really commute, but in my new job, my boss lets me go out and meet with the candidates who we are introducing by myself. As a result of all the rain last month and a few errands midtown, I now know how to ride the bus. Today I'm meeting a client and a candidate in Stamford, so I'm on the Metro-North line. It's so much more fun to go on work trips when you can play on your iPhone the whole time because you don't have to drive!

Sent from my iPhone

Wedding Weekend

We've spend a good deal of the last 36 hours traveling, and now it looks like we're going to be spending more. Two of Mr. D's coworkers had their wedding in Charlottesville, VA on Friday. We flew out yesterday morning to Richmond, then drove the rest of the way to Charlottesville and met up with another of Mr. D's coworkers and her boyfriend (K&S) and the four of us went and toured Monticello. K & S were pretty hilarious, and kept cracking Canadian jokes (they are both Canadian) during the tour.

The wedding was gorgeous. The weather was perfect, and the happy couple were married just as the sunset behind the mountains at a vineyard. They had a great DJ, and everyone was dancing the night away - I even tricked Mr. D into slow-dancing with me several times. Mayhaps we had a bit too much to drink, as the couple hired a bus to take us to and from the vineyard, and both of us were a bit hungover this morning.

We rented our car for exactly one day, so had to be at the airport half an hour early to return the car, which we did exactly 2 minutes ahead of schedule. Then we went inside to print our boarding passes and realized that our flight was delayed for two hours. Yargh. So here we sit, instead of getting home by three, we won't get there until 5:30 or 6:00.

Sidenote: Those of us who were invited (only 8 of their coworkers (plus the partners) were invited) discussed the fact that the people who weren't invited to the wedding were complaining at work after the bride and groom left for Charlottesville. People. Seriously. The people who were invited were the ones that go out with each other for drinks after work. Not, as put it, the people you run into at the bar because they left first and didn't ask the rest of them. Now, I am all for being inclusive with wedding invitations, but, when you find out that you are not invited to something, you should not complain. No one was trying to hurt feelings, but there are always budgetary and space constraints. The couple was a member of two departments, and it's clear that they can't invite everyone from both departments without adding 50 people plus +1's to the guest list. Anyway, that's my two cents.

You think?

Mr. D and I were just online buying a wedding gift for the wedding we're going to this weekend (procrastinate much?). We were at the online store that starts with Williams and ends with Sonoma. After checking out the registry, which took days, because it wasn't working (and no, Mr. D, it would not be an appropriate thing to bring up with the bride the day before she leaves for the wedding).

As I may be likely to do, I clicked on the sale page. The third item: the SPRING cookie wreath. Shockingly, it was on sale. How can they still sell this? Do you really want to eat something knowing that 6 months later it can still be eaten? Gross.

Randomness

Some things I thought about this week, but was too lazy to post. Blah.

Rain in New York is the most annoying thing in the world. People forget how to walk and that the umbrella makes them wider than they used to be. For some reason, most people don't "get" that you can close your umbrella under the scaffolding.

More annoying rain problems: my subway station entrance floods. Like walk down to the platform and have to step into a 8 ft by 8 ft by 4 inches deep puddle.

I love the clean apartment. We gave everything except the bedroom a total overhaul yesterday. Everything was spotless - J&R were coming over for dinner and J and I made ravioli and pasta while the boys sat and played video games. J&R do not have a video game player - I have a feeling they might be getting one soon...

New Shoes

Mr. D was so depressed after watching the Bills lose on Sunday that he just wanted to get out of the house. He had mentioned that he needed new tennis shoes, so I suggested a trip to DSW. I also needed a new pair of shoes, as my athletic shoes have probably had it. They are so old that they have puppy chew marks on the heel.

While we were there, I picked up these cuties by... Dr. Scholl's. No joke. They are super comfy with a teeny wedge heel. I could live in them.

The Amazing Race

We're sitting around watching TV after a lazy day. I'm wearing my equivalent of sweatpants - a jersey skirt from Old Navy. Very comfy, a good option to change into after work, or when I don't want to get dressed. I've only worn one in public once or twice. One of our favorite shows is back on - hooray. Every time we're watching, Mr. D brings up the fact that he wants to be on the show one day. I predict disaster, but we'll get to see, because I think the guy (Chad?) of the guy/girl team where the guy is going to propose during the race acts like Mr. D. I am pretty sure that is a terrible plan. What if they get kicked of before he does it? What if they break up on the race (as has happened before)?

Anyway best quotes from this week:
I can't feel my face.
I have the worst headache ever.
Maybe we're our boat.

Before and After

No, this isn't a post with my elbow in it, and I am alive - it didn't kill me.
Despite the whole elbow thing happening this week, we managed to finish the living room rearrangement. Well sort of finish. In the ideal world where we had infinite money we would probably get a new carpet, the couch from the HGTV Urban Oasis apartment, and maybe a new chair. Eventually, eventually. For now, getting rid of the IKEA bookcases (nothing really wrong with them until the movers punched holes in them when we moved in - so yes, we've lived with them like that for two years) and my old TV stand (when I made the dumbest purchase ever and, in my cheapness, bought the last non-flat screen TV ever made).
So, the old bookcases did not look bad, by any means:
Note: The white thing all the way on the right is a cabinet that we used as a printer/supply stand. Yes, those are Mr. D's socks drying on the Rock Band drums.

This is what new living room looks like:

Not nearly as dark, and not just because the lighting is better. Honestly, part of it is that we got rid of (taking to the Strand (kind of like Half Price Books) and I say taking, because they are boxed up in the bedroom right now) a LOT of our books. While I would like to have bookshelves full of books, we decided to only keep ones we use all the time (ie cookbooks or bar books) or might actually look at again. Lately, we've been reading on the iPhones/Kindle (Mr. D got one for Christmas - actually two in the year of multiple Christmas gifts), so we don't have books, except for cookbooks or ones that are given to us.

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit. The printer is now on the wine fridge, which was previously a junk repository. The only issue now that white cabinet is gone, is that the curtain that just went to the top of it now doesn't cover the newly exposed section of window. The curtains are just panels from Bed, Bath & Beyond, but now they're out of the long ones - everywhere. So a new window treatment solution is in order. Sigh.

