Housewarming

Our house was very warm during our housewarming party this past Saturday. The weather had been downright cool the week before, but decided to kick it up to the upper ninties just in time for our party. So, everyone stayed indoors and sweltered a little since it was even hotter outside. We had fun though. Our friend Dave got to pick out all the beer which he enjoyed. We defrosted and served our two year old wedding cake. We got the Bomba cake from Modern Pastry as a backup for those who didn't want to risk eating an old cake. Wings and breaded mushrooms were ordered from Wingworks and I slaved away in the kitchen making ranch dip (sour cream+powdered seasonings) and cutting up some veggies. A housewarming party was a good excuse to get our place in order. We tried our best and we did pretty well. However, at the last minute, boxes were put in the closet and moved to the basement to eliminate some of the clutter.

Where's Weed?

Two weeks ago, our weed situation was getting noticably bad so I ended up weeding our entire side yard. I hadn't really noticed the weeds until I started weeding, then I noticed them everywhere. In the brick side yard, in the gravel, in with the plants, on the sidewalk. I did a thorough weeding and it took me about 3 hours to fill one giant trashbag.

Since then, I've been mildly obsessed with obliterating weeds from our yard. Unfortunately, they have complicated winding root systems so it's a fruitless battle. Every few days when I come home, I survey the land and try to spot any new weeds that have cropped up. My problem is weeding begats more weeding. At first it was all obvious weeds, then it was the weeds hiding behind other weeds, then weeds that looked like plants at first glance, so on and so forth. I haven't mastered the art of deciding between weed and plant. I know I'm in trouble once I pull up bushes and the yard is completely bare.

Teleporting Nightstands

For all the complaints folks may have about Pottery Barn and the entire Williams-Sonoma home goods empire, you can't beat the convenience and instant gratification. We were motivated by our upcoming housewarming party and my impending return to the workforce to buy some furniture for our bedroom and living room. Since we are relatively immobile without a car and somewhat lazy, we bought everything online. While everything's arriving within a week, our nightstands practically teleported to us. I placed an order on Sunday night, they left the warehouse on Monday and they arrived today (Tuesday) before noon, that's barely 40 hours. It helps that the warehouse is in New Jersey so they didn't have to travel far, but still...I'm impressed.

King of Queens

Ever since Adam Tivo-ed this episode of King of Queens, I can't stop laughing spontaneously whenever I think about it. Arthur wants to order pizza from a neighborhood joint..."Doh-mee-nohs." Here's the YouTube link Adam found.

Locked Out

We were showing our place to our friends Zeff and Zara (not my sis-in-law) when a big gust of wind shut and locked the 2nd floor balcony door while we were all outside.

Adam: The door closed, I'll just use my key.
plasticann: We don't have a key, we're locked out.
Adam: I thought it was the same as the front door.
plasticann: No, we never got a key for this door, we're locked out.
Adam: I thought there was a spare key out here for emergencies.
plasticann: That's what they said, but I never found it.
Adam: Why don't we have a key?
plasticann: We never got one, there's no key...we're locked out.
Adam: We're locked out! We need to get this fixed.

Meanwhile Zeff and Zara are laughing hysterically at the absurdity of the situation. I started to call our friend who has a set of our keys when we noticed some neighbors moving out across the street. We started hollering and waving to get her attention. We explained that the "wind" had locked us out accidentally by blowing the door closed so we dropped down a set of keys for her to come in and get us. Fortunately, she was honest enough to not rob us while we were locked outside and helpless.

Let's Party

We have these two little girl neighbors ages 2 and soon to be 7. The soon to be 7 year old is having a party this weekend and the two year old is already gearing up for the big day. She kept waving at me when I came home just now saying emphatically "Let's Party!" and "Happy Birthday" to no one in particular.

