food

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26
Jan 09

Lunar New Year, sans dumplings

MB and I ended up at my parents’ this weekend, not really for the New Year but because their new TV arrived, and they needed help setting it up.

It was much easier than any of us anticipated. The old TV weighs a gazillion pounds. My parents wanted to put it in the next room, and my dad had the idea of dragging it on a sheet. MB thought this would ruin the carpet and that we’d have to carry it, which made me nervous cuz I had a hard enough time just helping to bring it down from its stand to the floor.

But the sheet thing worked! The TV seemed to weigh nothing as we dragged it away.

The new set of course weighs much less so MB was able to set that up on his own. Then he hooked up all the cables, and boom! we were done. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching stuff, going, “Woooow!” and “Look at that!” and bumping our hands against the screen trying to grab at things we thought were real.

My mom as usual cooked a good dinner, though with no dumplings since she usually makes them with pork and MB isn’t a fan of the other white meat (unless it’s in the form of bacon).

My fave was the salmon.

We left around 9 and got back to our place at 11.

School the next day! :( But I think this is going to be a very relaxed class. We spent the first hour going around the room, introducing ourselves and saying where we wanted to work eventually. On top of the, the teacher asked questions and would sometimes launch into these stories. I thought, Are we going to learn anything today?

He spent the second half lecturing on the history of collection management, but still let us out about 50 minutes early. I expected the lecture to be much longer but suddenly he was letting us go. Ah well.

My Human Information Behavior class on Wednesdays will be a lot more work. Group work, blech. When I walked in last week, I saw that the chairs had been arranged in a circle, and immediately thought, Oh GREAT, this is going to be one of *those* classes. It might be, but the teacher seems to have a good head on her shoulders, though she did drag out the end of class by asking over and over if we had questions, and of course some brown noser would make something up.

What I like about my Sunday class is that I know quite a few people, and we can chat and have inside jokes and stuff. I don’t know anyone in Wednesday one. Normally I don’t care, but that just adds to the weirdness of that class. I’ll find out on 2/2 about my Monday class. That teacher is at the ALA midwinter meeting this week.

Tomorrow I have to go out to NJ again for work, but this time I’m taking a car dammit. Unfortunately I need to be there at 8 so my car is picking me up at 6:45. Ack, so painful.

There is a woman here who’s husband died suddenly a few weeks ago. She’s only in her early 30s, and he died of a brain aneurysm. I can’t even imagine what that’s like. Today is her first day back at work. That must be so weird. How do you deal with people coming up to you, asking you how you’re doing? What do you say? “Well my husband just died – how do you think I’m doing?” She sounds like she’s being very gracious. I mean, what else can you do.

food / library / photography / weekends — 2 Comments
20
Jan 09

The weekend thing

Too short though it was a three-day.

Saturday YP and I had our photo outing. The theme: Fairy Tales. In other words, use the pictures we take to depict a fairy tale, whether already existing or made up. A fun idea but it was frigging COLD! We’d last about 15 or 20 minutes, then would have to duck into a store or cafe. We ended up spending a lot of time at Chelsea Market.

The rest of the day, MB and I just hung out, him practicing and me reading and being a bum. It’s so hard to get out and do stuff when it’s in the single digits. All we ended up doing was grabbing some dinner at our favorite Italian place.

The next day I had my first day of class for the semester, Collection Development. Since it’s on a Sunday, the class has a cozy, relaxed feel. Plus the teacher is 83 years old (the first thing he told us) and from Iran, I think, so he has this cute accent. He seems smart and his assistant has organized the class well. The assignments are quite flexible. We have a long reading list, and are supposed to read whatever interests us, but at least two articles a week.

Since it was positively balmy out (low 30s), I ran some errands after class. Got sneakers for possible weekend workouts, new headphones from Virgin, and some groceries from the Asian grocery store.

