Trick or Treat?

Apparentlty, certain cities including Belleville, Illinois limit trick-or-treating to kids under 12. According to the article, its even banned for people over 12 to wear masks any other day of the year besides Halloween. I wonder what those folks would think of the Naked Cowboy?

Things We Love

Watching Casino Royale before bed and then turning on the tv in the morning and having it still be on.

Tony Stark (thanks to Miss B. requesting to watch Iron Man almost as often as she used to watch Kung Fu Panda).

2nd Avenue (the "vintage" store), though 2nd Avenue, the Avenue, will always have a special place in my heart.

Driving down Street Road.

iPad.

That Marc Jacobs makes laptop cases.

Jeggins. (Only for so long as we are below pre-pregnancy weight).

Zeta. (Even if she did bring in a tick).

Nantucket Nectars Half and Half. Damn, you, Wawa.

Wawa (the only place within a 25 mile radius that carries Half and Half, see above).

Fly Through Our Window

This
is a great post from Darby's blog.

Playlist

Warning Sign-- Coldplay
Yellow-- Coldplay
Constellations-- Jack Johnson and Eddie Vedder
Southern Cross-- Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Jimmy Buffet Live
Sweet Disposition-- The Temper Trap
Rush-- Big Audio Dynamite
How Soon Is Now? -- The Smiths
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic -- The Police
The Edge of Forever-- The Dream Academy
If You Could Read My Mind-- Scala
The Blower's Daughter-- Scala
Western Stars-- Chris Isaak
There She Goes-- Chris Isaak

Ladies Tea

On Saturday, my friends joined my for a lovely tea at the St. Regis Hotel's Astor Court. It was a lovely day for some girl time and wonderful, too, to see two of my friends' children, Noah and Maddie.

If you like high tea I would definitely recommend the Astor Court. I had thought about going to the Palm Court at the Plaza but had seen some negative reviews and in my searching I had seen a lot of good things about the St. Regis. The service was great and the high tea came with finger sandwiches, an endless pot of tea, scones (with Devonshire clotted cream and jams) and petit fours.

They also brought out a piece of birthday cheesecake (and the harpist played "Happy Birthday").

It was very mellow, very lady like and a lot of fun.

Thanks to my lady friends who joined me, it was a wonderful way to celebrate!

That's Not My Name

I love that song by the Ting Tings. It's just too damn catchy.

Oh, and, as an FYI, in business and social situations, I use my maiden name. It's on my driver's license, its on my passport. That's my name.

The Blue Flower

Many years ago a friend bought me a book at the Strand in New York. The book was The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke. I had liked it at the time for its decorative blue boards. Tomorrow night I've been invited to an event where I've been asked to bring a book to donate.

I'd been thinking about what to donate for a bit. I've got paperbacks that I'm not that keen on and I've got multiple copies of various Eco books and two Franny and Zooeys. But I hadn't made any specific decision, until Thursday when I chose The Blue Flower.

Mysteriously, when I went to the Princeton Library book sale in the rare book section I spotted a decorative blue cover. It was The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke.

Van Dyke was a graduate of Princeton and the Princeton Theological Seminary.

I took it as a sign. My instinct about The Blue Flower was right.

FYI

Tonight we baked. (Or at least began some baking)... we started up a loaf of NYT No-Knead Bread (it's in the process of the 12-18 hour rise...) and then followed it up with Madeleines. Hey, we had a lemon to zest, what do you want?

Devil in a Red Dress

We love Zac Posen.

Glee-Q

The latest issue of GQ has a photo spread with three of the stars of Fox's Glee. The magazine, the show and the three actors (Cory Monteith, Dianna Agron and Lea Michele) have caught flak today over the photos and what they may or may not imply.

Linda Holmes's article published on NPR's website makes a good point. The photos are in poor taste, but not necessarily for the same reasons that the Parent's Television Council suggests.