Toy Recall

The following is a reconstructed conversation with plasticmom:

plasticmom: So, have Zess and Zames had any of their toys recalled? It's been in the news.
plasticann: I'm not sure. They do have those Thomas the Train toys. I'm sure Zara is on top of it.
plasticmom: Maybe their grandpa will have to start making them homemade toys.
plasticann: I guess if he did, they'd definitely be organic
plasticmom: Ha ha, organic toys.

Fortunately for Zess and Zames, they have two grandpas who are both into woodworking so homemade organic toys are a real possibility.

Restaurant Week: Icarus

It's Restaurant [Two] Weeks, so we checked out Icarus in the South End last night for dinner. The dining room was really crowded and Adam seemed to be too tall for his chair or maybe it was the table, but the food was pretty good. For appetizers, Adam got the grilled steak salad and I had the crisp polenta with veal. We both enjoyed the pork loin with corn pudding and watermelon salad for dinner. I got the chocolate cake for dessert and Adam had the toasted pound cake with vanilla ice cream and peach compote. I liked the appetizers the best. Our pork loin was tasty, but there were these whole peanuts in the watermelon salad which seemed odd to me. My chocolate cake was rich and decadent, but not super exciting. Adam's pound cake was the real winner. The sangria was delicious and all the wine pairings for Adam's meal were awesome. My verdict, it's a very nice place, but there are other restaurants I would rather go to for a full priced meal.

Chautauqua

We flew up to Buffalo on Friday and drove to the Chautauqua Institute to see Zess, Zames, Zara, Zryce and Zryce's parents. What is the Chautauqua Institute you might ask? It's best described as a cultural Disneyland or an Utopian cultural village. You pay a gate entrance fee to get in, people own homes inside the institute and during the summer, there is cultural programming of all sorts. They have operas, orchestras, ballets, art galleries...basically lots of cultural activities in this little village where you can walk everywhere and where people don't lock their doors.

We had a really fun time hanging out and taking in the whole experience. Zames is a very active almost two year old who's obsessed with planes, trains and automobiles. He's gotten into watching "choo choo" video clips on You Tube. The other night, Zames was out past sunset which was clearly a new experience. I guess he's never outside when it's dark. He kept pointing at the sky muttering "dark dark dark dark." He tried to convince Zryce that they should lie down on the park bench because it was dark and time to go to sleep. He was genuinely befuddled by dark and super adorable.

Zess is into the idea of being fast, she has her "fast shoes," which are her pink athletic style Mary Janes. She likes to tell me she's faster than me which I seriously doubted, but I didn't debate her on that. I mean, I'm slow, but heck, I'm faster than any three year old at least for short distances. I'll be faster and taller than Zess for at least another year, maybe two. I timed her riding her tricycle up and down the driveway...took her around 10 seconds. She kept peddling faster and faster and [sorry Zara] almost ran into a wall because she wasn't looking. Good thing I reached out and caught her before she hit something. Shortly after that near miss, we tried timing her riding really slow...40 seconds. I also got her to help me put away the toys really fast. Then there was timing her putting on an outfit...30 seconds. Would have been 15 seconds had she not gotton stuck putting on her skort. Now that we know how fast she can get herself dressed, she has no excuses getting ready in the morning.

Not On The Same Wavelength...At All

Adam's friend from college, Adam, was passing through town on the way back from a big cheese making convention in Vermont. Let's call him "Foodieadam" since he's a gourmet food venture capitalist. He had about 40 pounds of cheese that he bought in coolers and he was kind enough to share his loot with us. The following is a reconstructed conversation that occured while we were enjoying a delicious spread of cheese:

Adam: We would love to come visit you guys this fall, come see the baby, see you place.
Foodieadam: Yeah, that would be great. You know what, you should come on the weekend my neighbor has this big cassoulet party in his backyard.
Adam: [a little unsure] OK, that sounds like fun.
Foodieadam: Last year they had a big tent and everyone brings their cassoulet for a contest.
Adam: Um...what exactly is this castle...???
Foodieadam: Oh, it's this French dish where you stew beans, sausage, duck, etc.
Adam: I had no idea what you were talking about. I thought you had said something about "castles."
plasticann: I totally thought he said "castles" and I was thinking bouncy castles in a backyard so I was confused.
[chuckles all around]
Foodieadam: [continuing on] Well, every year it gets better and better. I met this woman who owns a game company and she's going to be one of the judges for the contest. They make this great blah blah blah, yada yada yada and duck...
plasticann: Oh, you meant like game as in meat...
Adam: I thought you meant board games at first...
plasticann: ...and I was thinking, "gosh, I've never heard of these games."
Foodieadam: People, the theme here is food...you've got to think food.