That night MB and I hit Whole Foods, and he made chilean sea bass for dinner. The dish called for fennel sauteed in anchovy paste. We didn’t see the paste and used real anchovies, mashed up, and it came out delicious! The sea bass was a pain to cook though. It was so thick, it took forever, and then was very filling. Plus expensive! Like $20+ a pound. Next time we’ll go with a lighter, less expensive fish.

We’ve started watching Damages on Hulu. We like it, though the evil people seem a little too all-powerful. Glenn Close is very scary. I would hate to have her as a boss.

I hope I get a chance to see the inauguration today. I believe it’s at 11:30. Gonna try to dash down to the gym at that time, and watch on one of the TVs there.

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16
Jan 09

Back finally

Was in NJ for two days but it felt like much longer.

The meeting started at 9 AM on Wednesday so I went down Tuesday night. I thought taking the train wouldn’t be a big deal, but man it was a pain in the ass. I had to switch at Newark where I just missed my connection and had to wait around for almost half an hour. And that is not a nice station. I thought New York Penn was crummy, but that’s a palace compared to Newark. Plus I had my suitcase that I had to drag up and down steps.

The train ride itself was fine. But my station stop was deserted and I had to call a cab, which meant waiting in the cold.

I know, I’m a big fat whiner. If it were for myself, I wouldn’t complain as much, but since it was for work, I feel I have every right.

On the way back to New York yesterday, I hitched a ride with my new boss, who had booked a car. I don’t really know why he didn’t check with me to see about transportation. On my old team, we always tried to coordinate so that we didn’t end up booking a bunch of separate cars.

I’m not sure how I feel about my new boss overall. He seems nice, but I do like my old one better, at least our personalities matched more. He has a softer touch and is more organized and visual, like me. We both need to look at things to understand them, and he’ll often draw his ideas out, which is perfect website work.

My new boss is much more of a talker. For instance, he’ll want to discuss some document without actually looking at the document till finally in frustration I have to say, “Can you please take a look at it and you’ll see it already includes what you’re mentioning?” Plus he’s a big fucking joker. I mean, I like someone with a sense of humor, but the way he jokes around is irritating. I can’t even explain it. What he says isn’t clever or ironic – he’ll just state the opposite of what’s obvious, and then laugh and laugh and laugh.

At dinner this week, he mentioned that if he had to do it all over, he’d have been in sales instead. I say he’s a perfect fit.

The meeting itself was incredibly boring. I don’t think I needed to be there. It was everyone discussing all this shit, when really all I need to know is the outcome so that I can implement it on various websites and whatnot. I don’t need to be on the “journey.” But of course I have pretend to be interested, otherwise I’m not a “team player.” (Barf.) One good thing is my old boss was also there, in his new promoted role, and he praised the work I did on this Sharepoint site, and my new boss was there to hear it.

The hotel was pretty nice though nothing special. At least it was clean and seemed new. And dinner was good though my entree choice, the mahi mahi, was sorta boring. My appetizer, roasted beet salad with arugala and goat cheese, however, was delish.

I didn’t work out at all at the hotel. I had big plans to get up at 6 and get in a run before leaving for the meeting, but I couldn’t get up before 7 either day. This morning I had my follow up appointment with my doctor and found out my cholesterol level is higher than it was last year – over 200. :( Last year it was around 180.

I think the culprit is this delicious Greek yogurt that I had been eating every night for the past several months. MB got me hooked on it. I thought I was being all healthy eatiing something with calcium and live cultures, but I ignored the fact that it has like 10 grams a fat per serving. And I was downing that stuff just about every day.

So I’ve switched to low or non-fat yogurt, and will try to swap out my second cup of coffee with green tea, and have more nuts, fish, oatmeal, and berries. And be more consistent with exercise. This whole year I’ve been pretty lax. Hence, the additional 5-8 pounds on my hips and thighs, and the higher cholesterol.

I hope to check out the Y near my apartment this weekend. They’re offering a free day pass to be used before February 2. Now that I have class Wednesday afternoons, I won’t have time to work out on that day, so I want to incorporate weekend workouts. The Y is only slightly cheaper than New York Sports Club, but it’s much closer to my place. I could go on my way home from class on Sundays.

