Fridays are for Laughing

This one is for Mom....as a reminder of what I used to do every morning when I woke up...



And this one has been making us laugh this week. Which sometimes you just need.



And this is what might happen to me tonight if I move on to a second glass of wine...



Happy Friday!

Minimalism on Display

I was wondering when we'd venture into Thanksgiving decorations at our building. I mean, given all the other special celebratory displays we've seen thus far, I was interested to see what kinds of treasures would come out of the woodwork. Pilgrims? Cornucopias? Various vegetables from the squash family? I was hoping for Cornucopias at a minimum. Well, either Frank & Ifan (our Building Manager & Super) have been reading my blog and have taken my mocking to heart, or they just were going for something a bit more subtle. Something a little simpler. Classier. Perhaps they are realizing that less is more.


Now, this is Queens minimilism at its finest. They really paired it down. Just Tom the Pilgrim Turkey and that tiny little poster on the front door. And they even killed two birds with one stone with this "He's a turkey AND a Pilgrim" combination. Well, it is a recession after all. Times is hard.

However, I do think Tom's general size, color and crazy cartoon bug eyes does put us just out of being labeled as "classy design asthetic". But perhaps it is at least a step in the right direction. Things may be looking up.

Though I bet you anything I will be eating my words come Christmas....

Update

i just busted out some pushups.


just fyi


maybe there is hope for these sad arms yet.

A Bowling Wedding Party

Last month we ventured out to celebrate the marriage of my friend Nadia. She & Aaron got married in September out of town but had a Black Tie Bowling Party for their NYC friends who couldn't make it all the way out there. Now, here's what I will say about bowling. I always say I hate it. But then once I'm there, I always have a good time. And we did.

Here's what I will also say. I took none of these pictures. Nadia is a crazy talented Renaissance woman who is a singer, actress, songwriter, comedienne, photographer & feathered hair clip designer. (Which, incidentally, could be really great Christmas gifts for the girly girls in your life....if you're in need of ideas.) These pictures I swiped from her Facebook page.

Since a bowling wedding party is delightfully trashy in concept, Nadia found a delightfully trashy dress. I thought it was perfect. (And you'll notice one of her feather clips in her hair - they are awesome).


We got pretty serious with our bowling names...(that's us on the left, my co-workers on the right)


Me, unable to hide a lack of seriousness I have about my push ups, which have woefully fallen by the wayside. Clearly. I post this in hopes it will motivate me to get back on the wagon. But I am absolutely serious about BOWLING in this picture. Which is something at least. And I may also be trash-talking to whoever is on my left. I definitely hope I am.


Me with the new Mrs. Quinn (and I'm loving the standard bowling alley wood panneling in the background)


The stunning new couple. Seriously, don't they look like they are right out of an magazine ad? I don't think people should be allowed to be so photogenic. It's a little excessive...


Congratulations to the new couple!

I Can Cook Too (sort of)

We've turned over a new leaf. Or are trying to. Even though I'm barely ever home before 10pm on weeknights, I want to be better about cooking. Honestly, there's not a ton of time in my life for it right now. But I do enjoy it. And want to get better at it. For the future. The Alleged Future. When I have Time. (I secretly do wonder if that does actually exist. But I try to hope nonetheless.)

So lets be honest. Anything I cook for dinner basically has to A) happen inside of 20 minutes, B) not involve cooking meat on the stovetop (since our apartment stove has no exhaust hood and I therefore live in fear that the NYFD could show up at any given moment should I attempt to grill a little chicken) or C) take place inside a crockpot. I do dream of ultimately being fancy like Stephen or Alison, but until I have Time and a complete set of kitchen tools, I'll be hauling out the slow cooker. And therefore yes, this will basically be the second blog post in a row that involves or at least mentions a crockpot.

With Geoff being an Asian food fan, I decided to branch out and try some Spicy Peanut Chicken. I sauteed some onions, carrots & celery in a frying pan. Then I diced up some ginger, black peppercorns and garlic.


