Neighbors and Birthdays and Dogs, Oh My!

Tonight, in celebration of a friend-who-just-moved-into-our-neighborhood's birthday, we went to Manhattan.  That's right, folks, we outer borough folk do head into Manhattan for some entertainment and merrymaking!  Yes, we will continue to try to lure you into our realms ("I'll take you to the Beer Garden" being one of the key baits), but we also head over to the island once in a while.

Anyway, this friend and his roommate, also a friend, recently moved into our neighborhood -- a few short blocks away from our crappy little prewar apartment, in fact! -- which is very exciting because, well, as an outer borough person, most of my friends live in other, fancier outer boroughs, or in Manhattan, or even in New Jersey.  So it can get lonely out here in Queens on occasion.  But now there are people around the corner with whom we can grab lunch in a Greek restaurant, or make friends with the panhandlers on the N or Q into Manhattan, or sit at the Beer Garden and talk about how awesome Queens is, and how smart we are for living here.  I'm stoked.

But yes. Birthday.  So we went into Manhattan, and we took advantage of the absolutely beautiful day by getting a round of drinks at Pier 66 Maritime, which houses an historic barge (now a bar and grill!) and several historic ships, including a fireboat and the Lightship Frying Pan, which was underwater for 3 years before being pulled up and restored.  The weather was absolutely glorious, and it was awesome to be on the Hudson, enjoying a beer, even if the swaying of the barge on the river gave me a touch of the queasies.

Afterwards, we headed down to the High Line, a relatively new park in Manhattan, reclaimed from an old elevated freight train line that was abandoned for about 50 years.  Nature took over, and then landscape architects came in, refined the plants that were already there, built benches, and made it a really beautiful park for strolling above the city streets.  We walked the current length of it, from 20th Street down to about 14th, and I can't wait to see what the next section to open looks like.  It's a really lovely space where urban and natural mix wonderfully, and the breeze and views from that elevation are fantastic.

As the sun was setting and we hadn't eaten yet, we wandered around for a while before ending up at Benny's Burritos, which, sneakily enough, is part of the Blockheads mini-chain of Mexicali food establishments.  After a much shorter than anticipated wait (think 8 minutes instead of 40), we slid into a table in the very noisy dining room and proceeded to gorge ourselves on chips, salsa, guacamole, burritos, and 3 dollar margaritas.  Delicious, cheap, and a hit with everyone involved.

We split up after that, with the birthday guy having a bit more party in him than the rest of us, and E, our other friend and I ended up on a train back out to Astoria.  A man got on with a service dog that must have been in training.  He kept standing up rather than laying beneath the man patiently, and at one point the motion of the train must have got to him, because he vomited in the corner.  I don't think I've ever seen a dog so happy to get off a subway as this dog, who practically opened the door with his nose once they got to their stop.  He was clearly trying very hard, though.  I have a huge place in my heart for service dogs.  They're smart!  They're well-behaved!  They're helpful!  You can't pet them!  Seriously, all I want to do when I see a service dog is give it a giant hug and belly rub.  This urge is probably largely because I know you aren't supposed to distract them from their work with lovin', but it doesn't stop me from wanting to more than anything else in the world at that given moment.

Tonight was no different, because the dog was young, and trainsick, and SO SO CUTE.  If I had any ability to give away cute things, I would totally train puppies to be service dogs, but I wouldn't be able to give them up.  Also, puppies are hard.  They require walks and they puke and pee on the floor and lick you and are kind of smelly.  When my cat pukes, I tend to pretend I don't know what happened until E steps in it on his way to bed and has to clean it up himself*, so I can't handle dog puke, which is obviously much more gross.  Gosh, what will happen when I have children?  I don't want to think about it.

*This may or may not have just happened.  He's a pretty good guy!

A lot of fruit has come into this house.

This summer has been positively flying by. E and I have each been very busy with our summer jobs, and we've also spent many weekends trekking to Connecticut for various events and goings-on.

We've also been perfecting our jam-making skills, as mentioned previously.  My best friend is getting married next weekend (!!!) and I offered to make jam for her favors.  Once they're done and wrapped up looking pretty, I'll take a picture of the jars, which are little and adorable.  In this photo, Tessie is supervising E's strawberry-slicing. 

The bride came down last weekend, and even though our original plans to work together on the jam fell through due to some logistics issues, we finally got to bring her to the Beer Garden, and she agreed that it was magical. Luckily the weather was basically perfect, unlike today, when it is hot and humid and our air conditioner conveniently decided to DIE overnight. I am so upset, and don't anticipate sleeping much over the next few days as the mercury creeps higher...