I can’t believe it’s only 1:15.

family / food / holidays / travel / weekends / what i'm reading now — 1 Comment
28
Dec 08

Christmas recap

MB and I had a nice time at my parents’ this weekend. Having him there really makes a difference – being there on my own is sort of tortuous, just me and my folks and their weird questions.

We didn’t leave till the afternoon of Christmas Day. I had to drag MB out of bed at 12 so we could leave by 1 or 2. We ended up catching a 3:15 train, which got us in around 4:30. There weren’t too many people, but more than we expected.

Then it was the usual: lots of eating. I tried not to pig out as much this time. Over Thanksgiving I was eating pie every few hours. Also, MB set up the Mac Mini my brother and I got for our parents. They’ve been thinking about getting a new computer, and the PC is horrendous for their favorite activity, downloading Korean soap opera videos and burning them to disc. With the Mac Mini, they can more do those things more easily, as well as connect directly to the TV. They needed a couple of extra parts so we had to wait till the next day to go get them.

That night we had Mongolian hotpot for Christmas dinner, like we did on Thanksgiving. MB has grown to be a fan of it, especially the spicy dipping sauces and very thinly sliced beef.

The next day we hit the mall to get the cable to connect the Mac Mini to the TV as well as a wireless router. Needless to say, it was a madhouse, wall to wall stereotypical suburbanites with their terrible frosted hair, giant sports jerseys, and awful Ugg boots. But at least we got what we needed for my parents. Afterwards MB and I ducked into the peace and quiet of Border’s, which surprisingly was pretty empty.

We had planned on leaving that night, but it took a while to get back from the mall, and then for MB to finish setting up the computer. So we decided to leave on Saturday, which pleased my parents greatly.

MB set up everything pretty fast. Before we knew it, my parents’ TV had been transformed into a giant computer monitor, and my mother could watch her stories directly from the Internet. My brother did a great job setting up the display for them, with a giant cursor/arrow and their “homepage” which sits on his website, and shows the three sites they go to for their shows. The wireless mouse is pretty neat. It acts like a remote, but takes some getting used to. I kept wanting to move it like a regular mouse with big movements, but it’s actually more like a laser pointer.

Saturday we just hung around and relaxed. We both got up fairly late, 10 for me, 11 for MB, had some lunch and just read our books till our 3 o’clock train. Last week I finally finished that Bach book MB had been raving about. I understand why he likes it – he’s studying music and like Bach is very scientific and mathematical – but I thought it was boring as hell. There was interesting information in it, but it wasn’t told like a story. It was like, here’s all this information.

Now I’m reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt and it is SO GOOD. It’s really well-written with interesting characters, and plus there’s mystery and suspense. Inspired by that I ordered a couple of other “literary mysteries” from Amazon with the gift card my brother got me – In the Woods and and The Likeness by Tana French, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

The 3 PM train was extremely crowded. We were able to get two seats together, but there were two noisy kids behind us, and then people standing in the aisle towards the end. What we didn’t know was that there was a hockey game at Madison Square Garden that day. Lots of tourists are awful, but lots of tourists in Devils/Rangers jerseys are even worse. That night we were so worn out from the crowds, we just stayed in aside from dinner at our favorite Italian place.

Today I’ve got to do some laundry, though it’s so mild out, all I want to do is walk around.

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22
Dec 08

And the weekends come and go

Some with lots and lots of snow.

MB and I hibernated practically all weekend. Friday and Saturday nights we thought about going to see a midnight showing of Gremlins at IFC, but the cold, yucky weather kept us in.

I did get out Saturday morning when YP and I had our monthly photo expedition. The theme was Photographing Each Other, to my consternation. I hate having my picture taken, especially when I’m makeup-less. My freckles tend to look out of control. But he just sent me some, and they’re very nice. I do still wish I had put on some cover up.

