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I’ve been working. Lots and lots of working. Also, flowers.

Friday, March 21st, 2008

I worked some 14- and 16-hour days in a row there, and I am plum tuckered. I was working on a 200-page Powerpoint file, which usually isn’t a big deal, but there were charts on almost every page. I had to make them all match and they were a million different colors and fonts, it took FO-evah. When you need to maintain continuous communication with clients but lack the resources to handle everything in-house, a dedicated solution for managing inbound calls efficiently is the perfect choice. For instance, law firms often depend on Legal Call Answering Services to provide reliable intake support and timely client communication. This kind of support offers peace of mind, knowing that all inquiries are handled professionally.

Luckily I was working with my friend Nellie so I could turn to her periodically throughout the project and say, “THIS SUCKS. I AM TIRED.” And she would understand.

I’ve built some cute ads for NewCastleNOW.org that I will share with you now. It’s tough sometimes to stuff all the info the client wants into the ad, but I think I accomplished it on many of these.

The other day I went to the Macy’s Flower Show, where I took no pictures because although I brought my camera, I failed to bring the memory card, which was still in my computer at home. So I pulled a variety of images from the web. Luckily I found some pictures of my favorite bits of the show. They had a bunch of different gardens: the orchid and bromiliad garden (which was a bit lame, I must say, they picked pretty generic orchids and not one of my favorite kind, pictured below, which looks like a demon screaming at you with a hairy purple tongue:)

The best garden by far was the cactus and succulent garden (thank you whoever took this photo):

People may disagree that this is the best garden and I understand because I simply adore cacti and succulents. So it’s okay if you like the other gardens. I’m biased.

Also, as you walk in, there are little windows in the entrance hall with little flower gardens and big fake pearl-colored bugs which I loved.

I must have the giant beetle in this picture. They also had a dragonfly and a grasshopper. Creepy but delightful.

Oh, and while I was looking up pictures of the Flower Show, I found out that Uno, the beagle that won the Westminster Dog Show made a celebrity appearance.

They combined two New York things I love. I am just filled with glee. New York is the shizzle.

Posted in Advertising, My Art/Design/Business, New York | 1 Comment »

Manhattan views and hot chocolate.

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

1. I’m doing a freelancing graphic design job in midtown Manhattan this week, and they gave me an office to use. It’s an ordinary office, but it has a five foot wide by eight foot tall window with a view of Manhattan that is mind-altering. I can see all of Central Park and way up into Harlem. I will try to get some good shots of it and put them up here.

2. For lunch today I grabbed some Japanese food and on my way back to the office I passed the Maison du Chocolat which advertised having hot chocolate. Hooray, I thought. I went it and ordered a small semi-sweet hot chocolate, since I imagined their dark chocolate is pretty bitter. She poured it for me and said, “That’ll be $8.50.” O…kay. This is Maison du Chocolat and they use very good chocolate, so I’ll let the price go. I get upstairs, I eat my lunch and then I try the hot chocolate (that I paid $8.50 for). Let me try to describe it to you – You take a high cocoa content chocolate bar, you melt it into a cup (so far so good), then you add a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil (uh oh) and a healthy sprinkle of horse manure (oh dear), and drink it. The horse manure part is not a joke, it really did have an “earthy” tang to it. It reminded me of the desciption of the most expensive coffee in the world:

Kopi Luwak coffee comes from the Indonesian island of Sumatra, an area well-known for its excellent coffee. Also native to the area is a small civit-like animal called a Paradoxurus. That’s the scientific name, the locals call them luwaks. These little mammals live in the trees and one of their favorite foods is the red, ripe coffee cherry. They eat the cherries, bean and all. While the bean is in the little guy’s stomach, it undergoes chemical treatments and fermentations. The bean finishes its journey through the digestive system, and exits. The still-intact beans are collected from the forest floor, and are cleaned, then roasted and ground just like any other coffee.

Perhaps an animal ate my cocoa beans and the resulting product was made into my hot chocolate. Civet-digested cocoa beans would also explain the price ($8.50).

