Weekend Recap

Oh lawd...where to begin?

So as it turns out, my co-worker does not have lice, but just a really bad case of dandruff. Thank god.

Spent Friday night cleaning the apartment for a couple of reasons. First off, Max was shooting his commerical parodies for his White People group and we needed to get the tub clean for the big "suicide" scene, which I will talk about in a second. The tub eventually had to be cleaned anyway since Josh will be staying at our place this week while he Pig sits and I don't want him to be grossed out if he has to use ourshower. Also, my relatives are coming in town the weekend after we return from Michigan, so I needed to start getting the place relative-ready. So, not a very fun Friday night, but it was really productive. Again I'm going to tout the best cleaning product ever - Bar Keeper's Friend. That stuff gets out everything and makes things shiny and new again!

Saturday morning a whole bunch of the gang came over to shoot the two commerical parodies Max had written for their website. I mainly just hung around and tried to keep myself and Pig out of the way. When I got bored, I either napped (hey, it's my apartment too!) or took some production stills. Here are some of my favorites from that day (actually these were taken by Amol):






In this last pic, you can see that they're prepping for Josh's big "suicide" shot. Max had rigged up a whole system of pumps and hoses to make it work. I think it turned out quite well. I took this pic, which I think is thoroughly creepy:



I really wanted to post this on myspace and and scare people, but I decided that might not be very nice to the friends who don't know Josh and don't know that these guys make little films and stuff all the time and that this undoubtedly is fake.

But in case you are creeped out, no worries! See, he's fine!!


In between takes, I amused myself by taking pics of Pig:





Max dubbed this as "Barka Pig"

After the shoot, we cleaned up and went to Jessie's birthday party. She had booked a 50 person private karaoke room. It was super fun - I did take a lot of pics, but since it was so dim in the room, they turned out pretty crappy so I'll leave them off the blog.

Since we had barely any time to rest over the weekend, Sunday was our official lounge-around-day. After getting Pig walked and fed in the morning, I actually went back to bed and didn't get up until noon. Ahhh....so nice. Finished re-reading (again) the first Harry Potter book and decided at around 7 p.m. to head to Border's to pick up Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which is the 2nd Harry Potter book. I used to have it, but lent it to someone and now it's the only one missing in my collection, and the one that I've read least. Definitely due for a re-read. Of course while at Border's I got sucked into a 3 for 2 deal and picked up a few other books that I'm really excited about. Since I'll be on vacation next week, I figure I'll have plenty of time to do some reading. The books I got are:

Into the Wild by John Krakauer (Non-Fiction)
After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he went to live in the wilderness. Four months later, he turned up dead. His diary, letters and two notes found at a remote campsite tell of his desperate effort to survive, apparently stranded by an injury and slowly starving. They also reflect the posturing of a confused young man, raised in affluent Annandale, Va., who self-consciously adopted a Tolstoyan renunciation of wealth and return to nature. Krakauer, a contributing editor to Outside and Men's Journal, retraces McCandless's ill-fated antagonism toward his father, Walt, an eminent aerospace engineer. Krakauer also draws parallels to his own reckless youthful exploit in 1977 when he climbed Devils Thumb, a mountain on the Alaska-British Columbia border, partly as a symbolic act of rebellion against his autocratic father. In a moving narrative, Krakauer probes the mystery of McCandless's death, which he attributes to logistical blunders and to accidental poisoning from eating toxic seed pods. Maps. 35,000 first printing; author tour.

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (fiction)
Celebrated in pre-WWII France for her bestselling fiction, the Jewish Russian-born Némirovsky was shipped to Auschwitz in the summer of 1942, months after this long-lost masterwork was composed. Némirovsky, a convert to Catholicism, began a planned five-novel cycle as Nazi forces overran northern France in 1940. This gripping "suite," collecting the first two unpolished but wondrously literary sections of a work cut short, have surfaced more than six decades after her death. The first, "Storm in June," chronicles the connecting lives of a disparate clutch of Parisians, among them a snobbish author, a venal banker, a noble priest shepherding churlish orphans, a foppish aesthete and a loving lower-class couple, all fleeing city comforts for the chaotic countryside, mere hours ahead of the advancing Germans. The second, "Dolce," set in 1941 in a farming village under German occupation, tells how peasant farmers, their pretty daughters and petit bourgeois collaborationists coexisted with their Nazi rulers. In a workbook entry penned just weeks before her arrest, Némirovsky noted that her goal was to describe "daily life, the emotional life and especially the comedy it provides." This heroic work does just that, by focusing—with compassion and clarity—on individual human dramas.

