A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Someone got some sleep while taking transportation. Because that's certainly not what happens these days.

Here, the first day this week that traffic hasn't been backed up like crazy en route to the train station, the first day we don't have to run for the train, the first day we get seats together, the man across the aisle from us has decided to watch Star Wars Episode III on his computer. Hey, no problem, right? People do it all the time, whether with portable DVD players or otherwise. Yes, but typically, people use headphones. Because when one decides to watch tv in a public place without headphones it tends to make everybody else around feel like we've been invited into your living room. I'm meanwhile trying to go to sleep but between Light Saber "swooshes" and R2D2's high pitched whine I just can't do it. John Williams music has never before taken on such a distasteful tone, and I love Star Wars! Problem is, I'm not really used to watching it (or listening to it, as the case may be) at 8:30 in the morning.

Rule for the train-- if you're going to subject your fellow passengers to film dialogue on full blast, at least bring a monitor with a screen big enough to entertain everyone.

What was worse was later on I looked over and I realized Mr. MovieFone actually *did* have on headphones... whether or not these were properly attached or if he didn't realize that the computer was still emitting volume at full blast is not clear. Of course by this time, Mr. MovieFone, headphones and Snappy George Lucas Dialogue regardless, was fast asleep.

H&M

Why is it that H&M loves to stock fantastic looking designer knock off clothing in its store windows on 5th Avenue but then none of those items are actually available inside the store? For instance, today on the way back from lunch with Dave I happen upon a great little Chloe-like number in the front window, together with a red wrap blouse that was very Japanese kimono inspired... make the mistake of stepping inside and what's there? Nothing even remotely similar to what was in the window. At Banana and JCrew they actually stock what they have in the window, so that upon seeing it, you can actually buy it, H&M? They just want to lure you in and dash your hopes.

Mothra!

I took this picture the other night with the digital Elph... this moth was on the screen by the back door (behind glass...) wacky, no?

Family Room!

So, we've gotten some new furniture and rearranged things a bit...

Badgley Mischka

So this evening I was occupying myself while the husband was still at work by wandering around Bloomingdales. Though these days I prefer Saks (closer) Bloomies has the best hours in town (sometimes even staying open as late as 10 pm, for this being the city that never sleeps, most mainstream retail establishments usually call it quits pretty early, but I digress). Anyhoo, so I have a wedding coming up in September and I've been torn as to what to wear (noting that yes, I have three months for this, but what can I say, I'm a planner by nature). So on my way to the Calvin Klein bedding section (which was the planned reason for this particular visit) I managed to find myself diverted by the dress department. They were having a sale. Do I need to elaborate much more? So, I'm scouring the sale racks and I find a neat green column dress and another dress that was silk and brown and white polka dots (which I did contemplate might make me look a bit giraffe like) and then I found myself in the Badgley Mischka department! I didn't even know they had one of those! Amongst many unique and interesting frocks I found this very Jackie-O beige and silver jacquard number (yes, mom, you will tell me when you see it that it looks like someone's upholstery fabric, but what can I say, I just loved it!) But, the smallest size they had was a six. So, I kept wandering and then decided to try it on-- it looks great! Just the right length and I think it will work perfectly with my new Jimmy Choo's! The only problem being this whole size 6 thing. A four would probably work, possibly a 2 even better-- so I go to the sales person to see whatelse they have. After no luck searching the 59th street store we make the mistake of calling Short Hills (no answer), then Chicago (no other sizes), then Short Hills again (still no answer-- which at this point pisses off the Bloomingdale's people and they have an internal discussion about how the Short Hills people are snobby, and what reason do they have to be snobby if the Flagship 59th Street store actually answers their phones)... then we gave up. That is until I was up in the shoe department and decided to call the store in Boca just in case. Who knew that something jacquard would manage to still be in stock in Boca, but it was! And they're sending it (keep your fingers crossed).

After all that, the Calvin Klein department was a bust, but we'll see about this dress!

Subway Stories

The New York City Subway's metro card kiosks have a newfangled way to "fight" credit card fraud (because so many people who steal other people's credit card numbers decide to rack up rides on public transportation, rather than say, visiting Best Buy to get a Plasma or something). Now when one goes to purchase a metro card with a credit card you have to punch in your billing zip code. This is traumatic for people with Howard Hughes-like tendencies like myself because it means having to touch additional buttons at the kiosk itself, but if that weren't bad enough at the 1/9 kiosk at Penn Station some joker decided it would be comical to cover the number "4" on the key pad with superglue. Maybe an ex boyfriend or girlfriend lives in the Meatpacking district and they were trying to send a message, maybe they thought, "how many people out there really have a "4" in their zip code?" Like it isn't bad enough that I'm having to take the subway as it is, and I'm having to touch the screen and all the creepy buttons, but then, there I am, trying to push the damn number "4" to no avail. Speaking as someone from 08540, for anybody else out there who wants to get cute, and if you want to be really effective in Manhattan, try for the Number "1".

Camelia? Magnolia? Who knows!

Here's another flower from our garden... we've got quite a number of these jobbies hanging delicately from a tree near the "pool"...

Lasagne...

So last night we decided to try Mario Batali's recipe for Lasagne Bolognese from April's Gourmet Magazine. Nothing like having lasagne at 11pm. Do you think Mario would be insulted if I wrote to Gourmet and advised that I improved upon the recipe by adding just a touch of ricotta? You can never have enough cheese.