Big thank you to Mr. D for arranging for Salvation Army to come pick up the old TV stand (he called Salvation Army, and I talked the doorman into keeping it in the package closet until they came). They're one of the few places that will pick up donations in NYC. We (I) decided the bookshelves were too damaged to salvage - the fact that they nearly fell on top of me while I was taking them apart and wobbled from side to side (as in you could make the shelf not have right angles) made me think Salvation Army wouldn't have taken it anyway.

Owie

Last week, I scraped my elbow - a little scrape. Annoying, because it was right on the part where you rest your arm. Flash forward to yesterday morning, when my elbow wakes me up because it hurts, at 7:00 am. I try to go back to sleep, and if I'm going to call my dad for medical advice - he's a doctor - then I'd like to wait until it's at least 7 back home.

I couldn't wait that long - I called the house at 6:45 his time and told him I thought I had an infected elbow. At this point I was crying, since my still sleepy brain immediately jumped to the time my cousin had an infected scrape on his knee and wound up needing surgery. Aaah. After I calmed down, my dad told me that it could be inflammation or an infection, so I should go to the 24 hr clinic, if I could.

Luckily, the clinic is only a few blocks away, and I was the only person in the waiting room when I got there. The doctor's must have been changing shifts, because I still had to wait 40 minutes. Once I got in, the doctor was very nice, he thought I might have a minor infection and definitely some inflammation, so he gave me a prescription for some heavy-duty antibiotics and told me to keep warm compresses on it.

Off I (yes, I - Mr. D stayed home) went to the pharmacy, which was a block away. I handed the scrip over to the tech, and he acted surprised that I wanted to wait for it - wouldn't you think that people who are getting really strong anti-biotics would want them as quickly as possible. He didn't seem to think so - he told me 15 minutes, and after 20, I walked up to the counter to check. The pharmacist had no idea that I was waiting, but 30 seconds later it was ready - thanks, buddy.

On my way home, I played good-wife and picked up one ingredient for Mr. D's gumbo (J&R were coming for dinner) and grabbed coffee. After I got home, I used the heating pad on my arm, then fell back to sleep for an hour. Then we went to the market to get some last ingredients for dinner - which I regretted the whole time we were there. I could feel every step in my arm. I spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between cleaning and laying in bed with the heating pad on my arm.

Luckily, the swelling in my elbow went down by the time I woke up this morning, which meant that I didn't need to go back to the clinic to have it drained. My arm still hurts, but I can move it without wincing every time.

Bus Ride

I took my first bus ride yesterday (in NYC). The reason is that we needed another box from the Container Store for the new living room setup. The store is on the way home, but if you take a subway, get out, and get back on, you have to pay twice, but if you ride a bus for one of the legs, the second leg is free. So I'm cheap, but I also just wanted to try it out.
As you can see from the picture, it started out well: sunny day, almost no one else there, and we were zipping along. It only lasted a few blocks. Clouds appeared, more people got on the bus, and traffic came to a standstill as the rain started.
Eventually, I had to get out and run thrower few blocks in the rain. Fail.

I'm old

> Running to the bank for new work when I encounter 4 high school girls walking 4-across on the sidewalk. As we get ready to pass, they somehow manage to make it impossible for me to pass them. One of them said - I'm sorry MA'AM!! For the record, I'm wearing jeans and a top - very un-grown-up-like.
>
> Sent from my iPhone

Farm Share Box Update

Our farm share box has been a bit of a debacle lately. I mentioned that I had cooked during my week off from work - but since we were out of town, we certainly didn't have time to eat the ginormous zucchinis (as big as a roll of paper towels) that were sent in our box. So that they wouldn't go bad, I grated up the zucchini and popped it in the freezer for zucchini bread - the first loaf is coming out of the oven as we speak!

Dinner Tonight

Swordfish steaks w/ white wine, balsamic vinegar & caper sauce, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini fritters. The swordfish recipe is from Epicurious (but I threw the tomatoes in just because). To make the fritters, I cut one of our CSA zucchinis into matchstick sized pieces and added the to the Ratio fritter batter, seasoned with a little salt, pepper, and dried basil. The sauce "kind of" went all over the place, probably because of all the extra tomato juice.

New office view

Not too shabby - and I have my own little office!

Exercise

I don't know if golf in a cart counts, but I know tennis does, which means I've worked out at least two of the past three days. Yay me. Sidenote: my former employer always spelled yay "yeah," but I think that is how you spell what is pronounced as "yah."

The new job is going well, especially since I found out I get to leave at 5. Even though my commute is a bit longer (10 more minutes), this gives me more than enough time!

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Labor Day Vacay

We're in North Carolina, (not the coast, but golf country) at the rental house my parents got, get this - 18 years ago. I haven't been here in years, I think Mr. D has been here more recently than I have, for one of my dad's birthday golf trips. It was weird coming back, and especially weird since we're the only ones here (we invited J&R to come with us, but R's parents are in NYC to see his new nephew).

Earlier in the week, Hurricane Earl gave us a bit of pause, but we realized that we weren't going to be anywhere near close enough to the coast to worry about it, so here we are, relaxing in the gorgeous weather, the faint smell of grilling in the air as the UT vs. Rice game gets started.

Thinking about the hurricane makes me think of all the "recent hurricanes, which I have been lucky enough to avoid my traveling. I remember Hurricane Rita, which caused HUGE amounts of panic, as almost all of Houston evacuated to Dallas/Austin, remembering Katrina, which struck New Orleans just weeks before. Mr. D and I had just met that summer, and his friends were trying to get me to wait out the storm in Austin with him, but I was all set to go to San Francisco for my friend Sara's wedding - and was able to move my flight up a day. The window in my office overlooked I-45, and the road was completely bumper-to-bumper with cars, and the southbound traffic was non-existent, as they had closed the road so people could use that side for northbound traffic, too. My dad took me to the airport the next morning, and the streets were deserted (Mom and little sis had gone to Dallas, but Dad was staying with my uncle who had just had surgery). Later that afternoon, they closed the airport, but, as we learned from the news in San Francisco, the storm was not nearly as bad as had been predicted.

Two years ago, as we were spending a week at my parents' house after our honeymoon, but before driving up to NYC, my Mom actually made us leave early, so that we would miss Hurricane Gustav, which turned out to be a dud of a storm.

