Shortest Railway in the World: Angels Flight

Way back in October, 

Jon and I were in LA.

We stayed a couple of nights in downtown LA

at the Standard.

Nearby was an open air market,

Grand Central Market,

where we got some tacos and horchata.

Across the street from that market

is what claims to be the shortest railway in the world: Angels Flight.

Downtown LA is hilly.

Like big rolling hills.

And this short and cheap and touristy detour

helped us get up one of those hills.

The train wasn't packed,

and those seats in the sun were probably hot enough

to cook an egg eventually.

The station.

Jon and our horchata and leftover tacos.

Mmm!

If you're in the area,

I'd say that it's one kinda fun thing to do.

Obika's Delicious Balls

The other day

Jon and I went to Obika,

the NYC branch of an Italian mozzarella bar.

So we obviously got the mozzarella sampler:

Classico: Good

Ricotta: Delicious! (Get this one)

Burrata: So creamy, but needed salt

(They ran out of the roasted mozzarella.

We need to get that next time.)

And we got the crostini:

Ndjua and mascarpone: So good!

Capers and peppers: Needed more pepper flavor

Tomatoes: Good

It was off to the side of one of NYC's public spaces.

It was like alfresco dining, but indoors.

A big Italian family sat near us.

It felt like we were in Italy.

Bellissimo!

A Little Dorothy Parker at the NYPL's Lunch Hour

Pam, Nat, and I went to the Lunch Hour exhibit tonight.

It was pretty neat.

There's a lot of information and interesting materials.

There were things to touch and interact with too.

In an exploration regarding the writers dining at the Algonquin,

they featured the lovely Dorothy Parker

It's interesting what Dottie's handwriting looks like.

Here's one of her poems:

Inscription for the Ceiling of a Bedroom

I must up, to make my way.
Though I dress and drink and eat,
Move my fingers and my feet,
Learn a little, here and there,
Weep and laugh and sweat and swear,
Hear a song, or watch a stage,
Leave some words upon a page,
Claim a foe, or hail a friend--
Bed awaits me at the end.

Though I go in pride and strength,
I'll come back to bed at length.
Though I walk in blinded woe,
Back to bed I'm bound to go.
High my heart, or bowed my head,
All my days but lead to bed.
Up, and out, and on; and then
Ever back to bed again,
Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall--
I'm a fool to rise at all! 

Mangosteen In My Dreams, Mangosteen In My Dreams

I wrote/sang this song for Dairy Queen when I lived in Reston, Virginia:

Dairy Queen

in my dreams!

Dairy Queen

in my dreams. . . .

The closest Dairy Queen to our apartment was a small trek.

But even with three or four other fro-yo/gelato/Ben & Jerry's type options,

Dairy Queen was my muse,

and I needed a sundae.

Like NEEDED one.

Mangosteens aren't in that category,

but it works well in this song.

And they are a kind of dreamy fruit.

A hard nut-like shell,

but inside are soft, sweet segments

ready to explode in your mouth.

KABOOM!

Rana's Bacalao Ravioli

Jon picked this ravioli up

when Martha Stewart was dining at Rana

the other night.

It was good,

but we both wished we had eaten it with red sauce instead.

I'd get it again.

It's a good fish ravioli.

Crouching Eggs, Hidden Lamb Bacon

After doing a yoga class, some elliptical, some rowing, and then a zumba class,

so two and a half hours later,

Jon 

(who only did forty minutes of ellipticalling)

made us each an egg and a whole lotta lamb bacon.

Of course, we were still starving after that and ate a whole bunch of 

more stuff

from our fridge.

The lamb bacon was delicious.

Like bacon, but with a lamb taste.

Not gamey.

If your butcher has it, get some!

Glittery Snow

It snowed on Friday.

Superglittery snow.

Like, I guess you get a sense of the glitteriness,

but there were lots more surrounding us.

I finished up a freelance project

and the longest four day work week, ever.

Jon met me at work to go to Bill's Burger.

We sat in a booth and got burgers,

mini corn dogs, and disco fries.

We ate it as if we hadn't eaten anything in a month.

It was Irish coffee day or something,

so their alcoholic shake had Baileys and Jameson.

We passed and got hot chocolates for the long trek home.

(It's been so cold out that getting a cab home has been

scarcer than getting one during a downpour.)

My sister told me about one of her patients

that had a rectal temperature of 70 degrees.

That's cold.

Your butt should be at least around 99 degrees.

NYC didn't seem to bother plowing.

