Noodies

Jon had Columbus Day off,

and we had a lovely lunch at Bill's

where I got a nacho burger.

That's right, a burger that had nachos

and all the trimming of nachos.

It was freakin' amazing.

And a strawberry shake.

And some disco fries.

And a lemonade.

After work I went to Uniqlo to try to buy

some more stretch pants.

The Old Navy pants I got

smell like burnt plastic,

even after washing them twice.

I've not smelled them lately,

but I've little hope they smell better.

Jon met me at the men's massage parlor/spa.

It's just where we happened to meet.

We were going to go to look at Mooncake's menu

before hitting up D'Ag for some pasta and sauce

for dinner,

but then we saw a nicely lit place

that we've never really ventured over to.

It was called Noodies.

It's Thai noodle soups and other things.

I got the beef noodles,

and Jon got a crab/oyster sauce flavored one

with a dipping sauce.

The wall of bowls and the decor

and lighting were all pretty cool.

Oddly, at both Bill's and Noodies there were mosquitos.

At Bill's, Jon was eaten a little.

At Noodies, Jon killed a mosquito and the lady tourists

sitting next to us cheered and offered to give him a wet nap or something.

He went to the bathroom to wash his hands.

Noodies was pretty good.

We'll be back.

Plus they are on Seamless.

They could come to us too!

PowerBall!

Okay. It's the third biggest jackpot

in PowerBall history.

Someone's gotta win this one. 

Maybe me?

:)

I Can't Believe It's Already August!

It's like that time we went down the shore

and saw two Hercules movies that launched

the TV series.

Our luck was unbelievable that we stumbled across this

wealth of wonderful TV!

Hercules!, Kevin Sorbo, and Xena (pre-Xena), Lucy Lawless,

you guys are awesome.

(In case you were wondering,

yes, that is a bust of Mr. T in a Chinese Communist hat 

with college honor ropes,

a lei, and Academic Decathlon medal.

He's very accomplished, Mr. T.

We recognize.)

Sam's New Tattoo

My cousin Samantha asked me to draw

a little bow so she could bring

to get tattooed.

She said she wanted it drawn by someone she loved.

Aww. (That's me!)

So I drew a bunch of them with a

Chinese calligraphy brush so she can pick the best one

to her taste.

The final result?

Well I'd have to figure out

how to get the photo she texted me on this blog,

so that'll have to wait for another time,

but it did turn out pretty cool.

Birthday Cloud

Yeah, it's a penis and balls.

Birthday Drinks at Pincher's

So in Florida there's this thing called happy hour

and you get discounted appetizers

and two for one drinks,

where you get those two drinks

at the same time,

so you'd better drink up that one beer

if you want to drink that second one while it's still cold.

I didn't drink.

I know, I know, it's my birthday!

It's my thirtieth birthday!

But someone had to be the designated driver.

And I don't really like drinking much anyway.

Jon got some margaritas.

My cousin Steven got a bucket of fun (or 32 oz of love).

It was orange creamsicle flavored with marshmallow vodka.

He loved it.

My cousin Sam got some beers.

The twins also got beers.

The minivan we rented for the six of us

was actually quite big.

We called her the gray whale.

With two clicks of a button on the remote,

both side doors opened or closed and as well as the trunk

(depending on which button you pushed).

It was so freakin cool.

But really, it was like driving a bus.

We passed by smaller and shorter SUVs and laughed at

their inferiority and puniness.

With the environmental/gas-saving thing on,

we save half a tank of gas,

which sucked for us since we prepaid.

Anyway, after birthday lunch

(which was sponsored by Wee!

Thanks, Wee!),

we went to the outlet mall.

The gray whale smelled like a drunk bus though.

And I was getting quite queasy.

It was a little rough when I had to roll up the windows because

of a downpour that we had to drive through,

but we made it in one piece

and bought out the place!

Steven treated me to not one, but TWO pairs of shoes!

Such a good birthday!

I wish I could have one every day!

(Like two of these bags are actually mine.

But it's a deceptively funny photo, isn't it?)

