That Time We Celebrated Our Third Wedding Anniversary

Prettily wrapped . . .

flowers!

Gladiolas!

Jon appealed to my superthrifty side

by saying that he'd hope the other buds

bloomed.

Some really low alcohol (5%)

sparkling red wine

that opened up throughout the evening.

At first it tasted like medicine:

sweet then like medicine.

But then it tasted really good:

like raspberry jam plus sparkling water good.

Mmm!

Our vegetable for the evening.

My steak . . .

cooked in butter.

Jon cooked it to medium-rare perfection.

He cooked his pretty rare.

Our cheese from the cheese place in Paris

that nearly was thrown out by Paris TSA

because it looked like a bomb in Jon's bag.

It's just cheese! 

I kept this red balloon from my birthday party

to put it up for special occasions.

It was a pretty awesome anniversary.

And we're going to Eleven Madison Park on Saturday!

Happy 3rd Wedding Anniversary!

Three years ago,

we had a pretty kickass day.

Two years ago,

we also had a kickass day.

Last year,

we also had a kickass day.

Today,

being at work,

at a meeting that lasted two hours,

instead of walking down the aisle

in a pretty white dress,

with all my beloved family and friends,

or at a historic b&b in Virginia,

or even at home, 

it just wasn't as kickass.

Hopefully, the last few hours of the day will be though!

Birthday Flowers

Backyard flowers

Popo's roses/Wee's bridesmaid's roses

Popo's roses are from vines that are over a hundred years old.

They are so fragrant 

that it's like having an air-freshener for our

whole apartment.

Yellow/pink/peach roses that I bought to kick off my birthday weekend

See You Later, KAB!

Yay!!!

There are new adventures ahead

in Nashville

for one of my favorite people

I have ever had the good fortune to know

and, even better, work with.

KAB,

you rock!

And now I have a really good excuse 

to visit a long skinny state

with tons of e's!!!

And eat lots of Two Boots.

Mmm!

Water Balloons Hung with Static from My Head for My Birthday Party Dinner

For my birthday party dinner last Saturday,

I bought a bunch of water balloons

and a hand pump.

(Have you ever blown up water balloons with your mouth?

It gets painful quickly.)

One of the balloons popped,

but I managed to get 49 of them tied up

and on the wall.

(I feel compelled to count that there are 49 of them

in the photo

because if this were a book that I was working on,

I'd have to count them.

But I'm going to just say that the package said 50,

and one popped, so there are 49.)

At first I wasn't sure how I'd use them to decorate.

And they got unwieldy pretty quickly,

so I started rubbing them on my head and sticking them to our

Modernist Cuisine case.

I asked Jon if he thought the balloons

would stay up on the wall

with static electricity alone.

I hadn't put up balloons with static in awhile,

and the Internet was no help at all

unless you want to make a science project out of it.

Jon had no idea

that balloons would even stick to the wall at all.

It's like he's never seen it.

So I grabbed a balloon,

rubbed it on his head,

and stuck it to the wall.

It was like magic.

I thought that even if they did fall,

the effort of putting them back up--

rubbing it on one's head--

wasn't that much of a big deal,

so I put them all up.

And they looked nice.

And they matched my invitation

that I made,

which had a lot of colorful polka dots.

I also broke out some glow-stick bracelets 

and napkins with colorful

circles on it to further match my invitation.

Tying it all into the theme.

Static electricity kept these water balloons up

the entire night.

The next day I found one balloon

on the floor that had

just totally deflated.

I recommend trying this

the next time you need some fast, easy, cheap decorations

and have some wall space to spare.

Though I don't think it would work as well with full-size balloons.

Parrrrrrrtttttttttyyyyy!

Mitsuwa Gourmet Fair!

Tonight we went with Joy,

Wee, and Chris

to Mitsuwa to try the special ramen

from Hokkaido

and check out their gourmet fair.

It took about an hour and a half to get there

after work, leaving around 6 p.m.

Traffic getting out of the city from the north side

was a mess.

It took about an hour to move two blocks,

to then be sidetracked by a stupid cop car.

So we went down to get the tunnel from the south side.

That took only twenty minutes to get

to Mitsuwa.

My bad.

The above are little waffles with 

green tea and cream filling.

And a cream puff.

Mmm!

The ramen was pretty good.

Not as good as last year's gourmet fair, 

but still pretty awesome.

The above is a pastry filled with pumpkin.

Yum, pumpkin!

We're going back for the shoyu ramen on Saturday.

They only serve 150 per day.

It's what they're famous for though.

The above are fried tofu skins

filled with rice

and pieces of crab.

Food.

Mmm.

Coma.

Sparkling Thyme-Infused Lemonade Birthday Punch

For my birthday party

at the apartment,

Jon made some

sparkling thyme-infused lemonade.

It was delicious!