We decided to take the pictures in Harlem since we never seem to venture above 14th Street. The sidewalks were a mess and like an idiot, I wore sneakers. I have two pairs of winter boots, but for some reason they were at the office. Thinking I had another pair at the apartment, I neglected to bring any home. Wah! By the time we finished our shoot, my right pinky toe was completely numb. On my way home, I stopped at my office and got boots, yay! Makes such a difference.

That afternoon MB had a short gig tutoring a friend in programming so I chilled at home – or rather warmed up – till he got back. Never has a bowl of instant Korean noodles tasted so good.

That night we tried this new Latin place around the corner, A Casa Fox. The food was good but expensive! Not super hungry, I had a bowl of delicious tomato soup for $5, not bad. But the asparagus “salad” I got was just four pieces of asparagus with some cheese shavings. $8! Total rip off.

MB got this chicken rice bowl, which was tasty but way overpriced at $25. It should have been $12-$15. The selection of mini empanadas was more worth the $8, and were really good, and the empanadas themselves are $5 each. If we go again, we should probably just get a mess of those.

Sunday I was able to get a bunch of writing done. I’m almost done with this, hopefully last, round of revisions. I sent a query to my teacher’s agent a couple of months ago, and have heard nothing. Usually you get some sort of response in 6 to 8 weeks. I may check with my teacher if I should be sending to the guy’s personal email. She just sold her first novel – after a slew of nonfiction books – so I know they are both busy with that.

This winter break I also need to find more agents and send more queries, as well as find some contests for book-length memoirs. If none of that pans out, I think I will start posting sections of my book online. I do wish I could get it published, but I also want to be done with it. Putting a “final” version online will help me feel like the book is finished and then I can move on to the next thing.

On Sunday MB needed to work on this other consulting gig (ie, cleaning up some imbecile’s really bad code). Then he needed some stuff from the Apple store so we hoofed it over there. Luckily the weather was somewhat better. It was even a little sunny! that is till darkness descended at 5 o’clock. :( At least now the days will start to get longer again.

It was pretty icy out but not as crowded as I expected. Of course the Apple store was a madhouse. I swear people turn stupid when they get near the door – stopping completely, not looking where they’re walking, blocking the way.

Tonight we’re going to hear Les Paul play at the Iridium. It’s sort of expensive – $50 plus a $25 food/drink minimum – but the guy is like, what, 90? Better go hear him before he kicks it.

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15
Dec 08

I feel good today for some reason

I mean, I usually feel pretty good, but it *is* Monday, which normally calls for the blahs.

Could be because my new boss has started, and I finally have some real work to do. Being bored really does take a toll on morale, even for lazy someones like me. Also, I’m all done with school assignments, and I have just one more class, this Thursday, which will be discussing a bunch of readings. Finally, I’ve had a good couple of conversations with my mom recently.

She seems to be holding back her worries, namely her vision of MB’s and my “future” – ie, getting married and buying properpty, contrary to *our* vision of not getting married (but still having kids, scandalous!) and traveling the world – and is enjoying the idea of my being happy for a change, or again her vision of my being happy which equals being with someone who treats me well. I was perfectly fine on my own, but my parents will never believe that.

My mother and I are so alike with our worrying. Sometimes now I wake up and think, Shouldn’t I be worrying about something? Before my worries mostly had to do with my job. How awful it was! The demanding, incomprehensible boss with career expectations for me that I didn’t want! The forced socializing with sales people! The high-pressure presentations! I’d wake up at 3 in the morning and apply online to random, low-paying jobs, that’s how bad it was. I thought about quitting and being jobless. I thought I’d like to do something completely non-stress, like being a crossing guard.

This weekend I had the chance to work on my manuscript. Rereading it is always like reliving the past, though not in a harmful way. They’re far enough away that I have some distance, and reliving them sometimes reveals more memories, more layers to add. I remember visiting my cousin in Portland shortly after she came from China, and how she and her husband were so lovey dovey, to the point I wanted to shout, “Get a room!” They didn’t make out in public, but they’d do things like blow each other kisses, write “I owe you one kiss”on a post-it and put it up, tell each other that they loved each other in front of everyone.