And this last one, which I think sounds awesome and fun-
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (fiction)
Surreal and hilariously funny, this alternate history, the debut novel of British author Fforde, will appeal to lovers of zany genre work (think Douglas Adams) and lovers of classic literature alike. The scene: Great Britain circa 1985, but a Great Britain where literature has a prominent place in everyday life. For pennies, corner Will-Speak machines will quote Shakespeare; Richard III is performed with audience participation … la Rocky Horror and children swap Henry Fielding bubble-gum cards. In this world where high lit matters, Special Operative Thursday Next (literary detective) seeks to retrieve the stolen manuscript of Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit. The evil Acheron Hades has plans for it: after kidnapping Next's mad-scientist uncle, Mycroft, and commandeering Mycroft's invention, the Prose Portal, which enables people to cross into a literary text, he sends a minion into Chuzzlewit to seize and kill a minor character, thus forever changing the novel. Worse is to come. When the manuscript of Jane Eyre, Next's favorite novel, disappears, and Jane herself is spirited out of the book, Next must pursue Hades inside Charlotte Bront‰'s masterpiece. The plethora of oddly named characters can be confusing, and the story's episodic nature means that the action moves forward in fits and starts. The cartoonish characters are either all good or all bad, but the villain's comeuppance is still satisfying. Witty and clever, this literate romp heralds a fun new series set in a wonderfully original world. (Jan. 28)


I can't wait!

Frontline or K-9 Advantage?

OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!!

I just overheard one co-worker say to the other "I hate to tell you this, but I think you might have lice. Go look at your hair in the bathroom - my kids came home with lice once and I know what it looks like."

My head is so itchy right now.

A Worthy Post

So this is my 693rd post. That's a lot of posts about nothing. But...for the first time, I actually have something purposeful to share with my dear readers - all two of you. (altho one could argue that my posts about Pig's poop do serve a purpose - what that may be remains unclear, but deep down there must be some reason why I persist, right? Right?)

So, my brother's girlfriend who I believe I named "Justine" on this blog, (on the grounds that "Theo Huxtable" had a girlfriend named "Justine" and I like to pretend I live in The Cosby Show) is doing something really admirable. She's raising $2500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in order to participate in the Nautica New York Triathlon on July 22, 2007. Yep, that's right - TRIATHLON. When I consider that sometimes I call Max on the cellphone from my bed because I am too lazy to get up and walk into the living room to talk to him, the idea of training for a TRIATHLON is just unfathomable. My brain and muffin top hurt a bit when I think about it.

Anyway, she needs help raising the money - as of this posting she's raised $1,808.00. So, please help her get to $2500!!! Preferably by July 1st, which is the intial deadline. She sent this email out, which I will cut and paste into the post, that better explains why you should contribute if you can!

From "Justine":

I am raising $2500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in order to participate in the Nautica New York Triathlon on July 22, 2007 and I need your help! The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society enables blood cancer research and improves the quality of life for cancer patients.

*Founded in 1949, the Society has invested more than $483 million for research specifically targeting blood cancers. Its mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma. Already, the relative five-year survival rate for people with leukemia has tripled in the past 40 years, and Hodgkin lymphoma is now considered one of the most curable forms of cancer, thanks to radiation, chemotherapy or a combination of the two. These advances were made possible by aid and funding from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. (www.lls.org)*

Please visit this website www.active.com/donate/tntnyc/tntnycCGroat and place a monetary donation to support this cause. Even as little as $5 would mean the world to me. $100 or more and you have a delicious homemade batch of peanut butter cookies coming to your mailbox compliments of moi (not to brag, but they're really good)...

