Etc.

My never ending to do list!

September 2, 2009

I got ‘The Freakin’ Never Ending To Do List’ from a blog by Emily Frame’s a bit ago. I fell in love with it because I have a lot of things to juggle, I like lists, and it is super cute. Love the fonts. Well this list was created by Erin Vale Design. She has a really cute blog that shows off her graphic design talents. You can make your very own Freakin’ to Do lists, Honey Do Lists, blog topic lists, recipe cards, etc. She has free DYI prints on her blog and some others on her Etsy site.

Have some fun getting organized with some cute lists!

Fall is in the air….

September 1, 2009

September 1st stirs a lot of emotions for me.

When I was younger it meant starting a new school year. Excitement for shopping new few clothes and shoes for the perfect first day outfit, getting new supplies, and seeing friends again after a summer that felt way too short.

But now, it means the harsh Boston winters will be at my doorstep all too soon. With the weather station telling me its 56 out right now (7am) I worry if my tomatoes will continue to ripen. Will the sunflowers bloom or will it get to cold before they burst wide open? When will ice coffees be too cold to enjoy? When will my hair freeze in the morning on the days it has not completely dried before I leave for work?

Last night I switched out most of my summer clothes for my winter clothes. It is a depressing task that I must tend to every fall. I hate being cold so my wardrobe consists of a lot of sweaters and thick tights for my dresses. It was hard to put away bright floraly spaghetti strap dresses and pull out thick olive green sweaters. While sweaters and muted colors are cozy and comforting, like hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream, but they lack the vibrance that I crave. I get by with American apparel leggings and gap tights. I am the one in office wearing bright tights or leggings to offset my black dresses.

Or I wear these boots that I got in Santa Fe 2 years ago. 🙂

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Neurosis #1

August 28, 2009

Price cleaned the fridge last week and I felt it was worthy of some photographs.

Coming home to this was beyond exciting! It made me start to think how I could organize it even better with containers/baskets/bowls for our yogurts, butter (for all my baking), eggs, etc! The Container Store really is one of my favorite stores! If I had known this was happening I would have gotten a few before pictures so you would ‘understand’ (?) my excitement.

Ignore the debris on the floor… there was a long unnoticed leak which resulted in our LL cutting out part of a base cabinet that night.

ah still messy but better.

Up next…. I have to clean the top of the fridge off.

next time, wear sneakers. + the high line

August 24, 2009

Price and I went into New York City on Sunday morning to see The High Line. I have been dying to go since it opened. I even wrote a paper on the act of preserving it and transforming the former rail lines into a public greenspace. So we finally had some time and went into the City to check it out.

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Ignoring the weather and all sense of logic I only packed flip flops for the weekend. Not even 5 minutes out of Grand Central and walking to THL it starts to rain which results in wet sidewalks and me slipping and holding on to Price anytime we got to a section of marble in the sidewalk. And not even 5 minutes after I purchase an umbrella it stops raining. I vowed to get another pair of shoes when I found a place- but being about 9.30 on a Sunday morning my options were limited. With the ground drying up and my safety restored I felt comfortable to ignore looking for a place to get shoes. After our visit to THL and Chelsea Market we head back up the touristy Time’s Square area to get lunch at Somberos, a great Mexican place that serves killer margaritas. Well as we are approaching Penn Station I slip and fall on a man hole cover. Damn it! 1) OUCH! 2) I think I crushed the stuff I was carrying 3) where is the closest Duane Reed because I need to clean up my knee. Thankfully a woman came over and gave me some wet wipes to clean up. Thank you whoever you were. So I recover with a bruised and scraped left knee, sore left ankle, muddy leg, scratched right foot, and sore right thumb. I’m a mess. Shortly after this Price kinda reminded me ‘Next Time, wear sneakers.’

Aside from the fall we had a great day. We walked over to the High Line. As soon as I saw it in sight I was giddy and gushing about it to Price. We got on the the Northern entrance at 20th St and 10th Ave and walked down to the end and back up to the 16th St stair to go to Chelsea Market. THL was everything I could have imagined and more. The detail that was put into it is just amazing. The concrete panels that make up the surface dip from the remaining tracks and then go up to create these benches that look like the surface has been peeled away. They even had these cool water fountains that did not have a drain built in. It was designed so the water would run off into a V on the edge and into a drain on the main surface. By far my favorite design aspect was the lounges they had Diller- Von Fustenberg Sun Deck area. The lounges were constructed using wheels and they set upon the railroad track which allowed them to move back and forth a bit. Such clean lines but it shows how Diller Scofidio + Renfro valued the existing structure and its history.