Poor Kitty

Adam sent me this article about Thai police officers who are forced to wear Hello Kitty armbands as a mark of shame when they commit minor offenses like littering. Poor misaligned kitty, but I guess if she can play her part in eliminating corruption and evilness we should call her Super Kitty.

Pillow Inserts

Frustrated by the sad lumpy matted down state of our poly-filled pillow inserts, I marched myself down to Crate & Barrel Furniture for some new down/feather filled pillow inserts to revive my sofa pillows. Well, more like I dragged myself down there since it was over 90 degrees yesterday, but I pressed on in the heat down Mass Ave. I did collapse on the couch upon arriving home later that afternoon leaving my large number of bulky bags (broom and plunger included) in the middle of the doorway. I had to watch an episode of My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding to regain my energy. Two million for a pink fantasy wedding. Our wedding was pink and fabulous and a whole lot less that two million. Maybe it was because we didn't have adorable Hello Kitty cakes at the bridal brunch. Back to the topic at hand, However, the newly revived pillows were worth the trek...they now fluff up very nicely. All very exciting for this [temporary] housewife.

PS It's so hot right now, my eyeglasses are fogging up.

Giant Ice Cream Cones

So the other day, we were walking by the Somerville Theatre when I saw a guy with the biggest cup of ice cream I've ever seen. Well, it was the impressively big not out to break any records big, but it literally took my breath away. I swear, the ice cream towered six inches above the rim of the paper cup. Indeed, this was the very generous serving of a Richardson's large ice cream. Makes sense, Adam and I shared a "Kiddie" the other night which was plenty and there's a "Small" between "Kiddie" and "Large." Needless to say, I've been a little obsessed about the prospect of buying a large ice cream to experience the grandness in person. Unfortunately, I shouldn't eat a pint of ice cream in one sitting so I have no opportunity to buy this cone which retails for merely $3.75. I even desperately suggested that we give the cashier 4 bucks, ask her to supersize the next ice cream cone on us while we observed from behind some bushes. The idea was vetoed as was my other idea which was to buy it, eat some and throw the rest away. Saner and less gluttonous minds prevailed in the end. (Yes, that would Adam.) Oh, but one day...I will have my large ice cream.

Makeshift Chemex

I broke my Chemex coffee maker...again. This is the third one that's shattered, all from not super traumatic accidents. The first tipped over and bonked itself on the metal part of the stove. The second one I think I set down in the sink a little harder than usual and it shattered. The latest one shattered while it was sitting on the counter when I dropped a plastic box of seaweed that weighed all of 2 ounces on the rim. I think they're just fragile and while I love the Chemex, I'm not excited about investing in a fourth one. I think the key to the Chemex system is the triple bonded filters so I've been experimenting with makeshift systems. Yesterday, I used a plastic funnel for the filter and set it over my Brown Betty Teapot. Worked reasonably well, but took a wicked long time since the funnel hole was quite small. So, I bought a silicone funnel and cut part of the bottom off to create a larger hole. This morning, I used it over a tall Pyrex container so I could tell how much coffee I was making. (800 CC) Small problem, the tall Pyrex had no handle so it was too hot to handle. I had to put on my mitts...both hands. Tomorrow, I'm going to try using a Nalgene water bottle as my coffee container. The mouth might be too small, but it won't shatter and it'll tell me how much I'm making.

