Everybody Loves iTunes

I know I'm like a broken record on this point (and no out-of-date pun intended) but I continue to be fascinated by the sheer randomness of my iTunes purchases. Tonight's bill of fare? Enigma, music from La Dolce Vita, and of course, the Black Eyed Peas.

All I can say is Boom Boom Pow!

Storm King!

A type of garage door?

A storm door brand, surely?

Try again! A 500 acre sculpture park in Orange County, NY. The Dad left a copy of "Forbes' Life" magazine and it had a neat article about Storm King. I had heard of it before, but hadn't realized it was just up the road from one of our favorite haunts: Woodbury Commons Outlet Mall. Nothing says culture like hitting up the outlet village after going to the sculpture park! Regardless, I think a visit will be in our near future!

BBP!

Today Miss B. and I went to Bobby's Burger Palace in Paramus with the Mom and Dad. I had seen it at the infamous Bergen Town Center before, but had never been and the Dad has always been a bit of a Bobby Flay fan (years ago we went to the Mesa Grill and the Mom and Dad are still talking about how I ordered an at the time completely foreign looking Chile Relleno) so we figured what the heck.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised! I think Mr. Bobby still has to work on his concept a bit, as the interior and the "is-it self-service/is-it-waiter-service" asthetic is a little confusing, but the food was great! I got a lemonade and an LA Burger which came with Avocado relish, watercress, cheddar cheese and tomato. The Mom and Dad split a Philadelphia Burger (provolone, sauteed onions, hold the hot peppers). Miss B. got a grilled cheese (american, swiss and tomato). We shared regular fries and sweet potato fries (tasty!) and had a strawberry milkshake. Ironically, the milkshake is priced at $5. This reminded me of the famed "$5 milkshake" at Jack Rabbit Slims in Pulp Fiction. To quote Vincent Vega: "That's a pretty f**king good milkshake. I don't know if it's worth five dollars but it's pretty f**king good."

Most importantly though were the sauces. I love a good sauce. It's one of the reasons why I've always had a special place in my heart for Arby's (love that Horsey Sauce). At BBP there is a little condiment wheel on your table with ketchup, chipotle ketchup, Bobby's Burger Sauce (which got a sour-pickle sort of face out of Miss B. when she tried it on a french fry), jalepeno sauce (hot, but so tasty with the sweet potato fries!). The fries come with a special fry sauce and the sweet potato fries come with a delish honey mustard horseradish sauce. Yum!

So far there are BBP's in Paramus, Eatontown, NJ and Lake Grove, NY. If you're a burger and fries fan and you're in the area you should totally check it out!

Quilting!

Not too long ago, Laura at the Shore House took us all on a quilting adventure thanks to the 2-hour baby quilt class at M Avery Designs in Hoboken.

I've always wanted to quilt and despite the Mom having given me a whole boatload of quilter's supplies for last year's birthday (and the Husband even setting me up with a quilt kit from Pennington Quilt Works) I hadn't been ready to take the plunge.

What can I say, I looked at the quilt kit and the instructions seemed like reading a stereo manual. It just made no sense. Not to mention that I was actually afraid to start cutting the quilt fabric. What if I didn't make each square square? What if they were different sizes? How could I make my measurements precise enough? Oh, the self-doubt! While Terry Zeigler was known around the yearbook staff and newspaper staff rooms in High School as having the talent to be able to cut a straight line no matter what, I'm not so good with the straight lines.
When I saw Laura's post I thought, this is too good to be true! Look at this fabulous quilt! Knowing that the Mom was scheduled to be in town I thought, "we've got to try this!" So, we signed up, I visited the good ladies in Pennington and got some great quilt fabric and the whole week leading up to the class I was completely incredulous and kept saying how I couldn't believe we'd actually finish a quilt by classes' end. The Mom agreed.

When we arrived in Hoboken (which is notorious for having NO parking) we managed to snag a spot in front of the store! We arrived at the class and it was just us and another quilting beginner. Our instructor handed us out pattern blocks and off we were! The concept of a two hour baby quilt class is really a great way to get your feet wet. You essentially have to throw out the window all of your OCD or type A tendencies and treat it as an Amazing Race style challenge, as Laura suggested. (One vestige, however, of my control-freak nature was that I did, indeed, bring my own scissors). I cut out my squares, proceeded to pin and sew. Not all of my lines were straight, but somehow most of my seams are straight. So my quilt may be more of a rhombus than a perfect square, I'm still pretty darn happy. I have to say, I now, thanks to M Avery Designs, have a basic understanding of how quilts work. Now that I know what I can do in a mere two hours, I know that if I put my mind to it, actually use an iron and perhaps my rotary cutter and lucite squares I can totally do this again.
My next challenge will be to work on the Pennington Quilt Works kit (which involves monkey fabric!) Oh, and let's not forget that we're going back to Hoboken later this month to do a handbag class with Miss Leda!

Americans In Paris

I just saw a story about Michelle Obama and the girls visiting the Eiffel Tower. So much for those Jackie Kennedy fashion comparisons. And "private vacation" or no private vacation, can we not have the kids dressed a little bit better, mom???

