Raindrops on roses, harnesses on kittens.

These are a few of my favorite things.

We have brought Nuni out on a kitty harness a total of twice--once was last Spring, once a week ago. The first time, her ears were alert the whole time, she never stopped sniffing and she was a little skiddish. But now, one point five years later, she is tougher, bigger (not really.), and has a lot of other trying experiences under her belt (i.e. staying over random relatives' houses, getting her welly belly wubbed rubbed excessively by husband and mysself,  surviving sneak attacks from party guests at our house, etc).

On Nuni's big day out this time, she was more calm, brave, exploratory and secure.

Before exploring the entire yard, she chose to explore the one place that she was not able to go

...You know what they say, the grass is always gree...

Nuni tried to eat a lot of poisonous plants. She was drawn to this one because it looks like our Christmas tree--another poisonous plant that she loves to eat every year.

Nuni played and won ladder ball. As stated, Adam can't stand losing, so he broke our ladder ball set again.

Another thing Adam hates is kitty paws on his green vehicle. But he likes Nuni a whole lot and let it go this time. THIS TIME.

Before asking to go in, Nuni took one final breath of sweet fresh air and pondered the vastness of the Universe.

The married life.

The following are things that all occured within the last few days that are hilarious to "us" as a couple and make sense to "us" as a couple, which are either "silly" or "weird" or "not funny" to others.

Adam discovered this very hilarious berry-eating technique that we eloquently call 'shoving a blueberry inside a raspberry'. The site of that still makes me go into hysterics."Silly"?

When Adam and I went to Greece, we saw beautiful peacocks which of course I took pictures of. Before I had time to exclaim 'peacocks!', Adam incorrectly exclaimed, 'ITS A PHEASANT'!. Then, when showing our vacation photos to his best friend, his best friend similarly exclaimed, "A pheasant!". My life then crumbled because both of them are a) wrong b) absurd and c) practically dating.

Ever since, it has been a dream of ours to find an antique painting of a pheasant to hang in our bathroom. Why antique? Who would paint a pheasant these days? Why the bathroom? Where else would you want to put a picture of a pheasant?

We went to Newburyport last week and went to Oldies Marketplace which is an enormous, well-organized, well-priced wearhouse of antiques that would take about four hours to walk through if you wanted to see everything. We were coming to our end of our browsing--with nothing but an antique wine rack in tow--disappointed that of all the bird paintings on the walls and stacked in corners there were no pheasants. On our way to the cash register we popped into one last section and

ITS A PHEASANT. There was a tag on it that literally said "Pheasant painting". It was $40. It's now hanging next to our ketubah by the front entrance. Why not the bathroom? Our bathroom has wall paper and we rent. I really thought this dream would've taken longer to achieve, but now we have the rest of our lives to spend with our pheasant painting. "Weird"?


Adam and I play ladder ball, at times. We both usually play poorly. I started wiping the floor with Adam on my last turn. It was 12 to 20, me, and you have to get to 21. I ended up throwing a "3" and a "1", way beyond the required. Adam flew into a rage and threw (rather than lobbed) his ballsack "bolo" as hard as he could at the ladder.

That's my one-pointer. And the broken shards of our ladder ball. "Not funny"?


Furthermore, we walked our cat on a harness again, but more on that later...

Dining with Shaquille O'Neal

For Boston's Restaurant Week, my friend and I went to Market, located at the W hotel. Which also happens to be Shaq's new home. Surprisingly, we did not see him. Not surprisingly, dinner was pretty good.

Frisèe and goat cheese salad with pickled peaches, pistachios and crystallized wasabi

This was actually a major highlight of the meal. The flavors, dude! The flavors!

 

 Wild atlantic halibut with summer squash, wax beans and roasted tomatoes

Pretty boring, but usually the fish choice is.

Market berries with vanilla meringue and poppy seed ice cream

Dessert  was simple, but ALL of my favorite things, so I was pleased.

More flags, more fun? Or the harsh underbelly of Six Flags.

I'm not saying I didn't have a great time at Six Flags this past weekend. The trick to it was avoiding the rides that made my brain hit my skull during last year's trip. This includes the Mind Eraser and any of the wooden roller coasters (circa 1983!). The newer ones, Batman and Bizarro are more thrilling and more smooth and do not make my skeleton rock around; which is nice.

But this isn't about the Six Flags of fun I had at Six Flags. This is about the threatening and awkward parts of my day because..Because.

First of all, their mascot is an old man. Second of all, the mascot is a young man dressed as an old man. And furthermore, their mascot is an old man.


