Three Things for Monday

OK, three things.

Firstly - This is the French Bulldog Alison and I fell for on Saturday. Alison named her Amelia. Pictures taken via iPhone, so they are a little dark and fuzzy, but still. You get the idea. Can you stand it? Please.



Secondly - I am still doing my pushups. I decided to shift to doing them Mon/Wed/Fri (as per the suggestion of the person on the website). Easier to do that, cause who knows what the weekends will bring or where you'll be etc etc. And since I'm doing them with co-workers, it just makes sense. But that means I didn't do them for 2 days. It was HARD today. Didn't feel as strong. Still good. Just harder.

Thirdly - I am beyond excited for the season premiere of The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo tonight. BEYOND EXCITED. I dont' really get into much reality TV that isn't on Bravo. Besides HGTV I guess. No Bachelor or Amazing Race, Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, or even Extreme Home Makeover anymore. And I only really get into American Idol when my boss yells as me that it's part of my job. Nope, Bravo does it right. And Rachel Zoe is beyond amazing/ridiculous. I heart her. And am unashamed to admit it.

Steamy Saturday

Met Alison and Stephen for brunch at Havana this morning in the West Village. One of our favorite places in the city for brunch. Great Cuban food and excellent cafe con leche. We decided to go at the last minute. This is our first whole weekend off together in...6 weeks? I don't even remember. We had planned to wall ourselves off for the whole weekend. We need it. But Stephen was in town and well...there was also the promise of sangria. Twist my arm.

After brunch we walked with them through the steam bath that was the NYC streets. Good Lord it was humid. Hurricane Bill was making his presence known. And we were watching him encroach on the city via the weather map on Geoff's iPhone. We heard there had been a torrential downpour on the Upper West Side, but it hadn't hit the West Village yet. Weird how that happens.

Definitely stopped into a pet store where Alison and I both fell in love with 10 week old yellow French Bulldogs.

O
M
G

French Bulldogs who unfortunately were "on sale" for $2400. Someone should tell the owners of that pet store that $2400 is actually not a sale price. Regardless, I was so Involved and In Love that I completely forgot to take a picture of them. My heart also broke over a brown & gray speckled Bulldog with a fierce under bite and a very sleepy Boxer.

After stopping for iced coffee at Joe (which I'd been craving for a week since I had it with Alison during the previous post - and I also love them because their colors are brown and blue. please.), we took another quick pass through the farmer's market before getting on the subway and heading home.

I couldn't resist these. Growing up, my mom LOVED radishes. Craved them all the time. Mom, these are for you...



Also took a little subway photography on the way home...


Was digging this couple in front of us who were half talking/half snuggling the whole ride. Was taking this super sniper-style, but kinda liked this one...


I love this guy a little bit.


Train arriving across the platform...yes this picture is crooked and I like it.


This, I have to admit, was an accident. I had intended to get a shot of the guy in the foreground reading the paper, but since I was all sniper-style, all camera-in-my-lap-no-i'm-not-really-taking-a-picture style, I couldn't tell where the focus was until after. But I sorta love this shot. Happy accidents.


We got home and are now officially hibernating until Monday. Happy rest of the weekend to you all...

Farmer's Market

Last Friday I left work early. We're supposed to get off at 2pm every Friday in the summer, but with my job we rarely actually do. Well, I defied them all and bought tickets online for a 3pm Time Traveller's Wife (not the worlds greatest movie, but Rachel McAdams was amazing and I definitely cried at least 3 times, so just perfect for a summer Friday).

After the movie we had about an hour to kill before going to see our friend Marisa's show on Long Island. So we wandered through the Union Square Farmer's Market. Now, I LOVE a farmer's market. Particularly this one. I will never forget the morning of my friend Megan's wedding two years ago when Marisa, Alison & I went to this very farmer's market to buy a bunch of flowers and then took them to the church and created the centerpieces for their reception. One of my favorite NYC memories.

Well, Alison instantly bought some blackberries, so she could make a tart. Clearly. I heard later it was a blackberry tequila lime tart. Um. Can you imagine?

I didn't have my real camera with me...just my little digital point & shoot....but took a ton of pics.

Tomatoes...as far as the eye can see...


Peaches in a wooden crate. Clearly. My friend Courtney & her family go to a farm every weekend in the summer and pick their own fruit. This is my version of it.


Endless produce




Hanging Peaches...


Flowers in galvanized buckets!! I was BESIDE myself and took a zillion pictures of them. I love things in galvanized buckets.


Alison loved these flowers when she was a kid. I can't remember what their called, but when she was younger she thought they looked like brains.


Plants - I love them. I want to buy them all. I want a garden!


As we were walking to Penn station, sadly leaving the Farmer's Market, we saw this lady. Wish I could have snapped her from the front. She had an amazingly huge pink cowgirl hat and I think huge pink sunglasses. She is amazing. And hopefully, she is also headed to the Farmer's Market before she goes to her gig. Man, I hope so.

You Guys!