Martha For The Masses

My sister-in-law, Zara, was so excited about the Martha Stewart Collection at Michael's that she called me up to share the news. "I've always wanted a bone folder and now I can buy one from Martha Stewart," exclaimed Zara. Since I live 2.84 miles from the nearest Michael's and I'm pretty sure it's a 2.84 miles that includes unwalkable highways, I checked it out online and it looks pretty awesome. I especially enjoy the "share" collection with all if the cool food boxes. Other evidence that Ms. Martha is poised once again to take over the world, the new Martha Stewart Collection at FLOR. A little blah, but ever so tasteful...gotta love it.

All Moved In

We are finally all moved in. We're waiting for our bed to inflate as we speak so we can get some shut eye. (We have a sleep number bed...awesome) Today was pretty exciting. We had a crew of seven helping us move with the Uhaul. Our friend James (who drove the truck brilliantly) claims it was the easiest move ever. I hope it means that James might be willing to bail us out of driving a Uhaul for the fourth time sometime in the far off future. We then got all gussied up for my old roommate Carin's wedding to Francis. I shed a tear or two of happiness at the wedding, they looked super happy all day which is always a good sign. We enjoyed a Chinese Banquet for dinner and the cake was from Party Favors: vanilla cake with chocolate mousse and raspberry with a buttercream frosting. Delicious!

Levenger Laplander

For my graduation, I received this awesome Levenger Laplander from Zara, Zryce, Zess and Zames. I haven't had the chance to use it much, but this week, the lap desk has been super useful. We've been moving into our new home last two weeks and we're pretty much all moved except for our furniture. Even our cable and Internet is set up, but no desk. I was sitting on the floor checking my e-mail feeling mighty uncomfortable when it dawned on me...the Laplander. I pulled out a little chair, plopped my laptop on the Laplander and now I have myself a nice little setup. Even has room on the sides for my cell phone and a pen plus the Laplander protects my legs from my overly warm laptop. Thanks guys!

What's New at the Somerville Theatre

We discovered all these new additions at the Somerville Theatre last night. They've converted their ticket window into an ice cream stand selling Richardson's ice cream. We enjoyed a very generously sized "kiddie" chocolate peanut butter cup which was more like a small. They've also started to serve beer and wine inside the movie theatre. Here's an ad we saw for the Simpson's movie which they're showing first run this Thursday at midnight.

Where would Homer see THE SIMPSONS MOVIE?

He'd go the Movie-House that sells BEER!

THE SOMERVILLE THEATRE

Serving Beer (and Wine, for you Marge-Types) + Popcorn with real butter (MMMMMMMMM...Butter)

Sweet Sue's

I was having dinner with some of my old roommates last night and they were raving about the cinnamon rolls at Sweet Sue's over in Arlington. Turns out, it's the same place that Adam wanted to go to for the cinnamon roll bread pudding which makes sense since they use the old cinnamon rolls to make the bread pudding. Unfortunately, they didn't have cinnamon rolls this morning since they were backed up in the kitchen. I was supremely disappointed since I'd been excited since last night for this morning at the prospect of yummy cinnamon rolls. Instead, I had the cinnamon french toast, which was pretty good, but I'm still hung up about the cinnamon rolls. They did have this hilarious sign on the wall that cracked me up...

"Unattended children will be given espresso and a free PUPPY!"

Web Cam

Adam's parents introduced us to the world of Skype with web cam last night which was really cool. Papa Zakun was able to show us the crown molding he'd installed which was very impressive indeed. He's gotten quite proficient at it as he said so himself. It was odd, but fun seeing Mama Zakun in the background busy cooking chicken piccata for dinner and we saw how nicely their family room had been decorated. Now we're going to get one for our laptop and hopefully call Zess and Zames on Skype which would be cool to see how big they've gotten. I wonder if I could get Zara to always put them in front of the computer with a ruler in the background so I can measure how big they are. Maybe put boxes of cereal next to their faces so I can see how big they are relative to household objects. The only downside to all this is that we can no longer make funny faces while on the phone. On the other hand, maybe our families would finally get to appreciate the funny faces that we do make...we'll have a whole new funny faces audience.