I've seen the pictures and I really only have an issue with how Lea Michele has chosen to have herself portrayed. In the bulk of her photos she has on bikini underwear and little else. I like Lea, but I have to say that from what I've read about her in the press I think she must suffer from low self-esteem. This seems to be a situation where the photographer or GQ said we can do this "sexy" photo shoot and she jumped at it. Well guess what, you are pretty, you are sexy, etc., etc. and you don't have to go around with this lame FHX/Maxim style pictorial to prove that (except maybe to yourself).

Her pictures are tacky.

Her two co-stars are wearing pants (to a degree), for goodness sake! I think had Ms. Michele thrown on even a catholic school girl style skirt there would be less of an issue. Or for that matter, had she done a Jennifer Anniston style tastefully naked-but-not-naked shoot (without the high school overtones) people would have less to say about it. But then again, had she gone that route we probably wouldn't be talking about her.

Dear Andy Cohen,

Would you take a write-in nomination for Jack-hole of the week?

Halloween!

So, we're going to a Halloween party this year and I'm trying to figure out what to wear. While costumes are optional, who doesn't like to dress up every once in a while?

Last year, we threw a kid-friendly Halloween play date party and I made an embellished witch hat for the occasion. Before that, I hadn't had a true Halloween costume since college. Back then, I dressed up as Uma Thurman from Pulp Fiction for multiple years in a row. (I think it is fair to say that I did get good use out of that wig after all).

That leaves us with the question of what to be now. I still have my witch hat, so I could pair that with one of my missoni skirts and be a fashionable witch. I also have Groucho glasses and a Marilyn wig.

In other options, Wal-Mart has a Star Trek costume. They also have tons of others, but the emphasis really seems to be on "adult" costumes. Should browsing the Halloween costume section really seem like you're browsing through a stripper supply shop? I guess I'm just out of touch with Halloween these days ;)

Costume suggestions are appreiciated...

The Plan B

A friend from high school recently christened his boat the Plan B. I'm sure he didn't expect people would think it was named after emergency contraception.

Things You Don't Expect to Hear in the Same Sentence...

Catherine Zeta-Jones, $5,000 and Pier One Imports

Advice

You could probably use to get your house in order, don't you think?

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

is one of my favorites from childhood (that and Watership Down)... I found a first edition today at the Franklin Park book sale. It's a library discard and doesn't have a jacket, but it's still cool.

Observations

Ever drive a 6-speed manual through the urban safari in a mini dress while wearing one four-inch heel and one flip flop? I'll just say it's not easy.

In other news, it is starting to really turn Fall-ish and we seem to quickly be approaching that time of year when you've gone from wearing summer clothes right past fall clothes and now you have to start wearing a coat. Damn.

Next item? Book sales galore. The Franklin Park book sale concludes tomorrow and next weekend is Princeton and South Brunswick. Do I splurge and pay a $10 admission fee to get into the Princeton sale's preview? I probably won't, but I'll think about it.

SnAKs Cafe at Saks on the fifth floor really has good little sandwiches. You should try it.

Brendan Fraser is coming to Broadway in November. Okay, so Broadway is kind of hitting the bottom of the barrel when Encino Man makes his debut, but I like Brendan and might be interested in seeing the show... Do I have any takers? There's also Driving Miss Daisy, A Life in the Theater, Time Stands Still, The Merchant of Venice and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Yes, Pacino is in Merchant. Why haven't I bought my tickets already?

I finally watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, my impression? It's amazing how people in Swedish films look like regular people (i.e. wrinkles and bad skin don't seem to be barriers to entry into the Swedish film industry, unlike in Hollywood) that being said, I liked it. It certainly seemed like they had to cut out a lot/slim down the story... But given how dense the book was its not really a surprise. It is definitely a movie where you should read the book first so you know what's going on. If you have, I think you'd enjoy it. Now, here's to The Girl Who Played with Fire... Hoping it will be out on DVD or iTunes soon!

That's all I have to report.

