Haiku, or something.

I wish New York had better craft and toy and party supply stores.

It was very very hot out today.

And I'm in the mood for chai.

Random, thoughts, by the cityminx. Seriously, it's almost poetry, no?

Anyway, today I celebrated the weather by.....running errands! Woo-hoo, do I know how to live it up or what? And tomorrow - more of the same! Then SnB. Do you know, I've been dragging on finishing an easy and enjoyable project just so I could finish it while at SnB? Then I came to my senses and finished the thang.

Jewell gave me this pattern, she had made it for Kara's exchange party, and Nicole picked it out. Immediately, I coveted. And I've had this mystery yarn from School Products for ages, and I tried to crochet this really cool hat called The Lizzy Cap, designed by Annie Modesitt, which I could not figure out for the life of me. If any of you are familiar with this pattern, it's in the crochet-a-day calendar, please let me know. I'd still like to try it. Anyway, I needed a quickie (so to speak), so I made the headband. Next up is the Blizzard, from Scarf Style, but in a lavender mohair from Suss.

I was going to toot my Julia horn again today, in the fact that I made a quiche from scratch without a recipe from whatever I had around, but I can only lay claim to the crust. Hint for making a delicious quiche: make sure the damn shredded expensive Emmanthaler cheese isn't leftover from two weeks ago, else you'll be chewing on rubber. 'Nuff said. Well, like I said, the crust was good. Even if it was made out of leftover passover flour. So I dumped out the filling and ate the crust for dinner. Yummy and healthy!




Here it is in all it's glory, before I tasted it. That's the truffle salt I put in the mix. Found it at SOS Chefs. Fabulous gourmet shop on B and 6th. They have a walk in with fresh mushrooms, asparagus, etc. And teas, chocolates, truffle products, herbs, and about 20 kinds of salt. And they are so nice there! Always giving you a taste of this, a sample of that. Big shout out to the lovelies at SOS.

And I have one more question for y'all - could somebody please direct me to a place that teaches you how to add buttons? I have like four of them on my desktop and I'd love to have them in the sidebar.

Gracias, and good night.

Ennui

I have been plagued by ennui. Any of you cats out there watch Gilmore Girls? I happen to like that show, thankyouverymuch, and there was one episode where Michel was being his snotty self, proclaiming he couldn't bring himself to do any work, because he had ennui. Cut to the kitchen, and Sookie (yes, I know she could be a bit trying, but whatever) is slumped over a chopping board, face in hand, sighing like a Jewish mother from Long Island without grandchildren, proclaiming she couldn't do any cooking, because, yes, she had caught Michel's ennui. Merry dialogue ensued about how you just couldn't tell that Sookie about what illness you had, she would think she had it as well, and remember what a bitch of a time it was explaining to her that she couldn't possibly have an enlarged prostate?

Anyway, ennui.

I know there's a true definition out there, but if I spent the time looking it up, that would go against the whole ennui thang. Let's just say, in my case, that it's when you know there's stuff you have to do, like write thank you cards or blog or whatever, but you just can't. You sit there, staring at Jigzone or refreshing the Missed Connections page, to see if the bass player you met last Sunday has posted something cute about you, and do you really want to go back to Bar Marche on Sunday to watch him play, like he invited you to do? You think he looked a little too much like an ex, and that's a bit creepy, and he's probably a little younger than you'd like, but maybe you can convince Kara to go with you, since it's right near her place, and oh what to do what to do....

And I forgot what I was talking about.

Oh, ennui. See? It sneaks right up on you.

So, okay. What happened this week? Worked a ton last week, that was fun. Saturday was La Partay Du Geburtstag, as my many language mangling Dad would say. Oh, let's show some pix:





I would ordinarily do my damndest to make captions line up with the pix, but today, not so much. Suffice to say, isn't Tony adorable? I have a picture of us in a liplock, but he might lose his Boys Club card over that one. Heather and Jo look happy, if a bit blurry, and speaking of blurry, Berhan had a good ol' time, and shut the party down around 2am, then tried to talk me into going out for pizza. Ah, I must be getting old.

Speaking of old, just went to go pour myself a cocktail, and instead drew a healthy glass of water. WTF?

And speaking of having a grand time, check out Miss Jessamyn.






I love it when my friends are having a good time.










































Sunday was Day Of Cleaning, it really wasn't too bad. That night a bunch of us went out for Gino's birthday, where he was served a cake with a large marzipan penis poking out of the top. So of course, everyone had to had a picture of themselves going down on the cake. Shame I left my camera at home. Then Bar Marche (see above) and APT. Not too much news there. Rest of the week was pretty mellow. I've come to the conclusion that I absolutely can not knit or crochet with yarn I don't like. So now I'm in a frigging knittin ennui too. Sigh.

Made vegetable stock (or broth, apparently the second you add salt it goes from stock to broth. Whatever.) out of leftover crudites, then went to my fish class at ICE. I'll post about that later. Ennui had deadened m'typing fingers.

Mom is coming into town tomorrow to go shop.

I'm sure we'll have a good time anyway. I have restaurants picked out.

And also, I just wanted to thank all of you for your fabulous gifts and luck and well wished. Pomotomus socks, you were created with Johanna's yarn in mind. Heather, I've already won $11! Bev, I've never seen mohair so soft. Katy, luv luv luv the markers. Jill and Claudine, you knew exactly which books I wanted and were to cheap to buy. Thanks to all who fed my alcoholism, and the lucky cat is watching over me, Kara. To those I forgot to mention by name, I'm an idiot, and don't deserve such good friends as you.