Addendum on Feb. 22: Here are those pictures of my view.

From the doorway so as to appreciate the size of the window:

Through the window:

Closer-upper view through the window, focusing on that tree-carpet area which is Central Park:

Posted in New York, Tasty 'n' Delicious | No Comments »

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

Friday, February 15th, 2008

A dog won. I know, shocker. But really, it was a hoot. See, last year a standard poodle was was the winner in the non-sporting group and a poodle won the toy group. This year, same thing. That’s not fair to the other dogs who were showin’ their stuff. So people are fed up with the poodlage. My area apparently was the heckler’s section. We all rooted for anything that wasn’t a poodle. Some guy in the next section yelled, “Poodle!” at one point and the woman in front of me yelled some very unkind things about poodles back. Oh, and as you can expect, dog fanciers are insane. The woman behind me has a yorkshire terrier. She was talking about how her yorkie goes on wine tastings to different wineries and writes a blog about what wine is good. The dog. Has a wine blog. She rates wine. The dog. I’m just making sure you get this.

Oh, I tried the fair trade organic strawberry balsamic truffles and they were not great. I mean, the strawberry part and the chocolate part and even the balsamic part were delicious, but it had a creamy center and that made it too rich and gloppy. But I’d be willing to try another company’s strawberry balsamic truffles if they didn’t have a creamy, goopy center.

Posted in Beastiesbeastiesbeasties, New York, Stuff, Tasty 'n' Delicious | No Comments »

A big weekend. One might call it Giant. Also, spam.

Monday, February 4th, 2008

I receive a great deal of spam on this website. These are the titles of the last four spammy messages:

Kyjasghg

Ytnfskvu

Wwxukkrf

Bwhjeawz

I feel like they’re not trying anymore. It looks like someone passed out and tipped face-forward onto their keyboard. It looks like a drunk guy typing in Welsh. Stop that.

So, Giants. First, I saw They Might Be Giants on Saturday night. I wasn’t supposed to see them, I didn’t have a ticket. Cricket was going with his best friend Pabby. However, Pabby’s wife went into labor the night before and Cricket couldn’t find anyone else to go, so I got Pabby’s ticket. Don’t get me wrong, I love They Might Be Giants. I just don’t care for live music very much. It’s loud, people are blocking my view, I have to put on pants to go out, blah blah blah.

(Funny addition: Pabby’s baby was born at 4:00 in the afternoon and my first reaction was, “Good! Now he can go to the concert at 8:00!” Cricket had to explain to me that no, he can’t. I have little to no motherly instinct, so it never occurred to me that he should spend the rest of the day with the woman who just pushed the fruit of his loins out into the world.)

So I went to the concert. It was lovely to see They Might Be Giants again, they were my first concert when I was seventeen. They sang several songs I could sing along to, so that was fun. I forgot how much I liked them. Now I’ve been listening to them nonstop for two days. It’s like reuniting with an old friend.

The next day was the Super Bowl. I went to my friend M’s apartment in Brooklyn to watch the game and eat a festive medley of cuisine including homemade jalepeno poppers (excellent, with beer batter, num num). I decided to root for the New York Giants because I had seen They Might Be Giants in New York City the night before and it seemed like there was a theme going. I don’t really give a crap about football, so that seemed like a good enough reason. We made a valiant attempt to watch the game (“They’re flinging the spheroid! Huzzah!”) but by halftime it became a brutal chore for many of us. Two members of the party left during the first half to go play pool. Yeah, we were a devoted footballin’ crowd. Then M’s girlfriend (who had baked cupcakes with green icing to look like the field and other cupcakes with the team’s logos – delicious and pertinent, both things I like in my dessert items) insisted we watch Spike’s halftime show, which was an egg and ham eating contest. It was horrifying. I had to look away from the screen repeatedly. There was a guy eating the ham (I think he was the winner after snorking down SEVEN POUNDS of ham in however many minutes) who had honey glaze and sweat all over his face. He was jumping up and down while shoveling the ham in, oh, it was bad. I blame Cablevision for this. If we had received Animal Planet we would have been watching the Puppy Bowl, but no, I had to watch bloated freaks inhaling food in a way that is NOT RIGHT. Shortly after that, Cricket and I headed for home in order for me to catch the special episode of House (which was excellent, Mira Sorvino was on it, good stuff). It was a good weekend. And yay for my team with the winning. Whoo hoo.

