Circus!

Today we visited the Big Apple Circus! I finished Sophie's Daisy Hat for the occasion and I thought that she was dressed particularly cute today (see picture!) Unfortunately, the animal acts showed up in the second half (for those of us sporting toddlers, an animal or two in the first act would certainly make things a bit more interesting for our little people... perhaps switching out the catsuit attired lady-tightrope walker (who does her tightrope act to the Viagra commercial jazz music... I am *not* kidding...) for a parrot act, horses a dog or cat or two??) I can honestly say I've never seen such a little person consume so much food in one sitting... we went through some hot dog parts, bun parts, broken up pieces of cracker jack, pretzel and cookies (cotton candy was rejected, thankfully). And, as usual in a city of 8 million people, I saw someone I know from the Job. Random, no?

Sting's Favorite Pasta!

That was dinner tonight (and I know its a perennial fave of the readers!) In other news, tomorrow is the big day-- we're going to see the Big Apple Circus! We've been seeing commercials for the past two weeks or so and Miss B. and I watched some performers from the show on The View the other day so hopefully Sophie knows what she's in for!

Tonight's project? Finishing an upside down daisy hat for Miss B. so that she can have a new chapeau for circus going! Also, trying to plot how the Husband and I can manage to go see Quantum of Solace...

Jambalaya!

Tonight's meal (prepared in the new kitchen, and thankfully, not by toaster oven) was Jambalaya! We've gone on a couple of occasions to the Salt Creek Grille for their Sunday Jazz Brunch and they have a tasty jambalaya. I hadn't made jambalaya since law school so I thought why not bring it back in to the repertoire! I used spicy italian sausage (in link form, which I then cut up) and chicken tender strips from Whole Foods. I browned the sausage and chicken together with sliced onions, green peppers and diced jalepenos in a bit of olive oil and garlic as a start. Once the meat and the veggies started to brown I added in a bit of white wine to deglaze. Once browned, I moved the meat, veggies and juices from my large skillet into a stock pot. Then I rough cut a red pepper, yellow pepper and orange pepper and sauteed those in olive oil. Once the peppers were soft I added them to the stock pot, together with a can of diced tomatoes. I also added into the mix some cumin and cayenne pepper. I put the stock pot on to medium heat and added Zatarain's Jambalaya mix (which includes seasoning and rice). I also added about a half a box of chicken stock and some uncooked Texmati rice. I kept the goodies on low-medium heat for about 25 minutes (or until the rice is plump). At the end I added a bit more white wine and a touch of chicken stock. The jambalaya was super easy and got rave reviews from the Husband! Overall I was happy with the general tastiness of the meal and was reminded of our old fave PBS chef Justin Wilson!

In other fronts... yesterday Miss B. and I did see Ernie and Neal. They were, well... a bit too heavy metal for our tastes let's just say. We preferred Melody and Presley (from the last B&N Kid's show we went to see). Melody & Presley were the type where you think to yourself "Gee, I wonder if they're available for birthday parties!" Ernie and Neal? They seemed more like they might be available for gigs at your local Hell's Angels hang out. But, who are we to judge? We like to listen to the Metropolitan Opera on the radio on Saturdays!

Ernie and Neal...?

This afternoon, after naptime is done, Miss B. and I will be heading over to our local Barnes & Noble to check out the musical stylings of "Ernie and Neal". I'm not sure who these two are but they are taking part in the weekly family fun music series at the store and hell, it's cheaper than Music Together! Now we just have to hope that, unlike last time, Miss B. doesn't decide to rearrange the Art History section and then go running to the Starbucks in the middle of the store carrying a book on Cave Painting!

Who knew?

According to Dean and Deluca, "Licorice has been prized for centuries by the world's great civilizations." Right up there with gold, saffron and the polio vaccine, I'm sure.

One Day!

One day till Top Chef New York!

Today....

Today we watched a bevy (okay, just two) movies from books. We'd already seen Atonement (growing on me) and then earlier this evening we watched "The Jane Austen Book Club". I had read The Jane Austen Book Club a few years ago and enjoyed it, but when I saw the movie was coming out I was a bit disapointed by the cast. It seemed a little like it should be a Lifetime movie of the week. After watching, I'd still have to say putting Jimmy Smits, Amy Brenneman and one of the people from "Lost" in a movie tends to make you think "TV!!!" immediately upon watching, but overall it wasn't a bad movie adaptation. The guy who played the only guy in the book club was somebody I've never seen before but he did a good job and the Kathy Baker character knitted in 75% of the scenes she was in so you can't beat that!

Late Night Showdown and Other Stuff!