Two weeks after that, we moved into our apartment, and my brother and a couple of his friends came up to visit for Labor day before his second year of med school at UT Galveston. While he was up, Ike hit Galveston hard, and we just had to watch the news for word, while the boys realized what they had left undone back home. My brother realized he had left all of his textbooks on the floor, while we kept reassuring another that someone must have thought to get his turtle before leaving town (despite the fact that the frat house flooded, the turtle was fine).

We've been relatively lucky to have funny stories about what happened during the hurricanes and not stories of injury or destruction (though my brother did have a huge job to deal with as fraternity president that year).

Life of Leisure

My sister called me last night to see how my week of leisure was going (I finished up work last week and don't start the new job until Tuesday). My week has not been very leisurely. Monday we spent driving back from Mr. D's parents' house, then swapped out the TV stand. Tuesday, I went to the dentist (at 9 am), made sandwich bread (since I had time) and swapped out the old bookcases for the new ones - and it was hot in the apartment - thank you, heat wave (oh, and I made Alton Brown's spaghetti sauce, which probably didn't help the heat situation).

Yesterday I took the dog to the park, did some "fitness yoga" on the on-demand exercise channel, then collapsed, took a shower, and made some ravioli. The ravioli turned into a disaster; when I went to take the food processor bowl out of the fridge, the top popped off and half of the shrimp paste plopped in the refrigerator and then on the floor - fail. When Mr. D came home, we stopped by Eataly - which is basically an Italian food store/restaurant/theme park started by Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, and maybe someone else - in the hopes that we would be able to eat there. Umm, the hordes of people (literally) and hour-long wait to eat in the pizza section led us to eat elsewhere (craftbar - yum). We did see Mario walking around helping the employees. He's kind of like part of the family - we did go see Avatar with him (or, his family was sitting next to us in the theater - same thing. If you watch MasterChef (of course we do - it's a reality show with food), then you know that Joe Bastianich is the token jerk on the judges panel who rarely has anything nice to say and throws food in the garbage.

Today, I plan to take the dog to the park, take some change to the Coinstar machine, order the last piece of the bookcase (we weren't sure we were going to get it), sell the books we don't need anymore, make red beans & rice, and make another batch of ravioli (chicken this time). Order the bookcase, done. Dog park, on my way so I can get iced coffee (we're out). In order of probability of happening today - red beans, ravioli, coinstar, and books - I still have tomorrow off, so the last two could happen tomorrow (except I remembered that I have to do laundry so we can pack for our trip to NC - not the coast, so no real Earl worries).

Things I made from Ratio this week: bread, mayonnaise (a bit of a fail, but I'm not sure exactly why), pasta for the ravioli, and filling for the ravioli. Have I mentioned I love this book?

Before and after (so far) pictures of the bookshelves:

Weekend at the in-laws

We're in Western New York at the D's house. So far a traffic-y ride over, a power washer waking me at 7:30 this am, a trip to the car show (hence the power washer), and a trip to the lake (and Sasha's first boat ride)...

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Yargh

Dear Mr. D - I know that you are a little happy/grateful/excited that I have all of next week off between my two jobs, but let's keep the excitement in check. For instance, now that we aren't moving, I'm glad we found a new bookcase/TV stand that we both like for the living room. Hopefully, I can pull the books and knickknacks we don't need in one day and get everything ready to install for when you get home from work. It is a little convenient that most of the boxes came early, but I really think we should hold off pulling everything else out of the box at least until we get back from your parents' house this weekend. I agree that the one bookcase does look great, but since the old bookcases are still in place, it's a bit inconvenient (not to mention terrorizing Sasha) for it to be in the hallway to the front door. Maybe we can move it before we leave For our road trip tomorrow. I love you, I really do (and I promise to dispose of the two old laptops that have been in the bedroom).

Me

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Dinner Tonight

We made sausage and pepper pizza with homemade fried unknown squash. The pepper and squash (a zucchini-colored ball) came from our CSA box. I just breaded the zucchini and fried it up. I made the dough this morning before work and let it rise while we were gone. Mr. D made the sausage a few weeks ago so we just had to pull it out of the freezer. I was pretty proud of our little meal, but prouder that I remembered to take a picture before we ate it.

Use Video Games for Good, not Evil

Yesterday afternoon, my boss invented a report for us to do for a client for Monday, which left me to do some formatting for a PowerPoint, and we did not finish until 6:10 pm. On a Summer Friday*.

Anyway, as I suspected, Mr. D beat me home, but had not taken the dog out yet. Usually the dog-taking-out schedule is that I take her out in the morning, then when I get home, and Mr. D takes her out at night. There is a unspoken agreement that if Mr. D gets home first, he will take the Soosh outside. When I got home yesterday, Mr. D was plopped on the couch with the dog playing video games. "Have you taken the dog out yet?"

"No, I just got home from work, when would I have had time to do that."

In my head: "I don't know, the cowboy on screen is already halfway to wherever, how much time did that take?"

Out loud: "Hmm, fine. Do you want to take the dog outside or make dinner."

Him: "I'll make dinner."

Best deal I ever made. Not that dinner was going to be too difficult, some fish fillets with veggies from our CSA box (tomato and mozzarella salad and sauteed squash). Yumm.

*Summer Fridays are a weird thing. My brother-in-law asked my sister why we had summer Fridays, when our business wasn't necessarily seasonal. I think it's more of a New York, Northeast type of thing. Basically everyone gets out early on Friday, though some companies are just having off on alternate Fridays. Our office is a little more frustrating; since it's not a set time, we can't make plans dependent on our leaving early.

New Job!

Yay me. The reason last week was so stressful (really last month) was that I found a new job. Whoo hoo. The stress was because I was debating when to tell my boss, and eventually decided that, in this situation, two weeks notice would be sufficient. The stress was waiting until Friday to tell her.

Her personality is such that I did not know what would happened. I started (secretly) cleaning out my personal space (in our office, we have one drawer to use for our personal belongings, including your purse), because one of the scenarios included me having to leave right after I gave notice.

That day, I was kind of looking forward to going home, what with the wicked cold medicine hangover, and, since that was the night we were having dinner at J&R's place and J had told me I should come hang out while she was cooking, because she had the day off.