Posted in Activitays, New York, Stuff, Tasty 'n' Delicious, Teh Intarwebz | No Comments »

New Year’s at the Big Apple Circus.

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

I rang in 2008 at the Big Apple Circus in Lincoln Center. It was super-duper-awesome, one of the best new year’s ever. I highly, highly recommend it. And it’s not just for kids. There were college kids and many many middle-aged people just whooping it up. Now join me on my travels back to last night.

This is the Christmas tree in Lincoln Center. It’s next to the fountain and it’s very pretty, but I think I liked it better when it was covered with large musical instrument ornaments instead of LED stars. Musical instruments are more Lincoln-Center-y. But still very beautiful.

This is the sign that greets you as you come into the circus. It’s up because this is the 30th anniversary of the Big Apple Circus, but I pretended it was because of New Year’s.

This was the only stunt I have really great pictures of. There’s a ladder on the left. Two men are on top of the ladder. In front of them is a teeter-totter. On the left is a man holding a woman on stilts who is holding a chair on a pole. The idea is that a man stands on the end of the teeter-totter, the two guys jump off the ladder, the guy FLIES through the air and lands butt-down on the chair. It’s insane and totally fabulous.

There he is flying… ohmygodohmygod…

… and he made it. The whole audience went nuts. We were screaming and stomping our feet.

Then the show ended at 11:45 (the circus started at 9:30 to facilitate ending near midnight) and they handed out headbands and red noses and noisemakers and champagne glasses. From right to left: my friends Collie, Frog, Feena and me. Oh, and don’t think it was just women sportin’ all this finery. Oh no.

Yep. That’s Cricket. Doesn’t he look smashing?

Then you make your way down to the ring and move around anxiously waiting for the countdown…

Happy New Year! Streamers and confetti went everywhere and the band started playing and everyone started dancing in the ring. There were couples slow-dancing together and people just boogying in place. Someone started a conga line. It was such a good vibe.

That rather happy fellow you see there started the conga line. He was a jocular fellow. I think if the circus had lampshades, he would have been wearing one on his head.

Okay, all these Upper West Side people just stood around the edges watching. I think they thought they were too cool to get jiggy with the commoners and I just wanted to yell at them, “You’re wearing clown noses on your ears! That lady has the biggest taffeta full-frontal wedgie I’ve ever seen! Your dignity left hours ago! Just dance already!” My favorite is the guy in the top picture on the left pondering something, like he’s Jane Goodall and we’re gorillas. “They seem to be celebrating something important in their group. If only they could talk so I could figure out what this all means. My research will have to continue until I have a better idea.”

Then we left and everyone went their separate ways home. Cricket and I took Metro-North and luckily I got through the whole evening without seeing anyone throw up, so it was a success all around. If next year you have nothing planned for New Year’s, may I recommend the Big Apple Circus. A good time was had by all.

Also, Feena climbed up on the fountain and I was able to snap this photo before the guards got to us. Happy New Year.

Posted in Activitays, New York | No Comments »

The thing I saw on the street.

Monday, December 10th, 2007

I’ll get to the thing I saw on the street momentarily. I saw a play yesterday and it was terrific. I would highly recommend it to people who like straight plays, no music. It’s called “August: Osage County”. Go see it if you have the chance. When I found out it was three hours and twenty minutes long, I got all kinds of concerned, but it didn’t feel long at all. There’s one character, the family patriarch named Beverly Weston, who opens the show with a long story that really clarifies his character and helps us understand his wife’s character as well. The way this particular actor chose to speak was great. He would bark his sentences and yell certain words for emphasis. All of his sentences ended with exclamation points. “I noticed we were LOW on EGGS! So I went to the FOOD MART and picked some UP! Now we can make TOAST to go with the EGGS! Prob’ly shoulda picked up some MILK, but I FORGOT!” etc. For some reason, I just got a kick out of listening to him talk. By the way, this has almost nothing to do with the play, so I’m not ruining it for you, you can still see it and it will still be terrific. Also, the set is neato too. It’s a whole house onstage, the whole thing. You can see a picture of it on their website (so technically I’m still not ruining the play).