Prebirthday Flowers!

On my last Friday as a twenty-nine year old,

I received a bouquet of flowers.

I nearly dropped the ball on this one though.

An unrecognizable phone number kept calling my cell phone,

but when it called my work,

I was like WTF? 

Who could this possibly be?

And why don't they just leave a message?

Turns out it was the flower delivery dude.

I had no idea who they were from.

And I thought that perhaps he just go the wrong person.

Jon had tried sending flowers to work

when I interned at the TimeWarner Book Group (now Hachette)

the summer I turned twenty-one.

I think I got them the next day--a little worn for the wear

of being traveled around in the hot June weather.

They were from Dani, Sarm, and Hetal! 

Such awesome, awesome ladies.

Aren't the flowers just gorgeous?

I love the peach.

It's vibrant and happy and summery and fun.

Last year I bought myself two dozen peachy/orange roses.

It was so nice that someone else thought to give me flowers!

I love flowers!

I wish I could've brought them to Florida with me.

When I got them at work, I set them on my desk

and every time I looked up it reminded me of how awesome

my friends are and how turning thirty isn't so bad.

They love me anyway.

I brought them home,

and set them in the corner of the computer screen/our TV.

Happy flowers.

Happy day.

I brought them with me to my aunt's house

and gave them to her since I couldn't bring them to Florida.

It brightened my day,

and rather than wilt and die in my apartment while I was gone,

I hoped to brighten hers.

Birthday flowers!!!

I'm in an Acknowledgments! (and Not Just in a List of Names!)

When dropping off an invoice that she signed off on,

my department head mentioned that I was called out in Short Seller.

At first I wasn't really sure what she meant--

was this a book review site and she meant one of my books was called out?

And then I realized she meant that it was a book I was a copy editor for last July or so.

I remember this book pretty well now

because I had to ask Jon a lot of questions about stocks and math.

He helped me put together those Excel charts--or "impressive mathematical charts!"

I also had to ask Dani questions about mono since the main character has mono,

and the doctor in the book seemed to be convinced that she was cured after she had a blood test.

I have no idea how my queries are resolved,

but I hope to find a copy and reread it.

It was good and interesting!

The two star review is by some mean person who has no interest in the topic.

I hope more people read it and enjoy it.

Maybe the image I'm posting is bad, so:

"A big thanks to everyone at Simon & Schuster who worked on this book, especially Christina Solazzo, whose copyedtiing went above and beyond (and involved a number of impressive mathematical charts!)."

So freakin' cool!

That's me!

First Summer Friday!

My first summer Friday this year

was so much fun.

I just wish I'd worn a jacket.

It was basically freezing if you wander out without one,

and it rained a ton.

The best part of the day was when we holed up

in the back of a cafe in LIC

that played some great music.

For lunch Pam, Kat, and I went to M.Wells at P.S. 1 MoMA,

and it was quite delicious.

Bryan met up with us shortly after,

and we explored the museum.

One of the rooms was a room of ice.

I believe they were glacier specimens from an old glacier,

but it was too cold to really figure it all out.

Another room had global trashcans.

Some had actual trash (from snarky visitors I suppose.)

The building is much like the grammar school I went to,

though there are two sets of stairs,

and two stairwells in each corner.

It seemed a bit excessive.

The art in the halls was much more enlivening

than my grammar school's halls though.

As part of the rain exihibit at the MoMA in Manhattan,

there's this other exhibit at P.S. 1.

Basically in the atrium part,

they built an indoor pond with koi fish (see above).

And a waterfall.

I am not so much into standing around and reading about the art

as much as I am about seeing and taking in the art.

I've not had a chance to read about it,

but experiencing it was pretty cool.

The cold weather and the rain and the constant waterfall sounds though,

well, good thing there were some bathrooms around.

One other cool thing was the boiler room.

One of the pieces had saliva in it.

You just have to wonder why and where and why.

After lunch, museum viewing, and cafe catching up,

we headed into the city and join Nat and Dani

(Kat went home)

for dinner at Empellon

to celebrate an intimate birthday dinner with Pam.