When husband and I were waiting for some of our peeps to complete a ride that we were not going on, we figured we could waste time on a harmless ride with a short line. We chose the Scrambler. It's more like a classic local carnival ride than a Six Flags thriller. I'd dare say it was a family-friendly ride.

But, it is not until you are clamped in and ready to go that you realize how horrifying the ride is. There are even graphic depictions of the life threatening injuries that you may incur, shown right in the seat back pocket handle bar

.

Could we please get a close up of the horrors?

That's right. If you dare to stand up and open the safety bar while the ride is moving, you will be very, very unhappy and your mouth will forever be distorted into the shape of a mushroom cap. Needless to say, we did not, absolutely DID NOT stand up and open our safety bar when the ride was moving.


Another thing that we did not do was use our cell phone, camera or mp3 player on the rides

A 5 year trespass ejection??? Without refund???

Also, how do they keep track of that? 5 years?

Also, there was another sign on a different ride that said "Immediate rejection from the park", but no 5 year trespass situation. This is like poor parenting: inconsistent punishment leads to acting out. And I felt very tempted to act out.

And finally, if you were wondering--as one does--Batman is 6'2'', 210lbs with black hair and blue eyes. Oh and his cowl is kevlar-lined


(Cowl: (from the Latin, cuculla meaning "hood and rope") is a hood worn by members of religious orders)


(Kevlar: is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965)

"wouldn't it be great if we could put all of America's problems into bread pudding"

Rebecca Newell, chef at the Boston restaurant The Beehive is also my best friend's boyfriend's sister (read it slowly--it's not that complicated).

What I know about Rebecca is second-hand and can be summed up as she's confident, has dry humor bordering on dismissive and obnoxious, and she's fun or funny to be around. I think that all of these things are fantastic and came out in hilarious ways on Food Network's Chopped through their deliberate editing that casted her as the 'bitch'. It turns out she was worried about being casted as the 'ditz', and several times alluded to this on the show saying something like, "For all those people who think I'm an airhead...Well I just won chopped!".


That's right, she won, because she's talented, worked extremely well under pressure, and was creative. This is what the show was about. There is no doubt that the lady judge--Alex Guarnaschelli--another strong, successful female chef--thought Rebecca was overbearing and inappropriate.

According to the editing of the show, Alex would give Rebecca blank stares anytime she said anything sarcastic (though interpreted as awkward and lame) like "wouldn't it be great if we could put all of America's problems into bread pudding".

The other contestants were sweet, driven, determined, had big dreams, and nervous. Rebecca, while I'm sure she was nervous, was composed, sarcastic, focused, competitive and funny. And she's getting a bad wrap for it. If you check out any comments on the Chowhound or Joonbug websites people are calling her obnoxious, off-putting, uncreative, etc.

Granted, she may be an acquired taste--but her food certainly was not and it never failed.

The ingredients the contestants had to use for each course were

Appetizer: banana chips, rice paper, kabocha squash, sardines
Entrée: beef shoulder, baby artichokes, blood oranges, cashew butter
Dessert: celery root, cinnamon candies, blackberries, marshmallow spread

For the entree, two of the four contestants went for the most unadventurous idea ever of making spring rolls; one girl (who I loved) forgot to use the banana chips in her final dish; while Rebecca made a crazy Caesar salad! The sardines simulated anchovies which are traditionally used. Banana chips were like croutons and I guess the summer role had some asiago cheese going for it. I don't know--but this is clever, sticks to her roots and apparently tasted great.

For the second course, she made a pan fried steak with potato hash. And finally, for dessert, a apple and celery root bread pudding with caramel sauce and marshmellow. She said something about marshmellow sauce being part of some childhood memory and she said something like, "And I was like 'Oh hello again!'"....[Blank stare from Alex]...Further enhanced by her comment about wishing we could put all of America's problems into bread pudding [growls and mouth foam from Alex].

I know it's nice to root for the people who are really trying to make it big, are humble, and are dreaming big. But it's also really fun to root for the person who is cool with themselves, sassy, and using the money to buy herself a Vera Wang dress for her wedding (fact.)

For the birds

 

I took my Dad on an outing around Boston which selfishly involved all the things I enjoy doing but luckily he likes all the things that I like, so it was actually really selfless and kind. 