I felt a little fancy adding it to the veggies. Cause it just looked cool. And it involved ginger. So it made me seem interesting and exotic. Even though, in reality I was frantically trying to get this done before heading out the door to teach a class, and was still in my bathrobe & glasses with Crazy Hair and was very likely talking to myself. But yes, absolutely....using fresh ginger made me exotic and fabulous.


I sliced some chicken and put it in the crockpot, topped it with the veggie mixture and let the Magic Pot do all the work. (5.5 hours on low or 2 hours on high)


After I got back from class (in which I had a teenage hopeful tell me that I was the first casting director she'd ever met who seemed like a real person. Instead of some mean old troll out to ruin her life, I guess.) I had one more step. I mixed all natural (no salt added) peanut butter with lemon juice, soy sauce & Thai red curry paste in a bowl, chopped up 2 red peppers and threw all of that plus some sweat peas and a cup of coconut milk into the crockpot and let it cook for another 20 minutes on high.


And then, we were done.... We had it over rice and topped with fresh cilantro and roasted peanuts.


It was good! And I was proud of myself for branching out from my usual "chili" options. I'd added some extra chicken so it would last us a bit longer into the week, but of course, I didn't actually do proper math to get all the proportions right. So we ended up adding an extra splash of soy sauce at the table and that really brought the flavors out. And surprisingly, I am not usually a fan of peas or plain peanuts (give me an almond, pine nut, walnut or any other kind of nut any day), but they were both really good additions.

Now here's my only question. The recipie had called for bone in chicken thighs but I could not find any at the grocery store so I just bought regular chicken breasts. And the consistency of the chicken that I ended up with was....the only drawback of the meal. Geoff thinks maybe we need to marinate it first? I wonder if chicken breasts are easier to overcook in a crockpot than dark meat. That would make sense i guess. But any thoughts? Anyone have any ideas how to make the chicken moist and flavorful instead of slightly reminiscent of the texture of...gum that you've chewed too long?

Shocked & Appalled

That's what I am.


Horrified.


That basically none of you have commented on how amazing and/or adorable Charlie the Bulldog was in my last post.


Shocked.


Appalled.


Are you perhaps all dead inside?


It's unfortunate, but I may be forced to never forgive you.


I hope you can live with yourselves.


xoxo

Sundays are my Favorite

I love Sundays. It usually means brunch. And time with Geoff. And a slow pace. This Sunday we got up and I threw some ingredients in the crockpot for chili chicken stew and we headed out on our bikes. We spent most of the day in Long Island City and the weather was gorgeous. We dropped my bike off for a tune-up and to get a new kickstand and went to brunch at Masso. Geoff had the Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict and I had their Green Eggs & Ham (a pesto, goat cheese & prosciutto scramble. YUM.)

And Then.

Then we saw Charlie.


He was having brunch outside with his mom and dad. And I spent most of brunch taking his picture.


He sees me! He loves me too!


I mean. COME ON. Can you even stand it??


Then we headed over to the river to sit and chat and do some people watching. The weather was awesome.


Fun People Watching






Couldn't decide which of these two I liked more. So I give you both.



Even the seagulls were digging the day. And the view.


I was pretending in my head that I was shooting this couple's engagement shoot. Even though they didn't even know it. And probably aren't even engaged. It was still fun.






Loved this kid. He was having the best time.


Somersaults in the sunshine....I mean, what is better than that?


LO-OVED this kid. Look at the face. He's my boyfriend.


Except looks like he already has a lady friend. He picked this grass to give to her.


Look how they are all Romeo & Juliet, being torn apart by their families.


All in all, a lovely lovely day at the River. As lovely as the East River can be anyway. We had a lovely talk and laid in the grass for a bit as the sun started to sink behind Manhattan.


And then we headed home on our bikes where there was Chili Chicken Stew just waiting for us. I mean, that's my kind of day.

For the Ladies

Ok, clearly I am coming late to the party and you guys must already know all about the Pioneer Woman blog. She left her city life to marry an actual cowboy and live on a ranch. And she basically has 5 blogs within her blog. Please tell me she has a staff, because I don't know how she does it all. I can barely manage two puny posts a week.

