August 27, 2006

Anne, Jim & I were at dinner the other night and somehow the conversation turned to the population of New York. I can't remember who thought what...I thought that Anne said that the population has held steady at around 8 million for the last 10 years and I thought I disagreed but its all a blur now... She still claims to be right...Here is the answer to the mystery anyway.

We ate at Sweetwater that night and daaaaaaamn are they slow at serving food. Completely nice about it, handled it well and gave us free desert, but this was my second - and most likely final time - eating there, cos the same thing happened the first time. And when I say slow, I'm talking over an hour to give us our friggin food.

Also, Jim and I went to Vera Cruz last week for our first time ever. And I don't think I will be going back there either. I got a vegetable enchilada that was composed of 95% carrots, WITH NO CHEESE. Isn't cheese just an assumed part of an enchilada? So what it was in reality, was grilled carrots, wrapped in a tortilla with green sauce. To top it off, they were out of avacados... so no guacamole. I think if you are a mexican restaurant and you run out of avacados, you should just close up shop for the day. Bonita is a million times better.

Oh, you know what other book I also read that I heartily recommend - Five Flights Up by Toni Schlesinger. Its a compilation of her Village Voice Shelter columns over the past ten years.

Hey, did you guys read about the woman that sued Starbucks over burning her foot and won $301,000? Are we pissed! They burnt Jim's foot in an identical accident six years ago and we got squat. They covered his medical bills and that was it. So I don't think you can see the real gnarly-ness in this shot but seriously - this is what happens when Starbucks coffee makes contact with human skin:

That my friends, was a third degree burn- Jim's skin was literally peeling off.

My husband is accident-prone. Its a fact. The other morning, I had been bleeding and we both thought that I was miscarrying and we were somewhat panicked and had to rush out to the doctor's office. And Jim grabbed his skateboard to quickly grab some cab money from an ATM around the corner.

Apparently he hit an oil slick (or some sort of oily looking puddle on the sidewalk) and ate it in the street, right in front of the bottle return machine where all the bums were gathered. Oh, and he almost got hit by a car...And the bums all laughed at him.

So the entire ride over to the doctors, I am crying, then looking at Jim's leg and laughing hysterically...then crying...then laughing. And when I suggested he might be a little old to be skating...he was all like "What!? It was an oil slick! An oil slick! Its not like I'm gonna call Chris and be like, yo man, I just found this oil slick we totally hafta skate!"

Here's the oil-slick accident:

B. sent me this last week - bunnies eating lettuce. Transfixing!

C. and P. brought us Ralph's Famous Italian Ice this weekend...I'm a little obsessed. If you mix the coconut with the chocolate mouse, its the best thing on earth...I wish there were one down the street.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one trying to gentrify this neighborhood.

What right-wingers see when the read the NY Times.

August 21, 2006

So I have some condition called a Placenta Previa going on and have been ordered to stay in bed for a little while as it was causing some complications. And yeah, I know mandatory bedrest sounds great right? That seems to be the general reaction...Well I am fucking stir crazy as shit. I have watched more than enough tv, done everything I can think of with this computer and read no less than five books so far.

I tried to read The Areas of My Expertise. It was funny in spots, and definitely quirky but too meta-jokey, and not the type of thing I like to read. I just couldn't get all the way through it. John Hodgman who I think is very funny on the Daily Show, plays the square dude PC in the new Mac commercials, and of course is a Brookline High alumni, wrote it.

I did recently finish reading Clubland: The Fabulous Rise and Murderous Fall of Club Culture which was wonderfully trashy reading. Five stars!

And I read Edie:American Girl and found out that I really have very little interest in Edie Sedgewick.

I also read The Devil Wears Prada (way lame) and watched a bootleg DVD of the movie (cute!) Chick lit makes much better movies than it does books..Thanks to Sarah for both!

Anyway, here is fun baby news:

Sonogram number one - baby is pea shaped mass.

Sonogram number two - baby as alien-like figure

Sonagram number three - baby has penis!

We are going for sonagram number four on Monday.

August 15, 2006

My mom is flying to the UK today so I was trying to figure out with her what she could and could not bring with her on the plane. It all sounds somewhat random and confusing - but the NY Times has some guidelines.

A "feisty" Boy George begins garbage duty.

August 9, 2006

I have been constantly bitching about the fact that even though I think I look way pregnant, obviously the rest of the world just thinks I'm fat, cos NOBODY has offered me a seat on any mode of public transportation so far. And then today I read about this...Japanese officials are giving out pins to pregnant women that say "I have a baby in my stomach" so that people are encouraged to give them their seats...Ohmygod, so cute! I would need one even if I didn't have a bun in the oven.

I think this is a really fair even-handed article on the Ratner development in Brooklyn - even if it does end up anti-development.

Speaking of gentrification, some crazy ass homeless dude with a bowel problem is shitting in the stairwell where our building keeps our trash. And on these hot, hot days of summer, you can imagine how good this smells. Others wonder as well... What is that smell?

Bitch turns 10.

August 4, 2006

The popularity dialer. Make friends think you are popular.

Ok, so the other night I got stuck in a car at the corner of Bedford & Broadway for what seemed to be a ridiculously long amount of time. And it wasn't just my car service, it was lots of cars...all leaning on their horns...and lots of people stopped on all four corners frustrated by a large film set that wouldn't let anyone pass. And the part that was really pissing me off is that instead of some PA lackey telling everyone to stay where they were, they had NYC cops out there. And the police were taking orders from the director as to how to direct the cars and people. WTF!? Our tax dollars are paying for us to take traffic direction from a private film crew. I'm calling bullshit on this.

Turns out it was the set of Ridley Scott's new movie American Gangster, and no, I did not catch a glimpse of Russel Crowe.

August 2, 2006

Project Runway tonight! The big episode....oooooohhhh, I can't WAIT. So exciting. (Word on the street is it's Keith) Keep entertained between episodes with Blogging Project Runway.

Freeze or burn? That one is a good question. When I got out of high school, I moved into this total dive on Chester Street in Allston, MA with like 4 skinheads and many other random weirdos like myself. I got engaged in a passive aggressive war of the heat control with one of my roomates. She liked the place with no heat in the winter - kinda like the frozen tundra. Which was completely inexplicable as she was from California to begin with...Anyway, I like it toasty warm all winter long and as soon as I entered our little icebox, I would crank that heat right up. Little did we know that we were controlling the heat for the whole building. As a matter of fact no one in the building realized that in the beginning. But people visiting us kept commenting on the fact that the guys on the first floor were either dressed in hats, parkas and scarfs in their place or they were just wearing shorts... with nothing else. Well you can imagine how happy they were with us when we all figured it out.

I never showed y'all Jim & Laree's magnificent kitchen tiling job. Here it is in all its glory:

Oh, and it was LG's bday last week. I made her a cake, but then I didn't get a chance to hang with her so I ate it. The whole thing. I told you I was pregnant right? It's a pregnant lady's prerogative to eat a cake.

I guess I shoulda taken a picture of it before I started eating.

July.