In other news most people don't care about, I found the most amazing nail polish at CVS the other day!  This photo below, of my nails with Rimmel London Lasting Finish Pro nail polish  on them, was taken a full EIGHT DAYS after I applied it. Minimal damage, despite my marathon jam-making and doing dishes and type-type-typing at work and home!  And for only 3.99?  I'll take it.

One year ago...

Today is the day, one year ago, that E and I returned home to Boston from our first "real" vacation together: a trip to Walt Disney World!

While we were there, it rained in Future World (Epcot)...

...and it rained on the streets of New York (MGM)...

...and it rained on Cinderella Castle (Magic Kingdom)...

...and in China (Epcot again). 

And yes, I am sort of really embarrassed to say that we rocked the ponchos. We brought some from home, and then I had to buy a stupid 8 dollar Disney one on the last day when it was downpouring YET AGAIN and I was poncho-less.  It rained every day! And not just the quick afternoon thunderstorms Florida is famous for. No, no, it was full-on, all-day monsoons all but one day we were there.

And I hurt my foot on the first full day of the trip, so E's view for the rest of the time was this:

Ridiculousness aside, we had a blast, and I can't wait for our next adventure together in far off lands (probably our honeymoon... wherever that may take us)!

Broke, but not bored -- the out-of-town visitors edition!

E and I had what was, quite possibly, our best weekend since we moved to New York this past weekend.  It helped that E was finally done with the semester and hadn't yet started his writing competition thing yet (oh law school, and your endless deadlines and projects).  Of course, it was great that the weather was breathtakingly perfect at 75 degrees and sunny all weekend long.  And, we had some of our favorite people visiting.  But we also spent almost all of the weekend out of the apartment, without going broke[r]!  Which just goes to show you, you don't have to spend a boatload of cash (even in New York City) to have a good time. 

Here's what we did:

• Saturday morning, at almost exactly the same time, 2 of our friends, with whom E went to undergrad and who lived basically down the street from us when we lived in Boston, and E's dad arrived.  Everyone was about an hour early, thwarting my plans to pick up fresh flowers at the market and feel fancy, but luckily we had cleaned the entire apartment Friday, so it worked out alright!  We hung out at our apartment for a few minutes, getting caught up.
• We headed into Manhattan and up to Columbia, where we stopped by the photo exhibit I curated.  Two of the panels somehow got switched out of order, which I don't really understand, but I am beyond the point of asking questions. While we were in Morningside Heights, we went to a deeeeelicious Cuban restaurant for lunch. Plantains and stuffed peppers and yellow rice, mmmmm.
• We then headed downtown, saying goodbye to E's dad at Times Square (he had a birthday party to get to on Long Island).  We got off the subway near the World Trade Center site to see the progress on the construction there, and walked down to Battery Park, pausing outside the New York Stock Exchange in front of Federal Hall on Wall Street to bitch about the economy.  In Lower Manhattan, we went to the National Museum of the American Indian, where we saw a few interesting exhibits, marveled at the gorgeous old building, and even saw a dance demonstration by Native Americans.  Then we wandered through Battery Park to the shoreline to gawk at the Statue of Liberty from afar.
• Next it was off to the Lower East Side!  We met a friend of our friends for french fries at Pommes Frites, and tried a bunch of gourmet dipping sauces.  Mmmm, so delicious.  The friend then took us to Grassroots Tavern, which was the diviest dive bar I've ever encountered.  We got a pitcher of beer and talked about LOST for an hour or so, and it was fantastic, overall.
• We wandered up to Union Square, from where we took the train back out to Queens.  After an hour of resting our tired legs and watching basically every Lady Gaga music video ever made, we ventured to the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden, favorite summer drinking base camp and site of my St. Patrick's Day escapades this year.  Ever since we moved to this neighborhood, we've wanted to take these friends to the much-loved beer garden, and this was the first visit they made in nice enough weather.  It didn't disappoint.  Despite long bar lines and large crowds, we managed to snag a table (and beer from friendly neighbors!) and hang out through our second winds, debating a wide range of very important and controversial topics, much to the chagrin, I'm sure, of those around us.
• We got back to our apartment and ordered a pizza from the only pizza place still open.  Not great pizza, but not terrible, either, and once you've had a few beers, anything will do.  We went to bed with full bellies, and all woke up hangover free to watch the only Lady Gaga video we hadn't watched the night before.
• Bagels. BAGELS.  So delicious.  I want to eat them every day but I know then that I would weigh about 800 pounds in no time.  This time I got an everything bagel with veggie cream cheese and fresh sliced tomatoes on it, and it was amazing.  E tried a breakfast sandwich on a bagel, and also loved it.  This place can do no wrong in my book.
• After we all devoured our toasted, perfect bagels, our guests packed their bags and we all got on the train to head into Manhattan so they could catch a MetroNorth train home.  SADFACE.  We had time before they left, though, to check out an exhibit on archaeology at the South Ferry terminal at the NY Transit Museum's gallery annex at Grand Central Terminal.  It was so cool!  Tons of really old remnants of a New York City that is no more. Also, if I ever move away from NYC, I am planning to dump a lot of cash in their gift shop, first. So much cool junk!  This has definitely whet my appetite for the real NY Transit Museum in Brooklyn, which is in a decommissioned subway station and includes antique train cars to explore!
• We got them to their train on time, and headed out to Bryant Park to enjoy some sun.  The park was suprisingly uncrowded given the perfect weather, and we got to hang out and watch babies learning to walk on grass and get a little pink on our shoulders.  Bryant Park is really beautiful, and I can't wait to catch a movie there during their free summer movie series!

