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.

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.

Jeckin and Pinal's Big Fat Indian Wedding

Great times.

Great food.

Great people.

Happy family.

Happy friends.

Happy lives.

Nick Cave Horses in Grand Central

I went with some friends to try to see the

Nick Cave horses that were at Grand Central last week.

Unfortunately, so did every other person.

So we didn't get in,

but it was kind of nice out,

so at least we got some air.

This is what we missed:

You know Nick Cave.

He did this song:

March Snow

Ugh. Snow.

I had to walk in it to work

with my messed up toe.

I waited ten minutes for a bus.

Buses are so stupid.

It never came, of course.

I left work late that day.

The snow all melted.

Asian Jade Society's Chinese New Year Dinner

My cousin Samantha asked me to accompany her to this event

because her coworker had some free tickets.

A free Chinese banquet meal is one of the stupidest things to ever turn down,

so I agreed to go.

Then it was canceled because of Nemo.

It was rescheduled the day of a big March storm,

but thankfully the snow started after we got home.

I don't really understand what the event actually was

since the woman sitting next to me was reading the program over

my shoulder, and I just gave it to her.

But it began with a dragon dance,

followed by a bunch of speeches and awards and more speeches

(and with about a thousand people or so,

we heard mostly "shhhhhhh"

for most of the time during the speeches),

and then some weird interlude with a Hispanic lady 

singing covers of some songs

with back up dancers.

It sounds like a bad dream or something, right?

The dinner was at Jing Fong.

It was my first time eating there.

(When we looked for a possible wedding reception place, 

they said they could hold up to

three more events and have the restaurant open at the same time.

We were really not interested in that sort of set up.

Queens has better Chinese food anyway.)

It was their most basic menu

--probably $250 per table (or $25 per person)--

which included: 

shrimp with mayo (mmm!),

basket of pork and chicken (eh),

fried tofu and seafood (eh),

chicken and corn soup (eh),

steak (mmm),

lobster (eh),

and then we left since it was getting late and loud 

and there was a storm coming!

Some women were dressed appropriately for a dinner,

and some were dressed like they were ladies of the night.

Most of the men were wearing nice suits.

I had Beyonce's "If I Was a Boy" video in my head.

We left as they were doing the electric slide.

Boogiewoogiewoogie!

 

So many red faces!

Everyone looked lucky that night.

(This is what half the room looked like--it was full on.)

Everyone loves a good Chinese new year bash.

Istanbul: Day 4

Tuesday, 2/19: It was beautiful and sunny, so we did a boat tour (Tyrol has tours that aren't as long as the official full-day Bosphorus tour--though note that the only toilet on the ship is a squat one that is basically a hole in the bottom of the boat), then walked to the Galata Tower, and up to Taksim Square along THE pedestrian street to walk up on. When we got to Taksim Square, we ate a sweaty burger and doner. Then we took a cab back. We wrote some postcards, had hotel snacks, then went to dinner at Turga at a palace. The traffic getting there was terrible. The place was beautiful, and we ate traditional Ottoman food including blue fish, which the restaurant had a special menu for because it was seasonal. It was great stuff. There was a Blackberry conference happening at the palace/nearby hotel, but there were a ton of dudes lounging about with little earpieces. Like they were all secret service types. When we left, it was raining--the first time we saw it rain since we landed, so that was really lucky.