Ok, so I'm doing this pushup challenge with the girls in my office and I feel stronger already! Ok, maybe not stronger as a whole, but it's only week two and I already felt like today's pushups were easier. Now granted, they are girlie, knee pushups. But still!

It was exciting.

We are also doing a situp challenge and the other girls are doing a squats challenge. I tried to participate in the squats challenege and I think there is something wrong with a way that my ankles won't bend, because my body doesn't seem to be able to do squats in a correct position. Lunges, sure. But squats - no dice. It's kind of weird. Maybe I'm just SUPER weak, but I've always thought my legs were the strongest part of me. As parts go. Like, you know how kids can squat down, feet flat on the ground, like this?


Well, I can't do that. I tip over backwards. Everyone in my office thought that was really weird. Am I just built weird? When I try to do a squat, it doesn't feel like a "oh my legs can't do this!" feeling. It feels like my ankles are going to break off if I try to force a squat beyond just a plie.

Also, I've learned two things through this post:

1) I am headed in the direction of strong.

2) I am not a fan of the word "squat".


Heading home for a bike ride!

Domestic in my Free Time

I had a day to myself on Saturday. To do what I wanted. Which included:

- Walking to Starbucks for 2 venti iced coffees (one half-caf)
- Meeting a one & a half year old bulldog named Hubble outside said Starbucks, which caused me to put my beverages down and love on him.
- Making breakfast (scrambled eggs w/ a little grated parmesan reggiano cheese and whole wheat toast with blackberry preserves)
- Watching some of the Flipping Out marathon on Bravo. Drama!
- Pouring through recipe books to figure out what I was going to make this weekend (one chick food meal for me tonight and a crockpot meal for tomorrow that we can eat all week)
- Going to the grocery store for supplies
- Using my coupon from Starbucks in the AM for a "any grande beverage is $2 after 2pm" skim iced cappuchino.
- Marinating chicken for dinner
- Cleaning the bathroom in between doing my pushups for the day (My co-worker Carrie and I are on a program that will eventually make us able to do 100 pushups in a row. We're on week one. 100 seems really far away.)
- More Flipping Out marathon
- Making pesto with our basil. YUM.
- Having a glass of wine
- Talking to myself. I do it all the time when I'm alone. And when I'm not alone.
- Making roasted squash & zucchini tossed with pesto & grilling my marinated chicken for dinner. The timing of everything was a little tricky and I definitely started laughing at myself by the time the smoke alarm went off for the second time. Which is not necessarily a reflection of my cooking, but more of a reflection of what it's like to cook when you have no venting system on your stove at all.
- Watching a documentary called Show Business about producing four new Broadway musicals in 2004. And filled with people that I know & work with.

Would have also liked to:
- Had lunch with myself and a good book at the wine bar on the corner.
- Reorganized Geoff's bookshelf in his office
- Worked on our blog book
- Organized my closet
- Made it to Bed Bath & Beyond, as we still need some pots/pans from our registry if you can believe it. And yes, I do have my act together. Clearly.
- Hung out more with my new friend Hubble the Bulldog.

Maybe on my next day off....

A la Mad Men

I'm sure you've all heard of the TV show, Mad Men on AMC. We have the first season on DVD and haven't gotten around to watching it, but I do really love the time period. And there's a web site where you can Mad Men Yourself

Well here I am.


Kinda pissed that redhead is basically wearing my dress.

Here is Geoff.


Man, that redhead is everywhere! I wish there was an option to make him super tall. 'Cause he is. I have to say, these don't look as much like us as I would like. Although I do love a dirty martini and have a yellow purse I use everyday.

I think it would have been super fun to live in the 50s. The clothes are awesome. And I love the idea of bringing back the martini lunch. Or just martinis whenever. A few years ago at work we would occassionally have "Margarita Fridays". Always sounded like a good idea and then made us basically worthless for the rest of the day. So, for productivity sake, probably best that martini lunches died with 50s.

I Heart Documentaries

We shot another wedding on Saturday, which was pretty fun. GORGEOUS weather ( 75 and sunny with no humidity in AUGUST? Who gets that lucky?!), cute couple and an AMAZING AMAZING band. And then we had Sunday off. Slept in, had some breakfast, rode our bikes over to Astoria Park, which was cool. It was too humid to sit and enjoy it though, so we rode back home, ran some errands and settled on the couch with a glass of wine to chat. Lovely. Then we watched two documentaries.

The first was Geoff's pick: Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.


Interesting. It explores the suppression of scientific debate with regard to evolution and intelligent design (which is actually different than creationism, though not a lot of people know that). Very interesting. What I found interesting is that the leading scientist on Darwinism couldn't say how the very first cell came to be (the cell that all life came from). And said that no one knew for sure how it happened but that it absolutely COULD NOT have been created through intelligent design. Absolutely not. No idea how it happened. Just definitely not that way. And I'm thinking….if you're a scientist, and you don't know how something happened, don't you have to at least consider all options? And not let your personal religious beliefs or lack thereof, get in the way? Just a thought.