After that, we headed home so E could watch the Celtics game and I could fart around on the internet.  I made roasted veggies and couscous for dinner, and we spent a lot of the night intending to watch a movie but accidentally talking until it was too late to start one, since I had to get up early to intern. 

So, overall, this weekend was the best kind of busy, full of fun exhibits and activities, and exhausting enough that I slept super soundly last night!  And the best part of the weekend?  We didn't spend a dime on activities.  Yup.  Every activity we did was completely free, we just spent money on food and booze.  Which is my favorite way to do things, duh.

Crazy comes in all forms.

E and I went to Disney World last May, and it was kind of a short-notice trip. As in, we decided to go and booked it about a month and a half before we left.  I hadn't been in about 3 years and E hadn't been in, oh, 13, so we were pretty excited about it.  I even downloaded a Countdown widget for my Dashboard to help me get jazzed about ice cream shaped like Mickey's head and fireworks every night and glorious sunshiney Florida days. Of course, that last bit didn't quite work out, since it rained. All. Day. Every. Single. Day, but it was still awesome.

Since the day of our departure came and went, the countdown widget has been counting the days since our trip.  E was teasing me about it the other day, so I fiddled with the settings a bit ... and lost the countdown. Gone! We were at -327 days and I couldn't get my countback back.  I was pretty sad about it, but since there wasn't really anything I could do, I decided to do the mature thing, and count down to our wedding instead, as so:

What was I saying about maturity?

Too Tall Bunny is a SHAM.

For Easter, E's mom got him this adorable basketball wielding chocolate bunny.  His name is Too Tall Bunny, and he's sooo tall that his ears stick out the top of the box (and he had to start playing basketball because he had no marketable skills aside from his height).  E has had this sitting around the apartment since April 4th, because apparently his reaction to chocolate is not the same as mine (which is, basically, STUFF IT ALL IN YOUR MOUTH RIGHT NOWWW NOW NOW NOW).  The other day, though, I noticed something.

YEAH. TOO TALL BUNNY ISN'T REALLY TOO TALL, HE'S JUST STANDING ON A PLATFORM. His little bunny feet start right where that clear plastic window starts on the box.  He is not actually too tall, he is lying to us all.  And, judging by that embarrassed, panicked look on his little bunny face, he's just been waiting for someone to expose him as the impostor he is.

Whatever.  E and I just ate his ears off, so now he fits in the box, platform or not.  That's what you get for trying to FLIM-FLAM THE WORLD, Too Tall Bunny.

TGIF!

It's been a rough week somehow, starting with the brutal snap back to reality Sunday night that signaled the end of E's and my spring breaks. I stayed up far too late doing schoolwork I put off all week in favor of sunshine and fancy home-cooked meals, and never seemed to recover. Of course, for the last 3 days I've gotten up in the way-too-early post-dawn haze to get to 2 different internships, which didn't help. And, to add insult to injury, when my alarm went off each morning, the cat was in mega-cuddle mode and E got to keep snoozing for at least another hour -- at least, when he wasn't complaining about my hair dryer waking him up.

But here we are on Friday afternoon! I am currently counting down the minutes until I can leave internship #2, which I just started yesterday. I'll be here a day and a half per week through May, and this one even pays a wee bit! The office has been in a crisis over issues not related to my arrival, though, so I have kind of been neglected. I haven't had much work to do, and yesterday I didn't find out where the restroom was until after 5 pm, when everyone was leaving! Luckily I have a bladder of steel. They have promised that next week things will be less crazy and they will have more time to devote to me, so I am holding out hope that this will be a valuable experience.

This weekend will involve sleeping til at least 8 am, going to the new laundromat that has free WiFi (I have been hoping for this magical combination of laundry facilities and interwebs for a very long time), and hopefully brunch at a Cuban restaurant we've wanted to try since we moved here. Really, though, I just want a Cuban sandwich. It's also the end (I think?) of the NCAA Basketball tournament, so I'll have many hours to do schoolwork while E is glued to the TV. Reading and papers and discussion questions, oh my!