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After our visit to THL we went to Chelsea Market– my food mecca….. the Food Network Studio is located above the market. When we were going in and out of the shops we saw pictures of the Food Network Stars like Emeril, Bobby Flay, Alton Brown, Rachel Ray, etc with the owners of the stores. We got really good cupcakes from Eleni’s and I got a candy thermometer and copper cleaner from a kitchen supply. Bowery Kitchen Supply was trouble because I was eyeing these big aluminum pots- like 20 gallon ones!

New York City has this amazing feel that I don’t think can ever ben repilcated. I love knowing that around every turn is something new, something happening. On our way back to Grand Central we came across a street fair that shut down Madison Ave for a few blocks. You can never be bored in the city that never sleeps.

The River That Flows Both Ways

Family puts the Fun in Dysfunction

August 23, 2009

My family is a cast of characters. when we get together things get a little crazy. My dad and oldest nephew’s birthday was on Saturday and we got together at the boat club for a BBQ. The weather was hot a gross so we stayed inside the main rec room while Michael, my brother in law, and my dad’s cousin manned the grills. Much appreciation for our great burgers, hot dogs, and sausages. Plus we had Greenwich Prime Meat’s (formerly Maneros) Gorgonzola Salad, which is one of my favorite things to eat.

Its really funny to see how much my brother TJ and sister Kristen are alike when we get together. We pick up on jokes, hand gestures, & laughs. Like my brother can hear a noise, which reminds him of a song, which I can get in about 4 seconds of him humming. Or when we and mention ‘ objects in mirror are closer then they appear’ and K&T’s mom says ‘like the dinosaurs!’ I knew she was talking about the 3 second bit in the first Jurassic Park movie.

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So our time together is usually hectic with joking around, catching up on life, and patroling my three nephews running around. They were even more zany since it was Keagan’s 7th birthday and the twins, Grey and Cole, turn 6 on the 29th so there was some kid electricity in the air. Once I gave them their gifts things got worse with excitement and fighting. Price is just shocked that my sister can think through all of the noise.

Cole

Coleman coloring with Poppy Spaz (this was actually one of Keagan’s gifts from their grandma)

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Grey with his remote controled spider

Keagan playing with his hovercraft (horrible blurry action shot)

After dinner there was more playing (chaos!) and running around until we sang Happy Birthday to everyone and they they got cake and patries so they were buzzing around on a sugar high.

Ready, Set, BLOW!!!! Love how Keagan had his collar popped the whole time.

In the end my sister and I were talking about another visit with the boys coming up to Boston. They were up last October so I think a year between visits is good. I think our apartment is finally clean from the sand, spilled juice, and general debris from their last visit 😛

Smile…. it’s the law!

August 20, 2009

Today at lunch I went into the memorial services for Bob Wright held at Park Street Church.

I only go into churches to examine them architecturally. In fact, I was bribed into going the last time I attended services. (Don’t get me wrong I love to learn about religion. I just took a class called World Religions- sweet, I got an A.) But I felt okay about going for a stranger. Maybe it was because I owed nothing to him, except to smile.

Bob was a homeless man that sat outside Park Street Church in the mornings with a sign that read “Smile…. It’s the Law”. He had a rough life with parents that abandoned him and his brother, going through the foster care system, he was a coppersmith, and became homeless when his rooming house in Framingham, MA burned down in 1995. He lived on streets until October of 2007 when he moved into Ruggles Affordable Assisted Living Community. He continued to go to the corner of Park Street and Tremont with his clam shell of birdseed and his sign.

Today’s memorial was really moving with its attendance that I estimate was well over 100 people. When I first got there it was standing room only, luckily someone started to bring out more chairs quickly. I don’t sing in church, apparently the woman next to me doesn’t either, but they had Amazing Grace accompanied by a guitar. Afterwards Christina Nordstrom read the lyrics of a song she wrote about Bob. The song Angel with an Attitude was eloquent and really insightful. She really took the time to get to know Bob and as a result also wrote a book called Park Street Angels about the experience. After scriptures (Matthew 25:31-40) there were more tributes. All of these people shared a bit more about Bob than the last, from that fact the he was a writer to an artist. Jenn Eisenhein (I think?) read his journal entries that he passed on to her. And another man shared artwork that Bob gave him one year for Christmas.

I did not talk to him aside from ‘hello’, and we generally just smiled, nodded, or waved to each other but I still value that he was there, sitting under the clock the told me if I was on time or running late to work. On the days that I was running late his smile mattered even more.

Bob Wright

August 31 1949-August 16 2009

Smile… It’s the Law!