Yeah, actually, it was kind of gross.

But at the time, it also made me feel lonely. I was married and I knew my husband loved me, but we were never like that. We never got so carried away we forgot about the rest of the world. He was always very concerned about what others thought. But at the time, I didn’t let myself think that it made me lonely, watching my cousin and her husband. I just made snide remarks.

I’m also glad I never had a kid with my ex. One, I’d still be connected to him, and two, there was so much pressure from his family. “I want my grandsons to go to Eton,” my ex-FIL said one time. There are so many things wrong with that statement, I don’t even know where to begin.

~ ~ ~

Now the boring update! :) Friday night was lazy for me. MB suggested going to a late movie, but I was so tired, we just watched a bunch of stuff on Hulu.com, and I went to sleep before midnight.

Saturday I worked on my writing a little before we headed out to run some errands. It was freezing that day, and really hard to motivate myself to get outside. But I did, and that night we ate at this soba noodle place for the first time, Soba Koh, on East 5th Street. It was so good and perfect for that wintry night. We both had the early bird special for $19: a daikon salad, egg custard with crab (and other weird things), and hot or cold soba with a variety of tempura. We both got hot.

It didn’t look like a lot of food but it was pretty filling. The tempura was really good. I’m used to it with a ton of batter, but these were perfect. Also included is ice cream, vanilla or green tea.

Later we saw a midnight showing of Poltergeist at IFC. It was fun, not scary, since I’ve seen the movie so many times. As a kid it scared the shit out of me, especially that clown doll. Also, Jo Beth Williams and Craig T. Nelson are really good in it! If they weren’t so good, the movie would have been over the top and cheesy.

Sunday I was able to get more writing done, despite getting up at 11. We didn’t do much except grab a late lunch at 3. We went to one of our usual places, Zucco: Le French Diner, where I had for the first time, something du dimanche. Ack, I can’t remember the name! Anyway, as the name implies it’s served only on Sundays: a potato cake filled with goat cheese and topped with a poached egg, served with ratatouille and lamb sausage.

I totally just made myself hungry.

Some of my other favorite dishes are the pain perdu, or French toast; the pate sandwich, which is served with cornichon, these delicious little pickles; and the risotto des legumes. The coffee is really good too.

I need to eat lunch soon.

family / food / holidays — 3 Comments
27
Nov 08

Happy turkey day, everyone

Ah, Thanksgiving – showing thanks by carving up a large bird carcass, ingesting too much food, and letting out past and petty grievances with the family. I know it’s one of my favorites holidays.

Actually, Thanksgiving with my parents is pretty mellow (except for the giant fight my mother and I had in 2006), just the three of us and some Mongolian hotpot. This year MB will be joining me. Should be interesting. Luckily he is so good-natured and sees fun in almost everything, even going to the mall.

This day with my ex and his family was always amazingly stressful – all the people coming over, my ex angry about us having to do the bulk of the work, and inevitably my ex fighting with his mom and/or dad. About a week before my eye would start twitching.

Not having to do that anymore is something I am definitely grateful for.

Yesterday at work was totally dead. I did a few things in the morning before getting in one last workout before the long and piggy weekend. Had lunch and tied up some loose ends before heading out to brave the crowds and pick up some wine and dessert for today. I thought I’d go to a couple of places, but Grand Central had everything I needed – apple pie from The Little Pie Company and a couple of reds from the wine store upstairs. I was all set.

And I thought luck was totally on my side when the bus arrived just as I got to the stop. But since it was only about 3, we ended up picking up all these school kids. There were tons and tons of them! And all Asian it seemed. I overhead a high school kid say it was because of P.S. 104, which is apparently almost all Chinese.

They were generally well-behaved, but there were so many of them, they were noisy, and took up a lot of room with their giant, nerdy backpacks and violin cases (I kid you not). And kids 10 to 13 are just annoying I think. They seem to repeat things a lot. “I told you she was on the bus! I told you! I told you! I TOLD YOU!” All right, kid, you’ve told everyone now.