Oh, and if you were wondering, I didn't make it out to see the elephants Monday night. The wind and rain were enough to keep me from making the trek. NEXT YEAR, THOUGH, NO MATTER WHAT, especially because I will know about it more than 12 hours in advance.

Today, in Geek Household...

E and I actually just had an argument about who got to fill out the Census. It was an epic battle over who got to be Person 1 versus Person 2, and it involved a lot of "No, I wanna fill out the Census!" whining back-and-forth. In the end, he won because he had the initiative to actually get off the couch and get the form, but I wouldn't let him fill out the Person 2 section, and filled it out myself instead.

And now it's off to the Census Data Collection Center or whatever, where the government will cull that data and use it to allocate money and government representatives and blah blah blah. Fill out your censuses, people! I know that last semester, when I was doing research with the 1860 census for one of my professors, I was glad all those schmucks answered the door to the census takers!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Czech Republic style.

E called me yesterday afternoon and told me, excitedly, that not only were we getting corned beef and cabbage for dinner, we were getting it at the beer garden. The beer garden, dear friends, is a magical place about a block from our apartment. It's essentially a gravel yard full of picnic tables, with hundred-year-old trees offering shade and high stone walls shielding you from the neighborhood around you. And they serve beer. Lots of beer, and lots of Eastern European food, and occasionally they also have live entertainment.

via

There it is! We've been anxiously awaiting the return of beer-garden weather since our last visit in early November, when we brought a couple of visitors there just to witness its magic, willing ourselves to finish our pitcher in the cold. Worth it.

So, we get to the beer garden and settle in, enjoying the last few rays of sunshine for the evening. Turns out, they weren't actually serving corned beef and cabbage like the person E talked to on the phone said, so we ordered off their regular menu. Kielbasa, potato pancakes, pierogi, sauerkraut and these amazing things that were like gnocchi -- but obviously weren't since they weren't Italian -- smothered in cheesy sauce. Mmmmm, everything was so delicious, and we'll just have to find an Irish pub sometime soon to get our boiled cabbage fix (though we did have some pickled red cabbage last night that was delicious). Unfortunately, I don't know my limits anymore in my old age, so I powered through slightly more than one pitcher of beer by myself in little more than 2 hours, and I had an interesting night after that, to say the least. This was my Facebook status when I got home:

Translation:  I'm drunk.  It's St. Patrick's Day, which we celebrated at a Czech restaurant with kielbasa. It's 8:46 pm and I feel like I'm dying because I'm drunk. Oh my god, Oh my god, this Bon Jovi song was on at the bar and I not only sang it there, but I left my friend a voicemail of me singing it and I am still singing it now that I am home.

It wasn't pretty.

One of those [Wednes]days...

Reasons Why Today is Lame:

• It was pretty near impossible for me to get out of bed this morning. The cat was cuddling, E was dead asleep, and the sun wasn't so bright in the sky as it was last week because of DST. 
•  It's St. Patrick's Day! But instead of witnessing NYC's parade and the city's descent into debauchery, I am at my internship like a good little drone. I don't even neeeed these hours, psh.
• IT IS SO NICE OUT BUT I AM INSIDE. 65 TODAY. SUNNY. BEAUTIFUL. SPRIIIING!
• My tights are too big, so I have puddling at my ankles. Now I know what all those super-skinny girls were complaining about in middle school.
• My cotton dress, which I attempted to make appropriate for very early Spring by rocking tights and a cardigan with it, keeps sticking to my too-big-tights and riding up while I walk.
• ...which is to suggest that I can walk without pain. Which would be a lie. Ow ow ow ow ow Jillian Michaels, I blame YOU (and myself for having such weak thighs).

However, today is also busy -- I have a full slate at my internship (responsibility, yay!) and I'm in discussions with various potential wedding caterers via email to distract me whenever I feel like I'm being too productive. AND this evening, E and I are going to go get corned beef and cabbage to honor our non-Irishness! Mmmm, cabbage.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm diggin this lady:

"These abs don't come for free"

Jillian Michaels is evil. E decided on Sunday that he wants to start running, so we got geared up in what we thought was a break in the otherwise relentless rain. By the time we got downstairs it was pouring again, so we gave up on that idea, but E convinced me to do The Shred, which I've had forever but hadn't worked up the courage to actually do yet. It. Was. Brutal. Absolutely brutal. I am not in the best shape (but I can run over 2 miles without stopping now!), and this program made me feel it. Someday I will recover and be able to do it again. Maybe.