Movie Time

Its that time again, the Mom and Dad are visiting and thus we have babysitting services! So far we've seen Angels & Demons and Star Trek!!

A&D was okay, not as good as the Code, but it did have the same music (plus), did have lots of Roman scenery (which we are now familiar with) and did feature Ewan!

Then, last night the Husband, Dad and I visited the Princeton Garden Theater and saw Star Trek! I have to say-- it was pretty darn good. Sylar as Spock? Fine choice. Surprisingly even better than that-- Karl Urban as Bones McCoy! Who knew the New Zealander could do it! Great story, great character development, all in all a great way to reinvigorate the franchise. Did anyone else notice the crack about Admiral Archer's beloved Beagle? At least they threw something in there for those six of us who actually watched "Enterprise" with Scott Bakula.

More Moms...

flex their shopping muscle by Blogging, says MSNBC....

Why I love the Macro function

Interjections!

Since the birthday, we have been working with Miss B. on saying how old she is. We'll ask: "How old are you?" and she'll go "Two!" with two little crossed fingers.

Today the Mom and I were in the car with the Dad, Granddad and Miss B. The Dad and Granddad were engrossed in conversation and us three ladies were packed in the backseat of the wagon.

At one point, Granddad was talking about one of his friend's adult children, and the Dad asked Granddad: "How old are they?"

And Miss B. shouted out: "TWO!"

Party Down

Happy Birthday, Miss B!

Good Housekeeping

Do you have a cat?

Is your cat particular about their cat food?

Can your cat tell when their dry food is about to go stale?

Have you ever noticed that a cat can pretty much barf at will?

All of these things led me to wash my entire sectional over the weekend.

It all started with just one well placed bit of cat-yak right on the main cushion of one part of the sectional. It was mostly intact dry bits of Fancy Feast (which, apparently, had come from the almost bottom of the bag). Miss Kitty tends to rebel against being fed Fancy Feast that is too close to the bottom of the bag. I think she gets it from me. I never like to finish bottled drinks, but I digress.

It was one of those things where a spot cleaning wouldn't work and I could have just washed the entire cushion cover but for some reason I got it in my head that I would wash all three cushion covers (you know, to neutralize the effects of "wash wear"). Then, I find myself taking all of the covers off of the throw pillows and finally, I figured what the hell, I'll just wash the slip covers for the actual frame of the sectional too. This took approximately three days and a multitude of washer/dryer cycles. It's a big sectional. Happily, nothing shrunk! We were able to reassemble it quite easily and it looks fab. I'm glad to know that I can just wash the whole damn thing if the need arises, but I hope to not have to do this again anytime soon. Memorial Day weekend was really not meant for washing three cushion covers, three slip covers and twenty pillow covers because of cat vomit.

Hmpf.

You know the old saying about when pigs fly... well, apparently in China there is a cat that's "grown wings". Is it just me, or does something sound a little fishy here?

Curtains!

Tonight I finally finished the curtains for the library! And I also finally made a curtain for our master bathroom (aka the smallest bathroom in Middlesex County). I had remnant fabric from Pierre Deux for over a year now and finally got around to finishing! It wasn't until I actually put up the first curtain in the library that the Husband pointed out that the toile pattern seemed to include a woman spanking a cherub. I totally hadn't noticed that. I guess that may explain why it was on sale.

Dinner!

Tonight we had burgers and fries for dinner, in order to kick off summer grilling season (though they weren't technically grilled). I also made yogurt potato salad with dill. Yum!

Rome...

So we started watching the HBO series "Rome" on DVD. Since we're geeks we've turned on the "pop-up" video function where factoids about Rome pop up on the screen during the show. It's pretty cool, I have to say.

Kid Friendly Restaurants!

Gwyneth's blog had a great post about Kid Friendly Restaurants, including a nice selection of places in New York. I've been thinking about trying Sweetiepie with Miss B. Who's with me? :)

Random!

How often do you hear the phrase: "The bees were being taken to hives upstate." Sure they were, just like how Chris Ruffner's old English Sheep Dog Dusty was taken to live "on the farm" back in the fifth grade.

Bent Spoon!

Tonight we had a lovely dinner at the Witherspoon Grill with Melanie, Mike, Tiffany and Andrew followed by ice cream at the Bent Spoon! Yummy!

Craft Mania!

Like Wrestle-Mania, but different...

Here are some chocolate chip cookies...



















And pizza!
















I also found these great iron-ons at Michaels by Simplicity. I picked up some t-shirts in matching colors at Target and voila! Decorated tees for Miss B.!!

Avedon Fashion

Today Miss B. and I visted the Richard Avedon fashion photography exhibition at The International Center of Photography on Sixth Avenue. If you have any interest in photography (and especially if you have an interest in fashion photography) I highly recommend a visit to the exhibition (which will be showing until September). Many of Avedon's iconic images (such as Dovima with the Elephants) are in the collection. It's not to be missed!!