Report From Lunch

The sun is shining. The trees are different colors, pink, white, light green, even a few sprinkles of purple here and there. And, a lot no-shirt-wearing men with beer guts. Ain't Spring grand!?

French Onion Soup

I was discovered that French Onion soup can't be just as delicious without the bread in it. (Score! Another low-carb option for me.) I click on Smitten Kitchen and there is a recipe for French Onion soup!I would put much cheese on that though. Yum.

She's Such a Dumb Dumb

That Sarah Palin, she didn't even go to Harvard, so dumb that one, asking her stupid questions and wanting to know why the President is doing what he is doing. How dare she question the One and suggest that his views in Law School might shed light on his muddled rhetoric on issues such as bombing Libya. Silly Sarah, the media only cares about dumb Republican's school record. In infamous words of the internet, "Leave Britney Obama alone!"

Music At Our House

Peter has been playing PJ Harvey's Let England Shake album both weekends. Providing a nice soundtrack to clean up that is taking places in our home.



I love the sampling of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues": "What if I take my problems to the United Nations?" - depressing and snappy at the same time. The album is fantastic, worth a listen.

PS: "All And Everyone" is my favorite track on the album. Love the dreamy quality of her voice in parts of the song.

Best Part of Pizza?!

Cheese of course. As Passover ends...thoughts turn to pizza. Not that I can have any. #grumblesabtlowcabdiet

Candy Bust

I'm glad the government is protecting the children. What would we do without them!?!

Jigs Patel, who recently opened the London Candy Co. on the Upper East Side, where he is importing candy from the U.K., had already run out of his Kinder eggs by the time he got his visit from a CPSC official just before Easter.

"They obviously took this very seriously," Patel said. "I actually found it very amusing. It's a bloody chocolate with a toy inside. It's not smuggling crack cocaine."

He said that customers in the store that day found it funny, too.

"They were like, 'Don't they have better things to do than hunt down Kinder eggs?'

By the way all the Russian Food stores have Kinder Eggs. The only crappy thing is that they are ridiculously expensive and I can't order them online anymore.

via Peter

Moral of the Story: Elvis was actually Jewish

I found this turning matzah into something tasty, kind of hilarious. I mean deduct points for putting BACON with matzah but other than that, awesome.

Ian: Just as Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, this sandwich led the skinny Elvis into being the fat Elvis.

Peter: Evidence Elvis was a secret Jew? One, he loved his mother. Two, this sandwich. Evidence he was not a Jew? Everything else he ever did.

Also proof Elvis was Jewish:

According to rabbinic law, a Jew is defined as either a person born of a Jewish mother or one who has been converted to Judaism. Thus Elvis Presley was Jewish the old fashioned way – through maternal descent.....

Historian and biographer Elaine Dundy writes about Elvis Aron Presley’s Jewish heritage in her book "Elvis and Gladys":

"...Nancy Burdine was married to Abner Tackett (Elvis’ great great maternal grandmother). Nancy was of particular interest to Gladys for her Jewish heritage, often remembering Nancy's sons for their Jewish names Sidney and Jerome. Nancy and Abner had a daughter Martha who married White Mansell. The daughter which they named Octavia, nick-named Doll, who was Elvis' maternal grandmother."

Quote of the Day

From Sleepless in Seatle:

Well, I'm gonna get out of bed every morning... breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breathe in and out... and, then after a while, I won't have to think about how I had it great and perfect for a while.

Sometimes this quote hits incredibly close and then I remember that things can be worse and there are people who I still love and who love me. I'm trying to be thankful but it's hard.

California Living

This video reminded (also it's hilarious) me of our walk on Venice Beach this past January. They actually have people handing out little business cards with a list of "ailments" a weed card. Only in LA do you get the juxtaposition of Weed & Botox.

Coincendence?

Gas is disgustingly expensive ($65 a tank - and that's at the cheapest gas station for miles). At this rate I will not be able to travel to see my husband in May, good thing I'm moving in 3 weeks.

However, when I sent a whiny e-mail to Peter about the gas prices, I got the following response "Arizona has the cheapest gas in the country and Illinois has the most expensive." Coincidence? I doubt it.