What with the traffic, it took forever to get to the apartment. I tried to get the driver to let me off before my stop – at a non-stop – but he wouldn’t, though by law he’s supposed to.

Later MB and I decided to brave Whole Foods and pick up some stuff to make dinner in case restaurants were closed. It was crowded but not crazy. The check-out line was totally manageable and we were outta there pretty fast.

He made a good dinner of barbecue chicken chunks, steamed string beans, and stuffing, yay! to get in the holiday spirit. I ate way too much stuffing.

For most of the evening we just lazed around, then saw a midnight showing of Labyrinth. I actually have never seen that movie. I think I’ve seen only the beginning and then wasn’t interested. Now I know why: it is a bizarre and trippy movie, and oh so ’80s. David Bowie wears the craziest outfits that totally show his unit. Weird!

Okay, we’re outtie.

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20
Nov 08

How did a whole week pass since my last post?

Lazy, I guess.

Last weekend
I had a fun time with my brother. I took Friday off and met up with D. at his hotel. His room was nice! The regular rooms are supposed to be shoebox size, but he got an upgrade and it was totally decent, big enough for two people. It was also very clean – hard wood floors, white bedding, very white bathroom. Quite Japanese in a way. The downstairs was all hip.

We had lunch at Sarabeth’s before walking up to The Whitney, which I haven’t been to in a long time. The only special exhibit they had was on Calder, which was pretty cool but too crowded. MB was supposed to meet us, but he got a late start and didn’t show up till we were almost done. But of course my brother and I had totally rushed through so it was good to look at the exhibits again.

Afterwards we had an early dinner – Italian – then went back downtown to show D. our place and neighborhood. We also got some drinks. I didn’t get quite so plastered this time. Nursed one vodka tonic and was fine.

The next day D. and I had lunch near his hotel. We picked a random Japanese place – well, not that random, he Yelped it first – and it was really good! It seemed more authentic than other places, and had a lot of good noodle choices. I got a curry noodle bowl with duck. It was yummy! In fact, it makes me hungry right now. After lunch we walked around a little before D. had to run off to get ready for his friend’s wedding.

Sunday I mostly worked on the usability report that was due for Information Technologies. It wasn’t difficult, just tedious. I kept getting bored and wasting time. But I got it done.

This week
Very quiet at work, as it has been for a while, though that might not last long. Now that my boss is fully transitioning to his new position, a lot of the communication-related stuff he did will fall into my lap, which is good because it means I’ll be needed.

Info Tech class on Tuesday sucked. It was really boring, then stressed me out because it made me realize how much work needed to be done (or redone) on our website. In fact, I woke up an hour before my usual wake up time on Wednesday, thinking about it. But it was good because I got a shit ton done (at work, haha). Now I *think* we’re in good shape. Or at least there’s nothing else I can do as webmaster before my group turns in their stuff to me.

Last night I got my hair cut, yay! It was driving me crazy being all mullet-like (I exaggerate, but it felt like a mullet). I asked Yoli to make the back very short but leave the top longer. Now I love my hair! It’s rather like Twiggy’s.

Afterwards I shopped a little and ended up buying these short Born boots for $90 (25% off). That makes five pairs of boots now. I don’t know what’s the matter with me. I keep trying to find comfortable boots but haven’t had much luck. I have a brown pair from Clark’s with heels that are too high, a black pair with high heels, a black pair from Clark’s that are too narrow (maybe I should stop buying boots from Clark’s), and an old winter pair.

I think I can get rid of the old winter pair, which I’ve had for years. And hopefully these new ones will be comfortable and sturdy enough fro walking around the city, which MB and I do A LOT. I’ve been wearing my Keds, which are great, but I want more wintery ones. I tested the new boots out last night and they seem comfy. Time will tell.

