Dirty

No hot water in our building...5 days and counting. It's crazy hot outside but the water comes out ice cold. I tried to shower but it was too painful. I've been having to microwave bowls of water to essentially sponge bathe. We pay way too much rent to take sponge baths.

Is it April or July?

I think it was 90 degrees today. Crazy! Scott (a dear friend from way back) and I met up for brunch in the East Village. I love brunch and I love discovering new brunch spots. Today, thanks to menupages.com, we found Paprika. It was cozy, busy but not crowded, reasonably priced and tasty. I had the green (pesto) eggs over polenta:








For dessert we stopped at 16 Handles, a yogurt bar that serves froyo. If you don't know about froyo, don't worry. One of these days I devote an entire blog to it. It's my favorite summer treat.

Exploring Manhattan

I've been spending a lot of time perusing travel books and sites in preparation for our European honeymoon. Although I am looking forward to all of the historical sites, museums and natural wonders, I am most excited about the food (of course). Most of my research has centered around where and what to eat in the various countries we'll be visiting. I can't wait to be a tourist!

My culinary research inspired me to spend my Saturday off in search of NYC goodies.

First stop: Chinatown
I had really only been to Canal Street, a crowded strip of shops known for selling designer knock-offs. Today I discovered how awesome Chinatown actually is. I kept on thinking how much my dad would loooove it down there. Places I visited:
Dumpling House (technically on the Lower Eastside I think): where you can get 4 dumplings for a dollar. And I did. I also bought a red bean bun for a buck. Everything on the menu is cheap, cheap, cheap and looks amazing. I will definitely be back.


If you want to read more about Dumpling House (which has recently been renamed Vanessa's Dumplings):
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/Dumpling-House/


Next I visited Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. This place was so fun. I love ice cream and I love offbeat flavors, so I was in dessert heaven. I had a scoop of the lychee flavor, which is a type of Chinese fruit. They feature flavors such as black sesame, ginger, green tea and avocado along with fun flavors such as peanutbutter and jelly and blueberry cheesecake. Again, I was reminded of my dad because he used to make us avocado milkshakes. I think he'd get a kick out of all of the exotic flavors (which are actually referred to as the "regular" flavors at the shop. Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry are labeled "exotic).



You can see all of the flavors here: http://chinatownicecreamfactory.com/





In wedding magazines, I kept coming across these:



photo from www.davidlebovitz.com (a fantastic resource for info on Paris)



They are French macarons (not to be confused with the coconut macaroon). I had never tasted one before today. On the way home today I stopped at Macaron Cafe http://www.macaroncafe.com/ where a lovely young woman with an apron and a French accent sold me 2 of these pretty little cookies (pistachio and a passion fruit). Oh my gosh....move over cupcakes, I've found a new obsession. These light and chewy cookies made me smile. I also got to taste rasberry, rose and mandarin flavors....all so yummy. I can't wait to go to France and eat more macarons. Until then, I think I'll be a frequent visitor at Macaron Cafe, which is practically in the neighborhood.

My feet are so tired from walking around lower Manhattan for hours but ahh....what a wonderful day. I can't wait to be a real tourist.

Rainy Monday

Here's a scene from a sunnier day (this past Saturday, in fact):


Longing for a treat.

A lonely day of the Upper Eastside

I like spending time in the grocery store, but not like this (Imagine me, standing next to this table in a white button down and black pants):


A few weeks ago, I mentioned the grocery store on the end of my block (think back to outrageously priced cereal). Yesterday I spent 5 hours in this particular grocery store (same chain but on the other side of town), sampling pasta sauce at a rate of one customer per half-hour. When I got there, the manager was surprised to see me. He had no idea I was coming. I needed a table to set up all of my gear, so he sent me down to the basement to find Dennis from the deli, who produces this patio table.The table was kind of cute, but I had to set up in the household goods section because it was the only place I could find an outlet to plug in the crock pot. I pretty much spent the day reading about all of the different cleaners, air fresheners and detergents that surrounded me. I also ate a lot of bread and pasta sauce. There were no windows to let the sunshine in, so I was able to forget that it was actually a beautiful breezy spring afternoon. Every 10 minutes or so, someone would come by and I would cheerfully offer them a sample. It seemed that 4 out of 5 people declined. Maybe they were turned off by the hangers. At least it smelled good back there.

