Sweet Blog O'Mine

v. 2.0

  • Vacation, All I Ever Wanted . . .*

    Today is my first official day of a two-week vacation.  "Where are you going?" you might ask.  "Nowhere," I’ll reply.  It’s two weeks in NYC — time to do all those things I threaten to do all the time but never quite get around to as much as I’d like: go to museums, movies, possibly the Botanical Garden; and catch up on other things, like seeing friends, holiday shopping, home improvement projects, uploading photos, reading, and writing.  I started off the vacation sleeping until 11:00 AM — staying out past 4 AM two nights this weekend apparently sapped some of my energy. 

    Friday started with Slice on Ice — this month’s Slice pizza club trip to Angelo’s on 57th Street, followed by ice skating at Wollman rink.  Tien was fiddling with my camera settings, so many of my pictures are a little, uh, artsy, but I like the festive quality of this one:

    Funkypizzaclub

    Adam raffled off a few prizes, and although I didn’t win, I got my very own Slice button, which I love (Thanks, Adam!). 

    Adamraffle Slicebutton

    Due to some unfortunate Zamboni timing, I ended up opting out of skating, and heading to my friend Luke’s party.  It was one of those parties where I didn’t know anyone except for the host, but he did a great job of introducing me around, and I met some very nice people and talked at length about some of my favorite topics:  food, travel, and the bizzare nature of dating in NYC.  Speaking of which — did everyone see the article in the NYT magazine about sex and blogging, Your Blog or Mine?  More on that later, but it featured Deb from Smitten, one of my favorite reads.  After the party (and this was about 2:30 AM), I got a Dodgeball message from my friend Scott.  Last time I saw him, for his birthday pig roast, I had the beginning of the plague part 1, and we didn’t really get to catch up.  So off I went to meet him. 

    Saturday, after sleeping quite late, I spent some time with my mom, and then went off to my cooking class at the Institute for Culinary Education.  There will be much more on that later, as I’m writing up the experience for Gothamist Food.  Let’s just say that it was a pork-filled blast.  Then, on to Emily’s holiday party, where we stayed until she kicked us out at about 3:00 AM.  Needless to say, yesterday was a bit of a wash, but I met my friend Eric and his family for a beautiful holiday concert at Riverside Church.  I have to admit that I’ve always loved Christmas carols.  (Pork and Christmas carols?  Bad Jew!  Oy.)

    And now, vacation.  Ahhhh.  Well, it’s lovely except for the fact that NPR just told me that it feels like 1 degree out.  Maybe I’ll stick with the home improvement projects today . . .

    * A tribute to the Go-Go’s.  Yes, I’m perpetually stuck in the eighties.

  • Back in the Game

    20041206buttonsclearThe plague seems to have passed once again, hopefully for good this time.  Made it to work yesterday, and even to our work holiday dinner.  One more day and then I’m off for two weeks for a vacation right here in sunny NYC.  But tonight, it’s Slice on Ice — the Slice Pizza Club trip to Angelo’s and then on to Wollman Rink, with the likes of Adam, Tien, Janelle, Youngna, and a few other folks I don’t know yet.  Looking forward to it!

  • The Plague, Part Deux

    So it’s back to the flannel pj’s for me.  Even though I was just sick last week, apparently I didn’t kick the bug all the way.  After spending most of yesterday afternoon blowing my nose (thank God for those lotion-y tissues, or my red nose would be in even worse shape than it currently is), I took to the couch, accompanied by even more tissues, Airborne, and a few DVD’s.  I slept like crap last night, and am still blowing my nose every five seconds, so I’m working from home instead of subjecting my co-workers to my snot-ridden self.  I’m going to have to go out at some point for more tissues — damn, I miss Kozmo.com on days like this.  At least I have some soup (pho this time) left over from last night.

    Before I left work yesterday, my friend Rob and I had a little IM conversation about my being sick again. 

    Me: I have the plague again.
    Rob: I thought they eradicated that.  How’d you get it?  Did you kiss a rat?
    Me: I’ve kissed many a rat in my day.
    Me: See, even despite the plague, my sense of humor is still intact.
    Rob: If you can’t laugh in these situations, when can you laugh, really?

    Sniffle.

    * Note — this is slightly paraphrased, as the real IM log is on my work computer.

  • I Love New York Because . . .

    I can go into my neighborhood bar and sit one seat away from Michael Stipe.  Sometimes, I do get quite starstruck.  Bono and Michael Stipe in one month?  Only in New York, my friends.

