I wonder if that's true

Election Happiness

2008-11-10T17:57:00.001-05:00

And another LJ video:

annniversary

2008-11-01T20:37:00.002-04:00

5 years ago

1 year ago

yay...

another video

2008-10-23T22:00:00.002-04:00

kamikaze baby and animal noises...

Butt Bumping

2008-10-23T21:55:00.001-04:00

This is kind of an old video, but gives you an idea what Laura has been up to...

Work that cutoff shirt and bandana headband

2008-10-22T19:25:00.005-04:00

Hello blogfriends! Do you have Netflix? If you do, I highly recommend that you follow these steps:

1. Go to Netflix.
2. Search for Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. And don't forget the apostrophe.
3. Immediately watch via Instant Viewing.
4. We only made it 22 minutes in, but I laugh-cried so hard that my contact fell out.

That's all.

Best Snack Ever

2008-10-16T16:20:00.003-04:00

I'm addicted to a new snack food. It is the perfect combination of spicy and salty and sweet and chewy. I don't know what the ingredients are because they sell it at my local asian mini-grocery in little plastic tubs with no writing on them except a price. But I think it's dried squid and covered in some chili paste like stuff.

The thing is, I don't know how guilty I should feel for this snack habit (see above, lack of ingredient information). Is eating this much squid bad for me? What about the fat/sugar content? I think there must be some significant amount of each in there... Also, each little tub is almost $3. I'm starting to figure out why the Korean grocers seem so happy to see me and Laura every time we go in there...

Another thing about Waltham

2008-10-15T07:23:00.002-04:00

Is unauthorized golfing a problem everywhere? Just in New England? Just in Waltham? I'm picturing bands of rogue golfers lurking in dark alleys...

what to say?

2008-10-09T19:28:00.003-04:00

so today is Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. when you think about your sins in the last year, and try to atone for them. Or something like that, take everything I say with a grain of salt since I'm Catholic and don't know exactly what I'm talking about.

Which gets me to my next point. Yom Kippur is one of those days, like Good Friday or Veteran's Day - it's somber. You want to acknowledge that you know it is going on, but it doesn't exactly go with the adjective "Happy" in front. I think Isaac has told me in the past that you say something like "hope you have an easy fast", but of course that would sound a lot better in Hebrew. So would things like, "Hope you remembered and atoned for every sin!" or "Let's all sin less this year!"

Cheers blogfriends!

hello blogworld

2008-10-09T12:44:00.002-04:00

I'm sure no one reads my blog anymore - nothing to read! But I thought it would be therapeutic to start writing again a little bit.

Isaac and Laura Jane and I moved over the summer - to beautiful Waltham, Massachusetts! Well, I might be overselling it just a little there. But there are certainly some beautiful parts to Waltham, or at least the surrounding areas. To the east, 13 or so miles, Boston. To the west, Weston, where the houses are really big and really far apart...

Isaac has a new job as a Big Time Assistant Professor. Well, Little-Big Time. It's not like he works at Harvard or something. But he's got grad students working for him and whatnot. He works very very hard 6 days a week. I'm staying home with Laura right now, and she keeps me busy... She's almost 15 months old already! I can hardly believe it. Most of her intelligible sounds these days are still animal noise related, but she uses a few words for talking to humans, like hi and done.

Well, I don't want to be too ambitious first time out of the gate, so I will stop here.

Laura can crawl!

2008-03-13T11:29:00.003-04:00

Things have been busy here - but I wanted to post a little video of Laura Jane's latest trick.

Thanks Dad

2007-12-18T09:44:00.000-05:00

My dad just sent me this link http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1523419289

I couldn't stop laughing - this is definitely the only time I will get to see Isaac do the macarena in this life.

Family photo in our crowded apartment

2007-11-27T09:51:00.001-05:00

IMG_3459
Originally uploaded by diblasic

Kind of rare to have all three of us together! Thanksgiving was fun, and I can't wait to see everyone again now.

The Rom Com

2007-11-07T22:41:00.000-05:00

It's true, I really enjoy a good romantic comedy. Mostly though, I enjoy watching them with Isaac. I thank God every day that I have a husband who is able to appreciate the finer points of movies such as Just Like Heaven, Bridget Jones' Diary (only the first one), and of course, the mother of all - Pride and Prejudice.

Unfortunately, there aren't that many good ones made in a given year, and definitely not enough to supply the rate at which we've been watching movies. So as I mentioned, we ended up watching Must Love Dogs, which was pretty much godawful. John Cusack, Diane Lane, what happened? Zero chemistry between the two of them, a somehow terrible script, oh no.

But seriously, I did a search on imdb for movies which are both comedy and romance (because who wants to watch a depressing romantic movie? not me.) and once you weed out the anime, and the sci-fi anime, and the unsatisfying French movies (just can't get into Audrey Tautou) we've seen almost EVERYTHING. It's quite sad. Okay, we didn't see Dr. T and the Women, because Stacy said it was something like a fork to the eye, but just about everything else. Also, I have a question - is imdb like wikipedia because I'm not sure why Team America World police is labeled a romance. Forget i asked.

So anyway, looking at the imdb list, we are down to Agent Cody Banks and Dirty Love and ooh Brown Sugar, which I will totally check out from the library, just for Queen Latifah. But I have a question of my readers (basically my sisters, hi Beth and Katie) - can you think of a movie that we might not have seen yet? I'm thinking about offering a cash reward. When we saw a movie for our anniversary, it cost $24. Not including the babysitter. Movie prices went up while we were living with an infant. We saw Dan in Real Life (which was cute, and we're giving it four out of five stars - I couldn't bear to give it anything less for $24).

Okay, good night, and think of good movies for me!

Isaac ran the New York Marathon!

2007-11-06T21:11:00.000-05:00

He totally did.

It was awesome, and Laura and I went out to cheer him on. This entailed us taking the subway for the first time since she left the womb. Thank goodness the train was full of sweet Midwestern out-of-towners who immediately forced me to sit down so I didn't fall with the baby. Then we waited for Isaac to appear, standing next to a group of rowdy Swiss ladies. We arranged to meet up at 110th and 1st ave (hence the subway ride) because it was supposed to be less crowded up there - Laura doesn't like crowds and loud noises... But she did pretty well even with the cowbell and crazy Swiss cheers (they were saying something that sounded like "Hop Suite! Hop Suite! Hop Suite!") Then we walked over to 5th avenue to see Isaac about 4 miles later and a lot more tired. Though he doesn't look any different to me in the pictures!

Not as tired:

More tired:

Too bad i didn't get any action shots of the guy actually running. Next time!

In other marathon news, I didn't see Katie Holmes or Lance Armstrong, but I did see Melissa Summers of Suburban Bliss (a blog-celebrity sighting!) and then right after that I saw Michael J. Fox and his wife. They were kinda easy to spot because of the "Team Fox" hats. Well, she wasn't wearing a hat, but Michael J. was. I never spot celebrities and Isaac always does (he saw Ricky Gervais in the park a couple of weeks ago) but it would help me a lot if they would wear name tags like this...

Okay, I'm wasting precious time when I should be sleeping - I'm starting to get a sleep debt, and I learned how that can make your iq drop like 50 points or something. Now that I'm back at work, my NPR listening has gone up approx 1000%. I should clarify that my sleep debt is really not the baby's fault, it's my own stupid fault for doing stupid things. Like last night Isaac and I watched Must Love Dogs (why oh why Stacy didn't I read your one star Netflix review sooner) until 12:30! Of course I had to be up at 6:30.

I have lots more to say on the topic of romantic comedies, but maybe I will pace myself and just try to blog more this month, since it's one of those Blog More months or whatever.

PS Laura Jane learned how to roll over from her back to her front! Here she is in progress:

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-02T08:13:00.000-04:00

We had fun walking up and down 2nd Avenue and seeing all the other kids in their costumes. Things are busy these days with work and baby! Isaac and I had our fourth wedding anniversary yesterday and tonight we are going out for dinner and a movie. We don't know which movie or restaurant yet. Kind of planning impaired these days! Especially since Isaac is running the marathon on Sunday! So we are thinking maybe an Italian place for carbo-loading purposes...

Okay, better get to work...

Two Quick Things

2007-10-22T08:46:00.000-04:00

Just a couple of blog notes before our babysitter arrives (yes, we got a babysitter and she's terrific!)

1. I totally knew it, for once: Dumbledore is gay! I didn't see that part coming about him having fallen in love with Grindelwald, but I remember figuring out the gay thing after Book 6. Isaac and I were totally googling "is dumbledore gay?" but couldn't find other people out there to back us up.

2. Also, we watched 28 weeks later last night and I discovered a side benefit to having a baby. Isaac can't pretend to be a scary zombie anymore and scare me in bed. Don't want to wake the baby - excellent zombie protection! Go Laura Jane! Reason 1,324,678 to have a sweet baby.

Speaking of Laura, she's waking up, and I should try to get her to sleep some more...happy baby...

someone figured out how to smile for the camera...

2007-10-14T23:11:00.000-04:00

My parents and my brother came up on Saturday for a nice day visit! Laura mostly behaved herself...although she required carrying when we went out for our little walk up to Central Park. At least someone else was there to push the stroller, not like some days when I have to carry her AND push the stroller.

I have taken a lot of nice walks along this route, walking west up to Central Park, and through the park a little going south, and then back home again. Often I go past the Frick, and read their sign...no admittance for children under the age of 10... Boy is this a case of the grass being greener. I've been to the Frick exactly once before, and never experienced any burning desire to go there again. I mean, I really enjoyed it, but it was also great to go during the time that you could pay what you wanted. But now every time I walk past there with the baby, I'm just dying to go in. I fantasize about the guard making an exception for me and my sweet and angelic infant, so well contained in the Baby Bjorn. A chamber music friend of Isaac's crashed at our place last night, and going to the Frick was pretty much the only thing I could think to suggest for him to do. Oh well...I'll either go by myself sometime, or wait ten years.

Okay, time for bed, Laura's been asleep for hours, and hopefully will stay that way when we tiptoe to the bed.

LJ update

2007-10-10T09:23:00.000-04:00

Well, things are great here at Chez Laura Jane...the apartment is a mess, and I guess I'm a little bit of a mess, but we are very happy in our messiness.

Some stuff about life with the baby...

1. Laura loves to sleep. Thank you GOD. I can honestly say I have not really felt that crazy sleep deprivation that I was expecting. Yes, there have been some bad nights, but I'm not sure that there were ever two in a row. I'm so lucky.

2. Getting out of the apartment is important for both of us - it's good to get her some daylight to keep her circadian clock set, and it's good for my mental health.

3. The New Yorkers who love babies the most are the grandma-types who I see on street corners and at the supermarket. Every time we are waiting to cross the street, some nice older lady is telling me what a sweet baby I have.

(By the way, what is the appropriate response to such a statement? I sometimes say thank you, and then feel weird, because it's not any accomplishment of mine to have a cute baby. I mean, I suppose she would be less cute if I didn't bathe her, but probably not by much. Most of the time I either say "mmm hmm," laugh nervously, or adjust the baby's clothes or blanket while making some silly baby talk. Let me know if you have any other ideas for what to do...)

4. Pubs are actually very baby friendly restaurants. Also, deserted Asian restaurants during the weekend brunch hour.

5. Drinking alcohol again is awesome!

6. I have gotten obsessed with Tim Gunn since I have more time to watch TV right now. I want him to throw away everything in my closet, and get Carmen Marc Valvo to give me a dress.

7. I have to go back to work soon...

SO, here are some pictures of our sweet girl - she started smiling a long time ago...and she's almost laughing. I keep hearing one little "ha" but she hasn't quite made it to "ha ha" yet.

We went to Maryland at the end of August, and Laura Jane got to meet cousin Lucy. Lucy loves to tickle...

Also, we managed to take a picture of LJ crying with pretty much every member of the family. She really was quite happy on this trip, but you wouldn't know it from the pictures.

One month later....

2007-08-16T10:19:00.001-04:00

Well I haven't set some kind of world record for pregnancy - I did indeed have a baby! Laura Jane was born on July 18 at 3:00pm. We brought her home and she's sleeping in the other room right now. What a good girl to give mommy a blog break. What can you say about having a newborn at home that hasn't already been said. It's terrific, it's frustrating, it's wonderful and awesome in all modern and arcane senses of those words....And I almost dare not say this, because it is probably inviting the wrath of our benevolent baby God, but I'm feeling pretty good, and not actually even all that sleep-deprived...please don't smite me baby God!

And now for the pictures....

today is the day that isaac picked

2007-07-15T08:35:00.000-04:00

when we guessed the baby's birthday, long ago. We've been getting calls from so many people wanting to know what's up! It's very nice to have family and friends who are getting excited and impatient for us. Especially since Isaac does most of the phone talking (you know how I'm not great on the phone).

So, as I said in a previous comment, we're doing what we can to bring this baby thing to fruition...spicy food, walking a lot, etc. Yesterday I went to Mass with the idea that I might not make it to church today (positive thinking!) and then last night I came home and bounced up and down on my exercise ball. I have no idea whether such a thing is known to actually move the baby down, but it was kind of fun to bounce while I watched old episodes of Law and Order. My sisters called last night within about 30 seconds of each other, and Katie told me about a friend of a friend who used the stair stepper to bring on labor....the whole process is very scientific apparently...

I think that might be one of the most frustrating things about waiting for labor to start on its own, the unscientificness of it all and apparent lack of control over cause and effect. But it's probably a good way to start out life with kids, because I have a feeling there won't be much scientific method involved in that either. Still, if someone told me that a certain yoga pose or prayer to a certain saint (I've just been going with Mary, since I don't know too many others who had children) or a delicious and side effect-free food item (no castor oil here) brought on labor - I would try it.

Lucy at the pool....

2007-07-13T06:52:00.000-04:00

I have to post these pictures of niece Lucy at the pool. These are from almost a month ago, but Lucy has been going to the pool just about every weekend and learning to swim! She's a real natural in the water apparently, and even more importantly, she knows how to look cute while doing her thing.

Still here...and baby holding firm to my insides

2007-07-13T06:25:00.000-04:00

I get a really funny look from people at work now when I go in, like, what are you still doing here? Well, the answer is, the air conditioning at the lab is awesome, and there is no better place to be for someone who has to take a cold shower every night just to survive the heat and humidity. I'm still getting a little bit of work done too, and it doesn't seem like there's any reason to sit at home yet...

