Suede...

Husband noted he looks like top American designer Michael Kors! He's Michael's love child!

Today!

I don't have any new updates on the kitchen, except to say our plumber looks like Vin Diesel.

In other news, today Miss Baby and I spent the day traversing the tri-state area. On the last Wednesday of each month Grant Wilfley does an open casting call for SAG and non-SAG extras at their Connecticut satellite office in Stamford. We headed up north today to visit with Leda and to register. We met up with Miss Leda at her office and she showed us around the world's largest trading floor-- it was pretty nifty. It was like an airport terminal that someone filled with Bloomberg screens and traders. It was pretty neat that they have a catwalk above the trading floor so you can look down at everybody in the "pit" and get that human zoo feeling!

Next it was over to Progress Drive for our casting call (which Leda joined us for)... there were a few other people there including at least one real stage mom who brought props with her to make sure her tots smiled for the camera-- she also mentioned that one of her little boys had gotten a black eye this week and she was thinking she'd cover it with make-up. (Okay, can we say taking this a bit too seriously??) Of course she also had her own picture taken too (sorry to be mean but she really could have used make-up more than her tot...) If you're going to go there and everything you may as well comb your hair and throw on some lipstick, no?

Afterwards Miss B and I headed in to Greenwich to do some wandering around on Greenwich Ave. We stopped in to the world's smallest Saks (to replace a pair of sunglasses which have gone missing) and I actually got asked where I get my haircut! (I do have to say it was fun being able to say that I got my hair done in Paris!) It is starting to get a bit shaggy though so I'm going to have to visit Julien at FF sometime soon. We also hit up Jacadi (big sale), Vineyard Vines (small sale) and Starbucks for a slice of marble pound cake.

Unfortunately we didn't time things too great so on the way home we hit a *ton* of traffic once we hit the Bronx. We jumped off of 95 up the Bronx River Parkway to Fordham Road/Route 1 and proceeded to cross the Bronx on surface streets until we got to the Henry Hudson Parkway. The Garmin spent the whole time trying to get us back on 95. I think by now the British Garmin lady's head is spinning. Can I also say, something's telling me not too many people combine shopping in Greenwich with crossing the Bronx.

Plans for tomorrow? Stay local.

The Fortune Cookie

Tonight we got Chinese food from Tiger Noodles. The Husband's fortune was: "No job is so simple that it cannot be done wrong." I think quite an apropos nugget of wisdom for our current remodeling circumstances.

Take My Freezer, Please

More updates: Today should be the last day of the electrical work. Devi has brought another guy with him today who looks as though if Dave Ziskind has a relative in the electrical trade this guy is it.

While lunching in the dining room/make-shift kitchen today we heard a knock on the front door. It was a large tatooed guy (with headscarf) out in the drive way asking if he could take the old freezer (noting his similarly tattooed friend already had it on its side about to go into a pickup truck). (Thank God!)

Other news? The washing machine drains through a small rubber hose that has been snaked underneath our pumpkin pine floor. Sure, that's up to code.

Tour Notes...

So, what with all the kitchen stuff going on we've had less time to focus on the important stuff in life like... the Tour de France. Yup its been going on for the past few weeks and it ended today with the peloton cycling into Paris to do their last run on the Champs Elysses. This year's tour coverage on Versus was kind of lame. One of the guys who had been doing it for the past couple of years is no longer with them (but I have heard his distinctive voice on NBC lately... don't ask his name though, I have no idea...) and Versus loves to play the same four commercials over and over again. It's like they couldn't sell airtime to anybody but four sponsors. One of the sponsors is Saab (who's slogan should be: "born from old Jet parts"). What's made this worse is the Saab commercial in and of itself is repitious so you really feel like blowing your brains out after you've seen it by about the third or fourth time. Another Tour observation? Teams. The cyclying teams are always weird-- for example, why was Lance Armstrong sponsored by the US Postal Service for all those years?? Our stamp prices increase so Lance can get a new bike? But I digress. This year's winner of the wackiest team award has to go to the Garmin-Chipotle Team. I have visions of the Garmin side of the team leading the riders off of the scheduled route in order to get to the finish line faster but doing so in a way that is utterly circuitious and nonsensical (as this is what our Garmin ususally does when it's giving us directions). As for the Chipotle side of the team-- well, why don't you tell me... how well do you think Mexican food and endurance cycling would go together?