  • It’s 4:30 pm — Time to Get off the Couch

    I’m actually wrapping up this weekend before the weekend’s over, for a change.  After a somewhat draining week at work, I stayed in Friday night, stopping briefly at Von Singh’s for dinner on the way home, then flopping on the couch watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and knitting presents for my brother and my mom.  Exciting, huh?   Actually, it was perfect.

    LatkesSaturday I made up for it, frantically cleaning up my apartment in time for brunch with the lovely ladies who blog.  Now, I generally have a latke party every year, but this year I didn’t plan one, so I took brunch as an opportunity to make latkes, and to use the platter my friend Deb thoughtfully gave me last year (thanks to Nichelle for the photo).  I was so much fun just catching up, eating, and gossiping, and we certainly missed the ladies who weren’t in attendance this time around.

    Next, on to a haircut, then off to dinner with my brother and stepmom at Angon on the Sixth, where I’ve wanted to go for a while, given all the raves on Chowhound.  Unfortunately, I was so full from brunch I could barely eat, and the service was dreadful for some reason.  I’d like to go back and give it another chance.  After dinner, my brother came along with me to my friend Sara’s holiday party out in Fort Greene.  We walked a route from the subway that was new to me, and I have to say that I really liked the neighborhood out there.  The party was lovely, and we bonded with some very friendly folks over the varied and plentiful cheese selection.  I impressed one party-goer, not to mention myself, by pulling out the name of a cheese that was there — an ubriaco.  I had tried one in the past, and enjoyed it so much that I remembered it, and was able to identify it immediately.  We talked food and cheese for a while, then headed back to Manhattan so I could get to my next stop, which was Jake‘s Chanukah party.  Since it was a bit late, I ran into a few people I knew on their way out as I was on my way in, but stayed chatting with my friend Ethan for a while.  Finally, we headed out, and I stopped in for a nightcap at Otto, knowing full well that someone I knew would be there.  And, of course, Nic and Luke were at the bar. 

    Today is a pajama day — I had leftover latkes for brunch, and have been lazing around, reading the paper, chatting on the phone, and am going to head uptown in a bit with my friend Roopa for dinner at our friend David’s.  He’s been threatening to have us over to his new place for a while, and I’m glad we finally managed to pull it together, so we can catch up and taste these chicken tacos he’s been telling us about all this time.

    This week is my last full week of work before a much needed two week vacation.  I can’t wait.  But, have to make it through the week first.  Wish me luck.  Okay — I’m off hit the shower and get out of my pajamas.  At 4:30 in the afternoon — nice job, lazy girl.

  • Thanks for the Link-Love

    MarinaraJust a shout-out to my boy Slice, who added me to his link list recently — want to make sure visitors from New York’s best pizza blog to feel at home, so I bring you two gorgeous specimens: the marinara and the bianca pizza’s from Una Pizza Napoletana, which I hit for the second time last night with Rob, Nic, David, and Mike.

    BiancaUna Pizza only serves one thing, classic, Neapolitan-style pizza, cooked in a wood-fired brick oven, and they offer four varieties, two of which I tasted on my first visit. Now that I’ve had them all, I have to say that my favorite is still the filetti (cherry tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, garlic, olive oil, basil, and sea salt), followed by the marinara (San Marzano tomatoes, olive oil, oregano, garlic, basil, and sea salt), the bianca (buffalo mozzarella, olive oil, garlic, basil, sea salt), and then the margherita (San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, olive oil, basil, sea salt). Each of us ranked them slightly differently, which just illustrates the variety in palates that are floating around out there. If you haven’t been to Una Pizza (or to Slice, for that matter), you should go as soon as humanly possible.

    And on a non-pizza-related note, thanks to Hugh at Gaping Void for the recent link-love as well.  NOTE: If you’ve come here looking for a picture of my tits, you’re not going to find one.  Sorry.

  • ABC’s of my Weekend: Art, Burgers, and Crudo

    I love how I’ve gotten into this ridiculous habit of "catching up" on my weekend activities sometime mid-week.  I’ll throw in some of this week too, just as an extra added bonus. 