So it's pretty hard to make plans around this baby already! My parents are going to be in NJ this weekend for a family party, and were talking about coming up to see us and the baby tonight or tomorrow night. Only problem is, no baby yet. I think we are getting closer though, since my hormones seem to be gearing up for something! More than a couple of tears were shed at the Harry Potter movie...

We'll all meet the baby soon enough though, and the grandparents will be able to come next weekend too. My mom is going to stay to help us for almost a week, which will be very very good. Isaac and I took an infant care class, where we learned to wrap a baby doll in a blanket, and I really can't remember a single other thing that we learned.

I'm definitely taking Stacy's advice though, and treasuring the last few days (baby willing) of this pregnancy. I keep thinking, is this the baby's birthday? Is tomorrow? Now it's Friday the 13th...so I'm wondering if I should hope that we hold out until Bastille Day?

Due Date Update!

2007-07-10T07:42:00.000-04:00

Well, today is the official due date...and no baby yet. It was even harder to get to sleep last night because I was so excited about today though. It was like the tomorrow's my birthday feeling that I used to get when I was really excited about my birthday.... But I know today probably isn't THE day! This morning I'm going for some baby monitoring to make sure that it's okay to keep going past the due date - they'll do that twice a week from now on, besides my weekly doctor's visit. Should be interesting!

We bought our tickets for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, for Wednesday night at 8pm, taking the chance that the baby will still be in its most portable location at that time. If not, oh well!

Here are some pictures I promised from the baby shower I had online with Jen and Lynne!
What a nice time...

By the way, this is the face I'm wearing in my driver's license picture, it's so ridiculous!

Baby party pictures

2007-06-27T08:56:00.000-04:00

38 week update

2007-06-27T07:59:00.000-04:00

Well, I've had doctor's appointments every week now for a while and things are still looking good. The baby is pretty happy where he/she is for now, although head down and ready to launch. I'm visualizing this childbirth thing more as like a rocket launch. Our childbirth instructor claimed that visualizing her baby as a fish swimming out of her was helpful, and I'm upping the ante to rocket propulsion.

So, we are doing well here - Isaac and I have cooked a lot of meals that are now in the freezer. In fact, the freezer is so full that we are now starting to eat some of the stuff we made. Thai Curry, yum. It's awfully hot outside, but the air conditioning at work is a real blessing - I'm still going into work every day.

Last night I had a dream that I got on a plane to Minnesota without telling Isaac, and without thinking about the fact that I was really really pregnant. I just had to see Stacy. And in my dream it was so nice to see her, awkward hugs all around. Then I realized that the airline might not let me fly home because I was so pregnant and I started thinking of costumes to disguise my condition...and it would take something pretty drastic at this point.

I have lots of pictures to post both from the baby party my family had for me and the IM-based baby shower that Jen and Lynne had for me, which was so so nice. Thanks to them the baby will not be quite so grungy (baby tub and baby hamper) or snotty (healthcare kit with snot sucker) or ignorant of Grover (classic Sesame Street golden book as a precursor to when the child can read Harry Potter). I am so grateful to have such nice blogfriends, and they are on my mind awake or asleep apparently!

appointment 36 weeks

2007-06-13T08:27:00.000-04:00

Today Isaac and I are going to my 36 week checkup at the ob. So we should be finding out soon whether the baby is pointed in the right direction to be born (very exciting) and talk about the birth day...our doctor is very much of the "don't worry about anything too much" school, which is quite comforting. Of course, she may not be our actual delivering ob, since there are 2 other doctors in her practice, and 2 other doctors who cover for them sometimes.

So, being in the ninth month is not too bad so far. Last night we saw Knocked Up, which was a lot of fun. This weekend we are starting a cooking project to stock up our freezer with some favorite freezable meals...Green Curry Chicken, Lasagna, and Khoresh Fesenjan. What do you know, they have Najmeh's recipe on Epicurious.com. We have two of her cookbooks, and they are both absolutely excellent. Probably used more than any other cookbook on the shelf. Anyway, if you go to a Persian restaurant that serves this khoresh, you should get it, so yummy, with walnuts and pomegranate paste and chicken in this stewy form. Oh, and chili. That's not really a favorite of mine, but it is highly freezable.

This past Saturday was really wonderful - my family made the trek up from Maryland, by bus and by car, and we had a really great party here in the apartment. They brought the food, and we ate a ton, and opened lots of presents. It's actually starting to look like a baby might be able to live in this place, and be clothed and diapered and everything. I'll have to post some pictures later after I get them off my camera...

Thanks Mom and Dad and Beth!

2007-06-06T18:49:00.000-04:00

My family is coming up to New York this weekend for a "baby shower". It's not exactly a by-the-book shower, since it's in our apartment and it's not just for women, and it's also pretty much only my immediate family coming. That will fill our apartment quite nicely actually, it's not too big.

My mom and dad sent a bunch of stuff that I had picked out on amazon, including a carseat! And my sister sent the matching stroller. I had fun the other night putting it together, and adjusting the straps and clicking the pieces together and detaching them. Isaac is out of town at a conference, so I sent him a picture or two of the progress I've been making...

I think this is probably how the baby will be travelling home from the hospital, since we live only about 3 blocks away!

Party at Li-Ling's!

2007-06-06T10:39:00.000-04:00

Ooops. More than a week has now passed since we went to that delightful birthday party at Li-Ling and I-Chen's place. Here are some pictures of the event, which I am only posting if you promise not to be horrified at how huge I look, and what kind of double chin action there is going on here. Do you promise? Okay...

With Isaac and Mai and Taka!

Hot, if blurry, ladies

Birthday girl and a coffee cocktail

Famous bartender Yuji working his magic

Me and a mock pina colada

The food at this party was so so so good - I'm afraid to post pictures of it because I won't be able to stop. By the way, I stole all these pictures from Tiffany because I didn't think to take any of my own...

Randomness

2007-05-29T23:01:00.001-04:00

Isaac and I had a great time on Sunday night at LL and IC's place. LL made an amazing spread of food and their friend Yuji made some terrific cocktails (and mocktails for me!) LL's birthday is coming up in just a few days, and it was a really fun evening to celebrate. Yay. I will have to post some of Tiffany's pictures from the night later on, when Flickr is up and running again.

I can't remember why this book I'm thinking of came up when I was talking to Tiffany that night - oh now I remember. It was because Tiffany was telling me of her lifelong dream to attend a bar or bat mitvah. (Cross your fingers for her!) I remembered this book I kept hearing about a year or so ago, with pictures of bar mitzvahs from the 80s. The pictures I saw were incredibly amusing, not so much because they were at a bar mitzvah, but because they look like every photo taken of awkward adolescents ever. The book is Bar Mitzvah Disco and here are some selected pics. Tiff, I hope the bar mitzvah you go to has a Michael Jackson impersonator. The one of the 3 young couples might be my favorite. It is almost like they know that they could be blackmailed with this picture in about 20 years.

Back when I was hearing about this book, I guess that American Apparel did some kind of advertising campaign using the pictures, or inspired by these pictures, which is really annoying to me because I hate American Apparel ads. At least all of the ones featuring girls in their underwear. Which is pretty much all of them. They might be less creepy to me if the founder guy wasn't known for masturbating in front of female journalists. (Still creepy, even if the journalist didn't mind apparently.)

Okay, time for me to get myself and my insanely swollen waterlogged feet to bed!

Tonight

2007-05-23T21:58:00.000-04:00

As of last Saturday, Isaac and I have completed our childbirth preparation class, which featured a very nice and knowledgeable, crunchy-granolaish instructor, some extremely graphic videos (I was remembering how they called it "horror porn" on that British show Coupling), snack-time, foot massage techniques, and a couple of extremely foul-smelling classmates.

Tonight we took another class, in Infant CPR. Before attending the class I worried that it might be kind of emotional or something. I mean, pretty much everything makes me cry these days. Including the aforementioned extremely graphic childbirth videos (that's one of the better reasons to cry), but also gross provocations such as Isaac seeming slightly uninterested while I was describing my latest reading about the bazillion kinds of cloth diapers. (Do you feel sorry for my husband or what?)

But back to the infant CPR, it wasn't emotional or scary at all really. Everyone got their own little infant dummy to practice with, and the teacher had this really funny way about her. Everything was kept pretty light, for a class in dealing with your unresponsive infant. She would say things like, "So when you go into the baby's room and finally figure out, 'oh maybe I shouldn't have put the baby down to nap with that bag of marbles....'" It all seemed kind of darkly funny somehow. Maybe that was possible only because no one there had any actual babies. It was all just pregnant couples (you know what i mean) and two nannies. I'm definitely glad we went, and I hope that I remember what I learned in case of any sort of real emergency!

best May weather

2007-05-22T07:02:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you guys, but isn't the weather just perfect right now? Not to jinx things or anything, but it's been lovely and not too hot and not too cold for days and days now. A little rain here and there, but nothing to get worked up about.

I just kind of wish that I could sleep through the night. I'm thinking of getting one of those sleep training books so that I can train myself to get some sleep. This morning I woke up at 5, and while that might be normal for some commuting, hair-blowdrying, look presentable sort of people, it's a good two hours before I like to be awake. At least it wasn't earlier like some other days. Things I can't stop thinkng about when I wake up in the early morning hours:

1. Baby names...names like Chastity and Charity and Chandler start to make sense to me just before dawn.

2. I really cannot get that song from Music and Lyrics out of my head, and it's been like a week.

3. I wonder if there is enough room in the fridge for the groceries which are going to be delivered this morning.

4. If I turned the fan on, would that drown out the minimal sounds from outside which are maybe keeping me from falling back to sleep?

5. Should we move the dresser over there, and the bed over to the other side of the room, and do we need a nightstand?

And it goes on and on and on. I want to shut my brain off. But now the groceries are probably coming soon, and then it will be time for work! It does look like it is going to be a really really nice day.

Happy Birthday Katie!

2007-05-19T10:14:00.000-04:00

Today is my sister Katie's birthday! I still remember going to the hospital a mere 27 years ago to visit Katie and my Mom. We were so excited to meet our little sister. And now she's getting married! Katie and Russell got engaged back in March, and they are getting married in a little more than a year. We are so excited and happy for them!

Here's the happy, baby-torturing couple!!!

Have I told you Isaac's theory yet that 27 is the very best age for a woman? Not too young and not too old! Enjoy your year in your prime Kate....

trip to tennessee!

2007-05-18T18:08:00.000-04:00

Isaac and I decided that with the impending increase in family size, we should use some of our frequent flier miles and get in some air travel to interesting places. Since Nick and Gina have been (had been!, oops, look what happens when you wait too long to write about something) living in Knoxville, Tennessee for the last year, we wanted very much to visit them there. Since then, they've left Tennessee and are now driving across the country to their new place in California.

Anyway, our trip to Tennessee was a lot of fun, and Nick actually already wrote about it here. We saw a lot of the University of Tennessee, though not many students, since we usually happened to be strolling there during the day on the weekend. Prime hangover time of course...

We had some really really good breakfasts made by Gina, including homemade dumplings and kim chee. I think Isaac was in heaven, remembering the spicy breakfast we had back in Jiangxi Province on our trip to China. There was this hotel in Jian where we stayed on our way back to the airport in Nanchang, and they had this breakfast buffet of about 40 items, almost all of which were covered in chilis and super spicy. That's the way to wake up! Anyway, Gina's kim chee was quite delicious, and went really well with the eggs and toast and other good stuff we had.

We also went to the park for a picnic, and played frisbee, and ate Doritos. There are pictures of us playing frisbee...action shot!

And some pictures of Isaac in the Tennessee River:

Photo credits to Nick!

We also had the time to drive up to the Smoky Mountains and take a little hike. I was kind of a wimp, and not overly balanceful on the trails, so we didn't go too far! Like Isaac is always telling me these days, I'm the gazelle in the herd that would be picked off by the predator...I think he means it in a nice way though...

Here we are on the trail...

Then was it this night, or the night before that we went out for barbecue at Calhoun's? I really can't remember. But yum, I remember that the barbecue was really good. NYC is seriously lacking in some good barbecue.

Many belated thanks to our gracious hosts Nick and Gina.

News Flash: Nieces are Cute!

2007-05-17T16:08:00.000-04:00

I got the latest Lucy news from my sister recently, and what do you know, the brilliant 9 month old niece is already talking! Like in words! She can say cat and dog, so far, words which I'm sure will serve her well in this life.

Here are some older pictures of her, I wouldn't want you to miss anything.

Christmas (is my Mom a baby hog or what?)

And here are some pictures from Easter - my camera apparently got set to Manual Mode, which is a no-no for an F-stop-challenged individual like myself. But somehow, Lucy still looks cute here, with my brother...

Some of her favorite toys at Grandma's are the pie plates...

They taste good, who needs pie?

She really works the Flashdance look

Leaning is not too far from standing and walking...

Shamed into blogging by thoughtful blogfriend

2007-05-17T12:02:00.000-04:00

Oh, I knew I had been undeserving of the title blogger for quite a while. But I got the nicest reminder of why I used to spend time posting and commenting, and why I should really give it another go...Jen/hotbabe just thoughtfully sent me some wonderful chili powder from the awesome Penzey's Spices to replenish my stores, just because she happened to think of me. So nice! And I can't wait to convert the chili powder into some delicious spicy food. And since she threw in some Hot Cajun spice mix, I will be able to have some more Cajun homemade microwave popcorn, which so hits the spot. Thank you a million times, Jen, that was so nice of you.

I miss you blogfriends lots, and I should finally post the news that has been keeping me away from the blog for so long! Most of the people who read this blog, in fact, just about everyone who is not a random visitor, already knows this, but somehow I felt blog-inhibited until I made some big unnecessary announcement.

I'm knocked up!

And the pictorial proof, from more than a month ago now...and yes, that's a fake beer by my salad bowl, I'm not trying to mess up the baby...

I'm bigger than this picture now, finally solidly into "pregnant, not just fat" territory, which has increased my chances of being offered a seat on the subway from zero to 1 in 20. I don't really mind yet, maybe in a few more weeks I'll be really exhausted. I guess I don't have to take the train every day. The due date for the baby is July 10, and it's going to be a surprise, whether it's a boy or girl. Colleen, you should be happy - I think a full 50% of your comments on my blog were about me and Isaac breeding! :)

I'll have to do some retroactive posting about some traveling we did this spring, and other fun stuff...at the very least some more cute pictures of my niece!