Canada Loves the Chicks, U.S. Not So Much....

Sure, the first time I'm ever able to get floor seats at the Garden for something other than the fricking Ringling Brothers Circus and rumors abound that the Dixie Chicks Tour is tanking and may be cancelled, or "revamped" so to speak...

Who knew Snapple was Seasonal?

The following mass email was recently circulated at the Job:

"We are pleased to announce that we will be offering Mango Madness Snapple for the summer. Mango will take Orangeade's place. We will again offer Diet Green Tea Snapple in the fall. In addition, during the summer we will be switching Rootbeer and Diet Rootbeer for Cream and Diet Cream."

The Break-Up

We've decided to continue the summer tradition of semi-frequent movie going. Semi-frequent being up from occasional movie viewing with the sporadic "On Demand" rental thrown in for good measure. The tradition started out in earnest a few years ago when we saw Troy (and then a couple of other movies which obviously didn't make a very good impression) at the start of the summer at the "big theater" up closer to New Brunswick than we really like to go.

So far this summer we started things right by going with Dave to the Ziegfeld to see Mission Impossible III. Okay to be honest the only good thing about that was the company and the theater, the movie left a bit to be desired. Say goodbye to your career Tom Cruise.

Then we hit up Lincoln Square for the Code, which was an adventure as most movie going in Manhattan is.

This past weekend we tried something new. We went to a matinee at the Marketfair (still can't convince the husband to go to the Princeton Garden Theater-- something to do with the fact that he claims one doesn't go to the movies to watch said movie on a screen comparable to that of your tv at home-- oh, pish, I say!) Anyway, I digress.

At this matinee showing we were both mesmerized that the ticket prices were somewhat discounted and that at 12:35 on a Sunday virtually no one was in the theater. For whatever reason we then gorged ourselves on movie snacks (in total two excessively large sodas, each which were marketed as "medium", a nacho, jumbo hot dog and pretzel nuggets-- all being really more than we would usually consume in a day let alone in one two hour sitting). The snack indulgence cut into our matinee ticket savings to say the least.

Movie snacks and half empty theater aside, our film choice left much to be desired. What can I say, I was taken in by the whole marketing campaign. I wanted to see The Break-Up. More than "Friends with Money" and certainly more than "Rumor Has It" or "Derailed" (though Derailed did have Clive Owen, a bonus). I got suckered in to wanting to see the movie. The husband went along out of husbandly duty, but perhaps he also knew better. All I can say is now I totally owe him, I am so having to go see the newest Jet Li movie after this disaster.

First of all, its not funny. Not even a little bit. One maybe two chuckles. Vince Vaughn? He looked like a beached whale until the end where in the reshoots he had actually lost so much weight that they wrote it in to the script. Poor Vincent D'Onofrio always plays the "Bug" from the Men in Black movies and Jennifer Anniston is just generally unlikeable.

The whole movie from start to finish seemed like one big PR move to say: "This is what happened. Things with Brad and I blew out of proportion, then I realized we weren't right for each other and I broke up with him, now I've moved on and I'm happy." "And oh, ps. this whole thing with Vince is just for the publicity, we'll be done in two weeks."

Then again I should have known, I tend to think a good indication of a movie is in the previews. The previews showing before The Break-Up included a Cameron Diaz/Kate Winslet movie I've never heard of and a movie about teenagers who start their own technical institute. Harold and Kumar's trip to the White Castle was better! (As an aside, may I just say, this Kate Winslet movie... "The Holiday"... they've paired the poor woman up with Jack Black. Explain to me how Kate Winslet could be in Titanic with Leonardo diCaprio as her love interest, being the "biggest movie" of all time, then the girl puts on a few pounds and she's cast opposite Jack Black?!? There truly is no justice in Hollywood.)

Finally, to round out the weekend we watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith on Starz (or perhaps it was Encore...either way I was surprised it was on tv since the DVD came out approximately five minutes ago). Must say, better film. More entertaining and Angelina Jolie strange as she may be is just a better match for Brad Pitt.

Next on our list?

Casino Royale. The previews have sucked me in and though I was initially a big naysayer for the casting of Daniel Craig, after seeing Layer Cake I can understand the concept.

And of course, a shout out to Snakes on a Plane.

Summer Reading...

Calling all suggestions for good summer reading. I've recently finished Julia Child's "My Life in France" and "Vengance" (the book which "Munich" was based on)-- I know, what a combination, right? I'm looking for engaging non-fiction. I already have a Wendy Wasserstein book and a Jane Rylands Venice stories book but I can't seem to get in to either one of those, and I've also been trying to read a "Short History of France" (which is turning out to be a rather long a boring history of France) for about oh I'd say a year now.

What to do after the Da Vinci Code

So the other night (see "Friday before Memorial Day") we ended up getting out of work dreadfully late and went to see the Code at Lincoln Square. The 10:20 show got us out sometime close to 1am. After getting the car out of hock at a local garage we headed to the tunnel. On 39th Street between 8th and 9th there was an SUV in the middle of the block with a Puerto Rican girl standing on the running board yelling at two police officers across the street from her who were standing by a patrol car. The girl was being restrained by two large male friends dressed in oversized basketball attire. Then there's us, driving right through the middle of this scene in our BMW SUV with Jersey plates, two very geek-y white people blaring Barry White. We like to think it takes all kinds to make New York.