Via Nice Deb

Hump Day Snark

What love looks like to some people:

City Living

The paradox of owning a car in the city is that once you find a good parking you don't want to leave it. Defeating the whole purpose of a car giving you a sense of freedom. Still, I can get used to this.

Song of the Day

"The Calendar Hung Itself" by Brighteyes



I used to listen to this song on days like today, sunny & breezy, feeling slightly fatalistic.

Alternative History

I found the interview with Noah Glass one of the "forgotten" Twitter inventors fascinating. Mostly of how humble and matter of fact he is about being essentially screwed over.

That's a thing I want to reiterate - you're trying to look for the full story. Some people have gotten credit, some people haven't. The reality is it was a group effort. There were lots of people putting ideas into and it couldn't have been done without this group of people. Whether or not there's individuals who get credit or don't get credit, that may be totally irrelevant. It was a collaboration. And it was almost a collaboration that came out of necessity.

via Sarah Brown

Your Friday Laugh

Gwyneth Paltrow wrote a cookbook. And while I don't mean to pile on, this is hilarious.

via Kottke

Recent Reads: Children's Book

From Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book,

"The voice in his head was something very old and very dry, like the scraping of a dead twig against the window of the chapel, and it seemed to Bod that there was more than one voice there, that they were talking in unison."

The metaphor above works on so many great levels; visceral, place and character appropriate, and vivid. The whole book works, a good children book is when adults and the kids enjoy something. Gaiman (of Coroline fame) definitely has the gift of a storyteller on multiple levels. Not only is his writing fine, but his characters and plots keeps the reader involved and wanting more. So if you are looking for a good mystery for your kids (I would say 4th -6th grade range), I highly recommend it.

How to pick up a girl

Not sure why it's hard for guys to pick up a lady. B.I.G. explained early on:

Straight up honey really I'm askin'
Most of these fellas think they be mackin' but they be actin'
Who they attractin' with that line, "What's your name, what's your sign?"
Soon as he buy that wine I just creep up from behind

And ask what your interests are, "Who you be with?"
Things to make you smile, what numbers to dial
You gon' be here for a while, I'm gon' go call my crew
You go call your crew, we can rendezvous at the bar around two

- "Big Poppa"

I Love Lightning

Laundry Conundrum

I'm fine sorting dirty laundry, putting in the wash, even drying it out and folding, but putting it way in the right place takes days if not weeks. That's the worst part of laundry.

Recent Reads

So I just finished reading Anthony Bourdain's recent installment, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, which reads like a collection of essays about how Bourdain has an amazing life and why he feels guilty or alternatively like a hypocrite to be able to travel to so many amazing places, eat the food that he has the opportunity to eat, and mingle with the worlds top chefs. I felt like he was that girl who is constantly justifying/absolving her horrible behavior by acknowledging "I know I'm a bitch, but at least I admit it." Admitting that you are a pampered jerk who got extremely lucky still makes you one. And while Bourdain is entertaining and still a good writer, he comes up with little bon mots like this:

“Too much respect for your elders is, historically, almost always a bad thing. I want my daughter to love me. I don’t necessarily want her to share my taste for Irish ale or Hawaiian bud.”

it still left me feeling like I was reading some juicy gossip about the American foodie scene (think mostly West Coast & New York City). If you are into going to the most expensive, fascinating, and inventive restaurant this is definitely a book worth reading - but that's quite a small percentage of people. His take down of Alice Waters is pretty nice (a sample here), but here the thing he doesn't go far enough. He demonizes McDonald's but doesn't offer any answers of his own except that he might be part of the problem. So yes, a well written, if a bit self-involved, book that kind of goes nowhere.

"Undertow" by Warpaint

via Jay-Z 's life style blog. No seriously.

Song of the Day (I'm emberassed to say)

This song makes me want to clean. Also, I remember listening to it when I was ten. #facepalm #horribletasteinmusicwheniwaslittle



This song was brought to you by my coworker saying "baby" several times over and over.

Managing Expectations

I went to see Merchant of Venice starring F. Murray Abraham (who is, by the way, not a Jew) as Shylock. The play by Director Tresnjak is stage in modern dress, with Wall Street replacing the Rialto of 16th century Venice. This device, which usually leaves me cold, was used imaginatively - with a bit of proselytizing on the side. The rich and the powerful have different rules that the ordinary folk - which they do, but theplay implies they are the cause of all evil. The comedic moments especially worked well with the modern setting, for example Portia's manservant, obviously gay, texting a potential crush or the three boxes being replaced by three Mac laptops and flat screen tvs.