To complete my blogging for the day - LUCY!

2006-12-21T17:00:00.000-05:00

A few of my favorite pictures of my niece Lucy - over the past few months. In reverse chronological order...

Whee...

so cute with her pants all hiked up...

Happy Russell and Katie, Unhappy Lucy

Christening Day

Party at Tiffany's!

2006-12-21T16:42:00.000-05:00

Tiffany's birthday was only three days before Isaac's, and she was truly generous to slave away cooking for a lot of invited guests on Sunday night. It was a major feast, and I heard from a reliable source that all the recipes came from a single cookbook. I forgot to ask which one, but whichever - everything was delicious. I knew I should have fasted better throughout the day, because the only problem was that I was full way too soon.

Then we got a little music - some Schubert piano for 4 hands and other musical delights...no better way to spend a Sunday night than staying up way too late with good company.

Here are some pictures from the night!

Happy Birthday Isaac!

2006-12-21T16:36:00.000-05:00

It's Isaac's birthday again! And he is so very lucky that something he has been obsessing about for many many months, well it finally happened today. He called me this morning to make me guess what the good news was:

Christine: You got a job offer?
Isaac: No...
C: You got another interview?
I: No...
C: Someone else got a job?
I: What? NO. Something less serious, think entertainment...
C: Oh, JK Rowling finally announced the title for Harry Potter Book 7.

And JK did! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Considerable birthday time was then spent by Isaac, looking up all definitions of "hallow" in the OED. We will have to discuss further over dinner. Which will be at Rosa Mexicano - yum!

Feeling so pathetic I had to blog

2006-12-14T11:51:00.000-05:00

just briefly.

Because I just heard that Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling are engaged and suddenly I had much fonder memories of that movie The Notebook. Swoon.

Happy Anniversary to Us.

2006-11-01T16:09:00.000-05:00

Well, Isaac and I finally made it to the 3 year mark! We are celebrating with a less extravagant dinner than in previous years and going to see Gidon Kremer play Brahms sonatas at Carnegie Hall. This should be a lot of fun. One of my very favorite classical music concert experiences was seeing Gidon (can i call you Gidon?) playing all the Bach sonatas and partitas at Columbia's St. Paul Chapel. I guess we will be missing the intimacy of that evening, but I'm still expecting Gidon to bring on the weirdness.

Going home this weekend for Lucy's baptism was a lot of fun - first of all, the girl is huge! And looks at you with these great big eyes. She did really well most all of the weekend and didn't fuss at all in the church, which is more than I can say for some of my relatives. I lit the baptism candle, which means I was the butch godmother I think. We had two godmothers you know, and basically the Church is this close to allowing same-sex marriage.

Then, the party was at my parents' new house - they moved to a 55+ neighborhood just 6 weeks ago, and this was my first time seeing it. It's lovely, and was broken in quite nicely with about 60 people at the party. I think that's the biggest party in our family's history, thanks to BIL Glenn's side of the family, composed of dedicated baby-lovers and party-goers. So fun - the crab balls were a huge hit.

Isaac spent almost all his baby-holding time making weird noises for Ana Lucia so that she will have good pronunciation of foreign languages when she learns them. It's a priority. For him. :) Anyway, we had a terrific time and now we are back in the babyless, siblingless, parentless north. It's kind of sad. But Thanksgiving is just around the corner! Though Lucy (and Beth and Glenn) are going to New Jersey for Thanksgiving. We are going to have to try to deal.

That's the update for now...

a return of sorts

2006-10-27T17:35:00.000-04:00

The real world has been causing the blogworld to recede for a little while for me. So I'm back to report on what's been going on in the meantime...good things and not-so-good things.

Good: My lab finally moved to the new research building - we're on the top (21st) floor again, and the view is so nice. Well, nice for the East River. There are some gorgeous smokestacks in Queens and we see lots of boats going up and down the river.

Bad: Isaac is still in the old research building, so we are separated by a whole block for most of the workday (whine...ok i'm shutting up already).

Good: Did I mention that the view from my desk is to the West and I can see Central Park (ok it's really far away and I see just a few trees) and the Dakota (my second favorite residential building) and a really obnoxious Trump Tower (not the Columbus Circle one) .

Bad: As hotbabe noticed, I live and work two blocks from where I guess you can still just fly planes into buildings now and then. That old "XX days without a plane hitting a building" counter is back up to 15 days now I think. Aside from smelling smoke (I'm such an idiot I thought it was my freaking hot plate) and the fire alarm going off, we were pretty unaffected. That it was not b more serious should really go in the very very good and we are thankful column. I'm so sorry for the people who died, and by the way I saw Time Out NY refer to Corey Lidle as the Yankees catcher? WTF wasn't he was a pitcher? Even I picked up that much...and I'm far from a fan.

Geez I'm getting distracted...back to

Good: Isaac and I had dinner with Tiffany last weekend and I talked her ear off about my latest obSESSion, the new Justin Timberlake album.

Bad: Isaac was kind of left out because he was in the other room playing something on the piano, so slowly that it was unrecognizable, even to musicians.

Good: I did what any obSESSed person would do and sent Tiffany a copy of the album wrapped in tissue paper and she even listened to it and claimed to enjoy it more than Judith Butler. Not more than Judith Butler enjoyed FutureSex/LoveSound because honestly I have no idea what Judy's stance on that is...but more than seeing an overcrowded Judith Butler lecture.

Bad: I'm running out of bad things.

Good: This weekend is my niece Lucy's christening and we are taking a road trip to MD (NOT on the bus, but with a car and everything)

Bad: now I remember a bad thing...I had to get an official form signed that I'm a Catholic in good standing and the priest at the church I've been attending gave me an unexpectedly hard time...I thought about writing him a letter I was so upset, or confessing my serious anger, or something, but then I just kind of got over it! That should go in the good column too!

Good: I think I'm in an irrationally good mood now that most of Isaac's university job applications are out and my meetings with the pharma recruiters are OVER! Yay.

Bad: Give me a minute

Good: I gave blood today and since it was my 3rd time now I'm qualified to go to the Blood Donor Thank You Reception. Thoughts of this reception have since taken over my mind...what will the food be like? Will there be lots of red meat for good Iron levels? What if the annual thank you reception was in September and I have to wait a whole nother year?

Bad: It kinda hurt. Also, the phlebotomist told me that I am never allowed to give platelets because my veins are "honestly not up for it". I feel sorry that my veins are inadequate...but also kind of off the hook because I usually feel guilty for not giving platelets. Back to good...

Good: Netflix is still awesome.

Good: Our lab got rearranged in the move and now I work across from a super-nice and perky girl from Minnesota. Her accent warms my heart and reminds me of my blogfriends.

Good: The fall weather is not too cold yet.

Good: Lynne is posting again!

Good: I got to see a Sufjan Steven's show when a friend had an extra ticket and let me tag along with his family outing. It was so so so great. I preordered my Sufjan Songs for Christmas the next day.

Good: I'm going to set a new policy of posting thoughts in progress instead of letting them sit in my drafts folder.

vocab questions

2006-09-10T16:38:00.000-04:00

I'm just wondering....I read the description of House Season 2 on my Netflix DVD sleeve, where it describes "Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrrison and Jesse Spencer costarring as House's crackpot team of physicians."

I thought "crackpot" was bad. On the other hand, if I read "crack team of physicians" I would think those were good doctors. Where the heck did these words come from anyway? Of course, it's not like these were on the SAT vocabulary lists, so maybe I don't know what they mean at all. Also, what about "crackerjack team of physicians"? Is that one positive or negative, I really can't remember based on my limited contextual exposure to that one.

Another question....what is that song "Crimson and Clover" about? Is it drugs? Is it sex? Is it completely innocent? If so, why the voice distortion? So many questions...

Also, what does trenchant mean?

Thanks, blogworld. I'm not actually expecting to get answers to these questions, but I feel better just having written them down.

LUCY - 1 month old!

2006-09-06T10:51:00.000-04:00

book review?

2006-09-05T23:43:00.000-04:00

I don't know, I haven't been reading that much lately.

I got kind of stuck on this one book, called Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married. I guess that what got me to check this book out was this one sentence from someone who writes something called "Publishers Weekly". Fans of Bridget Jones will be delighted. Well, I'm a fan of Bridget Jones (mostly, until the second movie, which frankly, I'm sorry, was not very good, and I very much wanted to like it) and I was not delighted. You liars.

I mean come on already, I just can't believe that someone could be so freaking stupid for 600 pages, only to wise up in the last 40. Like how she can't figure how that her dad's an alcoholic. Or that her crappy crappy boyfriend Gus, who really doesn't deserve the name of boyfriend, is another alcoholic and mooch and complete sucker-drier-type. And I'm sorry, but it's totally unbelievable that her gorgeous friend Daniel (who sounds an awful lot like Hugh Grant with his floppy hair and dry wit and whatnot) would even like her. She's just not very likeable. He'd like Bridget Jones (maybe not the one in the second movie) but why should he like this ball of neurosis Lucy Sullivan?

....um...I didn't realize my opinions would be so strong about this book, so apologies to anyone who really liked it.

My weekend...

2006-09-05T23:07:00.000-04:00

I had a terrific Labor Day weekend thanks to my wonderful family. Friday night Isaac and I went out for Indian food at Bawarchi's (our closest Baluchi's changed their name to Bawarchi's, does anyone know why?) I was all worried about traveling on Saturday because we were supposed to get some weather from Ernesto, but it was barely drizzling when I woke up. So I got myself over to Koreatown, to wait for the Chinatown bus to Baltimore (I know that doesn't make any sense, but that's what you do).

Of course, the bus was kinda late, like 45 minutes, and we got stuck in awful traffic, but I found my mom waiting for me only 75 minutes after I told her I'd get there (Isaac did call Mom to relay the 45 minute delay at least). Yay Mom. Katie and her dog Baci met us at my parents' place, which is only going to be my parents' place for another two weeks because they are moving to a fabulous new house only 5 miles from Beth and Glenn and Lucy! We did some eating, some packing, and some gabbing. Then it was time to bring some food over to B, G, and L's as our admission fee for some serious baby fawning time. Little Ana Lucia is getting to be much bigger Ana Lucia! She's adorable. And such a good girl.

Sunday morning we went to Mass, and then Katie and I "dropped in" for hours more baby time. We generally made ourselves obnoxious and made Beth take the baby out for a walk, and made Beth strap on the Baby Bjorn, and made Glenn help us move the extra changing table downstairs, etc. Then we ate the food that Glenn and his super-nice cousins made (and btw Glenn's female cousins are seriously gorgeous, despite how shallow it is of me to comment on it) It was great fun. Then it was time to get back on the bus for New York. The trip that took 5.5 hours on the way down, less than 3 hours on the way back. I don't want to think about how fast that means we were driving. All I know is that it means I got to surprise Isaac and I didn't even take a taxi home from Koreatown. Then we watched TV (on DVD from netflix) and went to bed. And had a super-lazy Monday, not getting to work until 2:30pm. Oh yay. Come to think of it, I'm not sure what we did with all that time besides me making bran muffins, and us watching a little more TV, but maybe that's because it's not bloggable... :)

Now of course, it's time to pay for all that fun, with what I'm not exactly sure. So far, just with the heart palpitations of feeling generally stressed out, and a long group meeting tonight, making me extremely glad to get home to my medicinal glass of wine. Just let's hope I resist opening another bottle. I can't believe I offered Isaac a glass too, and he's not even drinking his, just letting it sit there while he works all diligently. Next time... 1.5 glasses for Christine, instead of 0.75 glasses for each of us. Look at him, working all hard, it's really quite inspiring. Inspiring me to wonder if I can distract him long enough to drink that glass. I hope he has to go to the bathroom soon.

Lucy pictures coming soon....

Reminded

2006-08-17T07:58:00.000-04:00

A few years ago I was really into reading "gay mysteries". I always found it kind of fun to find one genre within a genre, and concentrate on those books for my leisure reading... I was reminded of this because I just saw a review in the NYT for a movie adaptation of one of the books I read, Shock to the System by Richard Stevenson.

Here are some examples of the kind of gay mystery cover I would feel comfortable checking out from the library...

Here are a couple of examples of the kind of cover that would deter me from the checkout encounter with the librarian.

In my mind, all librarians have the same ultra-judgmental tendencies as the one I grew up with in Maryland. I say one, because I remember one librarian in particular who I would do anything to avoid at checkout time. Oops, I remembered one more book that I just had to check out...I dreaded hearing a comment about my less-than-enriching reading material. I always had to have a couple of books from the "Classics" section to cover my trashy reading.

It's kind of funny, these days I'm using both my library account and Isaac's (pretty much like it's mine). The less shameful library material inevitably winds up getting checked out on Isaac's card, just because I certainly can't check out the trashy things on his card...that would be kind of mean to let the librarians judge him for my shame. So the last time I went to pick stuff up, here were the things I was getting for me:

Here are the things I was getting for "Isaac" (really me):

The librarian checked each set of items out separately, and when she saw what "my husband" was getting, she conspiratorially and sarcastically said, "Looks like some fun weekend reading." (Actually this book is not as dense as the cover would seem to indicate...which is not to say that I have gotten more than 15 pages in.)

So now I guess I have developed a split personality with the library accounts. In "Christine's" hold list, there is stuff like: Stick It, Gilmore Girls, What a Girl Wants, Power Yoga, and Sweet Nothings (this is part of my other genre within a genre reading - romance featuring heroines with disabilities). In "Isaac's" account, there are things like: Sontag & Kael: Opposites Attract Me, Good Night and Good Luck, and James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon.

It really is crippling to spend so much time worrying what these people will think about me, but I know that if I were a librarian I would be constantly evaluating people based on what they were checking out. What amazingly good blog material that would make!

fun at work

2006-08-17T07:38:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I mentioned to Isaac that this guy John had stopped by the lab.

He was like, who?

And I said, you know, John, the guy who works for the professor who just moved to NYC from the Midwest.

Isaac said, You mean Dave?*

I said, Oops, yes.