Fish Carcasses

On our first morning in Tokyo, plasticmom, Adam and I were all jet lagged so we got up early in the morning and trekked over to Tsukiji Wholesale Fish Market. I'd been reading Sushi Economy so I was really interested in seeing giant tuna carcasses. The place was utter chaos with people speeding around in these little bitty trucks, others in bicycles and everyone in big rubber wellies since these was fishy water everywhere. I thought we were going to get run over at every turn, but fortunately, we escaped bodily harm. We capped off our morning tour with a delicious sushi breakfast at Daiwa Sushi right in the market.

Here are some of the many photos Adam took at the market.

Little Trucks: very fast and agile

TUNA

Hairspray & Soft Serve

Wheezy, Adam and I went and saw Hairspray last night which was super fun. I'd read a bunch of good reviews and MGDub had given her nine thumbs up to boot. The movie was lighthearted, really likable and made me want to dance to period music on the way out. In fact, I spotted two middle aged women light on their feet boogieing out of the theater. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince Wheezy to break out in dance, but Adam did humor me with a little dancing on the way home on Mass Ave last night.

I've also been really into the soft serve vanilla ice cream lately so we stopped by McDonald's for some soft serve. Unfortunately, the soft serve at Mickey D's is just not very good. That's not to say I won't eat it, but I discovered recently that not all McDonald's soft serve is created alike. So much for standardization. I was jonesing for some soft serve in Japan so I bought a cone from McDonald's there. The soft serve is really delicious in Japan: more creamy and much more vanilla-ey. Even Adam agreed it was superior to what we have here in the States.

While it is a bummer not having access to yummy cheap soft serve, there are a couple of places in Boston that I enjoy. I like the Mr. Frosty truck near the Boston Public Garden (corner of Arlington and Boylston) because it's tasty and they have a mural of Make Way for Ducklings painted on their truck. I'm not a big fan of the high prices. I also love the vanilla frozen custard at Chilly Cow in Arlington. It's so delicious, it's not technically even soft serve, it's frozen custard.

Kashi Go Lean [Crunch]

We wanted to stock up on cherries last night since they were on sale this week when we saw Kashi Go Lean on sale.

plasticann: Adam, you're running out of Kashi Go Lean, you should buy like six boxes since it's on sale.
Adam: I don't want to buy too much, the moths might get to them.
plasticann: Well, at least buy three boxes.
Adam: What if I want to eat some other kind of cereal.
plasticann: All you ever eat is Kashi Go Lean. Fine, buy some Kashi Go Lean Crunch, it's on sale too.
Adam: I wonder what's the difference...less fiber, more calories, yada yada yada, more copper.
plasticann: [laughing] MORE COPPER???
Adam: Yeah, that's about the only good thing about the Kashi Go Lean Crunch.

More copper and let's not forget the fact that the crunch version probably tastes better. As for myself, I bought some Captain Crunch...it too was on sale.

I'm Not A Plastic Bag

I was reading about this Anya Hindmarch "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" bag craze earlier this week and even e-mailed MGDub in jest asking her to buy me one because they were being sold in NYC Whole Foods on Wednesday. Adam, who is charmingly practical and unfazed by trends, fads, etc, asked, "Doesn't Whole Foods sell other canvas bags that people could buy?" and "Do these bags look any different other than saying 'I'm Not A Plastic Bag?" I tried to no avail to explain that the bag is designed by so and so and yada yada yada. The truth is, Adam is totally right, it's just a canvas bag. It's cute, but it kinda defeats the spirit of the bag to get gouged on ebay from bag scalpers.

Blooming Hello Kitty

Though cute, even I have to admit these Hello Kitty bouquets were a little bit odd. We saw them at a flower shop in Ginza that specialized in Hello Kitty flowers. I was curious how they immortalized Kitty in flower form: white carnations, wired in with plastic eyes, nose and bow.