As for the scene where Shylock gets sentenced, it was shocking and painful. Since this play is essentially a comedy (definition of a comedy = single people at the begining of the play, are paired at the end), there is a moment when Bassanio at the urging of Antonio (what's with Shakespeare and the homo eroticism?!) gives the ring to Portia (disguised as a man), a ring he swore to never part with. Several ladies setting near to me actually gasped. Yet remained completely silent when Shylock was humiliated and dehumanized a scene earlier. The contrast stuck with me. I guess romantic betrayal is more powerfully felt than unjust punishment.

Anyway, if you are in Boston for the next few days, don't miss it, Abraham is fantastic as Shylock.

(On a side note, the kippa that is ripped from Shylock head is left on the stage. When Abraham returned for curtain call, he picked up the kippa, kissed it, and put it on his head. I loved that.)

On Crafts

I think all those DIY wedding blogs trick you into thinking how much fun you are going to have personalizing your very "special" and "unique" invitation/thank you card/centerpiece/table assignment or what have you" However, in reality well it's not as fun as one might think - also all that uniqueness is not quite so unique when you are stamping over and over. Okay, so I'm kind of having fun making the "Thank you" cards, and while it's nice to reflect on everyone who was so generous to us, just not as much as I expected.

One of those days...

You know it's going to be an interesting day when you hit a bird, mid-flight, with your car. #yeahthathappened

The Case of the Giant White Bunny

So there is a huge white "mini" coopers at my works parking lot. I guess that's one of the new models, a supersized mini cooper. Each time I park next to it, it freaks me out. It's like expecting a cute little white bunny but instead you're faced with a giant white rabbit about to devour you. It leaves filling slightly uncanny, the car name has the word mini in it, it should be small!

Hangover Part 2 Trailer

A trailer for sequal of a movie, I liked but not as much as I thought I would like.

I still say "retard" like Alan. Also I'm bummed that the 4th dude (Doug?) misses on all the fun, again.

Song of the Day

In order to get Rebeca Black's song out of my head I present a rather good song, "Lust by Life" by Girls. The video is a bit pervy, but the song catchy & it includes Pdov approved dancing (a la Molly Ringwald).



via Peter

P.S. I have this version of "Friday" aka "Gang Fight" stuck in my head.

Car Lust

I have always been a bit enamored with weirdly shaped cars. At one point, I confess, I even thought of getting a PT Cruiser, only to realize what a horribly ugly car it was. Then there was the fascination with the VW Beetle. Which after test driving it as a rental seems like a great car (turbo engines are very fun), especially having a rather tall husband, yet as far as the needed upkeep (VW doesn't have the best reputation on that front) I'm still not sold.
Enter the mini-cooper, it's British by way of BMW and it glows on the inside. Also it's small and cute, and I'm very drawn to those two criteria. Also, it's a good car to have, especially when the most frequent passenger in your car tells you, every time you look for parking in the busy streets of Manhattan, about the horrible Smart car.

Through Rose Colored Glasses of Nostalgia

I'm sure the Germans have a word for it, but I'm trying to come up with it in English and it's failing me. I got to hang out with a friend from Scotland last night and while seeing him was absolutely fantastic (and I'm hoping his job brings him back to our local parts soon), it brought back a whole range of emotions I hadn't anticipated. Specifically of the period of time when I was studying abroad, how dear and wonderful that time now seems, yet how horrible it really was. Besides a few highlights such as my friend and FilmSoc, I was pretty miserable. I was completely lost, depressed by the weather, and more so by my purpose in life. And yet, reading some old entries from that time I'm reminded of how my writing improved, how much I loved living abroad on my own, even while miserable, about the relationships I formed, and the experiences etched in my mind. I think about what I would have done differently if I knew then, what I know now - of opportunities missed, of chances not taken, of friendships not kept. The nostalgia is beautiful and painful at the same time. And while trying to go back is futile and impossible, a part of me aches to.