And, as usual there have been the "doping" scandals. Every other day it seemed like somebody was being thrown out of the race because they were using performance enhancing drugs... as if they thought they weren't going to be tested??

Finally, our hats off to Oscar Perrero who managed to fall off of the side of one of the cliffs during the race and land on the same road he had been riding on, just quite a distance below while running into some of the other cyclists. Oscar was out of the race but at least he only broke a femur.

A Few More Pictures...

Here's a picture of the large pile of electrical accoutrement that were unceremoniously ripped from the ceiling, etc. Oh, and that larger hole in the center of the wall? That is where a junction box with four live wires was hidden behind the drywall. But, in our favor is the fact that whoever put in the outlet below that hole left a note inside the box that the outlet was attached to "for the electrician" which diagrammed where the live wires were hidden! It's like a treasure map! (In fact, if you click on the picture you can see the note which has been tacked onto the wall near the larger hole-- the front side is addressed to the next electrician, the back side which you can't see shows the diagram...)





This is a picture of the doorway sized hole that was behind our fridge. If you were to cut a hole in the drywall that covers the backside of this hole you'd have a doorway to our boiler-room... woo-hoo! Guess that cinder block wall between the kitchen and utility/boiler room isn't load bearing after all!

Here's the remnant of another receptacle that was walled up behind a false wall... if you click on the picture you can see the spiffy wallpaper that used to adorn the kitchen. It looks to be some sort of red/maroon argyle pattern. Any guesses as to what decade that's from??

PR!

Okay so Stella totally thinks she's Cher circa 1976 and what's with Suede talking in the third person?? Carry on!

Food Glorious Food

Having to prepare all of our food in the dining room in a make-shift kitchen has started off as a good test in how to feed a toddler. When all you've got is a panini maker, toaster oven, toaster and a microwave you need to be creative. This morning I made scrambled eggs in the microwave (thanks to all those years watching the guys at Ess-a-bagel do it. However, I struck a miss this evening at dinner when I attempted to give the little lady the equivalent of a toddler-sized MRE. I should have known when the "Graduates Lil' Entree" didn't need to be refrigerated. At first she was a good sport, trying the chicken, mashed potatoes and carrots but after about three bites she just looked at me as if to say, "Lady, you took me to Paris and you expect me to eat *this*?"

During the first week of August, while I'm toiling away at a week long NJCLE seminar, the Mom and Dad will be watching Miss B so I've complied a few food tips for the care and feeding of Miss Baby.

If "Cheese" is in the name, it's usually fair game. Case in point, macaroni and cheese, ham and cheese, cheeseburger.

If "Dog" is in the name, it's a no-go.. for instance: corn dog, devil dog.

Much like conjugating latin verbs, there are always irregularities. Chili Cheese dog? Well, cheese does appear in the name, but cheese is always overruled by the use of "dog". Chili cheese dog? That'd be a no.

Other irregularities include "roll" "roll" on its own, as in a round bread product, works. Lobster roll? That might work. Taylor pork roll? While I have succumbed to the unique goodness that is pressed pork roll I really think there is no place in Miss B's internal workings for that particular food product.

All this Kitchen Renovation Work

is making me sleepy...



Today we have the electricians! Devi has been our electrician from the start and he's very nice but he always seems to be a bit on the inexperienced side. Kind of like he might very well be a brain surgeon back in the Ukraine but lighting doesn't seem to be his thing. Thankfully, the electricians travel in pairs and they've paired him up with someone who supposedly has 23 years of experience, but either way electrician #2 has the appearance of someone who knows what they're doing. First they measured out the room and went according to the design to layout outlets/appliance receptacles and then they went over all of the placement with me. Now they're ripping out all of the old wiring that we don't need or is outdated (we requested this since the kitchen wiring has always been spotty at best). Then they're planning to bring back an extra guy tomorrow to start on the lighting, etc.