In the meantime, though, I was left hobbling around Manhattan today, 2 days later, when E and I decided to go to the New York Historical Society. We're both on Spring Break this week, but bad, bad weather Friday-Monday kept us indoors, and I'm back to my internship tomorrow, so this was our big exciting day. We were going to go see the Tim Burton exhibit at the MOMA, but of course it's closed on Tuesdays, so we made a last minute decision to go the the NY Historical Society instead of trekking to Brooklyn for the NY Transit Museum and the Prospect Park Zoo. It was an interesting museum, and we topped that with a visit to Shake Shack, where I got a Chicago hot dog!

What is a Chicago hot dog? Wikipedia has this to say:

A Chicago-style hot dog is a steamed, boiled or grilled all-beef hot dog on a poppy seed bun, originating from the city of Chicago, Illinois. The hot dog is topped with mustard, onion, sweet pickle relish (often a dyed neon green variety called "Nuclear Relish"), adill pickle spear, tomato slices or wedges, pickled sport peppers, and celery salt.

I first learned about Chicago hot dogs from The Phantom Gourmet, a Boston cable show about local (and not-so-local) good eats. I have had one of these suckers on my mental plate since, and it did not disappoint. Spicy, tangy, and with the tomatoes to soothe the palate. I had a bite of E's burger, as well, which was a perfect fast-food-done-right slab of meat and veggies on a bun, and we got an order of amaaazing french fries as well. We also split a large root beer (and it was real root beer, not just A&W or something) and a chocolate shake that was amazing. I want to go back. Now.

We walked across Central Park to enjoy the perfect, sunny, 60-degree early spring weather, and saw about a million cute dogs wandering through the park. Every time I'm out and see happy pups bounding through life, I want a dog, and then I remember that I am not willing to climb up and down the stairs to my 4th floor walk-up to walk the dog in wind/rain/snow/heat/etc. Especially when my quads are BURNING TO HIGH HEAVEN due to ill-advised workout videos.

I hurt. I hurt a lot.

I have NEVER loved sports.

I am so glad I don’t like sports, because I am pretty much convinced that die-hard sports fans will die ten years before I do because of game-watching-induced heart disease. Seriously, E gets SO WORKED UP when he’s watching whatever sporting event happens to be on a given night, and he screams and yells and claps and paces the room nervously. It’s enough to get me worked up while I am innocently surfing the internet on the couch next to him.

And if his team loses? Oh, dear. Oh. Dear. He will be in a funk for hours. I don’t understand this at all, because while I have occasionally gotten absorbed in a baseball game and have experienced the euphoria of the drought-ending Red Sox World Series win in 2004, I don’t think I have ever, ever really been upset — like emotionally affected — about a loss, even for a team I have really liked. For instance, I was annoyed when the Sox lost the 2003 ALCS to the Yankees (I used to follow baseball, before E’s INSANE SPORTS FAN viewing requirements destroyed that pleasure by making a game where grown men wear knee socks Srs Bzns), but that annoyance lasted for about 2 minutes before I got over it. In contrast, E just nearly had a meltdown because his wireless card was having trouble connecting to our network after the UConn men lost a basketball game.

My aunt is married to a die-hard sports fan, and somehow they’ve negotiated this for the last 30 or so years. When we saw them recently, E and my uncle were talking about something that involves balls (but not like that), and I made some snarky comment to my aunt, who told me that she resisted the whole sports thing for years. Really put up a fight. But somewhere along the way, she got worn down, and now she really likes watching a game or two.

I doubt that’ll ever be me (I’ve tried, really I’ve tried, in the name of fun nights out eating chicken wings and drinking beer), but it won’t hurt E to dream.

Back

Once E gets home, we’re going to go for a run together this beautiful, not-dark-til-after-6-pm afternoon. I haven’t run in a while (this weather is depressing and demotivating. Also, I am lazy.), but I finally went ahead and registered for my first ever 5K, which I’ll be running on April 3rd, so it’s time for me to get back in gear so I don’t embarrass myself on the course. This will also be the first time I’ve ever run with E. I am nervous. I am a sloooow runner, and I haven’t been in a while, and I think I have a mild undiagnosed case of asthma based on how much I wheeze while I run. Seriously, I have to really focus on my breathing in order to avoid a coughing fit.

Anyway, hopefully all goes well and neither of us wants to kill the other when we get home. On a final note, the best part about this 5K is that the course is on the former World’s Fair grounds out here in Queens, so I’ll be running in the shadow of the Unisphere, which I am squishing in the photo above. I kind of love the World’s Fair grounds, so this might be a major motivation for running this race.

Ice to Ice Cream to Disney World.

We got a lot of snow, when all was said and done, and this morning a squirrel decided to seek refuge on our bedroom window sill. I'm pretty sure it's the same squirrel who's been around all Fall, occasionally stopping by to give Tessie a heart attack, and this morning was no exception. She's been guarding the window zealously since about 8 am, taking breaks once in a while to walk into the living room and meow at us, annoyed that this squirrel won't vacate the premises.