My friend Ariel linked this part of the blog on her own blog a few weeks ago and I've been reading it in stolen snatches at work ever since. It's the story of how she met her husband. She's a terrific writer and I would so be friends with her if we met in real life. We think the same way.

For example.... in the entry where her husband proposes (and that doesn't spoil anything, because we alreay know they end up getting married) I totally identified/loved with her preconceived notions about marriage....


"Marry you? My mind raced a mile a minute. Ten miles a second. I had three million thoughts all at once, and my heart pounded in my chest.

Marry you? But then I’d have to cut my hair short. Married women have short hair, and they get it fixed at the beauty shop.

Marry you? But then I’d have to make casseroles.

Marry you? But then I’d have to wear yellow rubber gloves to do the dishes."


The one about short hair made me laugh out loud. Don't worry Pioneer Woman, I've managed a year and a half of marriage without doing any of those things. And probably never will. But I bet she's already figured that out.

I highly recommend her story. Read about it here.

FYI & The Weekend

Just in case you were still worried...my rescheduling hell (mostly) cleared itself up on Friday as did my cold and I lived to have a rather nice weekend. Didn't want you to think I was still suffering.

We saw Where The Wild Things Are on Saturday and watched the kids in our neighborhood Trick or Treat (they mostly trick or treat to storefronts rather than within apartment buildings) and since the weather was nice we sat out and watched them. I feel that I won't ever give two hoots about Halloween until we have kids. We saw all these 20-somethings all dressed up and honestly, you would have had to DRAG me into a costume or to a party. I mean, I just couldn't care less about it. The mini ballerinas and ninjas and supermans were pretty stinkin' cute though.



The guy in stripes works at Claret, the wine bar on the corner there. All the employees there dressed up. The bartender had painted his whole head and neck red, like the devil. Impressive/Dedicated/Scary. But my favorite is this kid dressed as a cop in the background...


Also we met two bulldogs on the street in one night. I was in heaven. One named Hubble (who I had met at Starbucks this summer) and one named Watson. They were AMAZING. Hubble loved us loving on him so much, he refused to leave and sat right down on my foot. I love him. Loved him so much I couldn't even take any decent pictures.

I did manage to take a picture of this cat though. Snoozin'....


Sunday we took ourselves to brunch at Quaint, where we hadn't been in ages. I had a bloody mary, which is my new favorite thing somehow. And they are only $4 there. Yum. Yes please. Then we headed to our new neighbor's pumpkin carving pary. Megan and Joel moved in right across the street last month and they had us over. Their new place is great. And there were fun friends there. And three kids. I spent most of my time hanging out with Lucy, who is 5 months old. She's awesome. And very spaghetti-like.....floppy-ish. And squirmy. But uber cute.

Here she is with Jeremy...


And me. She likes fingers.


All in all, a nice weekend... And I love to scuff my shoes through these leaves.

Blech

I'm sick.
Head cold.
...so far.
All I want to be is home in bed.
And I've had to schedule and reschedule auditions around a zillion people's busy schedules for the last three days.
And it keeps changing.
And changing.
And CHANGING.
And then I have to start all over again.
And the size of my head keeps growing.
And growing.
And growing.
(or so it feels like)
And I went to my doctor yesterday because I had some questions about H1N1 and the vaccine.
I had some legit concerns.
And after about 10 minutes she told me she didn't have time to talk to me about the flu anymore because she had patients and was very busy.
Um.
What?!
After I waited to see her for 40 minutes.
And clearly have all the time in the world to sit in her office and wait on her.
So then I cried.
'cause that's just what I do.
Especially when I'm frustrated.
And she felt bad.
But was still completely unhelpful.
And told me to drink lots of fluids and cover my mouth with my scarf on the subway.
Um.
Seriously??
That's your answer?
Clearly I could have been a doctor.
Since you don't actually have to know anything.


So in conclusion,
I'm tired.
And sick.
And sick and tired.
And I just want to be at home in bed.
But I'm not.
I'm in rescheduling hell.

AGAIN.