On other fronts, we think we may go with a hood inside of a piece of cabinetry rather than a hood with a chimney... I contacted H&H Gas and Appliance and they're willing to match Ferguson's price on the Wolf Rangetop and the hood price (which includes the needed blower) is much more reasonable than the hood plus chimney plus blower... of course then you have to add in the cost of the vent cover, but we'll deal with that. I'm supposed to visit Marilyn at the HD tomorrow...

Oh, by the way, did I mention the giant-door-sized hole that was behind the frige? Clearly, that's going to need to be fixed. And, for some reason the "wall" behind where the old cooktop used to be is some sort of metal sheeting afixed to a metal netting which was 'afixed' (by a method which is unclear) to the underlying cinderblock. Even our Ukrainian friend indicated that this was reminscient of a bomb shelter.

Real-Time Remodel Blogging...

So the guys are at the house now demo-ing the ceiling in the kitchen. They were supposed to come back and do it yesterday but there was a little mishap with the burglar alarm and alas they fled the scene (seemed fishy... can you say undocumented worker? That, alas, is Home Depot's problem...) anyhoo. They were supposed to come "this afternoon" which interestingly enough meant 4:15 but they didn't actually enter the house until 4:30 since it was raining outside and they didn't seem to want to leave their truck. By the way, the truck? It's got the road runner painted on it in multiple places and there are flames by the grill (you can draw your own conclusions, but it certainly is a spiffy custom paint job for whatever that is worth... pictures will follow). I think that someone out there is conspiring against me however as Baby went down for a nap a few minutes before the guys arrived (and began blowing the horn of their truck to get my attention... (said truck is of course outfitted with a novelty horn). I was hoping to catch a bit of a nap myself but alas, while so far it seems to not have disturbed Baby I can't really see myself falling asleep during demo. So instead I made crispy crowns in the new toaster oven which has been set up in our dining room kitchenette. Nothing says "new toaster oven" like that burning plastic smell you get the first time you use it. Especially when you have to put it on 450. I'm just shocked that the Dining Room fuse didn't blow. The sheer fact that I had the nerve to have the microwave plugged in simultaneously while using the toaster oven (let's not even think about *using* it simultaneously, I'm just talking plugged in here...) normally would have blown the fuse!

Tomorrow's adventure will be a visit from the electricians. We'll see how that goes. Oh, one last thing. Our Kitchen sink's drain line is the last drain connected into the main drain line for the house-- every other drain is above the drain line but the kitchen sink drain is more parallel to the line and it links a short distance before the drain leaves the house. Carlos and the boys forgot to cap the drain line last night when they left. This obviously necessitated a trip to HD to pick up a cap. Oh, and let's not forget that while they did "shut off" the gas line to the cooktop (there is an emergency shut off valve about an inch from where they cut the line), they didn't cap the cut line for that either-- they just put some electrical tape over the end. Thank god we're not smokers.

The Kitchen

remodel has begun.

















After Demo...

FYI...

USA Quick Facts from Census.gov

Weef in the City!

As noted in the post below, yesterday started off with a bang! Then, as I'm walking into Penn Station (okay, fighting through the horde of passengers exiting my train in order to get up off the platform and into the station...) I hear the muffled ring of my cell phone. It's the Husband. Turns out Bar Americain, though having taken our 11:30am reservation via Open Table last week, is "closed" and has to cancel our reservation. Emily from Bar Americain didn't say why (I'm guessing private party, though who knows, it could have been the health department ;) she was nice enough to get me another reservation at The Modern once I told her Mesa Grill was too far for our travels. However, after thinking on it, I remembered Blue Fin located right in Times Square... called them and got us a 12pm reservation (as power was down on portions of the New Haven line the ladies were running a few minutes behind...). I headed to TKTS where the ladies met up with me and we got tickets to Young Frankenstein! I was a bit shocked that the TKTS 50% off price was still $66 (mostly shocked that it meant the tickets regularly go for over $120!) eeoch! We managed to get out of TKTS by 11:15 so we headed over to Muji at 40th and 8th in the New York Times Building to do some shopping-- neat store, kind of a higher priced, much more serene IKEA (with clothes) I got a set of the New York Blocks and some office products. After shopping we headed back uptown to Blue Fin where KK joined us for brunch.