How can I keep all these ordinary names straight? Anyway, I helped the guy from the Midwest find a few chemicals to borrow and lent him some paper towels, because their stuff isn't all here yet. As he was leaving he said, "Thanks, you're a doll!" To which I responded with confused silence and then a "Take care!"

So I was telling Isaac about being called a doll, which I really think is sweet, but I was kind of wondering if this was a regional thing or something or if I've never heard it on the East Coast because people here are too afraid of anything that could ever possibly be construed as sexually harrassing coworkers...or maybe it's just this guy's thing. I mostly think it's sweet because my Italian grandma always always always called us doll. Actually for her it was gender-neutral, appropriate for all grandchildren.

PS did you know that the Japanese way of saying "sexual harrassment" is seku-hara? Leave it to the Japanese to come up with a cute way of saying it!

PPS No anti-Japanese sentiment meant...

*not his real name.

Hello baby!

2006-08-10T13:08:00.000-04:00

I had a great trip down to Maryland last weekend! I got to visit with the new parents and the new baby! And everyone else of course.

I think I was about to blink or something in this picture, but it's the only proof I have that Lucy and I were in the same room.

She's a good sleeper - at least during the day! At night, that's another story. Beth and Glenn were looking like the most zombie-like versions of themselves that I've yet seen. I hope it gets better soon!

Baby Lucy is here!!!!!!!

2006-08-02T22:26:00.000-04:00

Lucy (Analucia Frances) arrived last night at 10:09pm, not a minute too soon for my poor sister suffering through back labor! Everyone is smitten with her, including me, distance being no object with such a subject to love....I haven't seen her yet in person...

But I have seen some pictures! Courtesy of my dad!

After hearing my cousins call my dad Uncle Rich for all these years, it never really occured to me that one day we'd be calling my brother Uncle Rich. Here he is!

I'm so excited that I will be meeting Lucy in person this weekend...I've already started charging up the battery on my camera only 3 days ahead.

Best news in the world

2006-08-02T08:38:00.000-04:00

Healthy baby news!

Ana Lucia Frances G. is here!

Born: 10:20pm 8/1/06

Congratulations Beth and Glenn!

Baby un-update!

2006-08-01T16:04:00.000-04:00

Well, there's really not much news on the baby front so far. Stubborn little baby girl, just like her mom, not quite ready to face the world... The pitocin has been increased...and nothing else is happening yet. No water broken or anything. At least that's the 4th hand news. That's what I get for being 200 miles away from the action - I have the feeling that there are some more details in there that I'm missing. I wouldn't mind hearing what she had for lunch, whether the pain is already started or not, what Glenn had for lunch, etc...

I can't wait to hear all about it!

PS The airconditioning stopped working at our lab. Probably because of the insane power load here today. I'm glad that we are not having a blackout but everything is getting very slimy and moist. The floor is all slippery from water condensing on it. This is awful for doing chemistry...everything is water-sensitive, and when it's all wet like this...reactions don't work.

Baby countdown!

2006-08-01T08:07:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be an aunt in a short time - at least I hope it's a short time for the sake of my dear sister!

Gosh if there's anything to make you feel lazy and worthless it's the knowledge that in 20 minutes or so, your sister will be injected with a hormone which will bring on labor, and you'll be sitting at home drinking tea and watching the new Justin Timberlake video. (again)

I should also be feeling lazy and worthless because right now Isaac is outside doing a SPEED workout, on the hottest day of the year. My mission (should I choose to accept it): To delay getting in the shower until he buzzes, so I can hear the buzzer and let him in. It feels good to be needed.

That's him now! Good luck Beth!

tomorrow!

2006-07-31T14:12:00.000-04:00

Guess who is having a baby tomorrow! My sister! Beth is getting induced tomorrow morning! Her blood pressure creeped up all of a sudden and they are getting that baby girl out one week early. Beth's birthday is August 2nd and our mom's is August 5th. Looks like it will be a busy birthday time from now on.

I can't wait to meet my sweet little niece!

Thank God for John Denver (rest his soul)

2006-07-22T10:09:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a big day in the lab for Isaac, and so I offered to take over his coffee-making chore. But I couldn't find the coffee filters. Isaac says, "Oh, I used the last one yesterday." Crap. You know what this means. It means a trip to the ghetto Gristede's supermarket 1.5 blocks from work. It's the Upper East Side, how ghetto could it be?

I don't know, but there is just a nasty vibe when you go in there. First of all, it's always kinda dirty-looking. Just what I look for in a food purveyor. Today, there is only one person working, and some lady just got in front of me with a totally full cart. I am holding coffee filters and a ten dollar bill, all ready to go. The lady behind me also has a totally full cart, and some creepy old man asks if he can go in front of her since he only has a few items. I turn around to see that he has a totally chock full to the brim hand-carry basket. She says he can't go ahead of her since she has ice cream in her cart and has got to get home.

While my attention is distracted, the express line opens and "next" is called. My path is blocked by the empty and abandoned cart of the lady in front of me. Of course, some lady at the very back of the line runs over there anyway. The really mean homeless guy who hangs out in front of the church across the street comes in and harrasses everyone briefly.

And yet, a feeling of peace fills me...I get to read the headlines of some worthy periodicals (NICOLE COLLAPSES!) I realize that this supermarket is playing the Greatest Hits of John Denver, just like the last time I came in. It's so calming. By the time we get to the clapping part in Take me Home Country Roads, I've entered the same zen state that I can see on the faces of the cashiers. Nothing can touch us in this mountainy state of mind. Maybe this is like the technique of playing classical music to drive away loiterers in the Port Authority Bus Terminal. (I noticed that they also play classical music only in the Starbucks most susceptible to homeless loiterers.)

Anyway, THANKS John Denver.

PS what is this picture about?

Pictures!

2006-07-14T10:56:00.000-04:00

A pictorial summary of the last month...

1. Nick and Gina came to town for a week. He defended his dissertation and we had a fun time hanging out. Here we are at Tiffany's, listening to music and looking a little overheated.

Eating Thai food in Queens with Cordy!

2. Isaac ran in a race and did great!

3. My sister had her baby shower at her mother-in-law's place in NJ. It was so much fun!

PS I'm really not pregnant though I look a little bit disturbingly so in this picture!

Would you believe I attempted to blowdry my hair straight twice on the morning of this party?

Here's a picture of me looking really ridiculous...apparently showing great joy at other people's gifts is very important to me.

More events to follow!

christine is pathetic

2006-07-12T19:28:00.000-04:00

But I'm just so excited about this that I had to post.

The BBC Office is going to meet the NBC Office. I'm so excited about this I can hardly think. Tim and Dawn and Gareth meeting Jim and Pam and Dwight? Oh, please let it be good and satisfying.

work turned against me.

2006-06-16T14:47:00.000-04:00

I really didn't mean to be gone for so long! A few things came up at work. I am now in charge of an undergraduate chemistry researcher. No offense to my particular undergraduate, who seems really bright and like a cool guy, but undergrads in the lab are babes in the woods. Like babes in the woods with grenades actually. It's a full time job to keep them from hurting themselves and those around them. But that only lasts about two weeks before they graduate to being like 12 year olds in the woods with a BB gun. Definitely not so bad. Hopefully we are into this phase, but I'm not sure because my undergraduate just went away to some concert in Tennessee for a four day weekend. Can I tell you how old and uncool I feel that he didn't even tell me what the concert is? I guess if I were in the know I wouldn't have to wonder. I totally just googled it and it looks really fun. Now I have to hold myself back from playing my "i'm cool, i'm hip" cds to prove that I have heard of the bands that he went to see. I am such a retard.

In other work news, we have a new postdoc and he is sharing space with me that I got used to having to myself. Oh, and also sharing the computer. This makes me much more productive at my workbench, since I have no place to sit, and cuts my computer/blogreading/blogwriting/emailing time to like 5% of normal. Luckily, he's gone for the weekend now too. Oh, sweet Friday.

The other work thing that has kind of knocked the blogging spirit out of me was an email I got from our department secretary. She innocuously reminded us about upcoming visits by recruiters from pharmaceutical companies. This makes me feel very sick and icky inside. If I think about the interviews with these recruiters within 2 hours of bedtime I have nightmares and wake up feeling awful. I don't think this is a normal response, but I'm having a little trouble positive-self-talking my way out of this one. Besides the horror of talking to these people, even with the best possible outcome from that process (ie they give me a job), I just don't think I would be all that happy with a traditional job at a pharmaceutical company.

I have been worrying about this a lot and going around sighing all the time. Isaac snapped me out of this yesterday as he often does by saying something true to put things in perspective. He pointed out that even with all this worrying, the possibilities ahead of us are a good solid life together, or a somewhat wealthier solid life together. I wouldn't pray to God for more than a good solid life and it's pretty insane to worry so much about the difference between these two possibilities.

I meant to wish a happy birthday to Stacy (blogfriend) and Brian (superfriend) and Russell (sister Katie's boyfriend) in a little more depth. They were all born on June 3rd in different years and can I just say I'm hoping to time the birth of all my future children to this day because i think it's produced a lot of outstanding people. Really amazingly outstanding. I actually jotted down lists of all the things I love about each of these people in preparation for the birthday post that never happened, but i don't think I'll post them because of pathetic sappiness. Okay, here's the least sappy from each:

1. I love Stacy because she has impeccable taste in movies, meaning that it matches mine almost exactly.

2. I love Brian because when he drinks too much sometimes he gets crabby and I couldn't love anyone who wasn't a little bit imperfect.

3. I love Russell because he actually listened to the weird CDs I made for him and Katie for Christmas. I think even the Bollywood one.

I think of you guys all the time, not just on your birthday. Hope it was a good one.

movie reviews and a slew of birthday joy coming our way

2006-06-02T16:34:00.000-04:00

So! I guess things have been busy! Isaac and I felt like we needed a little vacation of our own after the visit from his dad and dad's new girlfriend. It's not like we are strangers to awkward social interactions, since as a couple we are pretty much equal to one infant when it comes to making small talk. But this visit was up there in awkwardness even for us...at least nobody cried or anything. Enough said about that.

Isaac's dad had asked him to do a little reasearch about concerts and events and cats and whatever, but it turned out they only wanted to actually go out if tickets happened to fall into our laps. Since the New York City Ticket Fairy is a myth...we stayed home. And watched movies! And went out...but only for eating. That actually worked out great.

We saw two terrific movies and one awful one. Match Point - Terrific. I know it was kind of like Crimes and Misdemeanors but I think I liked Match Point better. Woody Allen is to Match Point as Pedro Almodovar is to Bad Education. Sort of. It's a little noir-ish. I did have slightly lower expectations too, since Match Point would seem to fall into my avoided category of A Simple Plan-type of movie where seemingly normal people do awful things to each other out of greed. But actually, there was a lot of emotional distance from the characters all along (every one of the characters, come to think of it) that allowed the movie to be quite enjoyable.

The other terrific movie was
Head-On, a movie about German Turks, and it is fabulous, the best foreign movie I've seen in ages. It is probably the best movie I've seen in months period. I recommend it highly to anyone who can handle subtitles. Over the age of 21. I think I have been avoiding "heavy" movies lately, but this one reminded me how rewarding a really gripping (if tragic) story can be. The story is that these two ethnic Turks meet in a German asylum after their suicide attempts. I know, it sounds like it would be really PERKY. The woman, Sibel, begs the guy, Cacik -- wait, was that his name, or is that a Turkish yogurt dish? Oh crap, his name is Cahit, and cacik is the garlicky yogurt. Anyway, Sibel begs Cahit to marry her so that she can get away from her oppressive (and violent) family. Her dad will let her marry a Turkish guy. She offers to be his roommate in a sexless marriage so that she can have some freedom to go out and screw other guys and party. Cahit is a terribly messed up alcoholic and widower....Sibel screws some men....touching and darkly funny story ensues. And the soundtrack is great. Best use of Depeche Mode in a movie ever.

The terrible terrible terrible movie was Russian Ark. I'm pretty sure I would have hated this movie under any circumstances. But in the interest of full disclosure, I did come home from work and throw up a mere 3 hours before watching this piece of crap. Russian Ark has a couple of claims to fame - it was all shot in a single take (like that Hitchcock movie Rope) and it is filmed completely in The Hermitage, a beautiful and enormous museum in St. Petersburg. Isaac has been dying to see this movie because he lived about 5 minutes from the Hermitage for 6 months when he went to the USSR with his dad in 1989. He spent a LOT of time in this museum, and was interested in seeing it again. My problem with the movie was its complete lack of a comprehensible storyline or plot or allegory or interesting characters or anything but nice paintings on the wall and pretty costumes. Ick.

It's raining buckets here in New York, but we are excited to be going to LL's place tonight to celebrate her birthday! We're bringing guacamole makings and a master margarita maker (that would be isaac).

Also... Happy birthday to my Dad today! And I'm not forgetting about all the June 3rd birthdays either...someone has shown remarkable restraint in not reminding her blogfans about her birthday!

kittens are cute. who knew?

2006-06-02T09:54:00.000-04:00

via You Can't Make It Up

identity theft might be important too

2006-05-31T07:28:00.000-04:00

But all I could think when I saw this article in the NY Times was, is this an official USPS uniform? What is that, a mini-skort?

by the way you are totally going to get sick of me talking about this, if you aren't already

2006-05-18T17:29:00.000-04:00

I saw TWO heinous bubble skirts on the street, just on the 5 minute walk from lunch. One was on a tween...the horror of the mini-bubble. Oh Lord, she looked like she knew she shouldn't be wearing it, she was trying to smooth it down. But the bubble will not be tamed, it will not be smoothed away. Please, tween girl, get out of bubble hell while you still can.

Then I saw an older woman getting into a taxi, and she was wearing another hugely unflattering style, combined with the bubble skirt. The DROP WAIST bubble skirt. Oh yes. I'm not sure who the drop waist is supposed to look good on, maybe people who don't have hips? Definitely not me, and I'm sorry Ms. Silver Hair, (your hair looked terrific by the way) it doesn't look good on you either.

It just occured to me that the mini-bubble skirt technically also has a drop waist, so maybe you are wondering why I am making a big deal about it on a longer skirt. But I think on a skirt that short no one is looking at the waist, they are looking at the vast expanse of your legs and wondering if you are in imminent danger of flashing something you shouldn't. Especially if you are only 12. I don't mean people are especially looking for the flashing if you are 12 but you especially shouldn't be flashing it if you are 12. Oh, nevermind. At the risk of sounding like my mother, what are these girls' parents thinking?

