After attending The Black Table party this past Friday night, and spending time with the lovely ladies who blog, among others, I realized that blogging is one of the two doors that have most impacted my social life over the last year (the other being hanging out at Otto). Through my blog, I have corresponded with and met incredibly smart, diverse, interesting people, who all have expertise in areas in which I have none (Brazilian culture, lesbian erotica, panties (well, I have some expertise in panties, although I tend not to use the word so often)), which makes for scintillating conversation. And although I have not yet met any dating prospects through blogging, it sure beats online dating. I’d rather spend an evening having pizza at 2 AM with a group of cool women chatting about The Straight Sign and food, than on a shitty online date with someone who, although he may seem charming and smart via email, is entirely lacking in wit and/or social skills in real life. Bloggers also seem to enjoy getting together offline a great deal — makes for good blog fodder, at the very least. So — a shout-out to The Brazilian Muse, LustyLady, GirlyNYC, Nichelle, and Lux, and thanks to Colin, a co-worker who joined me at the party on blind faith — I told him there would be cool, smart women there (in addition to me, of course) and there certainly were!
Author: Laren
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I Have Nothing to Add at the Moment. Whew!
Break Up News is a recently launched blog that lists breakups in the same style as wedding announcements. Love it.
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What Are You Lookin’ At?!?
I heaved my lazy ass out of bed early this morning as part of my training for next week’s 5K — even debuted my Run Against Bush t-shirt! But there was one thing that I noticed during my run, and all of my prior runs around Washington Square Park: there’s this guy who hangs out at the corner of Washington Place and Washington Square East. He’s there every time I’m out running — usually around 7:45 or 8:00 AM. And every time I run past him (which is not more than 5 times right now — I’m up to 2.5 miles), I want to shout at him — don’t you have someplace to be right now?! What the hell are you doing, standing here watching us all jog by? Are you looking at my boobs? Eeeww! But I don’t. I just keep running. See you tomorrow, creep.
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To Post or Not To Post
This one goes out to all my fellow bloggers. Have you ever written a post and then hesitated before you hit the “publish” button out of fear that someone might read it and misinterpret it? I wrote a post last night that basically contained a generalized dating-type rant. Nothing really bad, and certainly not directed towards any specific person, but I was worried that there are several people out there who could potentially read it and imagine that I was bitching about their behavior. Be forewarned, folks, I’m not.
I have always wanted my blog to be a place that I would feel comfortable knowing anyone I might know would read it — my family, my co-workers, my ex-boyfriends, my current boyfriend (wait, I don’t have one — never mind). I’m pretty sure I’ll ultimately post it, but I need to make sure the timing’s right. As they say, timing is everything. So stay tuned, and perhaps you’ll see it at some point. And now back to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress.
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Sweet Blog o’ Mine 2.0
You might not have noticed it, but there have been some big changes here over the past week. You can now reach this blog at www.sweetblogomine.com, so change your bookmarks. How exciting is that!?! You can also now email me at laren (at) sweetblogomine.com.
No, really, it’s sooo cool, isn’t it?
When did I become such a dork?
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The Blogosphere is Smaller Than I Thought
Had a great time at the Gothamist happy hour last night. Despite showing up somewhat late, I was able to chat with many of my fellow bloggers, some of whom I knew and some of whom I met for the first time. At one point, I was introduced to a blogger to whom I had linked in the past, not knowing who he was. When he was introduced to me by name and I saw his face, it took a moment, but then I placed him — we went to high school together waaaay back in the day. We spent a great deal of time catching up and reminiscing about who we were then and how our current lives are such an interesting contrast — I never would have pictured him the way he is today, and I’d imagine he might say the same about me. What about you? Would the people you knew in high school recognize you today, or is your current persona such a far cry from who you were then that you would be virtually unrecognizable?
And no name-dropping, but I wanted to give a shout-out the evil group of bloggers who kept me up way past my bedtime on a school night. You know who you are. . .