It's one of those odd nights where the guests on both David Letterman and Jay Leno are appealing! It's Jamie Oliver pitted against Martha Stewart!

In other news, must send a shout-out to the Mom and Dad who had both totally put in the good word for getting a disposal and a trash compactor, and lo and behold... they are both pretty nifty additions to the new kitchen! The disposal (an Insinkerator Evolution, touted on This Old House as the quietest disposal ever made!) has caused a bit of "will-it-blend-esque" disposing. So far we have disposed chicken bones, a whole tomato, a good portion of a sub sandwich, olive pits, banana peels, etc., etc. and the compactor is pretty neat too! It's really an amazing feat for us to only have to empty out one bag of trash per week (noting, we do have a supplemental trash can for certain disposable items that don't fit the disposal/compactor criteria) overall this has been quite an improvement in our waste production.

Like Mother Like Daughter...

I am well known for having a habit of "eating a happy face" out of McDonald's cheeseburgers. A phrase coined by my parents and meaning that I will take one bite out of the edge of a burger and then proceed to only eat the middle. Well, this morning Miss B, did one better. We were having pancakes and she took a little silver dollar pancake, folded it in half and took a bite. What does that mean? When the pancake was unfolded there was a hole eaten out of the center. The pancake now resembled a small, flat donut. Of course this also resulted in a dab of maple syrup on Miss B.'s nose, but she didn't seem to mind that.

R.I.P., Dear Apple Tree

This morning I pulled the ye old wagon out of the garage and lo and behold, there was a barren spot at the edge of the driveway. I could see even more of our road than usual (ha, ha, I know, I know, how close we are to the road!)... what was it, exactly, that was different?? I could see more sky, I could see down the lane... wait, I thought to myself... where's the TREE??? We used to have a good sized apple tree right at the edge of our parking area, adjacent to the street we live on. It was a neat Craggy tree that took up quite a bit of space and would indeed produce quite a few apples in season. I stopped the car, got out and walked over to where the tree had stood just yesterday. What did I find? Wood shavings. A stump. A few large cut pieces of apple tree trunk. How random is that??? I thought to myself-- "Who the hell cut down our tree?" There was no note, nothing in our mailbox. I looked down the street to see if there was a tree trimming truck (sometimes the power company comes and trims the tree limbs-- but there was nothing. In fact, there was no other evidence that any of the other surrounding trees had been trimmed, let alone entirely cut down to their stumps!) What do you do when a tree is mysteriously cut down? Call the police! (Non-emergency number, of course...) The local PD put me in touch with the Department of Public Works. I described the situation and gave them my address. I was then told that at about 5am this morning they got a call about a downed tree on our street. Turns out the downed tree was our apple tree. Now mind you, it had been raining and a bit windy.... but it is unclear just how much of the tree came down. Based on the appearance of the cut pieces the tree trunk looked extremely healthy. Mind you, also, that we heard nothing. Not even a peep during the night (not the tree falling nor the chain saws!)

I have to say-- I understand if the tree fell, obviously the township had to take away the limb in the street-- but I can't believe they cut down our entire tree to a stump and they didn't even leave a note! Not a knock on the door, nothing! Now we have this big gap where the tree used to be. I guess I should just be thankful that the damn thing didn't fall on the X5 which was parked outside very near the tree, but still... I miss our tree! It's passing feels so abrupt!

KK's Baby Hat!

Here are pictures of the "Upside Down Daisy" baby hat that I made for KK! (Okay, so it's a week post-shower, what can I say, knitting takes time!) Anyhoo-- I just wanted to post a picture because I am really happy with how this hat turned out (so much so that I have to make one for Miss B. now!) I also have to highly recommend Susan B. Anderson's "Itty Bitty Hats" book! If you're a knitter (or want to become a knitter) this is a fantabulous pattern book! I first found out about it thanks to Thisbe who made the birthday cake hat for the WK! I have already made three pumpkin hats, the candy cane striped hat, the inca snowflake, the rainbow marley hat, the birthday cake hat and now the upside down daisy! All of the patterns are very clear and easy to follow and they just couldn't be any cuter!!! Yay!

This is easily my most used pattern book, if you have any babies/toddlers that you could be knitting for then you need this book :)

This is Sophie saying...

"where are you driving me to *now*, Mom????"

The Big Comfy Couch

This is one of those weird children's shows on PBS that I'm not quite sure how we got started watching. It's from Canada and made in the mid-nineties, but what I find most disturbing is that there have been two Loonette the Clown. Unlike in soap operas where they'll replace an actor with someone who only vaguely (or for that matter not at all) looks like the original actor, on The Big Comfy Couch they got a girl who (when in costume) really looks like the first girl, but she doesn't speak quite the same, so she tries to "pretend" to be the original Loonette. The first Loonette was much more natural, while the second Loonette has to truly try and "act" like the original Loonette. Needless to say we prefer original Loonette, but between her, Granny Garbanzo and Major Bedhead the whole thing is a bit kooky (including the "clock stretch" that is on every episode.)

