ZOMG! I can’t resist the amazingness of purple peppers!
Categories
-
Recent Posts
Blogroll
A Lipstick Commercial that Makes Sense
I just saw this commercial and I realized it was the perfect pairing of celebrity and product. Gwen Stefani & red lipstick!
Veggie Garden Startin’
A couple of years ago I put 2 raised beds in my backyard for square foot gardening. The first year I started late and got a modest harvest from it. Last year I planted nothing. This year I decided to get back in the game…and take it to the pros.
I purchased an APS starting kit from Gardeners Supply as well as a grow light and heating mat from Amazon. I started enough seeds for both my and my sister’s gardens just a few days ago and today I saw my cucumbers and broccoli have already germinated!
I’m planning on adding a few beds for a cutting garden. I have all the seeds ordered now I just need to figure out how many I need to start! I already hit up home depot for more peat pots. 
Sweet Valley Twins Make a Comeback
It seems like everything I remember from when I was twelve is making a comeback. First, New Kids on the Block and now Francine Pascal has written her first Sweet Valley Book since 2003 – except now the twins are 27! What’s next? Pogoballs? (Those things were damn fun, although I did pop my friends which kinda sucked. Sorry Patty!)
Anyway there are a bunch of interviews and stories about this shit on the web today since the new book, called Sweet Valley Confidential, is coming out next week. Elizabeth and Jessica are now 27 and living on opposite coasts…and really I didn’t pay much attention after that. You can however visit http://www.sweetvalleytenyearslater.com to read the first chapter.
I was big fan of Sweet Valley as kid. I never read Babysitters Club but I read almost every Sweet Vally Twins (the pre-teen series), before I got old enough to read my eldest sisters stash of SVH books. Yes, I still remember the book Regina died in. Overdose! OMG!
Of the stories I read the on Daily Beast interviewing Francine Pascal is probably the most worthwhile. Go read it. I also learned that Diablo Cody is working on a script to make a SVH movie. I’m not kidding.
Will I be reading SVC? Only if I can get it out at the library.
More anxious than I am to read SVC? You can preorder it for $12 right now on Amazon – Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later
J.Crew Swim
I’m not generally a J.Crew fan girl but they have some super cute swimwear this year. Plus through March 23 there is free shipping on all women’s swim.
Here are my two favorites. The Solid asymmetrical ruched bandeau tank in Peacock – $88 and the Calais floral twist bandeau tank – $88.
So what Tahoe? We got snow too!
I keep hearing reports from my friends about the epic snow in Tahoe right now. Whatever! We got snow in Jersey!
Snow on the Clothesline
My New Bike
I’m training for a triathlon this summer and beloved Bianchi Milano just doesn’t cut it as a race bike. So I started keeping an eye out on ebay and craigslist for used bikes. Last week I came across an ad for a used Fuji Finest RC which looked really good. I ended up winning it and I got it yesterday. I’m so excited to ride it!
RadioLab Live!
On Monday night my sister and I went to see RadioLab Live: Symmetry at NYU Skirball Center. I’m a huge fan of RadioLab so I snatched up some tickets during the WNYC member presale. The show was great.
An empty stage before the show starts
It was basically Jad sitting at a table with a macbook, a script, and some sort of sound cue machine. On the other side was Robert (aka Bobby K) sitting at a music stand with his script. I guess I never really thought about how much of the show is scripted, but it’s definitely interesting to see how they mix in the audio clips and the chemistry and interactions of the hosts.
What really made the show special were the illustrations and animations projected in the background and the musical stylings of cellist Zoe Keatings.
Jad and Zoe. Robert is being blocked out by someone's gigantic head.
The subject of the show was the search for Symmetry and I don’t want to go into what its about since you’ll soon be able to listen yourself. The description RadioLab provides is:
Hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich will be performing an upcoming episode on symmetry, and how it shapes our very existence—from the origin of the universe, to what we see when we look in the mirror. We’ll search for love in ancient Greece, head to modern-day Princeton for a look inside our brains, and revisit an unlikely headline from the Oval Office circa 1979.
I really enjoyed not only the performance, but the content. And I’d be very interested to know how people, who attended the show, changed their hair parts the next day.
Flying to Tokyo + Everything I ate on the plane
Its been quite awhile since I updated this site. However I’ve decided to make a strong effort to update my blog while I’m on this 3 week trip to Japan.
The day after Christmas I left for Japan from Newark airport. Weather reports had been threatening a blizzard to hit on Sunday so I was quite nervous about making my flight. When I got up at 7am on sunday there was no snow. If you know me you’ll understand how weird it is for me to be happy about a lack of snow. The previous night continental had already announced they were suspending operations at 3pm but I had hopes my 11am flight would get out before the storm really hit.
Getting to the airport and checking in for my flight went smoothly. We boarded on time and I settled into my awesome business class flat bed seat just as some flurries were starting to fall.