The hot chocolate helped a bit, 

but the snow was hitting our faces.

Jon found it too sweet.

What was pretty about the snow

was that it like shined like little diamonds.

They weren't the fat ones.

They were small and shiny.

This is a photo we took together.

I held the camera and a hot chocolate in each hand.

Jon pressed the buttons to take the photo 

and his held his hot chocolate with each of his hands.

Teamwork!

Baby Pigs!

I love pigs,

especially baby ones.

This ad was meant for me.

What animal would you find more appealing?

Pandas? Polar bears? Penguins? Sloths?

Dino Dinner and Di(n)o-ramas

Chicken-nugget dinosaurs are the most fun food to eat.

They are also delicious.

When faced with the dilemma of something to eat,

these are our go-to meat from D'ag.

The other night,

I picked some of these bad boys up and . . . 

. . . made some dioramas!

These dinos are hanging out by a tree.

Jon says that the T-rex is watching the other dinosaurs

fatten up on the tree

before eating them.

Little does does the T-rex know,

though, he'll be eaten!

Ha!

This is a dead brontosaurus

that would normally become a fossil,

but didn't,

because I ate it.

Ha!

This was a quick meal:

dinosaurs - ten minutes or so in the toaster oven

(yes, Dani, the toaster oven!)

broccoli - twenty minutes or so in the toaster oven

mushroom cous cous - five minutes

Done!

Katherine's Hepburn's Pants at the NYPL

I love, love, love living in Manhattan.

It's disgustingly expensive to live here

(did you see the article about the middle class in the NYTimes?)

but there is so much free stuff!

Unfortunately, the headache of getting into or out of the city

from anywhere else in the world 

to take advantage of this stuff 

is usually not worth it.

I'm saying that if you're in town,

it's awesome, but asking someone to trek in

is kind of asking a lot.

Take this Katherine Hepburn exhibit

 at the NYPL in Lincoln Center

for example.

It was free, and it was wonderful because it was free.

Definitely a must-see if you were around and had a half hour to stop in.

Though, most people would probably prefer making an effort to see 

an Audrey Hepburn costume exhibit, I'm sure.

Still, Katherine was adorable 

in her crazy accent/pants-wearing ways.

Her costumes in her plays and movies weren't as beautiful,

but they helped create her memorable characters.

Other stuff, like sketches of herself, and a Dorothy Parker review

of her play (Dottie hated it) were nice touches.

It's hard to tell if I'd be able to fit into her clothing.

Some seemed too long for my stature,

some seemed too small for my waist.

Others seemed huge.

I feel like the pants display would be a good campaign for Gap 

or maybe an older women's clothing store.

They should make replica pants.

These are cute, especially since pleated pants,

aren't the worst things in the world any longer.

By the way how cute is that hat?

Pinterest wish list that baby.

January Twilight

The other day we went to Sushi Azubu.

We eat at the same time as senior citizens

because crowdedness,

nonvacant bathrooms,

and slow service really make me antsy.

So we saw the sunset on our way there.

I love when the sky turns pink and orange 

below blue and purple clouds.

After sushi, we played Ingress a little in Tribeca.

It was fun.

I now have to choose to be a good or bad guy.

I want to be a bad guy with an interesting backstory

that turns into a good guy.

I want to be Nikita.

Cinderella on Broadway

The other day on my way to work,

I saw a couple of women

carrying what could only be costumes 

from Cinderella on Broadway.

Awesome!

Old Dodge Pick-Up Truck

We saw this truck in our garage today.

Yes, those are fuzzy dice.

I love this color.

What's it even called?

Turquoise?

Sea green?

Why can't modern cars be in weird-ass colors?

Baby blue?

Egg-shell yellow?

Fuchsia?

The car in this spot used to be 

a big ugly old-fashioned Bentley.

This is much nicer to look at.

Istanbul! (Not Constantinople)

Yay!

Going with my aunt,

sister, and brother

to Istanbul!

Jeff Koon's Tulips in Bilbao and New York City

Jeff Koons is a kind of strange-but-interesting man.

Did you see him on Colbert?

We saw one of his Tulips pieces in Bilbao

when were were at the Guggenheim in 2010.

Created in an edition of five versions, 

his later work Tulips (1995–2004) 

consists of a bouquet of multicolor balloon flowers 

blown up to gargantuan proportions 

(more than 2 m (6.6 ft) tall and 5 m (16 ft) across).*

That's us there

in the tulip balloons.