The second documentary was my pick: The Business of Being Born.

FASCINATING. Completely Fascinating. Now, I'm not pregnant and not planning on it for another couple of years. But this was really interesting to me. It is produced by Ricki Lake, who became interested in the maternity care system in America after the birth of her first child. It combines historical facts with current statistics and personal stories. Their goal, I think is to properly educate women about options outside of what has become the "traditional" way women have babies, a process in which, they argue, hospitals don't actually always have the best interest of the mother and child in mind. I certainly learned a TON. And I'm sure there is bias there, as there can be with most things, but it definitely was illuminating on the subject. And blew apart certain pre-conceived notions I had about midwives and home births. And raised a lot of questions. I would recommend this film. I'd be interested in what my friends who are moms would say, having been through the process. The film does get graphic, so squeamish husbands beware, as they do show several home births and you see it ALL. But I found it fascinating. Fascinating/Terrifying. But fascinating nonetheless.

You can watch both of these through Netflix, and they are both available to watch online under their "Play Now/Instant Queue". Which means free extra movies besides the ones that come in the mail. Which I love. We are now obsessed with the Instant Queue, as we purchased a Blu-Ray that allows us to stream those "Play now" movies to our TV instead of on the computer. Which is amazing and available through the magic of technology that I don't understand. But am grateful that someone else does.

Leaps & Bounds

Remember how we planted a sunflower, and then came back from the July 4th weekend 4 days later and found this?


Well, it's been about a month. And now he looks like this:


Um. He's a grower.

He's almost taller than me at this point. He's dwarfing the recently trimmed basil. (Which are not as FULL looking as I want them to be. Maybe because their roots are too close together, like in a little cluster from when they were in the tiny pots from the wedding? And now I'm afraid to break them apart for fear of damaging them. Thoughts? My gardener friends?) Regardless we definately are going to have to get taller ceilings. Or relocate him to a garden in CT where we might be able to visit him regularly. Liz? How would Khal & Maya like a sunflower? It's kinda verging on Little Shop of Horrors, but without the blood and it trying to eat us. So far. Like James & the Giant Peach. Kate and the Ginormous Sunflower. Geoff & Kate and their Ridiculously Fast Growing Plant That Belongs in The Actual Ground, Not a Teeny Fire Escape Windowsill Garden.

Secrets & Tricks

Things I know how to do that might be helpful:

1) Cure for hiccups: Pour as much water as you can drink in one breath into a cup. Light a match and put it out in the cup of water. Drink the water in one breath. Do not get skeeved out by this concept, it will not hurt you and it works every time and is allegedly an old bartender trick. I have never been a bartender, but that's what I was told when I learned it.

2) Quick cool down: Trace your ears with an ice cube, or a finger dipped in really cold water. It will instantly cool you down. I know this from experience, as I am constantly overheated. Especially in the summer.


That is all. Those are all the tricks I know. I know this because I've been trying to think of more than these two for nearly a week. Sad. Lame. But True.

What are your secrets & tricks? Things you know how to do that always make people wonder where you learned that or marvel at how well it works.....

Please share, 'cause I clearly need to expand my repertoire.

Perspective

I got some. Just wanted you to know.

Flung myself on the bed last night "in frustration & despair", talked all the ridiculous-ness out and am in better shape.

Perspective helps. It gets lost sometimes. Being able to talk out all the crazy things you feel that you know are stupid, but that bother you anyway is how I find it again.

Like Ships in the Night

That's what Geoff and I have been this past week. He's had events on evenings when I was free. And I've been booked when he was free. I've come home exhausted and gone to bed while he stays up working. Which then means I leave before he is awake.

And I gotta say, it's tough. It puts a strain on things. On us. We shot a wedding this weekend (which was very cool and kind of unconventional, which I loved), but it made for a long day. And then we had about half of Sunday together before I headed out to a birthday party. And there went our weekend.

We don't like it. And on top of everything else, it makes me not want to blog. And then I get blog guilt. And feel...listless. I want to be blogging all kinds of cool things, including this wedding we shot this weekend. I want to be working on our blog book, which I started three months ago and haven't touched since. But I don't have it in me. I had to work on three things at once at work yesterday and even though that is fairly normal workload from Sept-May, yesterday it caused a meltdown. And I couldn't hack it. I watched my co-workers gently take things off my plate and kind of steer clear, as if I were a crazy person. Which sometimes I am.

I'm hoping this week will be better.

If our life is like this now, in the summer, when my job is a little slow, how will I possibly ever get anything done when we have kids? Sweet Lord, give me strength. And more hours in the day. And 14 hands. Or maybe just 2 go-go gadget super fast & productive hands, 'cause actually having 14 hands might not really be the look I'm going for.

This is picture of Butch, a dog who lives part time in our neighborhood. This photo is a year old, and he is a grown up now, but it makes me happy. Even though he is completely unrelated to this post. I don't even care. So here he is to make me smile.