The actual act of telling my boss that I had quit was very anti-climactic. We sat down and she rather condescendingly told me that she would make it easy for me, because she like to make things easy for young women when they had something difficult to talk about. Um, what? At that point, I basically was just laughing in my head the entire time we were talking.

All in all, it worked out. I'm out and on to bigger and better things. Too be continued...

Don't Try this at Home

Last week was a bit stressful (more on that later); so stressful, in fact, that I think I had the beginnings of a cold on Thursday. I really thought it was allergies, which it could have been. I started having symptoms Thursday afternoon at work, where I was a bit sniffly and sneezy. Not that big of a deal, considering most people come to work sick at my office. I think there have been maybe 3 times when people have taken a sick days in the almos-two years that I have been there.

That evening I was meeting J for drinks, so I took some of my allergy medicine. I felt better pretty quickly, but I knew that I wanted to nip a cold in the bud, before it started, so after drinks (really just one glass of wine) with J, I came home and ordered some pho (Vietnamese noodle soup). Then, right before bed, I decided to take some NyQuil and some Aleve. NOT a good idea. Too many antihistamines at once. I woke up with the worst fog/hangover ever. I didn't lose the fog until 2 pm in the afternoon!

Note to self: allergy meds or cold meds, not both

Kitchen Goodness

J and I met up for drinks on the terrace at the apartment complex, one of our favorite places to meet up - though we did have to move the party to the lounge area when it started to drizzle on us. While we were there, we talked about what I should bring over to their house for dinner the next night. I was assigned dessert, and assured J that I would be able to bring it, even though I would have work the next day. At 8:30, we went upstairs to our respective apartments to have dinner. Due to the power of the Ratio book, I was able to throw together a pound cake that night. Pound cake is really easy, but the one is the book is a citrus pound cake, which wouldn't go with the hazelnut ice cream Mr. D and I had made the weekend before nearly so well as a chocolate one.

That is the wonderful thing about the ratio book. You know you have the basics, and the book shows you how easy it can be to tweak the recipes, so I just added some cocoa powder to the recipe - but since cocoa is so dry, I just added a little milk to the mixture to make sure that the cake stayed moist. Pop it in the oven, and voila.

Once we were at J&R's apartment, I made some chocolate sauce (also ratio) - heat some milk and pour over an equal amount of chocolate. Stir to melt the chocolate, and you're done (but you can add a liquor or flavoring to it too). To make the dessert, we put the pound cake on the plate, topped it with hazelnut ice cream and then drizzled (read - drowned) the ice cream with the chocolate. Tadaaa!

Note - this was a bit of a fail, as I tried to remember to take a picture of this last night when we had the leftovers for our own dessert. I remembered before dinner, and I remembered after dinner, but then I forgot until after I had finished devouring my dessert.

Anniversary dinner

Saturday night, Mr. D and I went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary at Annisa. The head chef, Anita Lo, was on Top Chef masters. The meal was delicious; a lot of the menu was seafood, so we stuck to that for the most part. My appetizer was soup dumplings with seared foie gras on top. Soup dumplings are one of the most amazing inventions ever. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are dumplings that have soup broth inside of them, so when you bite into them the yummy broth explodes into your mouth - soo good.

The only problem was the air conditioning in the restaurant. I can understand that sometimes the a/c might not work that well, but when you see the he'd waiter take off his jacket, and that it was cooler outside than it was inside, you would think they might open the door.

After dinner we went to the Rusty Knot, which is a tiki bar that Mr. D has been wanting to try. He warned me that it was a bit of a dive bar, but a) I didn't mind if I was overdressed and b) NYC dive bars would usually still not qualify as a dive bar in Texas. The bar was pretty tiny and crowded, but fun - decorated like someones basement might be if they wanted a Hawaiian theme in the 60's. The Rusty Knot is also a drink - kind of a slushy mojito, but with the mind blended, so you don't get the big leaves.

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Why I Like Being Married

Since the beginning of July, Mr. D has been on a special rotation in his department that has the reputations for being understaffed, which means the attorneys work longer hours. For the past two weeks, we have been suffering with the longer hours (not too long, but long enough where I have had to eat by myself more nights than not). So, for the most part I've been cooking for myself, which has led me to realize that I am a lazy cook. For the most part, I had pasta w/ leftover pork and whatever veggies I threw in from our CSA box. Super creative, right. I guess I just didn't feel like making a dinner that was more "presentable" since Mr. D wasn't home to eat it, too. If I wasn't eating with someone all the time, would I even bother cooking "nice" meals?

Best Husband Ever

My husband is the best ever. Our anniversary is this Monday (I have jury duty - boo), but we actually exchanged gifts in June, when we purchased new iPhones for each other. Last week, I reminded him that we didn't need to give each other gifts, we had our phones and we are planning to go to a nice dinner on Saturday to celebrate. Mr. D agreed. Until he "forgot" and ordered a present over the weekend.

When the package from Amazon arrived, I thought it contained some picture frames I had ordered to redo the wall behind the couch. Open the box, and ta-daaaa it was a Kitchen-Aid ice cream maker attachment!! Initially I thought my in-laws had sent us an anniversary, then I called Mr. D. and he told me I shouldn't have opened it, because it was my anniversary present. Umm, how was I supposed to know?

Anyway, this was an especially sweet gift, as I had put it on my birthday list, but wasn't lucky enough to get it. He may have also purchased it, since he watched Alton Brown make hazelnut ice cream on Good Eats (Mr. D loooooooves hazelnut, hazelnut anything). Methinks this weekend will include some making of the ice cream...

Good News, Bad News

Bad news first: earlier activities led to a major headache, so we stayed in to watch movies

Good news: Dazed & Confused is on and Mr. D has never seen it

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Saturday Adventures

Today was gorgeous. The heat wave finally broke and the high is only in the eighties. In celebration of the lovely change in temperature, I suggested we head out to Pier I (recognize it? - I ALWAYS want to go there). To get Sasha excited about our trip, I started packing her bag early. She fits into Mr. D's gym bag (not that he uses it for the gym, ours is in the building), and when we take her somewhere like Pier I, the bag has a bottle of water, a little tupperware for a bowl, treats to bribe her with on the subway, and a greenie and tennis ball to occupy her while we are wherever we are going. She definitely found the pocket with the treats.