Okay so,

who wants to bet that Bill Clinton's sleeping out in the barn tonight!

Real-Time Vote Blogging

So we're down at the Kingston First Aid and Rescue station waiting to vote! usually they have two machines (at least they did for the primaries.... i guess one for each party!) but today there's only one and usually poll workers outnumber voters by 5 to 1. Today there are about 18 people in line with us including seniors bused in from Buckingham Place (aka Buckingham Palace) just down the road. We've already had one angry young woman voter storm out (not sure why) hopefully she was a vote for Obama! :) My crazy next door neighbor (the fried chicken mogul) is in line ahead of me-- I've never seen the man dressed in anything besides collegiate sweatsuits and baseball caps. This is unlike the older gentleman in front of me (who has already informed me that he's doing a write-in vote) who is bedecked in black watch plaid pants, black tassel loafers, a navy turtleneck and a navy blue blazer with gold buttons.. Very dapper! Sophie is likewise dressed patriotically in red, white and blue (pictures to follow!) In other voting observations the poll workers said they didn't need to see my driver's license (scary!).

So today's message is go out there and vote-- it's the only way to justify being able to complain for the next four years!

And, alas, as a side note, years ago I had told Brianna Basaraba that I would move to France if certain Republicans were ever elected. All I can say is that for this election I am neither wealthy enough nor underprivileged enough to justify voting Democratic. I have to vote based solely on taxes. Down with the AMT! (But regardless of who is elected, I'd love to move to France!) ;)

Miss Potter

So Miss B and I finally watched this movie the other day (we've had the DVD for months and months...) and I have to say it is a very sweet, family film (even if, rather depressingly, the love of Miss Potter's life, played by our fave, Ewan McGregor, dies of some Victorian mystery virus two months into their secret engagement while Miss Potter has been spirited away by her family to the Lake District).

Why the Italians Will Never Rule the World...

Because they always take a break for salami. This morning I took the train into the City for KK's shower. Especially since it was the running of the marathon I figured the train was the best way to go. I walk on board at PJ and snag a seat very close to the door, by the window. Who follows me? Four Italian girls (and by Italian I mean, speaking Italian, actual real-live, from Italy Italian) and an Italian guy who looked *exactly* like Orlando Bloom (except for the fact that he was about 5'8). The four girls sit in the row right in front of me (as it was a four seater) and Orlando sits in my row. Straight through to New Brunswick they're having a good old time laughing and chatting it up and every now and again I understand a word here and there thanks to college Italian but for the most part I've covered this all up with iPod. Then, as I'm attempting to nap, just after we pull out of NB... out it comes... salami sandwiches. The smell was so pungent I felt like I was inside of a deli case. Four semi-glamorous, sunglassed and coiffed Italian girls and their pungent lunchmeat at 11am. It seemed an odd juxtaposition, but at the same time, it seemed perfectly normal.

One other train anecodte... again proving that everyone looks like someone, on the way home I was standing next to Paris Hilton's twin (that is if Paris Hilton ever was to wear a "Wisconsin" sweatshirt, but still-- super thin, bad short blond hair and that wacky Paris Hilton nose!)

Crafting!

KK's baby shower is tomorrow, so as KK is a fellow crafter, I thought I would include with her gifties some decorative burp cloths! (A hat is under construction, to be delivered after baby delivery!) The Mom's friend made some of these for me for my shower and they're just so pretty and so easy to make that they're a fun gift for one crafter to another!

Faucet!

Here's our new faucet!



Remember-- it's not broken, it's Italian!

Teapot!

So, I'm starting to put stuff in the new kitchen and today it was time to put the Michael Graves tea kettle in its rightful place on top of the new rangetop! You see, I'm a bit of a design freak. I coveted this teapot since I first saw it at Kristen Fucci's house back in the seventh grade. I remember little else about her house (other than the fact that her dad had one of the goofy Saab 5000s) but I was always mesmerized by the teapot! I loved the little bird at the end of the spout! Back in law school the Mom got me the version that Michael Graves did for Target back in the day-- but alas, it didn't have the bird on it. A few years back the Husband bought this for me as a meseversary present... interestingly enough, being in Princeton, we actually have a real live Michael Graves store! This little goody is one of the few good things that ever came out of that whole Memphis design period in the mid-eighties in Milan. Do we use it? Of course not! It's just for show. ;)