Tonight I have my other class, which is relaxed if boring. And I’m glad it’s not raining! It rained all last week, which made traveling the city a pain.

This weekend I need to do my site visit for Info Tech. I picked the New Museum, which should have a lot of interesting technology. Although it’s not due till 12/2, I’ll be glad to get it out of the way before Thanksgiving weekend, which will be busy between going to the ‘rents’ and seeing friends (yay!).

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27
Oct 08

No clever introduction. Launching right into a weekend recap.

No clever title either, apparently.

Friday
Friday night MB and I went to that jazz/house/disco band performance. It was pretty fun and a lot less of a pain than seeing his classmate perform heavy metal Wednesday night. We had time to eat dinner, and even dessert. And we did *not* have to wait outside.

The music was fun but a lot of the audience was annoying. It seemed to be mostly gay men and straight women. We were sitting at a table against the wall, and when we went to the bathroom, had to step over a lot of people. When I did, these women just stared at me. Like, what? Is this a private party or something? Then when MB did, one of the women said loudly to her friend, “People should really say excuse me when they walk by!” Oh gee, maybe people shouldn’t sit with their legs all splayed out in a very crowded club right in front of the bathroom.

Then there was one woman who seemed to be swimming in a sea of gay men. She had on this annoying silver scarf, and kept dancing right up to the tiny stage, putting a thumbs up or clapping like a robot right in the lead singer’s face. Then she’d turn around and blow kisses at one of her gays sitting at the table behind her, and do horrible vogue-wannabe movements with her arms. Then suddenly stop stock still and start Blackberrying madly. Then start dancing crazily again, over and over.

I wanted to kill her.

At least the music was fun.

Saturday
Exhausting overall. At about 1 I went to pick up my parents from Penn Station. From there we hopped the subway to the theater. Chicago’s been out FOREVER, but there were still a zillion people waiting to get in.

This is the fourth time I’ve seen this show. The first was many years ago in Boston with ES. Then I saw it through work for free, and then I think ES and I saw it again because we got cheap tickets. All the performances, including this weekend’s, were good, but the best had to be the time both Bebe Neuwirth and Ann Reinking were in it (I think that was the time through work).

This performance was very good. We had great seats – orchestra right – and most importantly, my parents really enjoyed it, my dad in particular. He kept saying how “professional” everyone was. Plus we were so close we could see the sweat glistening on the dancers’ bodies, including the amazing pecs of this one guy. *squeeze*

After the show we headed over to the restaurant, where MB would meet us, having decided to forego the musical portion of the day. It was a challenge because suddenly it was all rainy and windy. And my parents walked really slowly. I tried really hard to slow down, but they would still end up way behind me.

I wanted to take my parents somewhere other than Asian food so I picked Kellari Taverna, this Greek place I *think* I went to through work. The food was pretty good. For appetizers we had fried octopus in this delicious vinegary sauce, and fried zucchini and eggplant “chips.” Then we just got a couple of pounds of fish – I forget which ones, I let MB do the choosing – and a couple of sides, potatoes and green beans. For dessert we shared a chocolate souffle, which was incredible.

The food was good, but a little overpriced. Still I was happy to treat my parents. Most people have big banquets when they turn 70, and spend thousands of dollars. But my dad wanted something low-key.

After dinner we took my parents back to Penn Station, made sure they knew what train to look out for, and headed home.

Although I was pooped it was still early, not even 9. We thought about going to see the midnight showing of Monty Python’s Holy Grail, but then MB noticed that Swedish vampire movie we’ve been wanting to see was out.

It was GOOD. The vampire stuff was very subtle, and we noticed that they didn’t show a lot of violence, which I think is how it is with lot of European films. For instance, a guy would be slitting another guy’s throat, and they’d only show the guy from behind, but it was just as menacing and disturbing.