It was a really cool museum.

In November, I passed by this weird thing in front of Christie's

on my way to lunch.

I thought that was the piece--

wrapped up balls--

which was a bit avant garde for Christie's.

But then I passed by it on my way

to something in Rock Center later that evening,

and I came across this instead.

And it was pretty cool

on water

since the reflections were not only on the balloons,

but also in the water.

The windows across the street were especially making this piece all shiny. 

Jon's former coworker's girlfriend

works at Christie's.

Her job is arranging this stuff,

and this piece in particular was challenging according to her,

since Koons wanted it on ice.

We had a really nice and warm November,

so ice would've been dumb.

The little puddle was just perfect for it.

Fun fact:

The largest sum known to be paid for a work by Koons 

is Tulips, 

which was sold for US $33,682,500 (£21,219,975) 

at Christie's New York 

on November 14, 2012 

(Lot 35) in the Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale.*

It's pretty cool that I saw it

just hanging outside of my office

on the sidewalk

like a bum.

All $33,682,500 of it.

*wikipedia!

The Best Toast: "I hope you don't have any issues."

My family doesn't really drink.

We buy liquor for our guests when we have them over

for a special occasion,

but that's about it.

Around Christmas they sometimes get booze from customers/coworkers.

This one time when I was twelve,

I thought my dad's plastic circus cup

had cranberry juice in it,

so I took a big gulp,

but it was red wine.

So I spat it all over the floor.

So when Wee and Chris got engaged,

we were all at a loss of sparkling beverages.

We found a bottle of this over twenty-year-old blueberry champagne

from my dad's cousin's wedding.

That wedding was on LBI,

and we all have weird memories about how we got there

and what we wore.

I swear Wee and I wore our matching acid-wash denim outfits

that either our aunt or dad's cousin got for us.

My skirt had a few ruffles.

We looked cool.

That bottle's cork didn't pop.

It smelled like vinegar.

So he poured it down the drain.

He and my mom tried a Korbel gift too,

which promptly went down the drain.

We opened a bottle of Martinelli's,

which was fresh,

though I felt it tasted a little off.

And to top everyone off,

a bottle of Trader Joe's sparkling grape juice.

My mom's toast can be easily summed up in the most ineloquent part of it:

"I hope you don't have any issues."

It was funny, practical, and well meaning.

She has to work on some synonyms though.

She swears that she gets buzz from sparkling juices,

but we think that the bubbles just go to her head.

Jon found this speech hilarious--see above.

And he toasted my dad for his birthday with:

"I hope you don't have any issues."

Cheers!

Kampai!

Chris's Keens Delicious Awesome Birthday

For Chris's birthday,

we went to Keens Steakhouse.

It was delicious.

Our takeaway bag sits on our pile of bags,

and Jon reminisces about how good his mutton chop was

every time he sees it.

Wee and Chris asked if we were interested in getting appetizers,

and I was like,

you don't understand how big your steak's going to be.

Let's just order them. 

Chris's steak was about the size of Wee.

Wee's is about the size of her torso.

Dom's the size of his head.

I couldn't even get Jon and his mutton chop in the same frame.

That was like the size of Wee and Dom when they were

in my mom's uterus.

These photos are terribly dark,

but I got a huge delicious steak that I ate the next day too.

Sides! Mmm. The best.

A bibble.

Mmm. Sooo good!

What's a bibble?

Strawberries and cherries and sugar

with some

(say it with me in a South Park voice)

creme fraiche.

A takeaway bag.

That's what we looked like afterward.

And then we found a hat on Chris's car

because it was parked outside of a bar on the street.

A lewd hat.

Is that boobs on a butt?

That's definitely boobs.

Perhaps this was foreshadowing their engagement

the following weekend?

My Dad's Superawesome Birthday

The birthday boy,

showing off his muscles.

He's going to the gym nowadays!

He loves the mask.

In addition to the magic candles as a kind of entertainment--

I love the Daddy face--

my mom played the happy birthday song on her ukelele.

She got it all right,

but she needs to practice a bit more,

so there aren't any eight beat rests between notes.

Also my daddy's belly,

when it's jiggling from laughing with my mom

at her efforts,

doesn't make the best music stand.

For dinner we had tons of paella and shrimp with green sauce

from our go-to Spanish restaurant in the belly of Hudson County.

We failed getting/making him a cake,

but these roll cakes from Mitsuwa

were very close to yodels.

Someday soon you elusive yodel cake,

you will be made!