On my 14 hour flight I read, knit, repaired a sweater, and ate. Oh yes I ate. I decided not to turn down any food offered for the purposes of this blog. We were served a multi course lunch, snacks, and breakfast. Two hours into my flight I had also had 3 big glasses of champagne…..just to help me sleep, of course.
So here is a visual rundown of my flight and meals.
It took forever to taxi to the gate but once I deplaned I got through immigration and customs with no problems. Lisa and Amanda’s flights didn’t arrive for another hour so I tracked down the Black Cat Yamato baggage delivery service and had my board bag delivered to Tabi Tabi Lodge for about $20. After running around Tokyo station this proved money well spent.
I settled down in the Meeting Place to wait for Lisa and Amanda. Checking out the arrivals board I saw that a flight that was supposed to arrive from NYC less than an hour after mine was canceled – so I was very lucky to have made it!
People watching in Japan is amazing! Japanese people are so adorable and I want to take them all home with me.
I had to wait about 30 minutes for Lisa to arrive and Amanda got there a few minutes later. We took care of getting their bags delivered and headed down to the train station. Now we just needed to make it to our hotel in Tokyo!
Milwaukee x Lorenius
When I made plans to visit my friend Rumorator von Rumorstein in Milwaukee I told him that there were 3 things that had to happen.
#1 Watch the Brewers lose
#2 See some bronze people
#3 Go to Red Dot Schlitz trivia night
Well, I’ll be damned if he didn’t make it happen. However, the man has a 200 room mansion and I still had to sleep in the living room on an air mattress.
Saturday night we went to the Brewers vs Cubs game. I’ve heard tailgating in Wisconsin is legendary – so we had to do it. Pizza and beers on the trunk in the parking lot.
I saw people playing corn hole. Playing that will get you shot in NY.
They must have heard me whining about the roof being closed, because right as we finished off our last beer they opened up the roof. I grabbed a quick photo with the Bronze Bud before we headed inside.
We had great seats except for all the Cubs fans. They guy in front of us was especially awesome. He proudly showed off his University of Phoenix class ring. Awesome! Not much action in the game and the Brewers lost 1-0. However in exciting news the Chorizo won and the scoreboard counts CUTS.
We finished off the night at Kopp’s where I got my first taste of custard. Rumorator and I both got Smile Sundaes and brought them home. Roommate von Rumorstein helped me eat mine but I still couldn’t finish it.
Sunday was even better as we had a nice brunch (after we went inside to avoid the bees). Then we headed North to Two Rivers. The final destination was the Hamilton Wood Type Museum. It was awesome! The museum director, Jim, gave us a fantastic tour. I mentioned to him that I was trying to show Claire how letterpress works and he offered to show us around the print room. Then we were allowed free reign to explore and take photos.
For some reason on the way up we didn’t see any cows (lots of silos though), but on the way back I saw lots. Including horses that RvR declared cows.
Sunday night we were supposed to have gone on a Mariachi Recon Mission, but it got canceled due to lack of Messicans. So the three of us headed to Chez Jacques for a romantic French dinner.
We enjoyed our dinners and RvR brought home a lot of pork. He may have a career in politics.
Monday we grabbed lunch at Palomino’s and headed downtown to visit the Bronze Fonz. He’s short.
We putzed around Alterra by the Lake for awhile. No free wifi after noon. Bullshit.
We were supposed to go visit Moda but they were closed this week. Don’t they know who I am? Bullshit.
Soon the big event was upon us! Trivia night.
There were a lot of expectations going into trivia night. Larsma kicked off one of her teammates to make room for me. After the ritual spilling of 2 Schlitzes, trivia got under way. I dubbed our team Mariachi Recon Mission in honor of our failed mission.
Frankly, we kicked ass at the first scoring round getting 99 points and having 5 perfect rounds. The second round was rough, but we picked it back up in the 3rd to win by 3 points. I got the 4 & 5 point questions right in Quantum Mechanics (see I really am an engineer!) We took home a lifesize Schlitz cutout, $25 bar tab and a Schlitz cooler. Now personally I would have taken the neon light but the group wanted the cooler.
Tuesday I was on my own. I ate my leftover sundae for breakfast. I am that badass. Then I walked along the lakefront to the Milwaukee Art Museum. The Quadracci Pavilion is totally rad. I wish I had my SLR instead of a point and shoot.
The art was ok. I’m used to the MET & MOMA so it was a little small and lacking the biggest artists but they did have a diverse collection. The Bradley collection was pretty good. I thought it was lame that it was called the Mrs. Harry Bradley collection instead of the Peg Bradley collection.
I walked back to Castle von Rumorstein and realized I was starting to know my way around a bit. That’s good since I’ll be back in about a year for a big event!
Thanks all the MKE folks for making my trip super-awesome! Come visit me in NYC!
You can check out more photos over on flickr.
Also, the weekend recap from Rumorator.