He is a cheeky squirrel. E named him Herbert. I hope Herbert doesn't freeze. He keeps eating snow, which I don't really think is a great idea, but we'll see if sleeping-squirrel-on-our-window-sill becomes dead-squirrel-on-our-window-sill.

In other, totally unrelated news, I stumbled upon a post at The Disney Food Blog about the home made ice cream sandwiches you can get in the Magic Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios (RIP MGM) and Epcot, and now I am craving one like no other. Somehow E and I missed these on our May trip to the World, which is a shame since there are few sweet treats that he loves more than a good ice cream cookie sandwich. And, according to that post, the Main Street Bakery in the MK will let you choose any cookies in the store with which to make the sandwich.

I might have to whip up our own home made ice cream cookie sandwiches tonight, because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to get these off my mind.

I am currently trying to convince my sister that a girls' weekend in Disney World in the Fall would be 10x as awesome as a traditional bachelorette. My idea of a fun night out is a table at a not-too-loud dive bar with a few friends and some beer, and without moving for 4 or 5 hours, so a traditional bar-hopping bachelorette just doesn't really appeal to me. A few days in some Disney, though, with fireworks and good food and rides? Poifect.  We'll see.

Snow Day

It's been snowing since sometime Wednesday night, and the city is clogged up enough today that E and I both have snow days today! Fun! Unfortunately, I still have a lot to get done today, but it's so hard to make myself buckle down when it's supposed to be an unplanned day off. I think we're going to brave the snow in a bit to get some Chinese food, and then cuddle up with a movie to while away some of the afternoon.

This is actually a photo from the last snowstorm we got a few weeks ago. You know, about a month ago, E and I were talking about how mild and dry our first New York winter had been so far. The snow that's been dumped on us since then sure puts that to rest. I took that picture (with my cell phone -- technology!) on Columbia's campus, which was blanketed in a positively beautiful layer of snow. Unfortunately those brick walkways get pretty slippery when covered in slush, though, and while I didn't fall myself, I got to watch a lot of folks end up on their butts.

Back to the grind.

We pulled back into our neighborhood last night after a rainy, boring, 7-hour drive back from Maine, where E and I attended the memorial service for my grandmother and spent some quality time with family, including my littlest niece, the 18-month old wonder, Avery. She is smart, adorable, and sassy as all get-out. She seriously gives dirty looks better than I do, and I've had more than 2 decades longer than she has to figure it out.

The first order of business when I got to the apartment was to cook something delicious. We left Saturday afternoon, and kicked the trip off with a visit to Burger King's drive through. The next 3 days were a whirlwind of fast food pit stops, gluttonous hors d'oeuvres spreads, and dinners out with family -- all delicious, very little nutritious. It had gotten so bad that my body was shouting "GIVE ME GREENS!" to my brain from about noon Sunday til we got home. I raided the fridge for whatever salvageable produce was left, and made a veggie stirfry that soothed the craving a bit, but at this point I'll be happy if I never see the inside of a McDonald's again.

Either way, it's good to be home. The cat has probably never been happier to see us. She's the only cat I know whose owners can disappear for days on end and she doesn't even try to pretend to be mad at them when they return. She's been on our laps any time one of us stops moving, and was getting kicked around at our feet as we slept all night. Poor lonely, codependent kitty.

A Proposal, Girl Style.

In my last post, I mentioned that I proposed to E over the weekend, and that he said yes (unsurprisingly, since he had already proposed to little old me). This reverse-proposal was something we talked about before we ever got engaged, mostly in the context of him wearing an engagement ring. The tentative plan is for him to have a thicker engagement ring and then a thin little wedding band and wear them as a set, but that might change because he's nervous that two rings will feel weird on his man-hands. So, while he's known the ring was coming since we got engaged (I am just a lazy, indecisive sod who couldn't pick one out), I decided to formalize it a bit and pop the question myself.

Enter this book. I decided to make a secret-compartment book to put the ring in, which then evolved into a plan to decorate the pages up to the big reveal with reasons why I think he's a cool dude. With Valentine's Day fast approaching, it would seem innocuous enough, right?

The weather didn't really cooperate with my plans to finish the book in secret -- E came home around noon on Wednesday because of snow, which was supposed to be the day I'd get a lot of it done. I was stuck getting up really early to work on it before he got up for the day and encouraging him to take naps -- which I would then "forget" to wake him up from -- so I could rush through it.

I managed to keep the project a secret until Saturday afternoon, when E came out of the bedroom suddenly and unexpectedly and I had to squawk at him not to move and to close his eyes for a second, confirming his mounting suspicion that I was up to something. So close! 