Once we finished brunching we headed over to the Hilton theater for Young Frankenstein. The show was funny and the Mom would have enjoyed the tap dancing routine to "Puttin' on the Ritz". One of the most exciting parts of the day came next-- when we went to Juniors for little fella cheesecakes after the show! Can anyone say sugar high? Unfortunately it was like 95 degrees while doing all of this but the gals were troupers and we did take shelter in air conditioning wherever we could. Looking forward next to our knitting circle this fall!

oh, and ps. I got another double decker train on the way home.... double woo-hoo!

Woo-hoo!

I'm off to the city to visit with Leda and Mel... I'm on the 9:44am and shock of shocks, its a double decker! It is a perfect convergence of train travel-- a 67 minute train, air conditioning and I got an aisle seat with a normal looking lady next to me at the window. The rest of the car is full-- no stress about picking up sweaty stragglers in Elizabeth or being stuck sitting next to who-knows-who! I actually remembered my iPod and headphones and have knitting! Let's hope TKTS has tickets for something good!

Manic Crafting!

So the Husband had to go back to the office to work on a lease abstract (Hi Husband!) and Carlos the contractor left a message earlier today saying that our permits are in and the kitchen demo can begin which means I'm going to lose my sewing space for a while... what does all of this amount to? Manic crafting!

Yes, this evening while watching a) Jimmy Kimmel (until I found the remote under a pile of laundry) and b) French language television (apres remote recovery) I sewed up this nifty little sundress for Miss Baby.





The plan had been to finish the pants for the pants/top set that I made with the fabric from KK, but alas, my bobbin had navy thread and so I decided to be lazy and do that project which could be pulled off with said navy thread. Voila! navy polka dot sundress. Bloomers will follow under separate cover (I got too tired...) but thankfully the dress is long enough I think I can get away with coordinating bloomers from another one of Miss B's outfits in the mean time.



This project was pretty simple given that the fabric (it was a remnant!) came pre-smocked... all I had to do was sew up the seams, sew front and back panel together and make the straps.



It's all very Project Runway. I find that during Top Chef, I really put the cooking into high gear and PR inspires more daring crafting. If only Bravo would come up with some sort of knitting-based reality competition I might finally be able to finish my backlog of knitwear projects. (Don't even get me started on my needlepoint...)

Henry Moore at the Botanical Garden!

The New York Botanical Garden is having an exhibition of Henry Moore sculpture (and they're hosting a photo contest about it!) Who's with me?

The Flux Capacitor

Our electricians came by today. It seems as though the permit from the township for the new electrical work in the kitchen has been issued, so they wanted to take a closer look at things and put together a material list. Today we had two guys-- the same guy who came by to give us the initial quote and a second guy who seemed, at first, like he had a better grasp of electricity than the other guy. Things were going fine until he started to give us the sales pitch about some of their other "products". This is electrical work. The only products we want are lights, light switches and wire. What more is there? Apparently there is this "machine" that can both act as a whole-house surge protector and can also reduce the amount of watts (or amps, I really wasn't paying attention) that one actually pulls from the main feed, thus reducing your electricity bill. The guy gave us some mumbo jumbo about how when you flip the switch on the machine it acts to somehow control the extra "wasted" electricity which isn't being used by inefficient motorized items in our home (such as air conditioners, the pool pump, ceiling fans, etc.) He claimed that motors are generally inefficient and they pull more power off of the line than they actually use. All of this sounded to me like the ye old "descrambler" boxes that people used to sell out of the trunks of their car so you could tap into premium cable channels (I'm not pointing any fingers or anything, 410e9th... ;) )... what was even better still was when one of the electricians went out to the van and came back in with a giant black suitcase to demonstrate this "product"! Inside the case was an electric meter, a box with two switches on it and a small motor. I felt like I was in an episode of Doctor Who, or better yet, that we were about to generate 1.21 Gigawatts!

I'm sorry, if I'm not erecting a giant windmill in my backyard through which I can actually sell power back to the Power Company and out onto the "grid", then I'm just not interested.

It's 2:26am, What Do You Think You're Doing??

I just finished watching Cassandra's Dream. I have mixed feelings. But it does make me more curious to see In Bruges as Colin Farell wasn't bad. I guess he's trying to make up for Miami Vice.

Long Way Down!