Happy Mothers-to-Be Day!

2006-05-18T17:17:00.000-04:00

I know that I'm a little bit late on the Mother's Day front, but I have big unblogged mother-related news. Not related to me....but to my sister. My sister Beth is going to be a mom! Everyone is extremely excited to welcome this new member of the family. Especially since she (she seems to be a she!) will be the first grandbaby on both sides of the family! I wanted to be a little jealous that Beth beat me to it, but I really can't be, because I know she is going to be the very best Mom. She's due in August, and in the meantime, baby items are being gathered from family members up and down the eastern seaboard. Beth's husband Glenn has a huge family and lots of baby-making cousins! And of course I spend plenty of time looking at Beth's baby registry and other baby stuff online. Whee!

So happy Mother's day to my mom and to Beth!

In other news, we thought that Isaac's dad was coming tomorrow, but he called this morning from Seattle, halfway here already! Wow. So we had to take quite a long lunch to do a lot of cleaning that was supposed to happen tonight. Hopefully the apartment will not smell too pinesol-y or bleach-y. Oh well. Also, Isaac's dad is bringing his new girlfriend...which should be...interesting. He's been a widower for 2.5 years now. I feel weird cleaning the apartment for someone other than my mother-in-law, who actually passed away 6 weeks before she would have become my mother-in-law. But I know that Jane would have wanted us to seem like clean people in front of any new girlfriend. Isaac's actually handling the whole thing in a much more mature manner than I am. On the bright side, guess who's gettting treated to a dinner out tonight!

In other other news, I'm leaving for my 36 hour work retreat tomorrow morning at an early early hour. I can never decide whether this will be fun or not, but i'm thinking it will be fun. I was supposed to be sharing a room with a stranger (not so fun) but as it turn out, my friendly labmate offered to share with me. She was supposed to be sharing with her husband, but he can't go. She could have had a room all to herself, but she took pity on me and offered to share. Isn't that nice?

I had a bizarre dream about my other female labmate last night that she was best friends with Jessica and Ashley Simpson. I was so surprised, because my labmate is a very quiet girl, and when I'm conscious I think of her as kind of Quaker-like actually, but in the dream she asked me to take a picture of her with the Simpsons, and then they were best friends.

On that note, I wish you all a great weekend and many pleasant dreams of celebrities. Or guys who you see at the gym. Or guys who work in your husbands' labs.

fashion opinions from the unfashionable

2006-05-14T16:15:00.000-04:00

I would like to make my position on the bubble skirt known once again:

Bubble skirts are ugly and bad. Thank you for your attention.

The first hint of impending bubble skirt was at last year's fancy Waldorf dinner event, where we observed a woman in a gold metallic bubble skirt chowing down on the crudite. I had never seen one of these items before, and quickly learned the name of the atrocity, just so I could describe it in all its horror to someone, anyone. Seriously, I think these skirts make guachos and the skinny bermuda shorts look good. Good on someone else who isn't my friend, that is.

I offer some examples which range from No to GOD NO!

Not cute with those cute, if painful looking espadrilles (those are espadrilles right?)

Definitely not cute with pleats:

Reconfirmed, not cute in eveningwear:

And finally, Dear God Please Save the Children from the horrors of this skirt. Right now. I'm going to write to my congressional representatives if I have to.

If my opinion doesn't coincide with your own, remember that I regularly wear hand-me-downs from all manner of elderly relatives and clothes that I bought on ebay or found in the laundry room trashcan (kidding about that last one, haven't found anything in the trash worth keeping...yet). So there's really no reason to be upset because I don't know what I'm talking about.

My Saturday so far...

2006-05-13T11:40:00.000-04:00

I'm tallying up the good and bad of my day so far, which is only 3.5 hours long.

1. Good: Got to sleep in after our gorgefest at Dallas BBQ last night (i got the potato, and therefore had to finish all of the baby back ribs)

2. Bad: Plugged in the TV for some Saturday morning Bollywood action, only to find that they cancelled my favorite show - V Desi. It had this great request segment, called U2U, hosted by a kind of scary raspy voiced woman with a line of exercise videos (Masala Bhangra). Sad.

3. Good: I fixed the internet when Isaac and Nick were both stumped and had restarted every device in the apartment 3 times each.

4. Bad: I thought the grocery deliveryman was here and got dressed superfast out of the shower but it was just Isaac needing to use the bathroom. He didn't get too far on his run this morning.

5. REALLY bad: He came out of the bathroom claiming that something "funny, but also kind of awful" had happened. He knocked my mp3 player into the toilet. God damn. He borrowed it for his run and apparently it HAD to come into the bathroom with him.

6. Whatever: He's in the lab right now putting it into a flask he can attach a vacuum pump to, I wonder if that will work. Of course, for the rest of the player's life it will still be toilety. I know it was an accident though...he's pretty much forgiven.

Friday!

2006-05-12T15:17:00.000-04:00

1.. Nick has been in town for a week! He wrote his dissertation and is handing it in to committee members today. Pretty awesome.

2. Tonight we are having happy hour...which makes me...happy.

3. Then we are having dinner at Dallas BBQ, home of the Texas-sized margarita. And huge plates of food. I have been thinking all day about whether I'm going to get french fries or not...or a baked potato. i mean, is a baked potato that much more virtuous? I don't really like baked potatoes. What i'd really like is to substitute a salad, but is that even possible? If I can't have real vegetables shouldn't I just eat the pound of delicious french fries? (they are really good french fries)

4. I've watched 18 episodes of Six Feet Under in the last 2 weeks. We got the first two seasons from the library...

5. Also, we might watch Shopgirl this week (also from the library), but i don't want to see it if i'm going to have to be embarrassed for Steve Martin. I don't have the energy for that crap.

6. Haven't done a real workout for almost two months!

7. But we walked all the way to Chinatown last weekend via central park (about 5.5 miles)

8. then proceeded to eat a huge and delicious Vietnamese dinner. I think Pho Viet Huong is better than it's ever been. Or maybe the good cook only comes in on Saturday night....

9. Hell YES I love The Office. And I'm so glad that nbc-office watchers are finally getting to have the screaming fits that I had when I watched the Office special last Christmas. (via lindsayism, via Jane magazine)

10. Time for me to get a snack.

viva visitors!

2006-05-05T14:01:00.000-04:00

We got an email from Nick yesterday saying that he is coming to New York on Sunday! This Sunday, for a week. Very exciting. Even more exciting is that this means his thesis is all written and everything. We haven't heard yet whether Gina is coming too...

Then, in another two weeks, Isaac's dad is coming to New York. We have been looking for all sorts of stuff to do with him...should we go to see a 6 hour play (Faust) or a violin recital (Maxim Vengerov) or some old Soviet films (please God no I do like the groovy hat though).

Another option which was well received was the Moscow Cats Theatre.

I think it's awesome that this cat looks freaking bored out of its mind.

Also, Russian clowns are scarier than other kinds.

Looks like we will be having a fun time with people coming through town though... having guests always means better food and funner activities.

scientists are hot...

2006-05-03T06:09:00.000-04:00

I thought this was too funny not to mention, although I'm afraid to actually link to this website for fear of people somehow finding their way back to me...so here is something you could cut and paste and remove parentheses and add dots. Or you don't have too look at it at all...but it's kind of like a Random Hotness for chemists.

http://sexy(removethis)science_dot_blogspot_dot_com

Do you think I'm a little paranoid? Maybe I am, but I'm kind of freaked out by the idea of commenting on the hotness of fellow chemists and having real life people actually read about it. This field feels awfully small.

That said, I think this website is hilarious. Knowing who some of these people are might make it funnier to me. Also, that last picture which is referred to as a "myspace" photo, how dead on is that? I get a kick out of the "action shots" in front of the graduate students' workspace too. The graduate student edition is probably my favorite.

can't sleep...

2006-05-03T06:05:00.000-04:00

I know that plenty of people get up even earlier than 5am, but not me. I couldn't get back to sleep this morning. On the bright side, I have a great song in my head right now.

dissecting a song I like

2006-05-02T08:07:00.000-04:00

One of those songs that changes the way you think about the world

I'm being a little melodramatic, but for the last three weeks, I have been listening to this song by The Long Winters. Listening to it kind of a lot. Then I tried to figure out why I think it's so great. Mostly I think it resonates with some of my song-loving triggers...of which there are many.

0:09 - the piano starts, playing the same 3 chords over and over.

0:22 - singing starts "boys and girls..." we like that.

0:28 - percussion please...especially if it will seem to be lethargic and holding the song back like the piano chords I love that.

1:06 - tropic of capricorn...i love geographic references

1:34 - weird synthetic string breakthrough, I'm with you.

1:53 harmony vocal overdub in the right ear I am so with you...

2:10 - just keep layering that stuff on...

2:15 - horses?

2:50 - mention the radio...i love that

2:56 - oh, and Houston, we're talking about astronauts I LOVE that! Major Tom anyone?

3:08 Astronauts going home...major tom...yeah...oh no.

3:32 break into the stripped down piano only repetitive phrase....this will get me every single time, especially if it has to do with Astronauts! best part of the song...and the saddest.

3:45 - start layering it back on....and the drums...

4:00 - and then we're into a nice round of overlapping vocals...

4:25 - synthetic strings come back in...

Oh, what a nice song.

i love lindsay robertson, and movie reviews...

2006-04-30T12:34:00.000-04:00

I'm a fan of lindsayism.com and Lindsay has been guest blogging at Jane magazine this month. Also, I hated Crash. More specifically I hated the fact that Crash won Best Picture and I will never understand why Brokeback Mountain didn't win. Don't try to explain it to me, I don't want to hear it.

So I loved this Lindsay post.

In other movie review news...since not everyone is my Netflix friend like Stacy and BigLugJen...and now Lubna (!!! so excited to have a new Netflix friend)

We recently watched:

Troy - 3/5 stars - I'm sorry, but does anyone think Brad Pitt is a good actor? Nice legs Brad, but I could hardly stand to look into his dead eyes. Also, please don't beat us over the head about your eternal glory and name living on and all that crap. I guess it didn't help that the last time I heard someone talk about Achilles, it was the author of that book Manliness in an interview on the radio. The predominant feeling I came away with is that men are really fucked up. What's with all the pride in killing? Loved the fight scenes though...I guess i'm an awful hypocrite.

The Last King - 4/5 stars - Rufus Sewell, love him, and I will definitely see Tristan and Isolde now that I realized Rufus is in it. I took away the fifth star because I was really grossed out by Helen McCrory playing the super-depraved mistress. Ick. Stop licking people already. Also, how awkward would it be around the movie set, I mean she really did everyone in the movie. The king, the king's teenage son, the king's best friend, who happened to be her cousin...

The Island - 4/5 stars - So much better than expected! I missed the non-ObiWan Ewan McGregor. Lots of fun high-speed chasing and a premise that if not totally original, was at least well executed. Also, nice idea to make the main characters have no knowledge of sex or love, it really simplified what might have been a tricky character development for most of the movie!

The Squid and the Whale - 5/5 stars - Jeff Daniels did a great job as a completely obnoxious conceited jerk who completely screwed up his kid who tried to be like him. Also, I would watch Laura Linney read the phone book. I watched that awful movie about the possessed girl just for her.

NBC's The Office - 5/5 stars - I'm a huge fan of the BBC Office and I was scared to watch the American one. But oh my God, Steve Carrell did such a good job of making me cringe. The Chris Rock routine...I don't mind at all that it is the exact same show. I'm looking forward to seeing many many more episodes! Except when the hell is the second season going to be on DVD? It's not even over yet is it? Oh darn.

Gangs of New York - 2/5 stars - Recently rewatched this at my parents' place. I really didn't like it. And I'm going to ask once again, what happened to Leonardo DiCaprio? I thought he was good in the Gilbert Grape movie and even in (i'll admit it) Titanic. But he just looks like he has no neck in this and no brain either. I just don't get the whole point of the stupid movie, but I have a feeling it has something to do with Achilles and stupid men again.

That's just the most recent things we've seen - I realized that I should really attempt to review movies on my blog instead of the "two cents" review space at Netflix. They limit you to 250 characters or something, which might be enough for some people, but I am always putting in filler expressions like "all in all" or "if you ask me" or "really, though". So I get to the end of my two cents much more quickly than I would like. Then I am forced to go back into 250 characters and make my opinion sound much more decisive and forceful than I would like. (it strikes me as really masculinizing somehow) The whole point of doing the two cents review and not a regular review is so that I don't have to edit it, since Stacy and Jen (and Lubna!) are the only people who can see it. But it's really not working out that way since I have to take out all my favorite expressions to soften my opinionatedness.

Pictures from our trip to Seattle

2006-04-25T18:36:00.000-04:00

I just got these off my camera...

We took a trip to the Arboretum in Seattle - it was sad that the Japanese Garden was closed (stupid Mondays) but we had a nice time walking around these other non Japanese trees.

Me and Isaac's Dad...

Isaac's dad taking time to smell the....something.

I thought I was being all smart and artsy.

Obligatory glasses swapping...

Isaac's Dad and Herschel, a much less neurotic terrier than he used to be!

Isaac's sister and K.C., the adorable (and slightly neurotic) fluffball...

Me and K.C....and my huge thigh.

And Petunia! She's totally unneurotic, breaking the trend when it comes to Seattle pets.

Mitsuwa = good

2006-04-25T18:22:00.000-04:00

Isaac and I had a great time two Saturdays ago going to the Mitsuwa Japanese shopping center with Mai, Li-Ling and I-Chen. First, we met at Gate 51 of the Port Authority bus terminal, which happens to be scenically located in an exhaust-filled parking garage. It was all rainy outside though, so at least we were somewhat dry. The shuttle bus took us to the wilds of New Jersey (with great views of the city) and Mitsuwa.

We made a beeline for the food court - I got a delicious broiled eel don (rice bowl), and Isaac got a beef don ...this would be more exciting with pictures maybe. Other people got yummy looking fried pork cutlets. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a fried pork cutlet right now. Even though it's not yet 7am. I love that Japanese fried stuff, especially tempura anything with the tempura sauce.