I lied. Three more things. Saturday we're doing tea at the St. Regis. Miss Leda, we'll have a scone in your honor.

Thrift store score? Tweed Marc Jacobs pants: $7.00

And a question. As between Dolce, Cavalli, DVF and Nicole Miller, Who would you pick?

Gabba-Gate and Ticket Karma

Last week I saw a message from a friend on Facebook that she had three tickets to sell to the upcoming Yo Gabba Gabba Live! Show at Radio City Music Hall. Miss B. likes the show and has some Yo Gabba goodies, so I thought it might be a fun thing to go to, especially since the tickets came with access to the "After Party" (yes, who knew that a children's show would have an "after party"!?!) But I had checked out what the "VIP" party included and you got to mingle with the characters, have your photo taken with them and have snacks/entertainment, etc. so it sounded like a lot of fun.

I commit to buy the tickets. I mail out a check to my friend. My friend e-mails me her e-tickets. All is right in Gabbaland, until... I get a message from my friend saying that the tickets had been cancelled. You see, my friend's sister had bought these tickets as a birthday gift for my friend's daughter earlier in the year. Since purchasing the tickets, my friend's sister scheduled her wedding for the same day as the show. Instead of first trying to sell the tickets, they had approached American Express (who they had purchased the tickets through) to see if they would take them back. Apparently, Amex did agree to finally take them back, but only after they had already been sold to me.

So, Amex then offers to replace the tickets with the same "or better" seats. Okay. Then the Amex rep lets us know that the "VIP Party" is sold out. So, while they could get us tickets to the show, they couldn't get us tickets to the party. They called the party promoter, they called Radio City. No dice. So, I called not only the party promoter but the two companies who were actually putting on the entire production. I also canvased friends for contacts at Nickelodeon (thanks, Thisbe!) Days go by, and while I did get new tickets (in the first row), I heard no word on the status of the party.

Meanwhile, while this was going on, I had noticed that a piece of mail for my nextdoor neighbor had been mistakenly delivered to me. When I first noticed it, I had set it aside, meaning to drop it off at their house, but I had been busy with work and it had gotten shuffled back in with the rest of the mail. On Thursday night, at 2am I'm sorting through junk mail in an effort to clean up the manse before the arrival of my mom and dad and what do I come across? My neighbor's envelope. I noticed that it was from Rutgers and I figured it was just alumni stuff. The envelope was partly opened and out of curiosity I decided to look inside... what was in there? Tickets to the Rutgers/Army Football game on Oct. 16th. I immediately thought: "Oh, Shit! I have to get these tickets back NOW!"

It was ticket karma.

I vaguely remembered that the mis-delivered mail came around about the time I heard from my friend that our tickets had been cancelled.

So, despite it being 2am and raining outside, I got in the car and drove over to the neighbor's house and popped the envelope into their mailbox.

Then, at around 11:30am the next morning I received an email from Donna at Wild Brain Entertainment. She had secured us a place at the VIP Party! (Thank you, Donna!!!)

Of course, since my new tickets were procured through a broker, the entire time up until we were actually inside Radio City I was completely expecting them not to be valid. But, our tickets worked, our VIP passes were at the box office and we were sitting smack dab at center stage, front row.

Unfortunately, we hadn't anticipated that the 73rd Annual Pulaski Day Parade was happening today, so we didn't expect that the Husband would have to spend over an hour and a half just trying to park the car (all the while missing the entirety of the show and most of the after party), but Miss B. had fun, so that's all that matters, right?

Oh, but I also have to mention, that the night before the show I was up till like 4am making a "Muno" hat for Miss B. to wear. It was pretty cool because during the show, we got to have the Muno character give B a hug and then after the show, the person who was inside the Muno costume came up to us at the after party and said they recognized us from earlier and wanted to say how much they loved her hat! (Not to mention, that the official Yo Gabba photographer took B's photo with her hat on) ;)

AngelRox

Thisbe told me about this and it is just totally cool! Have to get me one of those!