Hurricane Irene Coming

The possibly - probably impending hurricane coming towards NYC (after NC) is all over the news. Regardless, there will probably be a lot of rain this weekend. I started making mental preparations in my head yesterday. Fill things that hold water with water. Make hard-boiled eggs. Make cookies - my mom always made cookies before storms when we were growing up. And hard-boiled eggs, but the cookies were more fun.

Mr. D came home last night after a going away party for a colleague, and in his slightly inebriated state, started saying that he was going to post on facebook that he didn't know he had married my mother (as i was making crazy preparations).

Then he said, that isn't it better if the eye of the storm passes over us - it's the calmest. I had to explain that the storm is the worst around the eye.

Fast forward to this morning when the same man is telling me that I should probably go get food this weekend. Which I was going to do anyway, because we need some for this weekend, but now the whole thing is made more difficult by the fact that the stores will be crizazy.

Also thinking about other times when I've "prepared/waited out" a hurricane. When Rita came through Houston after Katrina hit New Orleans, I had just started dating Mr. D, and all of his friends were IMing me to evacuate to his place in Austin. I remember watching I-45 out my office window, and seeing it absolutely packed with cars headed to Dallas. I was headed to a friend's wedding that weekend, so I pushed my flight forward and my dad took me to the airport before it closed.

When we moved to NYC, my brother and some of his friends from medical school came to stay with us the first weekend we moved in. Ike was headed towards Galveston (where they went to med school) that weekend, and I remember watching the news with them all weekend (but especially at the BBQ restaurant) and seeing their reactions. Especially Nick worrying about his turtle.

Off to re-look up Alton Brown's cookie recipe...

Words that Should NEVER Appear in Your Resume

A sampling - it's the Friday before the holiday weekend, so I thought I would add some (my) work-related humor. I have actually seen all of these words/phrases in resumes/cover letters that were sent to my company:

- night club
- prowess
- nitty-gritty
-"I'm likeable."
- "those were dark days indeed"


La la - getting ready for a fun weekend in Ft. Worth with J&R - and Mr. D and I both got free upgrades - yippee

Home Alone - the Grown-Up Version

These past TEN days without Mr. D have been weird - I feel like my parents are out of town or something (not that I think Mr. D is my parent), even though (as I complained to AB's husband in college), "I AM a grown-up." Sasha and I just don't know what to do with ourselves. I mean, there are people to see and things to do, but it's just weird. I think it's because he is missing and he is coming back.

So the fun parts have been that I get to cook and eat whatever I want, whenever I want. So, I made a batch of lentil salad (insert sisterly comments of disgust here), and ate at 7:00 or 8:30 or 9:00 depending on what I felt like. I saw a recipe for strawberry fool in the NYT. Strawberry fool is pureed strawberries and whipped cream, mixed together. Now, I'm pretty sure I have "invented" this before, as I love whipped cream (and Cool Whip). When I was in junior high (ok, high school, ok, now) I have been known to take a spoon and eat Cool Whip plain. It's hereditary, my dad does it too (and my brother, not so much my sissies). Anyway, I may have had this 3 or 4 times while Mr. D has been gone. It's really easy with the stick blender. Put strawberries in cup, puree, scoop in bowl. Put whisk attachment on, put cream in cup, whip, scoop in bowl. Stir. Done.

Another guilty pleasure is that I get to watch all the stupid shows I like on USA. Mr. D does NOT like them (though he's the reason we still watch Survivor, so....), so I usually watch them when he has a late day at the office, but this week I watched them without having to listen to him grumble.

I FINALLY got a Skype from him last night, since my brother-in-law managed to Skype my sister multiple times, and all I got was an email. The reason: they had an amazing wi-fi connection at the bar (ps they say weefee in France/Italy, how cute is that?). He called again later, so I got to meet his roommate for the trip and talk to my cousin (and hear hilarious stories of my brother's antics).

So, Mr. D is back tomorrow, but I leave tonight for St. Louis for a family trip, so I won't get to see him until Sunday night. Sasha is going to be upset when she realizes she doesn't get a whole half of the bed (and one morning she (the 20 lb dog) had managed to push me all the way to the edge.

Today on HGTV/DIY

Those are two of my favorite channels. And HBO, not that True Blood is coming back on.
Anyway, Sasha and I have been living it up, since Mr. D is on a fabulous vacation with my Dad and 20 of my Dad's closest friends.
Sasha loved it - to make up for her absentee father we went to the dog park twice and each time, we stopped at Home Depot twice. I don't know why, but my dog LOVES to go into Home Depot - weird.

Anyway, we went to Home Depot to get supplies to hand my new coathooks, which I purchased at the antique market in Paris (!!!). I had to order the little plaques, but I stained them yesterday and hung them today. There's another one too, but the picture got too small.

My new favorite work snack

Yumm - found them in line at Whole Foods (on line for you Yankees out there - ps - who says "I'm on line for BBQ - weirdos)

My Parisian shopping trip loot

I forgot to post about this earlier, but Mr D and I did take a morning to go shopping while we were in Paris.  I walked past the window of the store, checking these shoes out.  Finally, five minutes after I talked myself out of them, I turned to Mr D and told him I wanted to go back and get them!  I don't know if the picture foes them justice, but I love them!

Target Obsession

I had a bit of a shopping "episode" while we were in Houston for the wedding over Memorial Day weekend, partially spurred by my dear friend A.B.'s post on a certain collection at Target. The bride and groom of the wedding in question had registered at Target, and my cousin, the bride, trickster that she is, registered for Cheetos. The morning of the wedding, my baby sister, Mr. D and I made a trip to Target to purchase what would be 10 of at least 30 bags of Cheetos to be seen on the gift table.