If that's not enough, here are other compelling reasons to donate:

10. It will help you sleep better at night (here's to you, my fellow insomniacs!).
9. You have a chance at eating the best peanut butter cookies you will ever taste.
8. Your donation will be 100% deductible on your tax return.
7. It brings good karma and favorable fortune cookie readings.
6. You were one of the numerous people who gave me the crazy idea that I should do a triathlon in the first place (yes, there is a responsibility here, you know who you are).
5. You understand that raising $2,500 in donations truly is not easy.
4. a. You have money in your pocket to burn (my favorite).
-OR-
b. You foresee having money in your pocket to burn after finishing
that ______ (degree/poker tourney/loan payment) and would love to make an early feel-good investment in a great cause.
3. You support participation in triathlons, marathons, road races, aquathons, duathlons and/or generally healthy masochistic endeavors (includes eating organically!).
2. You will single-handedly (the click of a mouse!) be funding a cure for cancer.

And the number one reason you should donate....

1. You know someone who has been affected by these blood cancers, or cancer in general, and would like to honor this person by supporting research that will cure or prevent these conditions. Convinced yet? Please donate and pass this along; it really will make a difference - my life and in the lives of cancer patients everywhere. Thank you!

I actually IM'd "Theo" to see if her peanut butter cookies are any good - he says they are! Better news yet, "Justine" just sent another email saying she's lowering her close-out sale and anyone who donates $75 will get a batch of ANY kind of homemade cookies they want! Of course any size donation would help - even $5. That's just one mocha frappucino, if you think about it. Instead of consuming 450 calories, you could support someone who is actually doing the working out FOR you! Ooh, this means you can skip the gym today!

Anyway, please give my blog SOME meaning and purpose (because of course it's about me and not about the cancer patients!!) Please donate any amount you can!!

And I will add, in case you're like "oh whatever, I don' t know this 'Justine'" that she is very cool and reads my blog regularly and apparently laughed out loud at the "funnel cake" story I mentioned a few posts ago. See? Now you know her. Clearly a cool girl so please help her out!

Tuesdays are for Teeth Cleaning

Teeth cleaning appt this morning. Went over pretty well. I like my hygienist a lot - she's this plucky Jewish lady who always asks about my boyfriend, my career, etc. It's funny because I only see her twice a year, but she totally remembers what's going on with my life. Or maybe she's just good at faking it. Or takes notes. I used to go to an optometrist who totally took notes and pretended to be all chummy. I was disappointed to find things like "goes to University of Michigan" and "has a brother and sister" scrawled on the back of my file (I peeked when he was out of the room). Faker.

On my way out of the dental building, I stepped into the elevator and a middle aged man told me I had pretty feet. Ew. Gross. First off, I definitely don't have pretty feet - I am in desperate need of a pedicure and I'd almost take a pic and post it but that would be too gross. Second of all, how inappropriate. Thank god it was a short elevator ride. I find that people who are really into feet are much more vocal and obvious than people who are into other strange things. Once I was at the car wash and some guy came up to me to try to convince me that I should let him repaint my car and fix the dents etc. When I told him I was fine and I didn't need to do that he leaned in, gestured to my red finger nails, and whispered lasciviously "Same color on the toes???" Ew. Also, once at Red Rock, some guy tried to get Thode to take off her shoes. Or something like that.

Hm...what else do I want to blog about today? Oh, I found out what time Creature Comforts is on. It's on Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBS. I found out at around 8:27 last night so I was super bummed. Hopefully will find it on youtube.

Oh, and I am beginning to develop a love/hate relationship with Prince. Rumor has it he'll be playing at the Roosevelt the next couple weekends and will be charging $312.10 for standing room only per ticket and $3,120.00 for the VIP package which will consist of two tickets, dinner, and the aftershow. I am hoping these exorbitant prices prove only to be awful rumors. What a bitch.

That's all for now. Back to work.

Weekend Recap

Wheee!! Fun weekend!!

