that I’m in Minneapolis this week at a conference. Having a great time so for — all of my panels/meetings have gone smoothly, as have the meals I’ve organized. One more panel to go!
v. 2.0
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Just Ducky
the Mother Duckers
Had another fantastic time competing in the annual D’Artagnan Duckathlon. No jambon this year, but we managed to win the olive-oil tasting event, which landed us some olive oil from Fig & Olive, black truffle oil, white truffle oil, and the jackpot — a log of black truffle butter. Woo hoo! Thanks again to Emila, John and Frank for being excellent teammates and to D’Artagnan for including the Gothamist team for our fourth year in a row. The rest of the photos are here.
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There’s No Place Like London
In the words of Sweeney Todd. Yes, we have our differing opinions of London (Rob), but I certainly enjoyed my time there. The pictures are now up. Highlights included a trip to Oxford with Rebecca, a day at Borough Market followed by dinner at St. John with Rob and Tamara (the famous marrow bones and parsley salad pictured above), Thai dinner at Addie’s, my long walk to the Tate to see the Peter Doig exhibit, and drinks and dinner with Jodie and Margie. Thanks again to Rob (and Sara in absentia) for their hospitality.
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Home Sweet Home
All I can say is after that last, bumpy hour and a half of my flight back from London, I sure as hell am happy to be home and sleeping in my own bed tonight. I also just realized that this is the first return home from a long(ish) vacation since I bought my place — does it feel different to return home to a place I own? Not sure, but it definitely feels fabulous to be here.
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Happy Pesach!
Hi all — I’m off to London tonight but just wanted to wish everyone a happy passover. I am being the worst Jew ever this year — not even trying to keep kosher for Passover. I did get to taste some delicious Matzoh Brei (more details on Gothamist later) and am planning to cook a seder with Rob while I’m away. An appropriate clip from the Onion: Passover Seder Half-Assed. Sort of like when we put a Cadbury Creme Egg on our family seder plate.
[UPDATE — here’s the Gothamist post. Cheerio!]
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C is for Cookie
This piece from McSweeney’s made me laugh way too hard. Self-reflection by Cookie Monster: Is Me Really Monster? I will now have "C is for Cookie" stuck in my head all day.
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Positive Reinforcement
It’s been a rough week on several fronts, but there have been some bright moments as well. I’ve gone running a few times before work (not every day, but a few times), and I always get a cheery "I’m so proud of you, Laren!" from my doorman, Pat, before and after my runs. I always thank him profusely, and it really does help in making me feel good about what I’ve accomplished. First, merely hauling my ass out of bed to work out at that hour and second, actually running. If (and I mean IF) I can handle it, I may start mixing up the runs with spin classes. We will see.
And some of the most fun parts of the week are yet to come — tonight, a Taste of the Lower East Side, tomorrow dinner with a high school friend I haven’t seen in, oh about twenty years. It’ll be a blast. Not to mention all the weekend has in store!
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Weekend Wrapup
Let’s see, where to start. Friday night I went to a concert put on by middle school students from a set of city charter schools. We provide pro bono legal services to the parents of one of the schools, and I’ve got to say, it was so wonderful to see these kids play in the orchestra knowing that some of their families are dealing with a whole host of legal issues that could potentially have an impact on their education. It feels great to know that our lawyers are helping out. After the show, I hit the couch hard, and as a result I was up very early Saturday morning. I took advantage of this odd occurrence and read the paper, then went for a swim. Afterwards, it was on to a haircut (looks good if I don’t say so myself), then Mom, Stephen, and the Lovely Miss Katie came over for some snacks, prosecco, and some home improvement. Thanks to Stephen, I now have a new light fixture in the bathroom, a shelf and a towel bar — they look fantastic (thanks again, Stephen!). Afterwards I met up with Rob Y. for a movie, My Blueberry Nights, which, despite having some great Jude Law eye candy, was sort of mediocre. Cute, but mediocre.
Sunday brought a last minute brunch with Matt and his harem, then off to Whole Foods to shop for Sunday night’s dinner — an Asian-inspired feast. I started off with Japanese rice snacks, edamame and roasted nori to snack on, then a spicy Thai eggplant salad, followed by sesame soba noodles. The main course was a fish with black bean and garlic sauce and sides of sesame asparagus and steamed rice. For dessert, I made a ginger ice cream with crystallized ginger. The recipes that weren’t from Epicurious were all from the Moosewood Cookbook (a.k.a. "the cult," per Gabe). Major thanks to Jimmy for being a fabulous sous chef and co-conspirator.
So, on the Cure front, I’m a little behind. Only cooked a few times this week (but Sunday should count for more than one meal, I think), and didn’t do so much on my list. Although I sold my TV cabinet, the TV hasn’t yet found a home — I should probably wait a little while before I buy the new one anyway. Maybe this weekend I can carve out some time for purging some clothing and files and begin the long process of getting all of my CD’s onto iTunes.
In case you missed it, Chip forwarded along a great article from Slate entitled "How economics and game theory explain the shortage of available, appealing men," in response to my Mapquest post. An interesting theory . . .
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Jump Start
As of now I am going to do my damnedest to run for about 20 minutes before work as often as possible (or even biking) — this is in addition to any other workouts I’m doing. Reasons for this are threefold: 1) I’m hoping it’ll help me feel more awake by the time I get to work (I’m not much of a morning person); 2) It will help me log more miles as I get ready for my triathlon in July; 3) bathing suit season is closer than I want it to be and I’d really like to show off all the work my trainer and I have done — a little extra cardio will help on that front. Wish me luck.
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Setting the Mood
Back from the wilds of Maine (more on that later), but just wanted to note how something as simple as hearing a good song on your iPod on the way to work can put a positive spin on your day. Blondie got my toes tapping and helped to wake me up this morning — first with Dreaming, and then, by some fluke of the shuffling gods, with Heart of Glass. The first one put me in a general good mood and the second reminded me of John B. and his personal rendition.