The food was good, but it was all a bit expensive and loud,

and I wished it were just as cozy and low key as the cafe.

Arrested Development: Bluth's Original Frozen Banana Stand (and Luke Bryan)

I spy an oversize banana,

which could only be:

Some marketing folks from Netflix!

They were giving out stuff earlier,

but by the end of the day there was a line to take a photo

with some strangers.

And on my way home,

outside of Letterman, I saw

Luke Bryan!

(I've never heard of him,

but people seemed enamored.)

Meanwhile my cousin Samantha got her picture taken

with Danny Masterson (Hyde from That 70s Show)

because he was hanging out at her office since he has a friend there.

Dance, Dance!

So we're fortunate enough to have cool things like

this come to our building's gym.

And luckily we didn't have other plans

and the weather was pretty terrible,

so I went to both of these classes.

The class was wonderful!

I forgot how choreography is almost cerebral.

It's memorizing and understanding steps and movements,

then adding more.

I've been taking dance classes for years now,

and I've not had to memorize a routine since high school.

I've always just followed the instructor in the front.

But today I felt my brain working.

John was very nice

and his choreography worked surprisingly well with different genres

of music.

We kept doing the same few steps over and over,

and he built on it.

In total it was about 20 steps 

(8 counts each, so about two minutes worth of music)

and then it looped again.

So much fun!

During the stretch portion of class,

he noted that my pointe

(when you point your toes)

was very good and that I must've danced before.

He said very few people are born with a naturally good pointe.

Ah, all those years of pointing paid off!

A bonus of both of these classes was that

Jessica Williams from The Daily Show was in attendance!

She's quite tall.

I couldn't place where I'd seen her for a short while,

but then after ruling out everyone at work and friends of friends

and moving on to TV and movies,

it just made sense.

She's really pretty and is a good dancer.

It'd be fun to have her in more of my gym classes.

Mercedes Club Residents Party

The pool in our health club opened today!

It's not even 70 degrees out!

We went to the free party, which featured

some delicious little bites of lamb

on vegetables and a dab of something delicious.

Um, it was delicious.

And there were three different liquor tastings,

including the lovely gin and tonic drink above.

The gin drink was refreshing, but it wasn't as flavorful as my Hendricks.

The best part was the live music:

these two guys playing and singing Latin music.

And, of course, the snocones by Handsome Dan.

A block of ice turned into magic fluffy snow

covered in sugary raspberry syrup and fresh lemon juice.

I think he kind of looks like Jake Gyllenhaal,

so you might want to check him out

and eat his snocones in real life.

Hello!

I had another snocone because it was FREE

and so good.

(A pomegranate with condensed milk--

Handsome Dan explained that the pomegranate was a bit tart

so the milk will set it off--so cute, 

I just want to suck on sugary ice!)

Since someone couldn't eat all the delicious snocone stuff or drink

and had allergies, we left after the guys played "La Bamba."

Poor guy.

Another reason for leaving was that it was really awkward

watching the swimsuit models freeze.

#firstworldproblems

Jonathan:  oh man

they are having an ice cream party at work

for no reason!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I don't really understand this holiday.

I should probably look it up.

I just feel like it gives me another really good excuse

to present this photo of

Zara the cat in a sombrero.

Enjoy!

Kodak Instamatic Camera

My Popo brought this camera

to give to my mom

to send to my cousin

since she collects old cameras.

I wonder what crazy stuff this

camera has seen.

Prom: What's the Big Deal?

This statue that was outside of Christie's last year

demonstrates how I feel about a lot of things,

but mostly this article about prom.

I asked Jon to my prom after an evening

of browsing some galleries in Chelsea

in the fall of 2000.

We had sort of started really dating by then,

and I was optimistic it'd last for at least seven more months.

He didn't want me to go to his prom.

It hurt my feelings at the time,

but now I see that it probably was for the best.

The generation of kids in the article are unusual.

I spoke to someone who is about a decade younger than I am,

and she had no clue who She-Ra is.