I stuck mostly to relatively generic statements, just because I figure this will probably sit on our bookshelf for a long time and I don't really want strangers or our future children to read things like "I love you because you never hold my head under the blankets when you fart in bed," no matter how true it is.

I painted over the pages with a wash of acrylic paint, freehanded the numbers, and then doodled with black pen. I found my metallic pen, too, at which point all bets were off and things got sparkly. I'm a glitter kind of gal.

I also used elements from the book in the composition -- the photo of the thinking man on reason #10 (where I just realized there is a massive, panic-over-spacing-induced spelling error that I have to fix haha), the seated crowd on #7, and, my favorite, this Japanese mask on #2. Seriously, it's too perfect, I had to.

Ta-Da!! And then the big moment. He turned the page and saw a love letter on the left and my super-awesome-secret-agent ring compartment on the right. It reminded me of the terrible movie Troop Beverly Hills when the pushover sidekick woman has a camera hidden in a book to report on the awesome red-headed troop leader's misadventures with her spoiled scouts. I think I'm the only person in history who's seen that movie. 

Anyway, I was surprisingly nervous, given that we already have a wedding date set and venue booked, that he'd say no. I was probably more nervous, however, that he'd be mad I destroyed this old encyclopedia volume and that he couldn't read it. Luckily neither of those events transpired and we are happily engaged-engaged. Double engaged? Re-engaged? In any case, it was a lot of fun pulling this off, and he liked it a lot, even if he wasn't surprised because I left the website where I ordered the ring open on my computer. Still good!

A Wild Valentine's Day

So, I had made a pretty adorable Happy-Valentine's-Day graphic to post here, but Photoshop just crashed on me and I don't feel like redoing the whole thing, so I'm just going to ask you to imagine a really shiny awesome graphic at the start of this entry wishing you a happy Valentine's Day.

It's been an alternately strange/awesome 48 hours around here, culminating in some festive red velvet cupcakes and pairs figure skating (if the Winter Olympics could be my Valentine, it would happen). A friend who lives down south sent me a box-mix for red velvet cupcakes, since I can't find it around here. It came with a mix for cream cheese frosting, but I didn't feel like getting out my giant standing mixer, so instead I decorated with some cut-out hearts and confectioner's sugar.

The mix made 5 cupcakes, and even though it wasn't quite as delicious as the queen's recipe, I will take the ease and smaller portions of the mix any random Sunday night when I just want a sweet fix.

After a lot of debate about what to do this Valentine's Day, we ended up having a low key but delightful weekend. Last night I completed the circle by asking E to marry me (yes, you read that right -- more details forthcoming), and he said yes, not unexpectedly. We made a delicious dinner and actually cleared off the dining table and ate there, WITH lit candles, instead of hanging out on the couch and watching an episode of whatever TV show we're trying to catch up with at the moment (right now it's Modern Family).

This morning we got up and went to brunch at a bar down the street, and everything was amazing. The entrees were the perfect breakfast/lunch and traditional/edgy mix, and the mimosa I had was great. E got an egg and cilantro sandwich that he cannot stop talking about, so that's usually a good sign. After brunch we headed into Manhattan to enjoy the nice weather (it was around 40 and not windy!) at the Central Park Zoo. I hadn't ever been to the CPZ before, so I was pretty excited. I was impressed by the enclosures and the animals that were on view, and the way the original zoo structures have been adapted was pretty cool. I think the polar bears were the stars of the day, but the birds in the rainforest house were a very close second.

They also had Snow Leopards on view that were stunningly beautiful (except for when one relieved itself in front of us), and we got to see a sea lion feeding as well! There were quite a few other folks enjoying a day outside in the brisk air, and I am excited to go back when the weather warms up.

Unfortunately the rest of the day wasn't as exciting. When we got back out here, we went to shovel out the car from the snowstorm we had this week, and luckily found that the sun had done about 90% of our work for us. It pays to procrastinate, kids! Then we went to Target spontaneously, along with everyone else in Queens, and ate our Chinese food leftovers when we got home. Throw in some more Olympics coverage, and we're back to where we began -- cupcakes!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy VD! It wasn't a monster truck rally, but we had a lot of fun, and the stuff we did suited us just perfectly, so I am completely content.

Lazy Sundays + Valentine's Day

New layout for the big gushy romance-fest coming up next weekend! E and I went to a Monster Truck Rally last year for Valentine's Day, and it was pretty awesome. It was my first ever, and there was a heart drawn in the dirt in the arena before the show started, which was pretty hilarious. Also, there was a Kermit the Frog puppet on a remote controlled mini monster truck, which was pretty awesome as well. Click for larger images.

