Sweet Blog O'Mine

Author: Laren

  • Saturday’s Adventure


    The pothole

    Lauren, Frank and I went off on another one of our adventures on Saturday when we took this rather circuitous bike route to City Island. We had a somewhat auspicious start, arriving on the West Side bike path just as the entire rescue forces of Manhattan had arrived to respond to the midair collision that had occurred moments before. Continuing up the path we witnessed a bike crash right in front of us. Next, Frank was nearly felled by an errant softball, and, for the coup de grace, I had my very first bike accident. First of all, I'm fine. There was no traffic involved. I was felled by this evil pothole (it's hard to tell quite how big it was — not sure how I missed it), and have some road rash on my left side and some very colorful bruises. After being tended to and cleaned off, I continued the rest of the ride, and we enjoyed heaping plates of seafood at Johnny's Reef, which tasted all the better for the 30 miles we had traveled to get it. You can find the pictures here.

  • Kismet Vacation

    Kismetwelcome

    Didn't take all that many pictures, but I captured some of the big meals including the grilled pizza experiment and the seafood extravaganza.  You can find them all here.

  • Beachy Thoughts

    My skin now gleams bronze.

    I have gotten my fill of sleep.

    Surrounded by friends,

    While enjoying the taste of home-cooked banquets,

    Watching the sun set alongside the lighthouse,

    And listening to the pounding surf.

    [PS, I am the lamest poet ever.]

  • Yoga, Kismet Style

    Just returned from morning yoga at the Kismet Fire House on Fire Island.  It was a fairly mellow yoga class, although every time the instructor gave a direction, she'd say something like "turn towards the lighthouse," "reach your arm towards the bay."  But my absolute favorite direction was "point your front foot towards the beach and your left foot towards West Islip."  Only on Fire Island.

  • Beeeeeeach!

    I'm out on Fire Island for the week and after a week of feeling like crap, not exercising, and not sleeping particularly well, I'm happy to report that I slept over eight hours straight and went for a run this morning.  I'm hoping this will kick off my vacation quite nicely.  Not sure how much I'll be posting, but there's some good eating on the horizon this week — I'm sure I'll report back with pictures and all. 

    And now off to wiggle my toes in the sand.

  • Expanding the Repertoire

    Toys 

    Margarita

    As you may know, I love to cook.  And eat.  And write about food.  Lately, I've been writing a bit more about spirits and cocktails.  Although I enjoy drinking cocktails, my home cocktail making has been somewhat limited to a few standbys, and I've wanted to expand my horizons a bit and approach cocktail making with the same creativity as I use when I cook off the cuff.  With cooking, before you start creating dishes on your own, you have to have a sense of the basics.  With that in mind, I took a class at the Astor Center last night — Home Bar Basics. with Will Wilmot and Don Lee (who I interviewed for Serious Eats).  They taught us basic general formulas for three major families of cocktails and showed us proper technique for shaking, stirring, and cracking ice.  I need to purchase a few more basic tools and make some simple syrup, but then, let the games begin.  Anyone for a cocktail?

  • A Magical Machine

    It's kind of amazing what the human body can do with a little dedication.  My friend Heidi lent me Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, where he describes running an ultra-marathon — a sixty-two mile race — during which he literally feels that his body is a machine, just going through the motions to get him to the finish line. 

    As for me, a theatre and stage band geek has become a triathlete — not a minor transformation.  I'm also amazed at my body's uncanny timing.  I am currently fighting a fairly nasty cold, complete with a runny nose, sore throat, and low-grade fever, but I am so very thankful that it came this week rather than last week, right before my race.  Maybe this is my body's way of letting go of all the stress I've put it through over the past few months — my friend Erika tells me that it's fairly common for marathon runners to get sick right after their races.  I would chalk it up to picking up something during my dip in the Hudson, except that I know a handful of others who seem to be fighting the same cold this week (feel better, gang!), and none of them did the triathlon.  Whatever the reason, I thank you, magical machine, for waiting until after the tri.

  • Inspiration

    Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who has sent me good wishes before, during, and since the triathlon on Sunday.  Many people have said to me how inspiring my completing the race has been to them (more here on my thoughts about that).  I've had two incredibly inspiring moments recently that I wanted to share with you.  First, as I was walking back to pick up my bike after the race, wearing my Team in Training shirt, a woman stopped me and said, "Go, Team!"  I smiled and thanked her.  But then she said, "No, thank you."  She then turned to her daughter, who was probably about 12 or 13, standing next to her.  "She's a leukemia survivor.  Thank you for raising money."  "Absolutely," I replied.  "My pleasure."  As exhausted and sore as I was, that one moment made me realize that I had done something incredibly worthwhile in addition to giving myself a physical challenge. 

    I also received an email from a reader, who has apparently been reading my blog for some time, but who has never commented. She wrote to tell me that my life has been inspiring to her. "[Y]ou have some amazing adventures and
    it has helped me to read about you and given me the courage to take some leaps
    when I would have stayed home instead.  I saw on your post that you did
    another triathlon and that you had so much encouragement from your readers that
    I thought I'd send you a quick note and tell you that I also think you are
    helping others to live a better life."  It's hard to describe how that makes me feel — I was really quite shocked, but pleasantly surprised.  I do push and challenge myself sometimes, but I have never once thought that it would have an impact on someone else — but I am so happy to hear that it did. Both of these experiences reminded me that your choices can have an impact on others, and in these cases, a positive one.

  • Tri Pics

    I've got some pictures of the tri.  First, the official photographs, which include a few that clearly are not me, and one particularly lovely one of me starting to pull off my wetsuit.  Next, a collection of pictures from my brother and step-dad, mostly of the run.  Thanks to my photographers!

  • A Very Twitter Evening

    What better way to celebrate finishing a triathlon than with a few tweetups!  First, the Rum/Tiki Tweetup at Elettaria, followed by a night with @The_Nose tasting The Dalmore.  Luckily, the evening started early, so I was still able to get a solid night's sleep.  Thanks to @livethelushlife for organizing, and great to meet everyone!  I posted the few pics I took here, but @shotsandcuts put a bunch up here and here.  I love being a dork.