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S’mores and Other Finger Lakes Goodies
I have finished posting the pictures from this weekend, and I believe there are a few that need some explanation beyond what was written in the caption. First, a few were taken at a rest stop outside of the Poconos. This rest stop was like nothing I had seen before — it sold everything one could possibly want or need at a rest stop, from snacks to fireworks. As we debated whether or not buying our friend fireworks would break any laws, we ran into someone we knew from NYC. Small, small world. Before we left, I bought my very first taco from Taco Bell. And, although it wasn’t quite as nasty as McDonalds, as far as fast food goes, it will probably be my last. We opted out of a visit to the mobile chapel, and continued on our ride upstate.My first day in the Finger Lakes region was spent wine-tasting. We visited three vineyards: Lamoreaux Landing, Shalestone Vineyards, and Chateau Lafayette Reneau. I brought back two bottles, a cabernet franc and a late harvest riesling, for my upcoming wine
clubsociety meeting, where we’ll be focusing on the Finger Lakes region (convenient, no?).
The remainder of the pictures are from Jeff’s house on the lake, where we celebrated the Fourth, had a mini luau, and had s’mores two nights in a row. This weekend I learned that s’mores, while they taste amazing, do not photograph well. They were so very tasty, chocolatey, and gooey, I promise. The final two photos are from the Big Dipper, where we stopped for barbecued chicken and milkshakes on the way home. Sure as hell beats Taco Bell any day. You can see the rest of the pictures here. -
Feelin’ the Love
My traffic has been waaaay up over the past few days — many thanks to Alaina at NYC Eats and Hugh at Gaping Void for the link-love. I’m feelin’ it, baby.
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Things I Will Never See in Manhattan
I was up in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York this weekend. While shopping at a local Wal-Mart for our 4th of July barbeque, I saw something that left me standing, mouth agape, in the midst of the freezer aisle.
Yes folks, that is a five pound bag. Staying in NYC looks better and better each time I leave. Once I recovered, I had a lovely weekend. A special thanks to Jeff for being an amazing host and showing me the sights. I’ll be posting the rest of the pictures soon.
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Finally, Foodie!
After reading about Foodie back in September, receiving invites to the last few events and having scheduling conflicts each time, I was finally able to attend this past Sunday’s Spanish-themed Foodie at Gallery A in the East Village. I brought three of my food and wine-loving friends to enjoy the evening with me. After all these months, my anticipation and expectations were both running high, and I was not in the least bit disappointed. Joe DeSalazar, who runs the event, was as pleasant as he had been in our email correspondence, and after a few glasses of pear sangria, my friends and I each sat down at a large table, with a personalized menu welcoming us to our seats. We shared the table with about a dozen people, all of whom were very interesting and clearly shared our love of food and wine.
Each course was paired with a Spanish wine. The first course was a mint-marinated seared tuna with grilled peaches, which was light and simple, and goat cheese-stuffed figs with pecans and serrano ham. Despite my ridiculous aversion to goat cheese, I ate one of the two figs.
The second course was one of my favorites, a manchego corn flan with grilled zucchini, caramelized corn, and mint oil. The slightly charred corn lent a sweet, smoky contrast to the fluffy yet creamy flan — pure summertime. 
The next course matched sweet piquillo peppers with a stuffing of chorizo, bacalao, olives and chive oil. Every time I have chorizo, I ask myself, “why the hell don’t I eat this more often?!” The spiciness was a great contrast to the sweetness of the peppers. The wine pairing with the peppers was a 2001 Tempranillo called Telmo Rodriguez “G” Gago, which we nicknamed “Roddy G.” We decided it was most likely related to Ali G. It was also at this point in the evening when we played “stump the chef” in order to win extra wine.
[Our challenge — what is the unit used to measure the “hotness” of a pepper. Any takers?] Despite our increased wine intake, we forged on to the next courses. The Basque seafood stew was a medley of shrimp, mussels and monkfish in a ham hock broth, with green beans and aioli toasts. As you can see, I dove right in before I could even sneak in a picture. The broth kept the stew light enough for the hot summer evening.
The last course, a grilled summer Cocido, consisted of a grilled lamb chop and a slice of pork tenderloin served on a bed of chickpea puree. We finished our evening with a rice pudding, with fresh fruit, toasted almonds, and a dark chocolate sauce, which was paired with a smooth, sweet sherry. A fabulous finish to an extremely indulgent evening.
Join me, my friends, and Joe at the next Foodie event, which will be in approximately two months. Visit the Foodie website for details and to learn more about past and future events, and click here for more pictures.