Memorial Gifts

Bob Wright Memorial Fund

Hearth
1640 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02118
Attn: Hearth.org

I love Frankmusik

August 13, 2009

Frankmusik is a UK based electropop musician. Vincent Frank got his start beatboxing but now he goes by Frankmusik and has been working the Pop/electronica scene. I have been listening to him for a while and impatiently waiting for his CD to come out. He was releasing is CD earlier this year but then it was pushed back…. so disappointing! Well, now his CD is out and I am very happy 🙂

I ordered Complete Me online and arrived on Tuesday Night! The best was that the ebay seller would send me all these emails saying my order was received, being processed, shipped, and it’s estimated time of arrival!! I anxiously awaited its arrival and then it came!!

Now with it in hand I am driving Price crazy. Complete Me is constantly playing on my iphone and in the apartment. Lots of boogying around on my part. I even asked Price if I could cut his hair like Vincent’s and he said no. I even tried to suggest I cut it close on the side and keep it long and style it tall in front (like the top photo)- I still loose. (Side note- Price would rather grow a mullet and a fu manchu next year for our RV roadtrip. I’ll believe it when I see it!) I love it all but I have my favorite songs…..

In Step

3 Little Words… the video has a piano like the movie BIG!

Better off as Two

Plus I love this clip of Frankmusik Beatboxing

On top of getting his CD this week, I just bought a ticket to see him on @ the House of Blues on 9/14. Perez Hilton has a new label and has organized a tour with a few of his peeps (Ida Maria, Ladyhawke, FrankMusik, Julian Perretta, Eric Hutchinson, Semi Precious Weapons and Sliimy) I would have loved to have seen Julian Perretta also but he is the part of the tour that is on the West Coast. At least I get to see Frankmusik… it will help me get my LAST semester started!!!

I love Jim Gaffigan

August 11, 2009

I love Jim Gaffigan. He is hilarious on so many levels. Comedians are amazing… Tom Papa, Dane Cook, Daniel Tosh, Ricky Gervais. Emily and I even went to see Eddie Izzard and Louis CK. (My hatred for Cottonwood Cafe will be ignored right now…. Emily knows why.)

So I bring him up because Price and I watch his special King Baby all the time. And he does it amazing bit about camping. Price and I watched that part several times right before we went to NH.

Jim on Camping

Jim on Hot Pockets

King Baby – Part 1 (you can continue on from there on youtube.)

‘Don’t try to run away from us.. I mean THE BEARS!’

Bacon over the campfire?!?! But of course.

August 10, 2009

Price and I went to Franconia Notch State Park this past Friday-Sunday. It was our second visit to the area for camping. Price is starting to get to know the area well because he is working on hiking all of the 4,000+ foot mountains. He has done some really hard ones so he thought our little hike on Lonesome Lake trail was easy. I wanted to hurt the earty crunchy man that was sprinting up it. The hike was well worth it in the end because we ended up at this fantastic lake. We went a tiny bit off trail to get to the water and sat on some rocks to have our picnic lunch of pepperoni, cheese, crackers, and wine. Needless to say splitting a bottle of Chardonnay leads me to giggle (especially when price slipped in the mud- ‘It’s the wine laughing, not me!’) and have a better outlook when it comes to getting back to camp.

Once back at Lafayette Campgroundwe regrouped for dinner. After a quick trip a grocery store in Lincoln, NH we got our dinner of hamburgers ready. It is so much fun to cook over the campfire. I stopped off in the camp store to get a smores stick and found our that the temps would get down in the 40’s that night. What the hell?!!? It’s August!! Thankfully I always keep a blanket in my car so we had the extra one that I used to stay warm with when were were relaxing by the firs after dinner. Yes, I was sitting in front of the fire. Yes, I was still cold. Repeat: temps quickly dropping to the mid 40’s.

We survived the night. I thought I would have frozen to death but my 2 shirts, fleece, pants, and socks kept me warm enough. Another quick drive down to the grocery store (forgot a spatula) and a cafe for some coffees and we are ready for the day! What better way to start the day than cooking bacon over the fire?!?!? I wish I could cook bacon over a fire all the time. 1) so much fun 2) such a good smokey flavor.

After breakfast we headed up to Echo Lake for some Kayaking. I had not been kayaking since camp (ah I miss camp) but that does not make me forget how to kayak! Our kayak was possessed!!! We paddled on the right, assuming like a normal person that it would turn left, but it went right. We paddled on the left, and it went right, duh! We paddled evenly and it went right. So after some lovely circles in the middle of the Lake we decided that the hour was enough and went back to sit on the beach and watch others have better luck than us.

Back at the camp site we got to relax, read, and nap. I finished Spook by Mary Roach over the weekend. (I’ve read Stiff that I passed on to Price’s dad so I will read Bonk next). Taking an 2+ hour long nap always makes for a good day.

After we finally got up from our naps we did our last dinner over the camp fire, had some roasted marshmallows and watched the fire change to blue and green from this HIGHLY toxic powder I bought at the camp store. Really cool effect but your pretty much dead if you ingest it. Our plan to get up early to swim at Echo Lake was squashed when we realized how cold it was AGAIN that morning. So we drove around the area to see Indian Head and check out Harman’s Cheese, where we got Emily maple cotton candy.