She-Ra tells you her life story in the introduction--with a cute outfit change:

Good.

Now we all know who She-Ra is.

Do these kids' superheroes do everything with a huge song and dance

worthy of the typical tropes of reality TV?

I need to get into the racket of personalizing junk for special occasions.

Specialized prom snacks!

Specialized prom temporary tattoos!

Specialized prom cakes or pies or cookies!

Specialized prom underwear!

Hmm.

WIC might have nothing on the PIC!

::taps fingertips together thoughtfully::

Joy's 30th Birthday Dinner

We went to Chez Sardine for Joy's 30th birthday dinner.

It was a nice intimate affair

with great travel stories that featured

a lot of food

and a delicious array of food and drinks in our mouths

that filled our bellies.

It was some good celebrating.

I made the card above in the morning:

Liberty of London stationery carved into a 3 and 0.

I wanted more space to write

the secret thing I've been writing in my cards

so I didn't cut out the 0.

I rather like how it looks still filled in

and unmarred by the 0's gash.

What do you think?

Back to the Daily Grind

When I got back to work from my freakin' awesome

latest adventure in Tokyo and Taipei,

I had a chair of work waiting for me.

Jon balked at how much paperwork this was.

He doesn't really work with paper.

I got through most of it that morning.

It made me feel like this:

Manic Depression Is Touching My Soul

Sing it, Jimmy.

Sing it.

Two Poems Are Better Than One

It's poetry month!

I think the only publisher who actually celebrates this month is

Random House.

I get a poem a day from them

for the month of April every year

in my e-mail.

It's a lovely thing.

Anyway, I'm not sure how prolific I will be this month,

but here are two poems

just for you:

"Two Cats"

*(Wee came up with the first two lines.

When I asked her what she does when she's sad,

she said she hugs her cats.)

and

"Dead Bird"

*(It's about the dead bird I saw this morning of all mornings.)

I'm a little rusty at writing poetry, 

so just laugh with me.

Okay, here goes:

Two Cats

Two cats are better than one

Two cats are so much fun

Two cats, paired like peas in a pod

Two cats, neither of them are named Todd

Two cats, frowning at your skeptical face

Two cats, next on The Amazing Race

Two cats hike the Appalachian Trail

Two cats will never fail

Two cats are asleep in your shoes

Two cats got into your booze

Two cats think your stupid joke is funny

Two cats fart after tasting honey

Buht, buht

Buht, buht

Buht

Two cats slide through a box

Two cats chase the fox

Two cats love, love, love fish

Two cats, they share a splish!

Two cats nap on your head

Two cats, they pretend that you're dead

Two cats are better than one

Two cats are so much fun

Dead Bird

Oh, bird.

You once took flight,

high up in the air,

morning, noon, and night.

You loved what you did,

though perhaps a little too much.

Now you're feeling

a bit out of touch.

As they saying goes:

Pimpin' aint eazy.

But just keep swimming,

just keep swimming,

and life was but a dream. 

Naw mean, bra?

Poof!

From the 2013 NYC Armory Show

Having one of those 

I wish I could just disappear

days.

On the bright side,

next week we head to Tokyo and Taipei!

Worrying Is for Wusses.

Make that sign, art guy,

so I can put it next to my

Hang in There cat poster.

Fresh Direct Bluenanas Are in Season!

Jon and I ordered a few bunches

of these new bluenanas

before they ran out.

As a blue food they're supposedly

very high in antioxidants

and very good for memory, diabetes, and everything.

I also read that even though the plant

is carnivorous, 

it only eats Smurfs,

so humans wandering 

through a bluenana grove

are safe, 

and it helps keep the Smurf population down, 

thankfully.

But in all actuality,

Jon was pretty excited about this

until he realized it was a joke.

I'd warned him this morning not to be fooled too!

Now he's a bit disappointed.

If bluenanas tasted anything

like bananas and blueberries,

I'd be very disappointed they didn't actually exist too,

but who knows, man?!

Who knows?!