Friday night I went over to Kate's apt for a little reunion of the Monthly Dinner of the Fearsome Foursomes - Kate, Andrea, Jessie and me. We used to always have dinner once a month, and that's really sort of gone away in the last few years. This was a nice throwback to those days. It was great to sit there, drink wine and gossip about hairspray and bikini waxes. And the meal was really fun- Kate arranged an awesome Make-Your-Own-Pizza night. She bought and prepared the dough and had TONS of toppings for us to choose from. While she did an excellent job, I have to admit that perhaps my own skills in topping selection were not so terrific. Turns out that capers DON'T go well with pesto, shrimp, corn and green peppers. Go figure. But I was so inspired that I convinced Max that we should try making our own pizzas as well, which we ended up doing on Sat night. They turned out much better - he just has a natural culinary instinct - something that I fear I sorely lack.

Anyway, where was I? Okay, Saturday morning Max made breakfast and we spent the rest of the morning watching "EXTRAS" on DVD. I love that show - Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are just absolutely brilliant. After that Max and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I think it was probably the first time in months that we went out to see a movie. It's so expensive nowadays. I liked it more than the second one, but nowhere near as much as I liked the first one. And it's long - just way to ridiculously long.

Saturday night we went to a bar called The Well for Julia's bday party. Here are a few pics from the night:


Me, Birthday Girl, and LypstckGirl!


Me and Lisa ( who I am trying to rope in to a cooking class)



Josh, Benjamin and me - trying to look sexy



Ad, Megyn and Max



Josh, Benjamin and me.



Max and me!

So. Yeah. Super fun party.

Sunday, Max and I took Pig to Huntington beach, which was the perfect end to a terrific weekend. Huntington beach is one of the few beaches near Los Angeles that allows dogs. Pig had a blast! She was, as usual, the only dog trolling along looking for food to eat. What a little scavenger. I had to yell at her to spit out the seaweed that had been washed ashore. She definitely tried to avoid the water, but sometimes it was inevitable. We also saw lots of dolphins playing really close to the beach - it was such a treat.

Here's a little video of one of the few times that she got caught in the tide - you can see that she sort of freezes, unlike the other dogs who mostly ran and played in the water.



And, some of my favorite pics:




This dog "Ruby" insisted on getting into the shot!




This is my favorite I think - I just love how it captures Pig jogging happily along after Max.

Creature Comforts

Discovered my new most favoritest show EVAH last night. CREATURE COMFORTS! I guess it's an American version of a popular BBC series from the creators of Wallace & Grommit. Basically they take real interviews of people across the states and animate them as animals. Adorabley cute and funny - even Max liked it.

Here's a brief clip:




Took Pig to the vet this morning. Turns out her thick waist and burgeoning pot belly are in fact due to the prednisone she is taking. Made me wonder if someone is secretly slipping prednisone into MY meals... She is otherwise totally fine, which is good. Still puking up poop on a two to three month basis but the vet and I have agreed there is just very little to be done about it. She is clearly unable to digest SOMETHING (could it be the trees, leaves, bark, food wrappers, etc she eats on a daily basis????) and eventually upchucks it from, I suspect, her bowels. Sounds a bit against nature but apparently it's not unheard of. Jessie told us a rather revolting story about a young girl who ate only funnel cake for several weeks straight and experienced the same thing. Ewww.

Max is having his "white people" meeting at our place tonight. "White People" is a group consisting of Max and friends (AD, Josh, Amol, etc - the usual crew I talk about here and then some) who meet weekly and write and produce comedic short films. They are not all "white people." Personally think it's a terrible name for a group but for some reason they thought it was funny, because "white people are funny." Whatever. Anyway, the mtgs on usually at Amol's but tonight it will be at our place. I think they generally meet for awhile and discuss proper group things but then eventually just end up hanging out well into the night. I'm going to make myself go to sleep at a reasonable time tonight tho - for the last few Thursdays, I've stayed up late for various reasons (hong's bday party, thode was in town, rebecca came over to watch Harry Potter, etc) and I've really suffered the following Friday. Like practically in pain. I am an old lady - I need my nine hours of sleep!!

Anyway, here is their website. Warning: most of their material is really offensive and inappropriate!