Food court = good. Then we went over to the bookstore, where non-Japanese readers like myself can look at cute stationery, stickers, and assorted Hello Kitty paraphernalia. And little notebooks with Engrish sayings like this. We went to the store next door which sold...all sorts of stuff, from dishes to divided tupperware that Mai was looking for, to flip flops and backpacks and more Hello Kitty stuff, and furniture, and also door curtains (noren). Isaac and I bought one for our kitchen door to try to keep the heat in the kitchen...trying to get ready for a summer of cooking.

Then it was time for the food shopping. Oh how I love food shopping, especially when you are just looking for treats. Isaac went a little crazy in the kakinotane and rice crackers section. I went a little nuts in the sesame crunch department (it was like peanut brittle made of sesame and sunflower seeds and honey...so good). We also got some of those gummies. Muscat flavored, peach flavored, and kiwi flavored, containing apparently real seeds from kiwi fruit. Which begs the question, is this kiwi flavor THAT real (i don't think so), or is someone selling kiwi seeds just to put in gummies? Or were those really just good copies of kiwi seeds, and if so, there is a market for FAKE kiwi seeds?

We came home poorer and happier and with tons of Japanese snacks that don't fit my plan for everyday eating. But hopefully we will have some company over soon and they can help consume some yummy wasabi flavored treats. The end.

worst book ever...

2006-04-24T08:02:00.000-04:00

well one of the worst books ever. What with the airport/plane time on the trip to Seattle, and the bus ride to and from Maryland, I have been reading a lot of trashy books lately. I can't read anything "good" when I am traveling. Most of the books had at least some entertainment value...others not so much.

But this audio book that I'm listening to just takes the cake. The plot is so stupid - it involves murders and time travel, and a time capsule, and some paper which has the key to time travel, and terrorists wielding spears made in the future (I'm not kidding). Then the cop hero asks the heroine from the future whether she is a robot, which really hurts her feelings...awww, get OVER it bitch. It just sucks. So I'm not going to listen to it anymore. The end.

about work...

2006-04-21T16:09:00.000-04:00

When I went to MN, stacy asked me, so what is it exactly, that you do? Oh, you mean besides religious attendance at happy hours, ogling the model, and eating lunch in the cafeteria? Well kids, i'm still trying to figure that one out myself. But here are some random things about my work, which involves chemicals, ones that I use, and ones that I make.

1. I recently mixed two things together to make a new compound, and I swear to God it smells just like dill pickles. It really freaked me out. Most things I make smell less distinctive.

2. Sometimes when I've got a huge flask in front of me that is full of some toxic stuff dissolved in a lot of smelly and flammable solvent, I get an urge (controllable thus far) to chug it. Just because it's there...not because I have a death wish or something.

3. I have to get dry ice every day to make various stuff cold. Then I smash it into powder with this metal cap from a gas tank. We used to have a dry ice crusher/grinder, which was bought used from some defunct slushee-making place. But OSHA took it away because there was no safety mechanism to prevent people from grinding their fingees. I kind of like the crushing with the cap though, it is a good stress reliever because it takes a lot of force.

4. I like all my coworkers! But you'll never believe I really mean it because you might think i'm just afraid of them finding this blog! But I really do like each and every one of them!

5. One of my favorite words is pyrophoric...not so fun to deal with the substances it describes.

6. On a related note, our fire alarm system is really annoying. There is an inaudible speaker system which tells you what to do in case of an emergency. It's so soft I can hardly hear it from my desk, much less over at my workspace. Oh well.

7. Sometimes when I'm washing dishes at home, I reach for the squirt bottle of acetone that I wash all my chemistry glassware with.

guilty uninteresting post

2006-04-20T19:18:00.000-04:00

Random thoughts since I can't seem to get my self together.

1. I'm loving Six Feet Under. We are about to finish the 5th season...the last disc comes today! then we will go back and watch the first two seasons I guess!

2. Isaac did his jury duty on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. He got off SO easy, having to be there for only about 5 hours total what with going in late Tuesday, breakfast and lunch breaks, and getting off very early both days, and not even having to go for a 3rd day. I'm happy for him though...

3. We traveled a lot last week! We went to Seattle on Monday morning and came back Wednesday morning - the purpose of the trip being to see Isaac's dad who was there for some minor surgery. We try to take the opportunity to see him when he comes to "The Lower 48" as the Alaskans call it.

4. Then we went to Maryland for Easter - yay. Everyone was there. I forgot to take pictures of us in our Easter outfits, so imagine that we all looked really good. I also reconnected with an old HS friend at Mass and got to meet her husband and two year old son...so cute.

5. Back in the beginning of April I went to see....Gaelic Storm! Of Stacy fame. Luckily she had given me the CD Special Reserve, a great introduction to this band, just the week before. I had been listening to it for a few days when I looked up Gaelicstorm.com and realized the band was going to be in town real soon. It was a super fun show, and I bounced up and down on my wooden clogs for a few hours, ensuring super-sore shins for like a week (what the hell is wrong with me and my shins?) Also, I fell a little bit in love with the bagpipe player who happens to be 7 years younger than me. I felt a little sorry when i realized that. But at the time, I just happily stared at him, and told my husband how cute the bagpipe player was...who else was I going to tell?

Also, Stacy, did you see these people at your Gaelic Storm concert - I thought their t-shirts were cute. It's another Minneapolis-based Gaelic Storm loving blogger...

I had better get a little bit of work done before my boss catches me blogging...again. I have been giving my cntl-h (hide) fingers a workout lately...

Happy Easter!

2006-04-16T13:48:00.000-04:00

Hopping bunny and cute little chicky greetings to all! We're going to sit down to our Easter ham/round roast/salmon (hard to please everyone here) dinner any minute.

not the end, not the end....

2006-04-14T08:24:00.000-04:00

I guess you all just thought I was through with blogging, after the pinnacle of delight that was my trip to Bloggerville, USA. But I will return! I am returning!

I still have a few pictures to put up from my trip, though I will have to abbreviate the commentary, which really isn't all that....what? I guess I was trying to be funny? it's not all that funny, so I can just put the pictures.

I have done some other fun things in the last couple of weeks in NY that I wouldn't mind blogging about too, although I won't mention how I have fallen off the food and exercise wagon a little bit. Ooops, too late I mentioned it. But I am getting right back on, so it doesn't even matter.

The Minnesota Blogfriends Dream Vacation, Part 3: Sunday

2006-04-01T14:53:00.000-05:00

My last day...for the sake of completeness!

Well, after our evening of polka/drinky fun at Nye's, followed by giggly sleepover behavior with Stacy, there was little hope of us getting up in time to meet Greg and Michael for a woods outing. Despite the help of the upstairs neighbors weed-whacking their carpet at an early hour. Stacy later explained that they were doing something called vacuuming. I'm not familiar with this term. You can imagine what our home looks like.

So, a little bit of a late start, but Stacy and I set off for a couple of Stacy spots, aka The Woods, and The Club. Yay! The plan had been to actually work out at the club, and actually do a hike in the woods, but both of these things turned out to be a little too ambitious in our sleep-deprived state. Instead we drove over to the club and went past some other people working out. They all looked at Stacy like the Club celebrity that she is, falling at her feet and whatnot. I think she was a little embarrassed by all the attention. And I got to see her "success story" up on the wall. It was just lovely. I made sure to check out the copious amenities too, cotton swabs and razors. Somehow I managed to get out of there without cleaning my ears or shaving anything, but it was a temptation.

We reconvened with hotbabe and then headed out to the MOA (this doesn't stand for museum of art, like I thought it would, but Mall of America!) I was mesmerized by the wide open spaces and people everywhere. Also, I was impressed with both of my companions' knowledge of Mall Geography. I think this is a course offered at local high schools. Here we are at the Mall!

And in the gourmet peanut butter store - where oh my gosh was the peanut butter good!

And then we went out for a really yummy pasta dinner at the famous Broder's pasta bar, and indulged one last time...until the next day at least when I would eat some weird chinese food in the Philadelphia airport and make myself sick. Then we went home to hb's place and took last pictures with the timer on the camera. :( I had to run after Stacy for one last forced hug as she was getting on the elevator. Oh sad.

The end!

The Minnesota Blogfriends Dream Vacation, Part 2: Saturday

2006-03-31T07:38:00.000-05:00

Hotbabe has summarized our time together so nicely! On Saturday we had planned to meet Stacy and Michael for a trip to the woods. Alas, we moved a bit slowly in the morning, and went to Target to buy underwear and socks (this purchase seems to be the way I start most vacations lately thanks to the baggage handlers who hate me). It would have been beyond cruel to delay the poor child's lunch (yum) so that he could meet his mommy's gushy blogfriend. So instead hb and I waited for my luggage to come, drank coffee, and generally lazed around. Finally my suitcase showed up around and we could get lunch with Stacy!

Oh yum, Asian food. I had my very first cheese wonton. I didn't know that such things existed. I now understand a little better why someone would design a cheeseburger wonton (MN state fair food!) I know the cheese is different and all, but don't you think the wordplay might have influenced them? I don't know. It must be hard to come up with all that fair food. The pressure of a new thing on a stick, or several new things on a stick...I wonder if those people are taste-testing all year round. That would be a tough job.

Okay I've gotten really off track here.

After lunch, we went to our pedicure appointment, which was a total surprise for me. Someone pointed us downstairs to a dimly lit, cozy couch area, and we waited to be called. They came for me first, which was very disturbing to me. I didn't really understand why Stacy and hb couldn't come with me...and everyone noticed the look of terror in my eyes. I don't mind doing new girly things if I have company, but to be whisked off to some scary salon back room, where they might make me take all my clothes off or something for all I know. (They made me take off my shirt that one time I got my hair colored at a salon, which was an unwelcome surprise, though I guess I see why...the guy next to me getting highlights seemed to be fully dressed though.)

Getting off track again!

My pedicure lady was a very sweet blonde girl who made me feel as comfortable as possible. She even told me I had nice feet...for never having had a pedicure. Well, thank you, and you get an extra big tip for that! The other pedicure ladies...well, we decided Stacy's was kind of a b!tch. I won't repeat the nasty things she implied about Stacy's very attractive feet by looks and tone of voice. Also....she looked like a stripper. Not the trashiest stripper I could imagine, but still... Anyway, I came out of the pedicure experience thinking that it really wasn't as awkward as I might have expected to have someone touching my feet for almost an hour straight. I think that the physical therapy from when I broke my foot might have broken down some of my feet touching barriers. At least I got to soak my feet in a tub of strangely pink water for 10 minutes before this lady touched my feet. The physical therapist had to touch my feet after I did all these exercises. Ewww.

Off topic again. I want to leave you, my few blogreaders, with an impression of my post-pedicure feet, the best feet they can be, not my sweaty and swollen half-broken foot. Sorry to the people who hate feet.

Then we put our shoes on (stacy got her polka shoes out!) and we went out for dinner and drinks and meeting new people (!) and polka fun. At Chino Latino, well, I think the oh-so-spicy shrimp have been mentioned. Yum. Messy. I was the messiest eater at the table by far. There was a lot of other really good food too - and I loved the Asian-Latino fusion concept. My sister-in-law actually has been telling me repeatedly that sake should always be served with Mexican food. They go together somehow she says... I'm reminded of another place I used to get deli food from in Boston, where a Jewish man had married a Chinese woman, and their Jewish deli was full of knishes and dumplings. Though I guess no pork dumplings.

My mind is just wandering tonight. And now pictures which cannot convey the complete gorgeousness of these folks.

Hotbabe and Kiddo...

Dan and Stacy...

A disappointing picture of Dan not dancing, though looking cute, and stacy blocked by non-bloggers who were perfectly nice (and cute) though, as I said, non-blogging.

Should I have blurred out the faces of T-bone's non-blogging female company? Is that good form on the internet?

Gosh, I'm so sorry that I didn't get any pictures of Brent or K-Mack or K-Mack's beau or Cherry Nut or T-bone or Brent's friend, all of whom I was so pleased to meet! How nice can total strangers be to me? Really nice. But it looks like Dan had the photography totally covered. Can I tell you how much I loved Dan? Can I? Because I loved Dan. And I'm not just saying that because I think he bought all those drinks for me and my dear blogfriend Stacy. Stacy, I might be upgrading you to bloglovah. Since bloghero is taken.

The Minnesota Blogfriends Dream Vacation, Part 1: Friday

2006-03-29T17:30:00.000-05:00

My traveling time Friday was filled with all sorts of anticipation. I was really looking forward to...

1. A reunion with hotbabe, after our delightful NYC exploits back in October...

2. Meeting Stacy, and hopefully hugging her against her will.

3. Eating some walleye...I was sold on the state fish with the recommendation of professed seafood hater hb. She does like lakefish though!

4. Eating some dessert - ever since I heard that such a place existed by the name of Just Truffles, I knew that the truffles and I were meant to be together.

So how did these things go?

1. Check! Successfully identified Ms. Hotbabe's vehicle at the baggage claim, and she whisked me away to her super-clean apartment. So nice! So what if the airline happened to lose my luggage! With hotbabe's offer of a washing machine and even the loan of a pair of socks, my worries were pretty minimal.

2. STACY. Yay! I paced in the hallway of hotbabe's apartment, waiting for Stacy's knock at the door, and then threw myself at her! Oh, and the gift bag she gave me! Overwhelming amounts of Stacy-ness. I have been working my way through the gifts at an alarming pace. If you are the fan of Stacy's food posts that I am, you probably can guess what some of the items would be. But along with the 100 calorie microwave kettle corn and the fabulous yet stomach-cramp inducing mints (they didn't have that effect on me, I'm lucky that way) there was also a pin from THE WOODS. It has a turtle on it. I can't decide whether to pin it to my spring jacket or mount it somewhere near my desk. There were a million other delightful things, including a Minnesota Heritage cookbook of ethnic recipes that I could not pry away from Isaac when I got home!

3. Tavern on Grand was so wonderful! This is the place famous for walleye and it definitely lived up to its reputation. I had a blackened filet, and a ROLL (my first major break from the south beach dieting...) and a BEER (minnesota beer no less, though I can't remember its name) and also vegetables and some of Stacy's coleslaw. Good good coleslaw and amazing walleye. I was savoring every bite, and had to defend myself a little from the busboy who didn't understand my slowness. But our waiter was so nice and took our picture, but not with my camera (calling hb and Stacy (and Greg) please post a picture).