Will be airing on Fox Reality starting August 2nd! Check out Charley and Ewan as they travel from John O'Groats to Johannesburg!

Houston, We Have Problem.

So I'm furiously trying to revise a 142 page Loan Agreement while the Husband and Miss Baby are heading up to Chipotle to pick up dinner. I get a call. It's a cell phone number I'm not familiar with. On the other end? "This is Mike from Chipotle." "Okay." "We are in the process of making your order and we've encountered a problem." (I submitted our order via web about a half an hour ago, so no standing in line for the Fam!). "You've asked for pinto beans in your vegetarian bol." To which I respond that I know that the pinto beans are made with bacon and that the Husband isn't really a vegetarian he just likes the vegetables (which is a polite way of saying he wouldn't hit a dead dog in the butt with the Chipotle meat products...)

Do we really need to waste human energy with things like this?

And here I am, telling you about it. And, you're reading it!

Maybe next time in the "notes" portion of my internet order I can say-- I KNOW, THE BEANS ARE MADE WITH BACON!!!

Who knew vegetarians could be taken so seriously.

The Regular Baby Look

Grown out of that onesie? Just cut off the snap part and voila! you've got a t-shirt!

The New Yorker...

With all this hullabaloo about this week's New Yorker cover... I think it's suspicious that mine hasn't shown up. Sure, last week, the Town Topics arrived a day late, today no New Yorker... if US isn't in the box on Friday, I'm calling the postmaster, that's all I'm saying.

Facebook.

Thanks to the magic of Facebook I can now know that the random guy I was poorly set-up with on a "blind" date in college (you know, the 5 foot 6 inch gymnast who kind of looked like Steven Spielberg and who was sent to Kiribati by the Peace Corps after graduation) has a hairline that appears to have receded all the way to Detroit.

France's Newest Additions...

The Jolie-Pitt Twins have arrived! (As the Mom noted, Kathy Lee Gifford mentioned on the Today show that this will quickly take the wind out of the sails of Matthew McConaughey's son being the "most beautiful baby" in Hollywood.)

An American Haunting...

We live in a house that is from 1760. Okay, so not all of the house is from 1760 (though from the wiring in the kitchen you'd never guess it wasn't that old!), but our dining room/library/nursery are, and in houses that old there are bound to be some wacky things that have happened in all those years. A while back, the Mom swore that one day during one of her visits she could hear footsteps following her down our lower staircase. Ever since she's be convinced our house is haunted. Now I've heard rumbles and grumbles before (finally figuring out that some very large grumbles are actually emanating out of the local quarry when they do blasting activities (!), but I really didn't think too much about the haunted thing until just recently.

One night the Husband came home late from work and I had been hanging out in the kitchen. He came into the kitchen and we were chatting and then we both heard a woman's voice, from behind where the Husband was standing. Husband though he heard her say "Anna". I heard a distinct voice with a two-syllable sound. We looked around-- no talking toys (a frequent contributor to household background noise these days), the cat hasn't learned to speak, the Husband's talking cell phone was in the family room. Nothing. Now I'm sure there is a logical non-paranormal explanation for all of this, but it was a bit creepy.

When you have a house this old (and you're a bit of a type A) you might find yourself doing research on the ownership. Needless to say I happened to have researched the census records for our town, cross-referenced against the deed records that the Husband had pulled together at Middlesex County's recorder's office. Turns out, according to the 1820 census there was an Anna who lived in our town with the family who owned our parcel. She was 19 at the time. In 1870 there was another Anna (though, based on age information, not the same Anna from 1820).

Then, there's the picture, below-- this was taken in our family room. It looks like there's a hand in the frame. I took the picture, it's not my hand and my mom swears its not her hand. Wacky, no?

Radio Days...

So I'm kind of like John McCain in that I really don't listen to the radio anymore. (I had heard somewhere that Mr. McCain claims that he never got back into popular music after having been in the prison camp for 5 years...) for me it's been a considerably less drastic decline from radio listening. I blame the iPod. Now that I can have every song I own at my fingertips I have no need to listen to the radio. The radio makes me too tense anyway... to paraphrase Carrie Fisher-- I need instant gratification. I always found myself toggling between the various stations on the car radio because somewhere out in the airwaves might be that *perfect* song. Now, with the iPod on shuffle, it's just one button away... I can continually go through music I already know that I like.