Anyone catch Top Chef last night? My favorite part was when Padma was like "You can fry anything...you could fry my toe!" Hahahahaha. Go Padma! Go on wit yo bad self! Hahahahahha. Now I am laughing at myself. I have no idea where that bit of "urban" slang just came from.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Pig in a Tub

Gave Pig a bath last night. Her first in several months - I'm such a bad dog mama. She used to hate them but now she doesn't seem to mind them so much. The trick is - what else - lots of cookies. It's funny tho, she can't seem to jump into the bathtub. I think it's some sort of depth perception thing - maybe she's afraid she'll hit the wall? She can jump OUT of the tub just fine. Weird. When she's wet, all these hidden black spots come out so she looks even spottier than normal. I'll have to take a pic of it next time, which hopefully will be some time before the winter... :)

Top Chef premieres tonight. My usual group of friends who gather to watch TC don't seem to be gathering this week. Hopefully we will in the subsequent weeks - it really is fun to get together, have a few drinks, and gossip wildly about who should be kicked off.

Hmm....am remembering why it's hard to blog every day. Mainly b/c there's so little to talk about. I'm so boring! booohooohooo!

Summer Television

Woot! We discovered that the new season of Hell's Kitchen started last night. Two episodes back to back. Anyone else catch that show? There is this huge douchebag on the show named Aaron - a gigantic weeping 48 yr old Asian (Gay?) Cowboy. Really awful. I am beginning to suspect he's a plant - good lord he is ridiculous.

Reminds me that I need to look up when Top Chef is starting back on too. I find it a bit ironic that while I love watching these cooking competitions I myself am a truly horrid cook.

I can't believe it's almost the middle of June already. Truly summertime. Looking forward to some different things this summer. I'll be going back to Michigan at the end of this month for a wedding. That'll be fun, and it'll be one of the few times I'm going to Michigan when it's not actually freezing. After that my little cousin "Wrong Enders" will be in town for summer camp. What else? Oh Amol is trying to organize a camping trip which will be awesome. I'm always up for any trip where I don't have to do the planning! And then at the end of the summer - HAWAII!

Weekend Recap

Why must weekends be soooo short???

Just when I had decided to stay in Friday night, Amol called and told me he finally managed to scrounge up enough people for a poker game. He'd been trying all afternoon and it didn't seem like it'd happen, but sure enough, he'd manage to find six, including me. So I peeled myself off the couch and went to play poker for the first time in months. Lisa had also called inviting us out to the Roosevelt but I couldn't bring myself to put in the energy to make myself look nice. Roosevelt's on the trendier side and considering the state I was in (Friday night, unshowered, after a long day at work) it would have taken a monumental amount of effort to clean up. Going to Amol's place however, requires no prep time, so I pretty much showed up in my pajamas. Didn't win either of the games but that was okay - it was so much fun! I forgot how much I like to play poker.

Since I was out so late Friday night (didn't get home until after 3 a.m.) I spent most of Saturday dozing in front of the tv. We watched Music & Lyrics, which is cute, but not as great as I hoped it'd be. I was supposed to meet Lypstickgirl at the gym, but I couldn't muster the energy and had errands to do so I bailed. Unfortunately, didn't manage to get my errands done either. I suck. All I managed to accomplish was walking Pig down to Petco and buying her...what else....more cookies.

At around 7 p.m. we headed over to Jessie's for an impromptu bbq. I don't really think she was officially planning to have one and hadn't really even invited anyone, leaving that responsibility to Tony. Tony was wife-free for the weekend, so he was looking to organize a fun debaucherous Sat night, starting with said bbq at Jessie's and then on to Dell's, a karaoke bar within walking distance. Very fun night. Josh and I found ourselves sitting at a table full of food at the end of the night and we decided to do a sequel to a series of pictures we had taken back in the summer of 2004. Ahh....how we've aged (only physically of course...clearly not emotionally or mentally which is quite sad!):














































































We are so immature.

Anyway, since we got back late Sat night, I spent much of Sunday dozing in front of the tv. I'm seeing a bad pattern here, I think. I finally got off the couch to make dinner for Max. I thought it'd be nice to cook dinner for a change and had seen what appeared to a simple Tyler Florence recipe for Herb Roasted Chicken and Wild Mushrooms. It was fairly easy although I did run into some problems. I couldn't find kitchen twine at the store so I had to use pink thread that I scraped out of a complimentary hotel sewing kit to tie the legs together. One package of mushrooms I bought was completely moldy. I actually almost used it because they were oyster mushrooms and I'd never seen oyster mushrooms before and I thought briefly that maybe they were supposed to be a little bit fuzzy. But all in all it turned out really well and I even managed not to mess up the instant bread pudding I had chosen for dessert!