My bank account is feeling a little lighter

Happy Tax Day everyone. When I worked and went to school full time, tax day was awesome. Over the last few years have I realized why so many people dread this time of year. What!? You don't always get money back? They want more? Again? Really?

I cheered myself up with a much needed mani/pedi. It had been almost a year and I was feeling pretty ragged. It's amazing what they did with the chewed off nubs that were my fingernails. I have girl hands again!

North Dakota in the news...

This was a headline on my Yahoo homepage tonight:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090414/ap_on_re_us/midwest_flooding
Oh no!

My prayers go out to my family in Valley City.
My thoughts are with ya'll!

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We had a lovely day up in Westchester county with some great friends. We had an Easter egg hunt and a delicious lunch. Then we pretended to be rock stars:












Larry had a good time too. He found the first egg:









Daryl made a pie. It was pretty tasty. Can you find the bunny?














On the way home, we walked through Times Square and pretended to be tourists:



















And finally, a little blast from the past....vintage Easter pics!

Ready for my closeup/Will work for lattes

Remember my face gadget, Tanda? This is Tanda in action. I'm multi-tasking here (looking HOT, right?)

I think it's working...and so what if the results are purely psychological.

Today I shot my little indie film. It was fun. Even though it was just two tiny scenes it took over 4 hours to shoot. That's an hour per sentence! This was in part because I couldn't seem to take direction this morning. Maybe it was too early. My lattes weren't kicking in. We filmed at a little cafe uptown so I had lots of free caffeinated beverages. Oh yeah!

Vintage Pics

This picture is 20+ years old!

I've been working on a project that involves digging through lots of old family photos. It's been good times. I've found awesome vintage pictures of so many people. Don't worry, I won't post them here. (Sister...you have not been spared).

Eyelashes

Today I shot my first infomercial. I went to the "after" shoot yesterday, and I was one of the gals chosen to go in and talk about my new fabulous eyelashes (which really do seem to be longer and fuller). I headed to Jersey on a bus in the rain to a production studio where I gave an on-camera testimonial about the product/my eyelashes. It was actually pretty fun, although I'd rather have copy (a script). When asked an open ended question, I have a tendency to ramble on and on. I really liked the way that the makeup artist did my face. Too bad I didn't have anywhere fancy to go afterward...the rain washed a lot of it off anyway because someone stole my umbrella while I was in filming. Who does that?

I Love Lattes

Okay, so now I have 2 wedding dresses and 2 one touch single cup brewing systems. This is the Tassimo:
I was wandering around Target after work yesterday and just stumbled upon this little guy in the clearance aisle. I felt a little guilty as I placed it in my cart because...well, I just bought a Keurig. Why does a person need 2 appliances that basically do the same thing?

This is why I don't feel too bad about my purchase:
A) The Tassimo makes lattes and cappuccinos/Keurig does not.
B) It was on clearance for 25 bucks! Over 75% off! That's just 6 Starbucks lattes.

I was sort of embarrassed to tell Daryl that I bought another coffee machine because there is nowhere to put and...oh, yeah....we're trying to pay for a wedding and stuffffff.....but he was supportive. I guess he understands my love for lattes and is happy that I don't really have any other addictions. I suggested that we put one of the brewers in the bedroom (wouldn't you like your room to smell like coffee?sounds reasonable to me) He wasn't so keen on that idea.
We just tried the chai latte on our new Tassimo and I'm happy to report that it was pretty tasty.

This is not a joke

This is why the grocery store at the end of my street sucks. In case you can't read the price sign at the bottom, it says $7.69. For one box! It's supposedly the "family size" but you really only get 4 extra ounces.

I'm pretty sure that this cereal does not burn calories or provide superpowers...so why on earth would anyone fork over nearly 8 dollars for something that is on sale at Rite-Aid (down the street) for $2.50?


...more proof that Trader Joe's rocks!