To be fair, I do still listen to public radio (NPR and the Met's live Opera broadcasts-- which used to be a fave in college... sit on a Saturday afternoon with a dijon burger from the Ivy room studying to live opera? let me tell you that's a way to pack on those freshman fifteen... but I digress).

Before the iPod and a format change I was also a big fan of Mix 102.7 (the old Disco/Dance station out of NYC). Out of all radio stations I find that a disco channel has the highest likelihood of playing music I'll like.

Luckily, though, not listening to the radio has not made me completely out of touch with "today's music". I noticed this the other night when I was up to the wee hours drafting a Loan Agreement. I was in the kitchen and had on one of the music choice channels on tv-- it was "adult alternative" (I'm not sure why I stopped on this particular station...) but in the end I actually heard enough songs that are of the genre typically played in Starbucks/JCrew's dressing room/commercials for cars or soap operas that I recognized a few as one's I'd want to download. Finally, I knew the name of such and such and whatnot. Better than the radio which never seems to tell you who sang the song that you actually liked.

The other song-listening anomaly which I suffer from is repetition. Ana once remarked how in high school I would listen to the same song over and over again (in particular, "Get Connected" by Stereo MCs, which thanks to Miss A's mention I went and downloaded). Yes, even over fifteen years later my listening style remains the same. I'll get a song in my head and I'll listen to it literally like a broken record. How else could I have learned all of the words to "Whatta Man", "Shoop" and "It's the End of the World as We Know It"?

Moral of the story? iTunes gift certificates are always welcome.

Cabinets!

Babysitter!

Okay, so today is the first day when Baby seemed to be comfortable with Miss Babysitter. Since sneaking away from the family room (which I know, you're not supposed to sneak away-- but trust me, it works best)... I've been able to: 1) move wet laundry to dryer and put new laundry in washer, 2) unload/load dishwasher, 3) clean 2 tubs, 2 sinks and 2 toilets (whoopie!), 3) take pictures for two Ebay auctions, 4) send some work emails and 5) send some emails to prospective kitchen cabinet purchasers. I feel accomplished! ;)

Maternity Wear...

So, now that I have (thankfully) gone back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I still have these lingering items in my wardrobe known as "maternity clothes". Now don't get me wrong-- I had some maternity items that were really neat-- I got a really great dress on sale from Cadeau, I had a little (okay, large) Lilly Pulitzer dress and a neat DVF blouse. I also had some maternity items which weren't fashionable at all but served their purpose at the time and I couldn't have lived without (read: keds flip flops once my feet got huge and Liz Lange sweat-suit material capri pants that always kind of reminded me of those torn pants that the Hulk wears...) I also had a couple of great items that weren't maternity but were big enough to cover the bump (a great purple CK top, a black Club Monaco stretchy dress that I had had forever... etc.)

In order to have gotten to the place that I am today I not only had to lose a bazillion pounds of water weight and actual weight, but I also had to donate/throw away/burn things like the Hulk pants noted above. You can't lose weight if you still have clothes that comfortably fit your post-pregnancy body-- hulk pants? You're out. This brings us to yet another category of clothes: Transition items bought after Miss B arrived but before I could fit into my old clothes. While I have some things that I wore while pregnant that I will still wear today (the CK top noted above, the club monaco dress and a few other things that only walk that fine line between "is it maternity or is it memorex"), some of the transition items are things I never want to see again. Case in point-- a generic pink Ralph Lauren polo shirt. I wore it so many times last summer I never want to see it again.

One more thing to add: Luckily, my feet went back to their old size.

Updates!

Tomorrow, between 8 and noon-- the cabinets arrive!

Dinner!