4. Just Truffles = Just Tremendous (I can't help myself). The selection was so overwhelming, but I eventually settled on a Bailey's truffle and a Caramel Truffle. Oh yum. The inside was so so so buttery. I nibbled my way to happiness and overstuffedness. Stacy models a truffle. Look at her beautiful and well-fitting green shirt also. Then we cuddled on the couch. Awww.

Gosh, now I'm getting a little depressed. But I'd better get going, we are meeting our friend Max (google success story) for dinner tonight.

More to come....

Minnesota and Christine - BFF.

2006-03-27T21:04:00.000-05:00

Oh my gosh, what a fun weekend I had! It must be captured in list form and I wish I had time to do it now. Also, my pictures are much less good than Stacy and Hotbabe's. I want a "say walleye" picture!

I left Minnesota wondering what I did in a previous life to deserve people being so nice to me. Drinks were bought, a pedicure gifted, and I was treated like a princess (thanks for the loan of the tiara hb!) And I have looked at every item in my Stacy gift bag about a hundred times, and tried out almost everything...the 94% fat free kettle corn is going to be my afternoon snack. I can't wait.

More to come...with pictures.

Minnesota trip preparations!

2006-03-23T07:47:00.000-05:00

I'm going to Minnesota in only 27 hours. This is very exciting, since I have had my ticket for about 5 months... I have done all sorts of things to prepare for the trip - physically, mentally, and spiritually (ok, not spiritually, i'm not sure what that would entail).

Here is a brief list:

1. Started exercising again so that I don't collapse when I go to "The Club" with Stacy.

2. Attempt to memorize the 14 superfoods. My copy of Superfoods Healthstyle has not come in at the library yet though. :(

3. Underwent the pain of professional eyebrow maintenance so as not to look out of place among the better groomed Minnesotans (like Dan).

4. Checked out from the library that science book that Dan is always talking about - though I haven't actually listened to it yet... I think I'm definitely nerdy enough to like it a lot though. I'm such a suck-up.

5. Also, I tried to listen to my favorite NPR show talk about the new Prince album. I'm not the biggest Prince fan... (see, not sucking up) though I do love this cover by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. (was that sucking up, or trying to show off my nonexistent "indie music" cred?)

6. I checked out Little House on the Prairie DVDs from the library to get myself in a hotbabe mood.

7. I looked at Stacy's netflix queue 34 times a day to get myself in a Stacy mood.

8. Learned to love myself and believe that my blogfriends will like me just the way I am. Probably.

Can't wait to see you this weekend!

Birthday report!

2006-03-22T16:09:00.000-05:00

Food took on more meaning than usual for my birthday this year. Last year was full of pescatarian delights since it was a Lenten Friday. This year was full of all the things I've been avoiding for 4 weeks. It was a festival of sugar and white flour and trans and saturated fats. The first stop on Saturday fulfilled all of these nutritional non-goals.

The Doughnut Plant. Check out these pictures. I had planned to have a better photographic record of the day but I forgot.

These are the best doughnuts I've ever eaten. And God did they taste good after not eating anything this bad for me in ages. I had a peanut butter glazed, banana cream doughnut and Isaac had a pistachio cream (which I would get next time). Saved for later...a coconut cream. Yum.

Then we walked down to Chinatown and Jing Fong - the big dim sum place I have mentioned before. We met Tiffany and Mai and Li-Ling and I-Chen... Dim sum yum. It pretty much looked like this, like it did last June. The food looked like this this (the thing on the right) and this....

Also, Tiffany gave me this CD, which I have been wanting ever since I heard of it. It's a tribute to a famous and very prolific Bollywood music composer, R.D. Burman. His widow, Asha Bhosle (one of the greatest playback singers of all time) sings many of the songs, and the Kronos Quartet (string quartet) made new arrangments for the instrumentation. It's a really beautiful album, and we are planning to see the Kronos and Ashaji on April 8th at Carnegie Hall. yay! Thanks so much Tiffany!

Then it was time for tea with balls (bubble tea) which I couldn't pass up. See our big straws...this picture also from June. I guess we really can't find anything new to do here in this boring city!

Then we went to Chocolate Haven...something new for me, which was so good! You can see other people's pictures here. I got to see Mr. Jacques Torres himself, consulting with the chocolate makers. And more importantly I ate 6 delicious pieces of his chocolate. Flavors sampled: Chai tea, passionfruit, earl grey tea, hazelnut, espresso, dark ganache...oh yum.

Then we went to the Union Square Barnes and Noble. Did you know that people at this B&N are much better looking than the people at the Upper West Side/Lincoln Center B&N? I didn't. But I totally lost Isaac in our quest for a place to sit down, and we finally found each other like an hour later, and then we had to leave.

So we went home and ordered Indian takeout (thank you God for all of your wonders, but especially naan bread) and watched Nicholas Nickleby. With Christopher Plummer (capt von trapp)! He was so good! The kid they had playing the title character...not so much. Also, with Romola Garai from Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights. Really like her.

So that was my birthday! Oh, but I forgot to mention my present from Isaac - knives! A gorgeous santoku knife (which I will continue to mispronounce as santuko for the rest of my life). And a big cleaver! Wow. I cut a tomato with the santoku knife this morning and it was like butter. I almost died.

Thanks to my dim sum buddies for the treating too! It was great to see all of you...

Happy St. Patrick's Day! This post doesn't acknowledge the day in any other way!

2006-03-17T14:57:00.000-05:00

My sister told me I had to post something new! So I'm falling back on my old list format to catch up on the last couple of weeks....then I'll get around to the thing that I got tagged for (thanks ab and walktrot!)

1. Watching the Oscars is way better with friends. I didn't know that I really NEEDED to have Tiffany punching me in the arm to tell me Salma Hayak needs to tone her hotness down a notch. "She's TOO hot!" and Mai making an amazing fat free mustardy dip. Excellent.

2. Previously I have just been stuck watching the show alone while Isaac sulked in the other room. But even he had a good time this year.

3. Going home for my mom's St. Patrick's Day party was the best. Last weekend I got in my share of corned beef and cabbage and got to see everybody. Parents, siblings, brother-in-law, boyfriend-in-law, and one of the dog-in-laws. The only person missing was my husband who had to stay in NYC for a running race, his sister's arrival, and a string quartet gig at a wedding. Busy fellow.

4. Isaac's sister came to town! This resulted in a LOT of eating out, though not much falling off the eating wagon. Also, for a birthday treat, my father-in-law commissioned Lisa to take me out clothes shopping. I would say it was fun, but clothes shopping is never totally FUN for me. Although not worrying about the price tag was a huge bonus.

5. I found a dress for the formal thing at the end of April. Lisa totally talked me into it seeing as how it cost almost as much as my sister's wedding dress, and was something so....something....that I would have been unlikely to even try it on on my own. It looks like the Marilyn Monroe dress from the Seven Year Itch.

6. It looked like one size smaller would be perfect.

7. Received the one size smaller dress from the store in Westchester.

8. I will need breast augmentation surgery to fit into the top of the dress.

9. Crap.

10. So I guess I have to go shopping again. On the upside, I also got a bunch of cute casual clothes that are actually in my size.

11. Tomorrow is my birthday!!!

12. I have been fantasizing about what I'm going to eat tomorrow for a week. It will include (don't read this part Mai): doughnuts from The Doughnut Plant, chocolate (I want to try Jacques Torres) and dim sum with my favorite leaf-wrapped rice thing. Also, I hope to fit in some Indian naan, a coconut bun from Chinatown, and a hunk of French bread. Maybe the bread will be dipped in chocolate. I'm not sure yet.

13. In other news....I listened to the Book-on-CD version of Anna Karenina. Isaac gave away a major plot element (as in the ending) just as I began reading the book-book last year...I kind of lost steam. While I was listening to the book on CD, he managed to give away the next most important tipping point of the story. I don't know what part of "i'm not familiar with this Anna Karenina story" he didn't understand....

14. Anyway, it was good. I guess one shouldn't read classics hoping for suspense anyway. I think Tolstoy wrote his male characters a lot better than the female ones though. I don't even think he wrote all that great a character for Anna actually.

15. Now I'm on to Crime and Punishment...but it's seriously depressing. And I have read that one before, so I know it's just going to get worse.

16. So I'm thinking of listening to The Kite Runner instead, but is that going to be just as depressing? Something about the setting of Afghanistan makes me think it might not be cheery. Mai read it recently and said it was really good, what do you think Mai?

17. I'm going to Minnesota next weekend!!!! I can't wait.

fitness update

2006-03-09T21:08:00.000-05:00

So, the eating plan (let's not call it a diet) is going well! Once they let me drink wine again, I was like, okay, I can handle this. With the wine drinking has come the working out. Not in that order. It's been fun to get my weights out and jump around the living room. Somehow it was not so fun for my downstairs neighbor at 7:30am on Sunday. Oops.

I'm seriously the worst neighbor ever. At least I haven't gotten the tap shoes I've been coveting. Yet. Anyway, I have started working out after work to appease said neighbor, and keep him from killing me. He looks kind of like Michael Rapaport by the way. You know, this guy....

Except the neighbor wasn't smiling. He was kind of pleading. Anyway, he'd better be happy now, because I am conditioned to eat when I get home, and now I have to exercise instead. Bleh on you Mr. Fake Rapoport.

But I'm happy to report to my sister Katie that I have been exercising again, because she was all sad when she read on my blog that I went on a diet because it was like I switched over to some other side of people who try to get skinny with diet only. My other sister told her that she shouldn't tell me, but she did anyway, which is good. And I'm back on the exercising side Katie! I'm wearing the inappropriately short shorts and doing the pivot and kick. And the pump and the curl, and the crunch and the squeeze. Rah rah.

My first fitness-motivating event is coming up soon, and it's my birthday! Of course, I've decided that in honor of it being a fitness motivating event, I will pay no attention to my eating on that day! That makes sense. Instead I will go to Chinatown (I heard that Tiffany and Mai want to have dim sum!) and I will eat rice and dumplings, and then I will buy some sweet and delicious Chinese pastries, and be off the wagon for just one day. yum.

But until then, wish me luck!

tibetan monks + sufjan = :)

2006-03-07T15:18:00.000-05:00

Last Wednesday Isaac and I went to Carnegie Hall....it was a benefit concert for the Tibet House. They try to preserve Tibet's "unique cultural and spiritual heritage". I was excited because Sufjan Stevens (!!!) was playing. Along with Antony and Damien Rice. And some other people...

So I got to see Sufjan sing exactly two songs, which made me happy and sad at the same time. Why didn't they let Sufjan play more, and have that electronic violinist play a little less? Seriously. But we got to hear the song Casimir Pulaski Day on Casimir Pulaski Day. Except then I realized after using my friend google, it wasn't really the Day, since that would be the first Monday of the month. But it was March 1st, the day in the song...i'm totally rambling. The other song he played was "the NPR song" aka The Lord God Bird. :)

Other highlights of the evening...Antony sang You are My Sister. Oh Antony. The whole audience did this weird shifting in their seats on hearing his voice. Also, Damien Rice's Cold Water, which is my favorite song of his. It was kind of creepy how perfectly he and his backup vocal girl sang it. Just like we were back in the recording studio.

Other highlights in people watching: The one guy in the cheap seats who was wearing a suit looked so upset during the first "spoken word/singing/electronica" performance that I thought he was going to leave. Okay, so it was a little political...I guess he was the one guy in the room who actually likes George W. Bush. His date soothed him by letting him smell some money. Just kidding, I don't know how she soothed him.

Robert Thurman (Uma's dad) was there since he's the president of the Tibet Society. He got up and spoke some Tibetan, and introduced some monks, who did (guess what?) some Throat Singing! I was happy to hear some more of this weird technique, although I wish that it had not provoked a renewal of Isaac's throat singing efforts.

On a completely unrelated note: Two of the package delivery guys at work are cultivating a new look. Like the guy who sang the Humpty Dance. All right, i guess it's just the glasses and the prominent noses that are taking me back in time to the humpty hump. Not really their fault.

when was my last wine post again?

2006-03-01T17:47:00.000-05:00

On Monday we got 18 bottles of wine delivered. You people who were all excited about the food delivery must be excited about the boozemobile visit too! :) Manhattan living does have its perks. Astor Wines, one of the best wine stores in the city, is moving down the street to a new location, so we took advantage of their great 25% sale. Also Astor Wines seems to have a lot of the value (read: cheap) wines that I like to buy. They had a decent selection of underrated and value-priced Spanish, Chilean and Portuguese wines, and I ended up getting 18 bottles for $75. That includes tax and everything. I hope the wine is good because it was only like $4 a bottle. And we will be drinking it for a while.

Tonight Isaac and I are headed to Carnegie Hall for a special concert - I hope it is as good as I think it will be so I can write about it tomorrow.

Oh, and happy Ash Wednesday. Two well-meaning labmates have tried to get me to clean off my forehead so far. Only women will do this. I guess the guys are just laughing behind my back, because I'm pretty sure they don't know why my head is dirty either.

another netflix post and how many more of these do I get?

2006-02-28T13:15:00.000-05:00

Today we are getting Walk the Line from Netflix. I'm excited to see it before the Oscars. Does anyone have a favorite for Best Actress in a Leading Role? I only saw Pride and Prejudice of those movies...and Keira was good, but not Best Actress good... and I'm frankly a little sick of Judi Dench...and smudgy Charlize. I guess Reese Witherspoon might as well get it, just for going brunette.

Anyway I told Isaac last night that they were shipping Walk the Line, and he was appalled, "Can they send us other movies besides things that we want?" I guess he didn't realize exactly how much "maintenance" I have done to our queue. He really doesn't look at it at all, whereas I'm constantly rating things or seeing what Stacy liked and hated. I guess he also didn't realize how much I wanted to see Walk the Line. Anyway, "we" have 54 DVDs on our list so far, which is at least a year's worth at this rate.

weekend, from Sunday night at 6pm...

2006-02-27T22:19:00.000-05:00

I had a really exciting weekend, and it seems like it didn't even start until 6pm last night. It included:

1. A riveting performance by the artists known as the G-quartet. I thought they all did a terrific job! Can't wait to hear the recording at some point.