We put Sasha into the bag and took the subway up to Columbus Circle, stopped at the cigar store so that Mr. D could get his fix, then walked over to the river and up to Pier I. We walked down the pier and sat on the bench watching the boats while Mr. D finished up his cigar.

We ate lunch and Sasha entertained herself by going bananas and turning into Kujo anytime she saw a pigeon. After lunch we wandered through Riverside Park, plopping down under a tree for a while to read/let Sasha recoup:

Book Update

Tadaa! I officially finished reading Guns, Germs, and Steel. Yay me. This means that I am frantically reading "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest." Good so far... :)

Weekend Activities

This weekend tacked on another two days of record heat (hence my really short post on Saturday). I was miserable. For example, we had J of R&J over for dinner while R was out of town, and I couldn't even change out of the shorts and tank top I had on all day. Sorry, J. We made chicken in almond butter sauce with cold, roasted zucchini, and homemade bread (zucchini and chicken from the Silver Spoon cookbook, and the bread from the Ratio cookbook). J brought over peach buckle, which is a cake-y thing made in a cast iron skillet.

Sunday, we hung out with J again and went to see SALT. We convinced Mr. D to go, despite the poor Rotten Tomato ranking - he's usually a stickler. I thought it was great - I mean, not fabulous or deeply meaningful, but definitely a fun way to spend a few hours in the air-conditioning.

Not that we don't have air-conditioning at the apartment, but, and I never thought I would say this, I miss the Texas heat. In Texas, no one is silly enough to venture outside to walk anywhere, much less the grocery store, like I did. As I tried to explain to our doorman, it may be hot, but no one goes outside until twilight. You go from your air-conditioned house to the air-conditioned car, to the air-conditioned store. Not from your air-conditioned apartment, to your un-air-conditioned hallway/elevator, to the sweltering subway station, to walk to your air-conditioned office. Disaster. Luckily, it cooled off today, but we'll just have to see about tomorrow.

Hot

The heat index us 102. I found this out after walking 7 blocks to the store and back. Ow.

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I have two new heroes

The first is my husband. He apprehended someone on the street this weekend. No, really. We were going to look for a pair of pants for Mr. D, walking along the street, when we saw one guy (gesturing as if he had been robbed) running through the streets chasing another guy. For some reason, two tour-bus ride hawkers were also chasing the duo. The ran across the intersection across from us, then the "robber" came running towards us. So Mr. D just stuck out his arms and stopped him! No, really. Then the bus ticket guys came over and held the guy while the other guy came over to yell at him, and someone else started calling the police, so we headed out on our way.

Hero number two is AB - from her facebook status, it sounds like she is in labor! Hooray - go A!

Random thoughts

• When I said "on the wagon," what I should have said is that I am hobbling along next to the wagon. Which means that I have been to the gym twice in the past two weeks (or twice in the past 10 days, technically).
• My dog is super-cute tonight. She has this game where she holds her stuffed animal in her mouth and plays soccer with the ball. Tonight she's in the mood to go get it twice, then take it back to her bed, until I get comfortable on the couch again.
• Did I mention we went to Mr. D's coworkers apartment to watch the Fourth of July fireworks? And that immediately after the fireworks, another guest plugged in his camera and we all had to watch 70 photos of the fireworks show that we just watched?
  
• I finally updated my Goodreads shelf, but I don't know why I didn't get a notification that Michelle was waiting to be my bookshelf friend (or whatever they call it). Notes on the books:

1. I guess I am technically still reading "Too Big to Fail," but it's not exactly a read-before-lights-out-in-bed book, unless you want to immediately fall asleep.
2. I have been reading "Guns, Germs, and Steel" since we got back from Italy in May. Normally, I don't read this slowly, but it's a dense book. Interesting, but dense.
3. As soon as I finish #2, I'm going to read the new Stieg Larsson (sp?) book, but if I give up #2 now, I don't know if I'll have the willpower to go back.
4. I am always reading Ratio (a present from J&R). I lurve it - I have used it to try to get away from recipes without creating disasters, but this would be an excellent choice for anyone trying to learn how to cook, too. Michael Ruhlman (blog here) wrote the book to explain the most basic recipes in cooking, from a chart he found in a professor's office at cooking school (which he wrote about in one of his other books). I use Ratio all the time, but I still feel like I should use it more (I have another post on this in me, but it will need a few days to put together). In the meantime, check out Michael Ruhlman's blog, where he elaborates on some of the ratios in each post (unless he's having fun adventures, like eating his way through cured meat in Italy), and you can always click on the book on the right to find out more about the book.
   

Dog Park Outing

Yesterday was really hot, and I didn't feel like moving, much lest taking Sasha out on my own while Mr. D was at work, so we definitely owed Sasha a trip to the dog park. To make it a fun trip for all involved, we stopped by Stumptown Coffee on the way there. I love getting breakfast there, the restaurant next door makes the pastries, so they have delicious mini banana breads, croissants, and pretzel rolls with brie, as I found out this morning. Happily, they also make iced coffee, but you may have to ask for cold-brewed, which is good, since a steaming cup of coffee was not feeling particularly refreshing this morning.

Unfortunately, once we got to the park, there weren't any tennis balls, so poor Sasha had to sit there and actually meet other dogs. Boo. Until she discovered some gingko branches that had fallen on the ground. She goes NUTS over gingko. Apparently it is supposed to be good for dogs, but at the least, it's not hurting her, so once in a while, I'll pull a leaf off the tree outside work and bring it to her. See how happy she is?

Mr. D's iPhone

My husband is one of the luckiest people on the face of the planet. As an early anniversary gift, we got each other the new iPhones. Mr. D took care of everything, calling AT&T the week before to see how much it would cost to set up, then logged on the day of the pre-order launch and ordered the phones, so that we would have them the first day.

Fourth of July weekend we were walking over to the pier for our lunchtime picnic, and Mr. D was checking the map to see which street went over to the right pier, when he DROPPED it. Right on the ground and cracked the glass in the back. Sad Mr. D. Sad me.

UNTIL I remembered that we bought it on our AMEX, which has buyer protection, so Mr. D called them and started the claims process. They hadn't gotten back to us yet, but he thought that they would need an estimate of how much the repair would cost, so he made an appointment at the Apple store.