As we're walking to the register, I see a sign hanging over the swimsuit section - the Calypso collection was still going on. As Mr. D wanted to hit up the Spec's, and we had to be back at the house for brunch (go Mom), I told them to get in line and I would meet them before they checked out. I ran over and scanned the rack and found this swimsuit.
I didn't even have time to try it on, I just grabbed what I thought was the right size and ran back to the register - total time, two minutes. :) Cute, right?

Directions - catch-up

These were our directions to St. Remy, where we wandered around aimlessly, truly, as most of the shops were closed in Monday. We did find some amazing chocolates - which makes the trip well worth it.

Later, we went to the Camargue and saw wild flamingos, horses, and bulls - famous in Provence.

Snack Saturday

We walked through Nice to the Chagall museum, then walked along the Promenade Anglais on the beach. Wandered through the market and the decided on a sandwich for lunch - pain bagnant which has tuna, hard boiled egg, radish, celery, and artichoke. We bought some Chevre banon - the picture, some delicious strawberries, olives and a baguette to snack on on the train. We're on our way to Arles by train, where we'll be until Tuesday.

France

Did I mention we were going to France - if so, only because we were scurrying around until the last minute getting ready for it. This was my be Thursday night - we upgraded our tickets with miles. Flying first class overseas is lots of fun. You get a huge meal, complete with cheese course and an ice cream sundae. We flew to Brussels and then on to Nice, where we spent yesterday and today - I'm writing this Saturday, but you may not see it - Internet is spotty.

History lesson

My dad and grandma were in town last weekend, Dad for a conference and Grandma came to visit my great-aunt, who is a retired Maryknoll sister. We were talking about the times when my grandma had come to New York to visit. Two stories I had never heard before:

1) my grandma was in Times Square when they announced V-J day, and

2) she and my great uncle visited the Empire State building shortly after a little plane hit the building, and the elevator they rode in was still broken, but since safety codes weren't what they are now, there was just a blanket over the whole.

Sent from my iPhone

Did I Say Boring?

Ha ha - I hear God laughing now. Of course, as soon as i said life was boring, stuff happens. Clients go crazy, all extremely busy and each wanting to be most important (the good kind of busy), clients send us random requests for consultants, my boss leaves town, and to top it all off, I'm at work early, because I managed to in-grow myself a toenail last night. It kept me up half the night, then I woke up at 5 and tried to fix it, then took advantage of my dad being in town (poor dad - twice in the last year I've called him at 6 am with medical questions), and went over to his hotel for him to fix it. I didn't have anywhere else to go and going home would have gotten me there in time to leave again, so I'm here at work. Rambling, yes, but I'm sleepy and the iced coffee is just kicking in.

BTW - who would have thunk that a Zabar's operation would have iced coffee for 2.00? To be fair, it's not as big as the one you could get for $2 from Dunkin Donuts, but still a nice size.

I am Boring

No, Seriously, I am. Which is why seriously had a capital S. And why I haven't been posting.

Easter was a bummer. The hubs and I went to church, took the dog to the park and then hung out most of the day, because he was waiting for a work email to come in. Did I mention he's been working "late" for the last week and a half? And that he had to work almost the whole way through our trip to Fort Worth? Boo.

We did manage to make a delicious pistachio-crusted rack of lamb (Mr. D's contribution) and an asparagus-leek risotto (mine). I made mini lemon-thyme pound cakes with strawberry ice cream for dessert. Yum.

Then I pulled out a vacuum bag of summer clothes from under the bed and swapped out sweaters for tank tops!

Last box on the shelf

My boss and I are indulging:

Weekend in TX

Mr. D and I made the first of what are sure to be many trips down to Ft. Worth to visit our friends R&J, who moved down at the beginning of the year. We had an amazing time, just sitting around the pool on their deck. They had amazing meals planned for us - I think it's a crime that no one realized that blue cheese was missing from potato salad until now.
The real downer was that Mr. D wound up having to work most of the weekend. That, and that after a weekend of sitting in 80-degree weather, 60-degree weather feels eve chillier.

Sent from my iPhone

Random Story

So, I saw a Facebook update from a friend from high school - she's a dentist and there was an article about how she was a dentist for the entire family - which made me think of this story.

When we were kids, we went to the dentist for the first time at my mom's cousin's office - he a regular dentist, not necessarily a "family " dentist.

All is hunky dory, then the hygienist gave me some fluoride to swish when she was done brushing my teeth. Then she didn't come back for a looong time. I didn't know what to do, so I swallowed the mouthwash.

She eventually came back, and we got ready to go. We walked up to the check out desk... and I threw up. On the floor. I still gag when they give me mouthwash at the dentist. Yuck.

Sent from my iPhone

Early and cloudy

But not freezing!! We're at the driving range at Chelsea Piers.

Daffodils

Some of the flowers we saw at Central Park this morning with SashA - she loves off-leash hours!

Sunday Night dinner

I'm behind on posting - I've been at work later than normal, then going home and looking for something to do that is not going to the gym, and apparently not blogging.

We're speeding through Mr. D's "Braise" cookbook, in hopes that it will soon be too hot to braise something. This weekend we made short ribs with daikon and shiitake mushrooms. We had to go to the Asian grocery store for a few things - like bean paste!
On the side is a remoulade with cucumber, radish, wasabi and mustard.

Breakfast

Yesterday afternoon, I started making cinnamon rolls (ps - I accidentally spelled breakfat in the title, and it Autocorrected to verandah). When Mr D woke up, he started the oven and I popped them in when I woke up. Tadaa. They turned out great - except the one by the vanilla bottle. That was the end one.

I also made a quick glaze with powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and a little ground coffee - yum.

Ideally, Mr. D would have also popped them in the oven and made coffee and taken the dog out, but that would mean I was a spoiled brat.