All in all a great weekend. We had a great hike, fun picnic, doomed kayak, lots of good naps, great food, and lots of fun together. On the negative side…my car smells horrible since it is a lovely combo of dirty clothes, dirty shoes, dirty cooking utensils, garbage…. well, you get the idea. Febreeze is my friend.

Carrot Cake- Time to Celebrate August Birthdays

August 6, 2009

There are a lot of people who celebrate their birthday’s in August, including my family and the people I work with. I try to bring in a cake or cupcakes for the people I immediately work with to help celebrate their birthdays. But this time, 8 in one month was a lot to take on! So I figured that I could bring in 1 big one for the office to enjoy with the all the birthday people. I love to bake but I am not bakery! Especially with 4 birthdays in a row!

I made a massive carrot cake for the 8 people who have August birthdays. Requested by Kellie (August 8th birthday)

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Serves 24 (but you can get 36 decent pieces out of it)

2 pound of carrots

3 cups of all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

8 eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed

2 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup raisins

2 cups walnuts, finely chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Line and grease 2 11”x8” baking pans.

Peel and grate carrots (fine shred with a food processor is okay but a grater has the best results)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a very large bowl, beat the eggs until blended. Add the vanilla, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and oil and beat until well incorporated.

In three batches, add the dry ingredients, mix well.

Fold in the carrots, raisins, and walnuts until they are mixed evenly throughout.

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, test for doneness.

Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Let it cool completely on a rack prior to icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting

24 oz (3 8oz packages) cream cheese, softened to room temperature, cut into small pieces

¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

8 cups of sifted confectioner’s sugar

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the vanilla extract to the mixture. Slowly add in the confectioner’s sugar. Beat until fully incorporated and smooth.

This recipe can be reduced in half.

The last time I made this recipe I left out the raisins and walnuts (afraidof nut allergies in the office) and it was a lot drier. This cake was very moist but not as easy to work with, especially when icing it!

It was nice that we were able to gather the majority of the office to get together for some cake and signing instead of our teams. We figure that we will now have a birthday cake for the month and it will be done during the staff meetings. hmmm what will I make for September?

Yelp+boat= amazing elite event

July 22, 2009

Price left to go back to NY until Sunday night. I was mopey at our lunch together because it is almost a week apart. He quickly corrected me and said only 5 days. True. At least it is not over 2 months like when he was in Biloxi. Things are just not he same when he is not at home. Oh well, I filled up my week with things to do to be distracted. First things first….

YELP ELITE EVENT!!!!!!

Being that I’m super cool and a yelp elite I was able to go on a cruise around Boston harbor. My +1 and I had a good time cruising in Boston Harbor. It was the very first yelp elite cruise event in the history of all yelp event. Sweet. Plus we got some free beverages (makers mark mojito= yum, MGD 64= piss water) and dinner. It is surprisingly amusing to everyone to see plans landing at Logan- lots of cheering and clapping. It’s not like their wheels were going to hit the top of the boat but it was pretty cool so see them RIGHT above us. Reminds me of driving on the Jersey Turnpike next to Newark Airport. Anyway, the best was the sunset.

Sandcastles in the sky

July 17, 2009

One word- exhausted.

Most three day weekends are relaxing but I took today off so I could go to the Brimfield Antique Show with Emily. Really, I can’t miss a chance to see the stuff that people have dug out of their attics and then buy it. So we planned for the show and then added on the New England Sand Sculpting Festival to make our day jammed pack.

Brimfield was insane. Some things were amazing like this set of dishes from the late 1800’s I wanted (too bad I don’t have $800 just to throw around) and other things were scary/gross like this one tent that smelled like grandma’s closet mixed with dead animal. While we were getting crispy in the sun I found some cool Pyrex, a rabbit postcard from 1906, 2 Vaseline glass juice reamers, and this AMAZING copper pot and Emily found this cool (‘hipster’) necklace and a decanter. The pot was the deal of the day- $50 and great condition. Plus the guy selling it was hilarious- he had this monster sized hands that had massive gold rings on all his fingers. HA!

So after getting a mild sunburn, spending all our cash on old stuff and Pilgrim sandwiches we headed off to the Revere Beach, America’s first beach, to watch grown men (and a woman) play in the sand. Luckily, the temp cooled off a bit and some clouds came in otherwise I would look like a lobsta right now. The sand sculptures were incredible. We hung around for a while watching them build, sadly one collapsed a bit but he quickly got to work on fixing it- I would have just fixed myself a strong drink at that point to take a break.

So glad tomorrow is Saturday so I can sleep in.