When we got there, they were running a little behind, and Mr. D was more than a little impatient, and after half an hour, they called his name. We show the woman behind the counter the phone, and she says she has to go talk to her manager. She comes back to us and says that the problem is that Apple is going to get the parts in, but hasn't started shipping them or even set a price yet. Pause. Sad Mr. D. Sad me. THEN, she says that since she felt bad for us, and we had gone to all the trouble to get the phone, they were just going to give Mr. D a new one!!!!

Happiness ensued. Yay Apple!!

Meatopia

Today we went to Governor's Island for the first time - for Meatopia! We met J&J from Mr. D's office at the ferry building to take the boat across to Governor's Island, and made it onto the 11:00 ferry, which meant we got there with time to spare for the 11:30 kick-off time. Disaster. When we got to the ticket booths, we realized that the line was longer for people who had pre-purchased tickets, than for the cash line. Umm, and the people who bought them on-site didn't have to pay a service charge. AND since it was taking so long, they stopped IDing people in the pre-order line, so we had to go to the cash line (which was empty at the time) to get our wristbands. Fail, Meatopia, fail.

The rest of Meatopia was not a fail. I cannot help but compare it to the Big Apple Barbecue, though the events were really very different. Big Apple Barbecue was restaurants from around the country bringing the foods that they make every day, but Meatopia was really about New York chefs creating barbecue, whether it was something they made every day, or something they created for the event. Another fun part of the event was that the chefs were the ones actually cooking at the event, so you were able to see chefs like Jonathan Waxman and Amanda Freitag, who are on TV all the time, working the grill and they actually handed you the food.

The food - soo good. We started out with delicious smoked duck tacos, and wound our way through the tents eating for a while, then we went over to the "beer garden" (read: tents set up behind ropes) and rested in the shade, sitting on a blanket I had brought while enjoying some cold ones. The we realized we should improve upon our planning, and went out in search of more food, which we brought back to the beer garden and ate with our cold ones. YUM!

Back on the Wagon...

...the exercise wagon, that is. The heat wave, along with social events, this week really cut into my "exercise" routine. Usually I try to walk to work at least 4 days a week, and if the weather is really nice, and dinner is simple, I'll walk home. Walking to work in 100-degree heat should not be attempted - walking to the subway is miserable enough; so this past week, I didn't walk to work. Most days this week, I made up excuses to not go to the gym. Monday after Fourth of July got too busy, I forget why Tuesday didn't work, Wednesday I had to make desserts for a going away party, then a going away dinner Thursday, and last night, drinks with J that turned into dinner with J&R.

Tomorrow we're off to Meatopia - the barbecue festival on Governor's Island, which should be fun, since meat is always good, especially when barbecued, and we haven't been to Governor's Island yet, which is supposed to be lovely.

Excursion

This past Saturday (aka July 3rd) we took R of R&J (J in Maine visiting family) out to the Pier I Cafe, which is located (drumroll, please) on a pier! Pier I is just south of the Boat Basin, which is the "famous" place people go. We were attempting to go to the Boat Basin last summer, but a friend told Mr. D about Pier I, so we went there instead, and I haven't let Mr. D try to take us (and by us I mean Sasha and me) to any other spot. Why mess with a good thing, once you've found it - and Pier I has great burgers and great garlicky-parsley fries.

As I mentioned, we take Sasha with us, since it is outdoors, and this week was no exception, but this time, we took her on the subway (in a gym bag, with the top open, from Mr. D's office. When we got to the cafe, we were pleasantly surprised with how deserted it was, usually it is packed with people, and you have to hunt for a table, but because of the holiday, most tables were empty. We pulled up to a shady spot, and Sasha and I waited while the boys grabbed us burgers and a pitcher of beer - yum!

A family with a little boy sat down behind us, and the little boy (Teddy?) came over and asked to pet Sasha. Unlike some NYC kids who have no idea what dog manners* are, he gave her the back of his hand to sniff. Most of the time, Sasha does not like kids, since they tend to run, scream, and (shocking) try to pet her, but she seemed to tolerate this one, so I handed him a french fry to give her (ok, not the healthiest thing for her, but she was going to get one from me anyway). Ta-Daaaa!! Sasha loves Teddy. Teddy loves that Sasha loves Teddy. Teddy asks Mr. D for another fry. Sasha and Teddy rejoice. We keep talking, with an eye on Sasha to make sure she's still ok with the whole situation, when Teddy reaches over to Mr. D's basket and takes another fry. We all exchange a quick laugh, but it wasn't really a big deal, so we went on talking. Midway through the next sentence, Teddy reaches for another french fry (at this point Sasha is in love). He didn't even hesitate, and even examined them (with his eyes) to see which one he would choose next. When he grabbed this one, his parents spotted him, so Teddy had to go find another dog to say hello to, but we (well, at least I) still thought it was hilarious.

*Seriously, people. When I was growing up, we learned that not all dogs like to meet new people, or sometimes aren't feeling well, whatever, so you are supposed to hold the back of your hand out for them to sniff. Things you should not do are: try to pet them straight out; scream around them; run at them; run around a dog park with a ball in your hand holding it straight up (really - we saw a kid do this while his parents were there!).

ps - why doesn't blogger think ok is a word? I mean it's not, but what would someone be trying to say that looks like "ok"

Confrontation

Today was hot, like Houston hot. Despite the fact that our real estate agent was convinced that south-facing windows were ideal for our northern climate, I know better. Growing up in Texas, you know that south-facing windows are the equivalent of having your oven on with the door open (without the potential for gas-poisoning). Given the heat, Mr. D and I decided to check out a movie (Cyrus - very good, you should go see it).

We bought the tickets when we entered the theater, and since we used our loyalty card, we got a coupon for a free large drink & popcorn or a free ticket, which is exactly as it is written on the coupon. This theater chain has been running the promotion at least since I was in college, so 10 years (yes, that's scary). I really wanted a soda, so we decided to go ahead and use the coupon to get a popcorn - until the kid behind the counter tried to tell me it was for a soda or a popcorn.