We haven't figured out a way to top it this year (and really, can it be done?!). We thought about going to a Harlem Globe Trotters game on the big VD (hehehehe), but Ticketmaster charges TEN DOLLARS PER TICKET in service charges, which changes worth-it-for-the-lols ticket prices into okay-so-not-worth-it ticket prices. So, we'll probably get some beer and play a few games of rummy or something, because our activities of choice seem to alternate between those meant for the very young and for the very old.

Following last weekend's ridiculousness, this weekend has been very quiet. We've cleaned, we've cooked, and we've watched not one, but TWO Netflix movies that have been sitting around for a while. I love Netflix -- since joining a year and a half ago, I've hawked it to everyone who mentions being interested and given gift subscriptions, etc. -- but they definitely know what they're doing. We have the 2-DVDs-at-a-time plan, which in theory should mean that at any given time there is at least one movie/TV show that we'd like to watch in our household, but there are still times when they just sit on our TV console, waiting to be watched for weeks on end. We had Letters from Iwo Jima for 3 1/2 months last spring before we finally just mailed it back and put it back on our queue. We try not to let it get that bad anymore.

And now it's Sunday and E and I both have some homework to get done, laundry to wash, and other little things to do around the apartment, but there is something about Sunday mornings that makes me not want to disturb the quiet, as if the day is in a little cocoon of sleepy a.m.'s and restful p.m.'s. That's our cat, Tessie, up there, and she's definitely got the right idea. But cats usually do, I've found.

Alton Brown is obviously my best friend (Chicken Noodle & Lentil Soups, and cupcakes for good measure)

Today is my half birthday. I don't think anyone other than Leos keep track of their half birthdays past the age of 11 or so, but here we are. I am old. Today was also my first day of classes for the semester, since all my classes are on Monday and classes began on Tuesday last week out of reverence for Dr. King. It was a miserable day, and not only because this officially means the craziness has begun anew. I woke up sick on Sunday morning, again. I don't know what it is about this city, but apparently it is intent on me being sick for weeks on end this winter. It probably has something to do with me spending 2 hours a day in a metal tube with dozens (and dozens) of strangers, but hey. So, I leave my afternoon class and have a text message waiting for me from E, alerting me to the fact that dinner is waiting for me at home. Score! I love cooking, but when I'm sick, I love whining more.

I get home, and there's a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup simmering on the stove! Someone took some Awesome Juice this morning and whipped up some culinary magic. Okay, for the record, a big pot of soup on the stove is likely to make me grin no matter what the weather, and what the state of my health, but there is something so exciting about hot soup when you're sick and it's a miserably rainy day, isn't there?

E grabbed Alton Brown's recipe for chicken noodle soup off the web. We didn't have an onion, but I think the important flavor factor in chicken noodle soup is actually the celery, so it's all good. The recipe doesn't call for any actual chicken (and could therefore easily be made vegetarian using vegetable stock instead of chicken), so E added a little as well. It came out great and reminds me a lot of my mom's -- it would just need some dumplings. Mmmm, dumplings. So yes, good job (and thanks!) E!

While we're on the subject, one of my favorite kinds of soup is lentil soup. Easy, cheap and savory, lentil soup is one of those foods that just seems to taste better after a couple days in the fridge, with all the flavors melding. Unfortunately, this pot of soup didn't last that long. I threw together Alton Brown's lentil soup for a total of about 3 bucks, and it was amazing and fed 2 people for 3 very satisfying meals. I didn't use the spices he recommended (and, truth be told, I don't even know what grains of paradise are) and instead minced an entire bulb of fresh garlic and threw in some dried cilantro and dried basil. When in doubt, go with garlic, am I right? I seriously cannot rave about this soup enough. Since I ate the last bowl of it, I've been craving it, and I might make it this week just to have one portion, and freeze the rest. So, so good.

In a completely unrelated note, I was hungry after dinner the other night, and I finally decided to use the year-old box of carrot cake mix my mom gave me (now I know where I get the urge to foist junk I don't want anymore onto my friends and family) and made cupcakes. I was going to leave them unfrosted and pretend they were muffins so we could just eat them for breakfast, but E wanted frosting, so I followed this recipe for Honey Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting. It came out great -- fluffy and sweet -- but I added a bit more cinnamon to tone the sweetness down a bit.

The frosting attempt was much more successful than my last attempt at buttercream. I won't even link to the recipe, but I will say that the Hershey's perfectly chocolate cupcakes I made the other day came out, well, perfect. The recipe was easy to throw together and tasted better than boxed mix (dark and moist and dense and just the right amount of chocolatey), and the minimal use of dairy is great for people with delicate constitutions. Just a warning, though: I halved the recipe posted there and still ended up with 12 cupcakes (6 more than I wanted). I'm not even going to pretend I didn't eat the extras, though.

I need a hobby other than baking, ha.