Tonight I made Ina Garten's take on Chicken Milanese and it was good (we've made this before!) In addition I made a vegetable/couscous dish. I sauteed onions (half of one sweet onion, sliced) and then added a yellow pepper (cut in large chunks), zuchini-- sliced thin and then quartered, and eggplant quarters. (I had cut up the eggplant ahead of time and tossed it with kosher salt to draw out any bitterness). I added olive oil and some balsamic vinegar to the mix together with freshly ground black pepper, some salt, basil and oregano. Once the vegetables began to soften I added a half a can of diced tomatoes to the mix. I let this simmer, covered until the vegetables were tender. Then I wanted to add a box of Near East Couscous (Parmesan flavor...). I poured the contents of the couscous spice sack into a bowl and added some water-- eyeballing it to make sure that once the water and spice sack mixture was added to the vegetables there wouldn't be too much liquid for making the couscous. I whisked the spice sack contents with the water and then added the mixture to the vegetables. I turned the heat up and once the liquid in the vegetables was bubbling I added the couscous, turned off the heat and covered the pot. Five minutes later-- poof! Puffy couscous surrounded by tasty vegetables.

Quantum of Solace...

It's the new James Bond movie... opening November 7th!!

Cry for Help (aka Save Me from Dessert...)

Okay, someone needs to take away the peanut butter and jelly bars because I just keep eating them!

La Samaritaine....

So, here's the latest news on La Samaritaine... looks like LVMH will be turning the old girl into a river-front hotel, to open in 2013, so long as the "town hall" approves it. Let's hope they'll keep their rooftop cafe, complete with croque monsieurs!

The Numerology of Bruce Willis...

While watching The Fifth Element this evening, the Husband took stock of all of the movies that Bruce Willis has been in with numbers in their titles.

We've got: Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengance (aka Die Hard 3), Live Free or Die Hard (aka Die Hard 4.0), Four Rooms, the Fifth Element, the Sixth Sense, Lucky Number Slevin (we think this is close enough...), The Whole Nine Yards, the Whole Ten Yards, Twelve Monkeys (and Ocean's Twelve), Sixteen Blocks and That '70's Show.

These were just the ones we could remember. A quick IMdB search revealed that he was also in a movie called "The First Deadly Sin" and did a cameo in Loaded Weapon 1
Now if only we could somehow harness this in to a fomula for accurately predicting lotto numbers...

Weekend!

Yesterday we went to visit the Thisbe Family for their annual Fourth of July bash (which yes, was technically on the Fifth of July!) Much fun was had by all and the sliders were *really* tasty!!

Today's big excitment was a short trip to Sesame Place!

Five Seasons of Fabulous!

Project Runway is back on Bravo!, this month... as they say, "watch what happens"!

Random Observations...

Two nights ago the Husband called me out in to the backyard. With all the lights off and the moon dark all we could see in the woods next to the yard were a thousand fire flies. Their twinkle reminded me of the random sparkling of the Eiffel Tower (but slower, in New Jersey, and with bugs).

Today makes day two both i) with no bottle for Miss B, and ii) abandonment of the big plastic tub in favor of the really big tub!

I feel as though I'm clearly getting waaay too old. I saw another add for Lollapalooza 2008. I remember fondly Lollapalooza 1992. Eeek.

Tonight we made a well calculated run to our local Baskin Robbins for their new soft serve (meaning that we no longer have to drive all the way to Hamilton to get drive-thru Dairy Queen!) (And people wonder why their is an obesity problem in America-- here we are during dinner googling BR to find the nearest drive-thru ice cream joint.)...

Dinner and an Update!

Tonight's dinner was carrot soup, inspired by a vegetable soup that we had while we were in Paris. I started by sauteeing mire poix, then adding a bit of white wine and two cans of vegetable broth. To that I added half a bag of petite carrots (rough cut), about 6 or 7 small red skin potatoes (also rough cut) and some cut leeks. I let the vegetables simmer in the broth/mire poix until tender. I also added a bit of garlic, salt and pepper. Once the vegetables were tender I added a box of Pacific organic Roasted Carrot Soup (from WF) and a touch of cream. Used the immersion blender to puree the soup, served with herbed goat cheese toasts, umm!

In other fronts, we got a call today from the delivery folks to schedule delivery of.... the kitchen cabinets! They're going to arrive next Thursday! (Let the demolition begin!) Now we must begin the search in earnest for i) lighting, ii) an acceptable alternative to our poorly located radiator, iii) backsplash materials and iv) a faucet! Woo-hoo!

Would Someone Please

tell me why I'm paying for HBO when one of tonight's movie selections is Fletch??