Me - "No, it says popcorn and drink or ticket"

Kid - "No, it's for a popcorn or drink or ticket"

Mr. D - "That doesn't even make sense, a popcorn is $5, and a ticket is $13"

Kid - "Sorry, it says popcorn or drink or ticket"

Me - "No, look - putting coupon in his line of sight - popcorn AND drink OR ticket"

Kid - "I'm sorry, that's not what it means"

At this point, I marched over to guest services, which was conveniently located 10 feet away and asked a "manager." He immediately agreed and literally shouted across the lobby to the kid.

We then sort of cut in front of one guy, but we had already waited in line, and when we told him that, he was ok. When we walked up, the girl behind the counter was CONSOLING our guy, for having difficult customers. Right, even though if he had actually read the coupon, much less known about the promotion that has ALWAYS been in place, or even THOUGHT that the CUSTOMER might be right, this could have all been avoided.

I was quite proud of us, as I was the one who stood up for us, and Mr. D didn't start yelling at the guy (though it came close when he heard the girl consoling him).

Me = Big Wuss

As you may have read, I had two near-fainting spells this weekend (no, AB, I'm not pregnant). Saturday, I had some cereal and a banana for breakfast, but no coffee. Before brunch, we went hunting around some antique stores for nothing in particular. The first was the flea market located in the parking garage, which is always interesting, if not for the people watching, then for looking for the booth that is all paintings of naked men (which, alas, was not there this weekend, or they have switched out their stock of art). I had seriously misjudged how sticky it would be in the parking lot, so we wound up walking over to the big antique center, where they have the crazy furniture and chandeliers, usually in great condition. There, we saw a pair of rocking horse-sized sheep with chrome faces and real hides - for only $25,000 - we're nt sure if that was each or for the pair.

We still had time to kill, so we went to a smaller antique store that was the mecca for individual salt cellars. This is a big deal, as maybe 15 years ago, my mom started collecting individual sets of salt and pepper shakers. She started with ones she found at antique stores, but once people found out, it started to go downhill from there. One year, I painted a small set, but the people started getting her sets that were, shall we say, a bit larger than individual size. This past year, I was looking for a unique set for my mom, and couldn't find them anywhere. Lo and behold, we saw at least 20 different individual salt cellars at this store. Amazing!

Anyway, about this time, I started to feel a little light-headed, but soldiered on to walk through another store on our way to lunch. After a few minutes, it was too much, I felt hot and light-headed, so we headed to brunch a few minutes earlier, where I started drinking water and some tomato juice to try to combat either dehydration or lack of food. After brunch and an excellent viewing of American Idiot, I felt much better.

Until the next day, when my mom and my sister ventured out with me to explore Central Park, where swinging on the swings set off my next fainting spell. A few sips of water and a rest on a bench and I was good as new.

I have a theory - most of the time at work, I drink a coffee in the morning, then refill the cup at least 5 times throughout the day. This is when I'm not doing anything aside from sitting in the air-conditioning. Doing something on less water must have set the whole fainting situation off.

So Tired

Apparently, I have at least one more post with this title, but I am so tired. This time, it is because my parents, brother and one of my sisters and her husband is in town. I think that I have literally been in perpetual hydration since they got in on Friday, which means I had near-fainting spells both yesterday and today.

Friday afternoon, my mom and sister, who came in at lunch-time, spent the afternoon walking around near my office, until I was able to get out of work. Until my boss told us that we should try to work all afternoon - so I had my mom and sister come visit and spring me from work :) - convenient, eh?

We walked up to the Highline Park (which is a park that was built on top of the old elevated railroad line) and followed it up to Chelsea Market, where we bought ingredients to make dinner for the three of us, Mr. D, and my brother, who was coming in that evening. We used the garlic from our farm share box to make a delicious shrimp scampi, and used the lettuce as the base of a salad - yumm. Then, we finished it off with some Fat Witch brownies.

Farm Shares

Last year one of my coworkers had a farm share. Usually, the way a farm share (or CSA - community supported agriculture) works is that the customer pays the farm a set amount of money at the beginning of the year (usually before spring), which the farmer uses to buy seeds, pay expenses, and all those good things. Once the veggies start cropping up (no pun intended ;) ), the customers go to a pick-up point once a week and receive a bag or two or a box of vegetables (and fruit and eggs in some cases). Some CSA's require that the members take turns working at the pick-up point during the year.

We decided to buy a farm share this year, so we reserved our spot in March. For a few weeks we forgot about it, but the we started asking each other when it would start - not until June (specifically two weeks ago). The great part about the farm we joined is that we don't have to volunteer AND they deliver a box of veggies to our door. I love this part of New York - almost everywhere delivers. Now that we've started the growing season, we'll receive a box every week all the way through November.

Right now, our box has had a lot of swiss chard and spring garlic, but we've also had some lovely bok choi, fresh radishes, early carrots and GARLIC SCAPES - which I love. They are skinny, curly pieces of garlic, but a lighter version - soooo good. Anyway, we've had to get a little creative with cooking, since it would be a shame to have sauteed swiss chard every night. Tonight I made some orecchiette pasta, and once it was drained, put it back in the pot with some swiss chard, some chunks of goat cheese and some sun-dried tomatoes. I cooked up a few of the chicken sausages we made the other night, sliced them up, and added those to the pasta, too. Yumm!

Favorite New Discovery

I love my new favoritest thing: dry shampoo. I read about some actress using it, and it's perfect. When we were kids, our mom would tell us to just use baby powder, but that never really worked, since I would undoubtedly put too much baby powder on my head.

For a few months, I would wash all my hair every day and then just wash the front part, where it looked bed-head and a little less-than-fresh the days in between. Now, I can spray this on the front part, brush it through, and I'm all set. The one I've been using is Psssst, but Bumble and Bumble makes one too (with dyed powder to match your hair). As long as you brush through your hair after spraying it on, the white powder works fine, and is about $5 instead of $30.

Why we hate Bed Bath & Beyond

We just hate it today.  Our trashcan broke last week, so now the flip up lid doesn't flip anymore when you step on the lever, so you have to reach over and pull the lid up.  Not a huge problem, but it's not made to be flipped by hand, so it doesn't have a handle.

Luckily I had been saving up some BB&B gift cards, so we headed out after some sausage making, more on that later, to go get the new trashcan.  We stopped on the way to take Sasha to the dog park, so she tagged along to the store, and they have a new policy that dogs can't walk in the store, they have to be carried or sit in a cart.  A special "canine cart" shown here.  Honestly, that store is really busy, and we probably shouldn't have attempted to take the dog in, but it's so much easier than making two trips that are right there.   Anyway, she wasn't causing the problem, but I did think she looked silly in her dog cart.