Sareet Who?

So I'm totally mad at myself for not posting in so long. One day I'm going to look back and wonder what fun things I did from April 24th, 2007 to June 8th 2007. I'll wonder what weird observations I made, what adventures I went on, and even, possibly, what Pig's poop looked like...

But no point on dwelling on it. It'd be impossible to recap the last 8 weeks or so, but there are certainly some notable highlights that I will mention, because the blog would woefully incomplete without them:

4/28 - My little sister's college graduation! Went back to Michigan for a very short trip to attend "Rudy's" graduation. Ate a lot, nearly missed seeing Bill Clinton speak (the car broke down again - that makes it the 9th time that something has gone wrong with the car while I'm in it - I'll post about it some time), and was jet-lagged for most of the trip. It was great though. Also turned 29, for the first time. :)


"Rudy" and my mom!


"Rudy" and my dad!


What inevitably happens when we run out of things to take pictures of...




Bill Clinton!! An awesome speaker.


Mom and "Theo" - too cute!!

Second week of May (I think) I went to Vegas. Again, I know. It was the third time I've been to Vegas this year since February. However, this time I met up with some of my family - my uncle, aunts, and my bro - for a crazy trip, VIP style. My uncle, formerly known as Uncle "Bellagio" (coined by Kate), hereinafter known as Uncle "Wynn" hooked us up with rooms at The Wynn. He even had a f#&%ing LIMO pick me up at the airport. MY OWN LIMO. That was awesome. There's quite a thrill in having a chauffeur meet you up at the baggage claim! My brother got such a kick out of it that he had some one take a picture of him with HIS limo driver. Haha. The Wynn itself is really nice and I had a terrific time. Uncle "Wynn" got us great seats to the Celine Dion concert. Now, I'm not much of fan of hers but it was a really really great show and very worth seeing. It was an awesome weekend - it pretty much spoiled Vegas for me. I don't think I can ever go back to cramming into a motel room with 8 people and slumming at Imperial Palace.


Best night of sleep I've ever had...the Wynn hotel room. Super nice feather bed, down comforter, and lots of pillows.


We "found" our way into the secret VIP all night Chinese buffet area off the Baccarat room. I think Uncle Wynn was a bit concerned when I told him that it was the best Chinese food I've had in months. I don't think he realized how often I eat at Panda Express!


Aunt Marilyn, Me, and Alvin in another limo on our way to Caesar's palace.


Aunt Laura, Aunt Jo and Uncle Wynn, sitting across from us.


Me, enjoying a mojito by the pool (charged to the room, of course)

What else? I've spent the rest of my time doing the usual - hanging out with friends over the weekend, going to work, oversleeping and skipping the gym, etc. BBQ-ed a lot over Memorial Day weekend. Thode came into town last week (yay!) and we immediately put her to work and had her make us sloppy joe's on Sloppy Joe night.

Recently I've been on a crazy Harry Potter kick and have been obsessively listening to HP podcasts and checking out fan sites. On Monday, Lypstykgirl, Benjamin and Josh (well, he was more of crasher) came over so we could watch all the HP movies from the beginning. I couldn't get through all of them since I had to work the next day so Lypstykgirl came over last night and we rewatched Goblet of Fire. I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT MOVIE AND LAST BOOK COME OUT!!! Ugh. The. wait. is. just. too. long.

Am trying to get back to working out. Last month I pretty much stopped working out entirely except for going to Benjamin's "Beach Booty Workouts." He's in great shape and I've roped him into being our occasional trainer. It's much more fun working out with friends altho I am by nature a lazy bastard and will generally slack off unless he's watching me.

Anyway, am going to get back to blogging so stay tuned, if anyone is still out there reading!!!

p.s. Pig is great but appears to have developed some strange muscles around her waist. I think this might be a result of her meds, which I think are steroid based. Vet appt next week (*sigh*)


Pig, on her way to work.