Now let's go out and have a cocktail, and beat out this ennui crap. I have a life to lead.

um, knitting! Right! Almost forgot!

So, it was recently pointed out to me that this was supposed to be a knitting blog. To which I say, apparently I have been doing more drinking than knitting. Or maybe my knitting looks like I've been spending all my time drinking.

Much against the rest of my nature, I'm a one project at a time gal. I know that's a rartity 'mongst my circle of knitterati, but the rest of my life is cluttered enough. I like to start a project (granted, I usually start it a few times), work on it, curse it, ask random strangers for advice on it, talk about it incessantly, finish it, smile, sigh, put it away, then once again cover all surfaces in my apartment with patterns looking for what to knit next.

It's a process.

Right now I'm working on Tote thing. My first intarsia pattern, interesting process. Don't know if I liked it or not, probably have to try it again to decide. Not anytime soon tho. The front and back are done, and Jez seems to be pretty appreciative.





Now I'm working on the sides, which I'm doing at the same time since I knew I was going to run out before I was done. I hate it when I'm right. So I've made a design decision and am using a thick/thin yarn in the same exact color to finish it. Except I'm not crazy about how it looks. So, you say, go get another skein. Well, so you say. I say that I picked this wool out of the sale bin at Purl two years ago, and it had no label. Yay me! So if anyone knows of an insanely soft worsted weight wool that happens to come in a gorgeous fuschia, would you let me know? I'll hit Downtown Yarns tomorrow.

Speaking of advice, I'm buying an ice cream machine. Let me know which ones you like, or which ones are a piece of crap. Much obliged.

And, look what I found today, in Bryant Park:


I feel like I have much more to write about, but can't really think of anything right now. I will, at about 3am when I'm trying to fall asleep.

Hmmm, cooked some great tofu last night. No, not an oxymoron. Cube extra firm tofu. Drizzle with fish sauce. Dredge with flour (or matzo flour, if you happen to have some leftover). Beat an egg, add some pepper and soy sauce. Dump tofu in egg mixture, then back into flour. Heat olive oil and some butter in a fabulous Calphalon pan (Yes! That is what I wanted to mention! Crate and Barrel have a special, two Calphalon non-stick frying pans, a small and a medium, for $40!!!! I'll be getting mine tomorrow) Dump in tofu cubes, and cook till crispy on outside. Kinda like extra fresh tasting popcorn shrimp.

And, oh my goodness, check out this site. MmmBento. Adorable! I can so see myself getting into this. Thank god I have no storage space.

Long post, to make up for long time no post

Woo-ee it’s been a long time! And so much has occurred. Lemmee see, hmm, um….I worked. Hey, don’t knock it, it’s what pays for all the yarn and makeup. And mortgage and electricity and phone and food and stuff. Unless your parents come home after being away for almost six months in the Florida heat, which tends to addle my Mother’s brain to my advantage, cause then she feels like she has to spend money on me. And who am I to argue with that? So, off we go to Woodbury Commons!

I have not been up there in years, Years, I say. And now the place is huge! There are five sections, and we barely made it through two of them. And for a girl brought up in Malltown, USA, that is a crime and a shame. Or a crying shame. Whatever. However, loot was to be had. I think Chef Central has an outpost called Le Gourmet Chef, where for not a lot of money, I picked up this gigunda haul:


My god, you say. And I agree. Here’s a closeup of some items:




I also found a make-up store, where the discount was better than mine. Especially the Clinique stuff, since I don’t get a discount there.
Then when I got home I was a little bummed, since a Bobbi Brown lip palette somehow had entered some fifth dimension between my basket and the shopping bag, and I neither paid for it or received it. Weird. Apparently in one of the other sections there’s another store like this one, but with different brands. I shall return, oh yes, I shall return.

Also to be had were shoes, all on discount, and socks, and something called a Stock Sock (hee hee) which apparently you put
all the stuff you want to make stock with in, then when your done you simply lift it up out of the pot and toss it in the trash. No straining, no mess. My mom thought it was brilliant.

And I now own a piece of designer clothing.
This Carmen Marc Valvo (musta been Nicole’s influence) jacket was 75% off, and I had a 10% off coupon for the store, so I’ll only hyperventilate a little when I wear it. Covered in plastic and with a bodyguard to shield me from all spills. And now I have to buy pants, and a shell to wear underneath. Jeez, dressing nice takes so much effort!

Ok, that was shopping, and it was fun. Then, I went to work. All I had to do was put a beard on this guy:
La beard:




This was a cool little studio; there was a hallway with themed dressing rooms:









And a subway mocked up:





Neat, right? Well, later on in the day, I discovered that the rooms were not some whimsical Disney-esque cutsie thing, but rather, wait for it ........... themed rooms in which to shoot pornos.

I have such an interesting job.

Thank god the makeup room was normal. At least I hope it was.




Anyway, the whole day was pretty fun, all things considered. And some things that I would rather not. Here is a pic of what I was looking at most of the day:



Yup, guy in a fake beard, sitting on a fake log in front of a fake fire, being photographed by a guy in a bear costume with the head hanging off, while another dude lays behind some fake rocks with his hand up the bum of one puppet, while the other one lies next to him, spent.
In a porn studio.

I love my job.