We found the trashcan, got in line at checkout, which was MOBBED.  People all over the place, and one woman in particular who decided she really needed to move past our cart, between us and the woman pushing her husband in a wheelchair, to see if the line past us was shorter - so she snottily told Mr. D that he was in the way (we were one cart in line just outside the register).  He started off about how she was crazy and that he wasn't in the way, so she went past.  Then she decided that she needed to go past us AGAIN to get to the lines that were shorter that she had just walked past.  AGAIN she told us we were in the way - though it's not like we can get much smaller with the giant trashcan box that we were buying, so Mr. D told her she was crazy again, and to get a life, blah, blah.  I'm trying to tell him to get over it, it's not a big deal, and finally a manager comes over and pulls us to a line that just opened up, and tell us that this woman comes and buys one thing every weekend and pulls the same crap EVERY time.  We finally get checked out, grab a cab home, since we're all now a bit cranky and don't see that walking home would be good.  We open the box, and the stupid garbage can has a giant dent on the lid!

Given the direction of the day, we give in and decide to take care of it on Sunday.  While I make Alton Brown's meat sauce for spaghetti, Mr. D volunteers to go back to the store, where he encounters another nutty old person, doing the same sort of thing at check out.  Normally, I would think Mr. D might be exaggerating, just a touch, but the same manager was there, recognized Mr. D and said, "you're just not having any luck with old people this weekend are you?"

No we were not.

Cardigans

I am trying to blog more often, if nothing else, just to make myself adhere to something. As a result, you may get some truly random posts, such as today's.

I was riding up the elevator after getting home last night and realized my sweater had a teeny tiny rent on it - in the middle of the left chestular area. What concerns me is this JUST happened to another sweater, on the right side. What is up with my bras - are there tiny scissors implanted in them? I don't think it is my washer, since it has only happened twice.

Dear Co-Worker

I meant to send this yesterday, but since I'm still feeling it:

Dear Person :

I know you aren't feeling well, and just had a fight on the phone in front of us all, and dislike your job, but please stop being a "b." It is not my fault that your day sucks, and I was just trying to help you out earlier, so please cut the attitude.

Thank you,
Me

Barbecue!

So hopefully it is a myth that eating too much smoked meat can cause cancer, since we managed to indulge a lot, not as much as we could have, this weekend at the Big Apple BBQ. Mr. D first went to this festival 3 years ago, when he was working up here for his summer internship at the firm he works for now. That year, he was excited because Dinosaur BBQ had come into the city for it.

Last year, we missed the festival for a wedding down in Dallas (which was one of the best receptions ever - featuring Pappasito's catering), so this was the first year we were able to go. Mr. D started talking about it last month. When we checked out the tickets, it was too late to buy the "fast pass," but luckily no tickets are needed to just show up. Mr. D sent out an email to all those who had come up from UT to see if they wanted to meet up with us.

One of them reported smelling the smoke in the elevators of his building before he left work on Friday afternoon. We anxiously checked the website the night before, only to find out that one of the guys manning the pit crew from the Salt Lick was injured, so they couldn't make it. :( Big amounts of sad faces here.

We got to the park right at 11:00 am, and people were already lined up at the tents, but the people we were meeting weren't there yet, so we wandered around to get the lay of the land. We found the spot to get wristbands was open near the beer tent, so we checked that off the list. Tagging along with us was the Sasha, so Mr. D stopped with her in the dog run, while I went to the assigned spot. Typically, I managed to miss the people we were supposed to meet, as they were on the other side of the corner, so Mr. D saw them as he walked up. :)

We split up so as to get the most out of our line-waiting time. Mr. D grabbed some brisket and baked beans and I snagged some babyback ribs. My line was moving really fast, so I was able to scout out a picnic table, with enough spots for four of us, and by two more people from Mr. D's work joined us, we were able to all squeeze in. Mr. D took the opportunity to head off and grab a basket of sausage w/ pimento cheese, and by the time we finished that, the rabble around us was ready for us to give up our seats. We headed over to the beer tent and had a beer (it was by the music stage, but you weren't allowed to take the beer out of the beer area to wait in line - poor planning). Before we headed out, we stopped at the dessert tent and had blueberry crisp/brownie's a la mode. Yum!

Unfortunately. we decided to grab a coffee and some pastries this morning on our way to the dog park. I say unfortunately, because we wound up dilly-dallying in the park until it was almost time for the tents to open back up. The pizza dough rising in the kitchen was turned into dinner, and we decided to lunch at the festival with two different kinds of babyback ribs. (insert drooling noise here) :)

Owie

So, a few of my roommates from college came into town this weekend to visit. I think a fun time was had by all, until they had all gotten on the bus/plane. I sat down and put my feet up for a little rest. Then I put them down, walked to the kitchen and realized my toes needed some attention - I had ingrown toenails on both feet on my big toe. :( Yes, gross, but it's genetic, so not my fault.

I set about fixing them, and thought I had, until I finished walking Sasha to daycare, hopped on the subway and sat down at my desk. Owie. After I elevated my right foot for most of the morning, things were feeling better, but not before I decided that my going to the gym tonight would just make things worse - how's that for logic.

Reflecting on my rationalization, I remembered a time in elementary school when I had an ingrown toenail, and my dad (the surgeon) fixed it. Not that he was necessarily more willing to inflict pain on my toe than I was, but he wasn't attached to it. :) The next day at school was "lap" day in P.E., where we went outside and walked/jogged/ran around the black-topped parking lot in the heat of the day, in Texas, in the summer (anything between April and October should just count as summer in Houston). After each lap, you collected a popsicle stick from the kids who got to sit out, in order to keep track of how many laps you had done. Mrs. Tilton asked the class if anyone had an injury and couldn't run. Of course I raised my hand, I hated lap day. Unfortunately, this led to me explaining to Mrs. Tilton in front of the entire class that my excuse was that I had an ingrown toenail. Right. Hilarity ensued - for everyone else. I think Mrs. Tilton felt bad for me, not bad enough to let me hand out popsicle sticks, but she did admit that it was probably very painful.

Ahh, memories.