To begin, we took some nature walks around Arnold Arboretum, beginning with my favorite route

 

 

You get some good cardio in by bounding up the hill, followed by a great view and usually a dog + owner haven at the top

 

Prudential tower, 111 Huntington Ave., Hancock tower, Massachusetts State House, One Boston Place, Financial District, One Financial Center, Federal Reserve Bank building, Massachusetts State Laboratory

A second activity on our outing was the Franklin Park Zoo. I have been to this zoo about three other times. I have been to other zoos about a bazillion times. Therefore, I am well versed in hilarious, disgusting, cute, and interesting animals. I used to think birds were boring, as many people do. However, over time, I have become more interested in birds at zoos because they are  hilarious, disgusting and interesting and even sometimes cute all at the same time. Also, they're practically the same as dinosaurs.

That being said, I found that many of my pictures ended up being of birds who were the above listed attributes and I gawked at them and said things that were probably insulting but I meant as endearing

Ostriches are, by far, the most hilarious bird there is. Anytime I see an ostrich (which is notably frequently), I can't stop staring at its head. The shape of it's head and so sweet with its little doodly eyes popping out...And then you realize that it has this enormous body with essentially old-lady, cankled legs. Oh, ostriches, you're so funny.

We missed the sign on this one but my father explained that it,"is probably just another type of ostriche".

The always-noble owl. One, two, three. Three. Three licks to get to the tootsie-roll center of a tootsie pop.

This is Mr. Tie-Dye duck (Anatidae tye-dyum).

 

Little bittle fluffy wuffy puffy head!

May I introduce you to my kitten? Are you kidding me? Is there anything cuter than this? It was literally sleeping in the corner of its cage, facing the public. And by public I mean my camera flashing in its face.

 

 

 

So this fierce mofo lives to be 100 in the wild, and only 85 in captivity. My Dad and I guessed it is because he gets totally bored and resentful. Just like retirement.

 

 

 

Easter eggs.

 

 

And now, introducing the cherry on top--who only appeared on our way out of the park....

  

Definitely my favorite ever, the peacock. Or, as my husband affectionately refers to them: pheasants.

Gorilla Hiny

Free lentils

  
 Over the past two years or so, I've become really good at winning free stuff and getting free samples. I used to claim--as one does--that I never win anything; I'm not lucky. However, it turns out it isn't about luck. It's about putting in some extra effort now and again to increase the probability of winning.

Bukhara Indian Restaurant, Jamaica Plain, 2007: Free lunch for ten people
I dropped my friend's business card in the bowl. She lived in NYC at the time. She had to come to Boston to go to lunch with me.

American Psychological Assocation Convention, 2008: Two red sox tickets.
Was sure to register properly so that I was automatically registered in the raffle.

FNX Radio, June 10 2009: Two spots on the guest list of Ida Maria concert
Called FNX at the right time.

Wedding Wire.com, Sept. 2009: Free subscription to "Whole Living"/"Body + Soul" Magazine
Did 5 reviews of wedding vendors from my wedding the previous month for a free subscription.

Stonyfieldrewards.com, Jan 2010-Present: Free bag of granola and free box of cereal.
Entered codes on the website anytime I ate a stonyfield yogurt.

EarthFest Boston, May 22, 2010: Literally 6 boxes of granola, 15 granola bars, an icecream sandwich and coconut milk
Walking around and browsing at vendor stations. Oh and cutting in line. Duh.

USA DRY PEA AND LENTIL COUNCIL (hilarious), August 5th, 2010:
Voted for my favorite lentil recipe (i.e. chose randomly), automatically entered for a free sample.

That's right, I recieved mail from the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council. I must be a pretty big deal.

Bada bing bada boom, dinner for two days.

A boy, a girl and a cake: A love story

I have made a handful of quality decisions in my life. One of these good decisions was marrying my husband one year ago. The other good decision--which was really a joint decision--was the design of our wedding cake

Cake made by Mary Bandereck. Photo taken by Hitched Studios.

Clearly, we don't know what a wedding is supposed to look like. The other thing that we hadn't known until instructed to do so was the tradition of saving the top tier of your wedding cake in order to eat it on your one year anniversary.

For one year I have begrudgingly waited and silently prayed that our cake wasn't being battered in our freezer by cartons of icecream and frozen hamburgers or that our freezer wasn't going to randomly die for some amount of time, prematurely defrosting and ruining our cake. If for no other reason, I definitely agree that the first year of marriage is the most trying.

Finally last night, we broke open the bottle of wine given to us from the venue, left the cake to defrost for three days prior and reminisced about the good old days.

The wine tasted strange but I was cool with that.

The cake looked and tasted like perfection.

And our marriage looks and tastes like perfection as well.

Oh and rather than give the traditional "paper" gift on our first year anniversary, I went with a kidrobot instead

For the record, Adam "gave me" a scavenger hunt, a dress, and a night on the town a week ago so a monster was the least I could do.