    After recovering from my cold among other things, I was ready for a fairly mellow weekend, so I started off with a visit to the new MoMa with Bill, Sarah, Katie, Romy, Carrie, and John.  It’s free on Fridays — $20 is a tad pricy for a museum, even a newly-renovated one here in NYC — and although it was a little crowded, it’s a great way to unwind on a Friday night.  We only got to see a fraction of the art, but the new building itself was worth the trip.  But since I’m rarely in midtown, I was originally at a bit of a loss as to where to go for dinner afterwards, until it hit me — the Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien hotel.  Made for a perfect high culture/low culture evening, and great for the budget.

    127_2714_r1The next day was my good friend Erika’s bridal shower.  As she well knows, I am not much of a fan of bridal showers, for about a million reasons, so the fact that I went is a testament to how much her friendship means to me.  But you can’t spend any quality time with a friend during a bridal shower, so we made plans to go out to dinner later that evening.  She was so proud that she could take me to Bar Tonno — she had gone there before I did, and she knew it would impress her favorite foodie.  And she was right.  I’ll be reviewing it later tonight for Gothamist Food (I also wrote up the Burger Joint); not only was the crudo (sort of like Italian sushi) fresh and light, which balanced out the huge brunch we had eaten earlier, but we sat right by the sous chef, who had a great Australian accent, a nifty hairdo, and was flirting with me, to boot!

    Sunday I went with Mom, Rob and David to the 10th foodie — this time, a regional Italian tasting.  As usual, a great time was had by all.

    Last night I got to see a free advance screening of the Life Aquatic — it was fantastic — funny, heartwarming, quirky.  Go see it when it opens this weekend.  Tonight’s my designated night in — I was finally able to replace the DVD player that died in the night of the grand tofu-roach-DVD disaster, so I may watch a movie, but first, must eat the turkey pot pie that my dad thoughtfully made after Thanksgiving (it’s been hiding out in my freezer), and I’ve got a review to write, along with some additional posts.  Turns out it’s been a shitty work week for some of my columnists (myself included), so I’ve got to do some extra stuff this week, which also explains my sporadic posting here.  Sorry gang.  And I won’t even go into how behind I am on posting pictures . . . Ack!

  • More Stupidity, Courtesy of our Jackass President

    This article about a Congressional study on the failure of federally-funded abstinence-only sex education is a perfect example of the stupidity of the Bush administration.

    The report, by the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee for Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, says the programs provide "false, misleading or distorted information" about contraception, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual stereotypes.

    The report says some of programs erroneously teach, among other points, that condoms fail to prevent H.I.V. in heterosexual sex 31 percent of the time and that touching another person’s genitals may result in pregnancy.

    Nice, huh?  Back in high school, I participated in model congress.  I always sponsored the bill to distribute condoms freely in high schools along with thorough, accurate education on how to use them.  And yes, I think that kids shouldn’t have sex until they’re ready, and part of being ready is being responsible enough to obtain use birth control and use it properly, but condom distribution in schools is, to me, a no-brainer.  Kids are going to have sex, so it’s better that they are protected from HIV, STD’s and teen pregnancy because they have free condoms available to them.  It infuriates me to no end that the same folks who are constantly cutting funding for and limiting access to safe, legal abortion are also out there screwing up sex education — most likely leading to unwanted pregnancies, among other things.   Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?

  • Flannel PJ’s and Chicken Soup

    First of all, gotta love it when you look at your referral stats and see that someone from the Pentagon’s been looking at your blog.

    And on a totally unrelated note . . . earlier this week, as I was sitting on my couch in my red flannel pajamas with a box of tissues, blowing my nose every five seconds, I realized how much I miss having someone take care of me when I’m sick.  I absolutely despise being sick — I’ll admit, I get a little whiny, and all I want is to get better as soon as possible.  I really miss the days when I was in a relationship, and someone was there to fetch me soup, orange juice, tissues, movies, an extra blanket, or whatever I needed.  Someone who would look at me lovingly despite my red flannel pajamas and my matching red nose, or just sit and rub my legs, feet, or forehead when I was too sick to do anything more than crash on the couch. 

    Now that I have good friends in the neighborhood, many of whom are single, I almost feel like we have a duty to each other to deliver soup, tissues, cold remedies, or whatever when someone’s knocked down with the plague.  I would have loved to have a friendly face stop by the other day, and I’m sure any of my friends would appreciate the gesture.  Sure, you might catch a cold, but what goes around comes around, whether it’s the sniffles, or chicken soup.  Personally, I prefer wonton when I’m sick, just for the record.

  • Four-Letter Words We Love

    Publisher: ‘Blog’ No. 1 word of the year.  I can think of several other four-letter words I love more, however . . .