The people behind us were, guess what, ANNOYING. They kept making loud, snarky comments all during the previews. Now I know the previews aren’t the movie, but they are like mini movies so everyone should shut the fuck up. Then when the actual movie started, which it did so silently, with no music, against a scene of softly falling snow against a dark sky, the girl behind us goes, “It’s so QUIET.” Really? Do you think it’s cuz YOU’RE IN A MOVIE? Luckily they all shut up once the film started.

Sunday
I was semi-productive in the morning, getting a load of laundry done. That afternoon I headed out to meet YP to see The Secret Life of Bees. I actually had no idea what the movie was about. It wasn’t bad, of the Fried Green Tomatoes/Steel Magnolias type. Some melodrama, some stereotypes, and lots of crying.

At home I found that MB had bought another guitar (!!!). That makes four. Oh well, he really loves it and a got a good deal.

After getting some food – noodles at the Lower East Side Noodle Bar – we had a quiet evening in. There was a new It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Hulu (that show is frigging hilarious), plus we watched the pilot episode of Sons of Anarchy (enh) and an old Family Guy.

~ ~ ~

In other news, I decided to start a movie blog, in addition to my book blog, to keep track of all the movies I see. I may or may not add very short reviews, or at least one word ratings (eg, Sucked, Just Okay, Pretty Good, Awesome). At the very least, the movie posters are cool to roll through.

food / weekends — 2 Comments
05
May 08

Sniff

I feel a cold coming on. Goddammit.

It started with MB’s friend’s houseguest from last weekend. The houseguest had a cold, who gave it to MB’s friend, who gave it to MB, who has apparently given it to me.

I’m gonna try to fight it tooth and nail. Vitamin C, green tea, and exercise. Sweat it out.

Even with MB under the weather, we still managed to get out and about this weekend, the first in about four weeks that we’ve both in town with no plans. Friday night, like I had written, we saw a midnight showing of Alien. We’ve both seen the movie a gazillion times, but it was fun to watch it on the big screen. It was also funny to see the now outdated special effects.

Next weekend is Blue Velvet, which we may or may not see, but more importantly, the weekend of June 20 is, drum roll please, a Grease singalong! Aw yeah! Needless to say MB is less than thrilled about the idea, and luckily for him I think he’s away that weekend. I’m going to try my darndest to find a partner in cheesiness to go with me. ES and I went many years ago in Boston, and we had a blast.

Saturday MB and I sat around working on stuff – him on his coding, me on my writing – and then took a walk. We ended up at Saint’s Alp, where I had some noodle soup with cuttlefish balls, we shared a sort of poo-poo platter of a tea egg, chicken wings, and fried shrimp dumplings, and MB had some ginger black tea, good for his cold.

Afterwards we moseyed on over to a bookstore. I’ve finally read all the books I have so it was time to load up on some news ones, namely Kitchen Confidential, and The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, the last two in the Golden Compass trilogy, which YP introduced me to and which I loved.

That night we took it easy and watched Michael Clayton on DVD. It was very good. Kept us in suspense.

Sunday was more working and walking around. In the late afternoon, sort of spur of the moment, we decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I haven’t done that in years and years. It was fun though a bit chilly.

When we reached the other side, we went to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. The line wasn’t too long and my vanilla chocolate chunk was delish!

On our walk back, MB, who had been feeling better during the day, started to feel sick again. All light-headed and weak and such. But we made it back okay, taking frequent bench breaks. Luckily it doesn’t take too long to walk across.

I really hope this cold doesn’t come full blast for me. In the middle of the night I woke up with a sore throat, which was how it started for MB. Right now I feel okay.

~ ~ ~

So my new job starts in two weeks. While I’m being a complete slacker at my current position (what else is new?), I’m a wee bit nervous about the new job. After all it’s been NINE YEARS since I’ve had a new job. My current position has changed and evolved over the years, but essentially it’s been the same.

My new boss sent me some minutes and presentations from some big meeting they just had, so I’ll take a look at those. And he and I have some time set up on 5/20 to talk about my goals and stuff.

I figure I won’t be able to slack for much longer so I’d better enjoy it while I can.

Angela Tung Oversharing on the internet since 2005.