While putting it away though,

the bowl accidentally broke

and cut Jon's finger.

That wasn't fun

and it was a little sad

since it was a wedding present

and we had used it for our flower arrangements

for our wedding.

But at least we didn't have to go to the ER.

We're too old to end a birthday party

at the ER.

Jon made a simple syrup with thyme

and let it steep.

The he squeeze a bunch of lemons,

threw in the simple syrup,

and added some seltzer water and ice.

Refreshing and delicious!

My Hello Kitty Tattoo

On my birthday,

I got a neck tattoo.

It's hardcore.

And glittery.

It's Hello Kitty.

Unfortunately, 

I had to take it off before

work on Monday.

Good-bye, Kitty.

Bummer.

Chop! Chop!

Last Thursday,

I was having a good hair day.

But I felt like it was getting

a little too long to leave down

all the time 

and

a little too heavy to put up

all the time.

And I was running out of shampoo a lot faster.

So on Friday,

I got a haircut.

I'm donating the locks.

The Times I Saw John Oliver and Wyatt Cenac

On my way home today,

I saw John Oliver and Wyatt Cenac.

Let me set the scene:

I bought myself two dozen peachy pink roses from

a bodega and was carrying the bunch home.

Today is the last day I'll have superlong hair.

It was either me or the woman in front of me

with the stretchy skirt and ass sweat,

but the guy sitting on the stoop said

within my hearing,

"Fine fucking ass."

I'd like to think he says that to all the 

women that walk by.

So anyway, today, I see the dude that has to

be Wyatt Cenac.

And the dude in the baseball cap and glasses

is definitely John Oliver.

So I boldly try to make eye contact

with either of them

and smile.

They are both handsome fellows.

Wyatt's busy talking,

but John smiles at me.

How cool is that?

I think it helps wearing a minidress

to not feel invisible.

I think I saw John Oliver and someone else

talking and walking once before

when I had been singing to myself.

It was dark and cold, 

and I sang-walked between

two tall men,

one that looked like John Oliver

and spoke British,

and the other was talking about soccer.

I realized too late

that maybe I shouldn't have been

singing in public

because I sound like a dying animal.

I'm pretty sure I saw Wyatt before

when I rushed home to

pick up Thai food

for dinner before the

Barry Manilow concert.

Wyatt was by himself then.

But the point of all this is that

I got a smile out of comedian/actor

on the street.

How cool is that?

That Time We Went to Governor's Island and Forgot Our Tutus and Hula-Hoops

Jon, Dani, Wee, and Chris 

have never been to Governor's Island before.

So Nat and I (Governor Island veterans)

showed them around.

What we didn't realize

was that this art event 

called Figment 

was happening at the same time.

While I remember seeing ads for it with 

the Statue of Liberty's face,

I didn't realize that one should also

dress appropriately for this by wearing

tutus, sequins, and/or flowers,

or just body paint. . . .

In any case, 

I think we all had a good time outdoors

doing something new.

Note that when I waiting to take a photo 

that was supposed to have been with

my head up by the Statue of Liberty's nose,

the guy right before me started humping it

for his Facebook profile. . . .

So I just took the photo above.

We took the 1 train down.

It is the slowest train ever.

It took us about half an hour to travel 

from 50th to South Ferry.

What?!

The terminal entrance and fro-yo!

Dani's camera

Lest we forget the microbacteria balls

(poop?)

that we wore rubber gloves

to throw the poop into the river.

If you see the poop man, though,

do NOT accept his hand-sanitizer.

It smells like poop.

Yuck!

On the island, taking a panorama

inside the castle.

Inside the walls of the castle,

spying on Wee and Dani.

Dani tries lifting the canon ball. 

Team Governor's Island!

And the Statue of Liberty in the background.

Jon is grimacing because he just finished

a whole box of nachos with the works

that I couldn't finish.

And the Statue of Liberty in the background!

Swings!

Chris swung pretty high.

He touched the sky, sky, sky. . . .

He flew out of the swing and rolled over.

Wee's dusting him off.

Nat and Dani swung too,

but they finished their swinging before we did.

The statues in the background are from Storm King.

Lighthouse?

Nat's photo

We forgot our hula-hoops, too!

  

Pikachu!

We saw some people riding around on bikes 

with similar nylon pieces.

We called them the dinosaurs.

This must be their mother.

There was a small parade

that we kept running into

that finally settle here

to do a dance in a circle.

The gold figure behind and to the right of the tree

is a naked woman

being painted.

Rafters of the chapel.

Nat's photo

Stained glass.

Nat's photo

Taking a break on a pew.

  

Generator?

The Brooklyn ferry lets off nearby it.

I recall it saying that it was illegal or hazardous

or something that makes me not want to ever trespass.

I'm so happy that I finally was able to 

circumnavigate the island!

And hang out with some friends and family, of course!