2. An almost-show to said performance by Tom, the downstairs across the courtyard neighbor. He saw the fliers Isaac put up at work and asked me how much it cost (free) and if there was a dress code (no sir). I guess something else got in the way....but apparently we are like friendly acquaintances with the one of the people we spy on now. I would have loved to introduce him to Mai, Li-Ling and Tiffany.

3. The kind of strange laser dermatology post-doc who insinuated himself into our happy hour group came to the concert and had by far the best time of anyone there. His enthusiasm basically frightens me. Seriously. But I'm not about to begrudge anyone a good time.

4. Ummm, it was really REALLY cold and windy last night.

5. We were waiting for the bus and freezing our asses off, when we really should have just walked the 12 blocks, and this other guy waiting told Isaac he should button up the top button of his coat. Which was kind of a tip-off that he was odd...So then we had to get into the kind of strange conversation that you sometimes get into with people in New York, wherein we learned many interesting facts about the man.

a. He too was very cold, and thought it was one of the coldest day of the year. (ok, still pretty normal here)

b. He liked to step way out into the middle of the street and look for the bus coming. (getting a little weirder, but Isaac does this too...)

c. He used to wear trifocals, but ever since he stopped eating sugar and eating fruits and vegetables he doesn't need them anymore. Thinks maybe he was diabetic or something. (okay, we've crossed a line now)

d. He used to be able to see a bus from 20 blocks away when he was a kid...

e. Even 10 years ago, he could really spot those buses good.

f. He is 48, but thinks he probably looks like he's 38.

g. He's very concerned about the sensitive skin on Isaac's neck.

At this point, I pull out the ultimate conversation starter/ice breaker/defuser of weird conversation. I say, "He's from Alaska!" This is a totally fool-proof conversational ploy in almost every situation. I use it way too often when meeting strangers, and can't think of anything to say. Because everyone has about a million questions about Alaska, some stupider than others. Our bus stop friend (really a very nice man) had some good questions:

a. "Where in Alaska?" (this is always the first question, though remarkably few people have much of a grasp on Alaskan geography, but I think it's kind of a delaying tactic, so that you can have time to rephrase your slightly insensitive question about Eskimo wampum into a more acceptable form.)

b. "Is Fairbanks a modern city?" (I love that he asked this question, because he was obviously a native New Yorker, and I can only imagine that he is picturing that this Alaskan place is just now undergoing the Industrial Revolution or something.)

c. "Are there lots of office buildings and apartment buildings?" (such a New Yorker...)

d. "What's the rent like?" (ditto)

e. "What are the men like?" He tried to recover with, "I mean, what are the women like?" (isaac and I just stared at him. He went on to clarify, he had heard about the gender imbalance, that there are lots more men than women. I think he was picturing some kind of male version of the island of Lesbos or something...like an idyllic man-love sanctuary. Like the army, or prison, but without the violence. Isaac later said the first thing that popped into his head was whether the guy was asking about the price of a blowjob.

Then the bus came!!!

And we got on the bus, and our bus stop friend was so sweet, he said, "well, do you think the conversation warmed us up a little?" and I agreed with him. He managed to squeeze in a couple more questions about amount of daylight throughout the year and then we bade each other farewell. He said he would see us around, and I hope he does!

umm, goodbye!

2006-02-22T08:08:00.000-05:00

My groceries just got delivered this morning. I really hate that moment of handing over my "nominal tip" which is just so so awkward. The delivery guys must go through some sort of special training program where they act like they aren't expecting a tip at all, and they are kind of backing away from the door while I'm signing for the groceries. Because obviously no one wants to tip someone who expects a tip, they want to give a special surprise money gift...

I was so flustered this morning that I handed over my tip, and the guy looked at me all out of proportion grateful (part of the training too?) and then I told him GOOD NIGHT. It was 6:45am. Maybe he thinks I was up all night smoking crack? Because I already ran downstairs to try to let him in because I thought my buzzer wasn't working, but it really was, and delivery guy was like, I have another delivery in this building, I'll see you upstairs.

Anyway, it's just a matter of time before I have another awkward interaction with someone to push this one out of my head, thank goodness.

It's blog confessional time again...

2006-02-21T22:26:00.000-05:00

I started doing something I've never done before. I started following a diet. Like, one with a name.

Over many years, my focus on making mostly healthy food choices has waxed and waned, swollen and deflated, gotten more focusy and less focusy at different points. First couple years of grad school, unfocusy...next two years, more focusy, last year...not so good. Postdoc...turgid focus at first...lately, baking binge...flaccid focus... can't stop eating. Anyway, I felt myself getting a little out of control lately, and there are certain things coming up, and I wouldn't mind feeling a little better about myself.

1. My 29th birthday...or as Isaac says, the beginning of the last year of the best decade of my life.

2. Visit to MN and its fine bloggers.

3. Easter. (all right I don't really care how I look at Easter, but my grandfather does occasionally comment if I have lost weight, (thanks Grandpa...) so maybe I should care).

4. The annual fundraising dinner with people from college. Also, someone remind me not to look so drunk in all the pictures this year. Step on my foot or something to stop me from laughing so much.

Soooo, I started this diet thing. It's the South Beach one. I've kept track of my food before, but never actually followed a list of things that I can and can't eat. I still think it might be a huge mistake, and judging by Isaac's reaction so far, he definitely thinks it's a big mistake. I was so embarrassed about it that I couldn't bring myself to tell Mai and Li-Ling and Tiffany why I refused to eat any rice or sweet sesame balls at the Chinese place the other night. Or drink the amazingly delicious whiskey they had as a present for Tiffany's piano teacher.

Anyway, I'd better just get used to telling people what I'm doing, since it will probably be for a couple of months. So, now you know blogfriends!

PS On a completely unrelated note to give you something else to comment about and stop you from focusing on my focus...Look how cute this doggy is...

new sources of amusement with netflix membership, and I haven't even gotten a DVD yet.

2006-02-21T12:21:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited to see that Netflix has lots and lots of member reviews. I've always liked reading customer reviews on Amazon.com, and the way that you can come across some really "special" people who just have to tell you how they...

1. Know so so much about the subject which the book is written about, and they've know this since birth, long before they read the stupid book...

2. Know that they would hate this book, even though they would never actually read/buy/touch it with a ten foot pole (this is usually in the political category).

3. Hate all the other reviewers.

Other things I love about reading customer reviews (besides the obvious thing that they are sometimes actually helpful)

a. You can follow some of these wackos from review to review (otherwise how would I have known that the Jewish lady from California who was so down on Jewish intermarriage also loved that book about Tourette's syndrome, but hated her Rival crockpot for its splintery glass lid, and has been breastfeeding for 8 years straight.)

b. Sometimes looking up a person's wishlist I have gotten new nuggets of insight into their personality (like Stacy's MySpace experience). Like how I found out that an acquaintance had powerful anger problems that even she didn't know about. Yikes.

Anyway, I was so happy to find out that Netflix has similar delights for observation of the human in its natural movie-reviewing habitat.

About Millions, which was reviewed as "heartfelt" and "emotionally delicate" by the NYT,

Gayelynn Clayton gives 1 star:
The accents in this movie make it very hard to get into. My family was bored very early. We turned it off right when they got to the finding-money part. Unless you have the attention span of an 80 year old, don't get this movie.

About Sexy Beast, one of my favorite movies from a few years ago:

AK from Greensboro, GA gives 2 stars:
Ben Kingsley did excellent acting as a psychopath, but still did not redeem this movie. You couldn't understand half of what they were saying with their thick Aussie? accents.

Y'all, I must be a snob because I think this is the stupidest reason to criticize a movie. Have you people not figured out how to turn on the subtitles? Then again if you can't watch a movie in your native language with Australian or English accents, I'm guessing you don't watch too many foreign films?

Another one of my favorite movies, All About My Mother, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film:

MH from San Francisco, CA gives 1 Star:
This movie came to me highly recommended and I could not have been more dissapointed. It is another politically charged movie attempting to preach tolerance for sexual perverts and deviants. Worst of all, it protrays a nun, played by Penelope Cruz, having sexual relations with a transvestite and contracting AIDS from it. This movie could not have been more dissapointing.

I would LOVE to continue bring over Almodovar movies to watch with my good buddy MH just to see the look on his face when he sees yet another pervert. PS He didn't like Alexander either.

Kind of flattering

2006-02-14T12:03:00.000-05:00

I got another jury duty questionnaire in yesterday's mail...for the Federal Court system. I'm kind of glad that they asked me now, because I surely would have lost my proof of jury service in another couple of weeks. The federal courts will exempt me for four years, yay. I kind of wish that the federal courts had gotten to me first - I would have been interested to see what that was like. Instead I got another glimpse of a personal injury lawsuit and didn't even get to decide anything.

Last night I dreamed that I went to Jury Duty again, but it went wrong very quickly. It turned into a closed room mystery when one of the jurors brutally murdered somebody. It all kind of seemed to be taking place in some kind of old hotel too (like The Shining, eeeee). And were all going to be on some case FOREVER too. I didn't realize how pyschically traumatizing jury duty was....

pandas in snow

2006-02-13T16:34:00.001-05:00

I just loved this picture. I wish I could get the PandaCam to work! Stupid technical difficulties.

My favorite piano quartet....

2006-02-13T16:34:00.000-05:00

is playing Feb 26th at Steinway Hall. It's a free recital in case anyone is wondering. I can't wait to hear the whole program together after having attended some rehearsals. I've always had a great time hearing them play, even on out-of-tune pianos in big echo-y atriums. I guess that was just once...

they meant it.

2006-02-13T15:14:00.000-05:00

Oh, it snowed all right. Isaac and I had to work our usual Sunday anyway, since we only had to walk a few blocks to work...

Here's our street:

Here's a bus stuck in the snow with its hazards blinking. I guess this one didn't have chains - we saw one driving around in chains on the snow-free Saturday, and I realized I had never seen tire chains before. I thought they would be more chain-y.

Here's 1st Avenue with no one driving on it. It was a really beautifully quiet time in the city.

Snow tomorrow I hope they mean it!

2006-02-10T07:46:00.000-05:00

I don't really have a grasp on what winter has been like in other parts of the country, but we have had a really mild winter. It was kinda cold in December, but January was ridiculously warm (like 65 degrees one day). I am kind of excited to have a snow day tomorrow because I like the cozy feeling of being all snowed in and it's Saturday anyway. So I don't even have to feel guilty for wanting it to snow (like I ordinarily would for the sake of the poor commuters).

Isaac is out running right now, and I'm doing what I do best, drinking tea and sitting in front of the computer. When we were in China, Nick gave me and Isaac a set of 5 CDs, Mitsuko Uchida playing all the Mozart Piano Sonatas. We have listened to the CDs sporadically, but last night I ripped them all to our ITunes, and I'm looking forward to hearing them on my mp3 player at work. And putting them on Isaac's Ipod. He lets me borrow it sometimes...

In other news, I think that we are going to get a movie subscription thingy! Does anyone have an opinion about Netflix vs Blockbuster? Or some other company? We are thinking of getting just the very cheapest one-at-a-time plan since the library serves us pretty well, for everything but TV DVDs. We just got the 3rd season of Six Feet Under from the NYPL and watched the whole thing in a week and a half. If we wait for the library, we will not see season 4 until 2008. If we go to Blockbuster, it will cost us $5.50 for each of the 5 or so DVDs. I thought maybe we could buy the season for this much, but it turns out the HBO dvds are super-expensive. Anyway, speak up if you have strong opinions about one company or the other.

Last night's dinner was amazing!

2006-02-08T12:12:00.000-05:00

I fear that my Minnesota friends might not be so excited about it though. Isaac picked a place, Sushi Yasuda, that we heard about from Eric. Eric told us that it was the best sushi he'd ever had, and it was definitely the best sushi we ever had too. We started out by ordering the sushi/sashimi combo. Our miso soup was delicious, and our sashimi choices were pre-chosen for us. They were served with fresh wasabi, which I'd never had before. It had the wasabi taste that you get in the prepared wasabi, but along with it was an undertone of richness and a teensy bit of sweetness. My favorite of the sashimi was the melty-mouthy Spanish mackerel. So good. Then came our sushi choices, and everything was really good. I had never had clams as sushi before, and I ordered the Cherrystone variety. It was so delicious, as was the freshwater eel, and white king salmon roll.

We were still hungry, so we ordered a bunch more sushi a la carte. The sushi menu has a bunch of the fish marked in red as the chef's special recommendations for the day. I thought I would die with pleasure tasting the unagi and anago eel sushi. Eel has always been my favorite - I could eat eel sushi pretty much all day long. The waitress misunderstood me at first and brought a tamago (egg custard) sushi instead of the unagi. The luckier Christine...The tamago was so sweet and light and lovely. They brought us green tea and we ordered mochi green tea ice cream to finish it up. Yum.

Our waitress was very very nice, and so was the older man who repositiioned Isaac's bowl and sushi platter for him. The place was really relaxed and cozy in its bright light woodiness. I was expecting it to be more expensive. I had read that the sushi were $6-8 a piece, but the things we ordered were more like $3.50-6. Maybe if you sit at the sushi bar and order omakase (in the sushi chef's hands) then it is much more. As it was we got out having spent $120 including tax and tip. Granted, we didn't have any alcohol. But I was plenty satisfied and now I have all those flavors in my head and coming back to me all day today.

Thanks Isaac for picking such a nice place!

Today is our surprise Valentine's Day!

2006-02-07T16:45:00.000-05:00

It's very exciting - Isaac got up and wished me a happy Valentine's Day and then I got presents! We're going somewhere for a surprise nice dinner too. We haven't gone out for dinner on Feb 14th itself in a while - they are always too busy and the food's usually not as good. I'm so impressed with Isaac for planning so far ahead, and I have to say - he never planned anything like this before we got married. Things are good!

Last year's chocolate receptacle...

in the category of things you think maybe you shouldn't be teary about, but really can't help it.

2006-02-03T17:16:00.000-05:00

I read WalkTrotCanter's post about solitary old men and the weepy response they evoke in her. Then I just watched this song and video from my friend (not really) Jonathan Coulton's website about Flickr. I love Flickr, and this is such a lovely tribute that it made me choke back something halfway between a sob and a laugh...especially that last picture of the kid with the eye patch. So touching.

[I don't know what's wrong with me either.]