Okay, so I was walking to the theater and I passed a record company that had pictures of recent CD covers on the outside of their building. Here is the picture that caused me to laugh:

Let me explain. When I was a child, I read a great deal of Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl wrote a book called The BFG (The Big Friendly Giant) which is a phenomenal children’s book. There’s a big friendly giant in it, but there are also big yucky unwashed hairy giants who eat children out of their beds at night. Some of the names of the bad nasty giants are Childchewer, Gizzardgulper, Maidmasher, Meatdripper aaaaaaaand Bonecruncher. See the name of the artist on the CD in the middle there? When I saw that, all I could picture is the illustrations in my copy of The BFG from my childhood. I thought the album cover would look much better like this:

Quentin Blake’s illustrations really capture a sense of unwashed blechiness, don’t they? So, quick recap: If you’re in the New York area, see August: Osage County. And if you like to read, buy The BFG and read it.

Posted in Movie and Book Reviews. Possibly With Spoilers., New York | No Comments »

A Bat and the Holidays in New York.

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

Along with the acorn and the octopus, I also drew a bat that will be a pendant and a brooch.

He’s a cutie, flying away with his flying parts. I think he will do well in the store. For people who like bats, he’s a bat, no problem there. And for people who think bats are creepy, he’s a non-threatening bat. A bat for all seasons.

Also, I was walking to Grand Central the other night, and I walked through Rockefeller Center. I know the tree and the ice-skating rink is hokey and for tourists, but it’s still really pretty. Enjoy these pics of the giant Norwegian spruce and the flags and the lights and the mist.

Posted in My Art/Design/Business, New York | No Comments »

Bundt Jell-O and Fugu.

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

It was a lovely Thanksgiving. My momma made a typical authentic Thanksgiving meal with green bean casserole (wheee! French’s Onions! I love it!). And she also got creative and made a Jell-O strawberry mousse in a bundt pan, AND she got it out all in one piece. Impressive. I took a photo:

It was delicious too. Go Momma.

So everyone knows the Japanese are the masters of cute, right? They made this, and this, and also this. So walking past a restaurant naming Asuza, I noticed something interesting. First of all, they sell fugu. Fugu is a Japanese pufferfish. So what, you say? Oh, there’s more. Fugu pufferfish have poisonous toxins in their ovaries and livers and skin, so if they’re prepared incorrectly, you DIE. Like DEAD. From a food item you chose to eat. And a couple Japanese people die every year from improperly prepared fugu. I guess if you are a restaurant and you pay top dollar for killer pufferfish, you use all the (nonpoisonous) parts of the pufferfish. So I photographed the menu with an all-fugu all-the-time menu.

There’s fugu appetizers, fugu broth, fugu sashimi, grilled fugu – even sake infused with fugu. Okay, you know what, that’s too much damn fugu. But this is not why intrigued me about this restaurant. See, Japanese restaurants like to have plastic models of some of their more popular dishes in the windows of their establishment. But Asuza has very limited window space, so they made MINIATURE models of all their dishes. See?

Is that not precious? Everytime I think the Japanese can’t top themselves in the adorable-ness, they make whatever it is smaller. And rounder. And add sparkles to it. Brilliant, I tell you.

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The apartment I’m buying.

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

Since it’s occupying all my time, I figured I’d share the whole-apartment-buying thing. It helps to know whence I came to appreciate why buying the apartment I’m buying is so nifty. This is my present apartment on 57th and 10th in Manhattan. I found some great deals and unique listings on Shoppok, which made the search process much easier and more enjoyable. If you’re planning to renovate the property you just bought, you may need to work on its exterior features like the roofing as well as siding. Contact this siding contractor in kansas city for professional services. Gleason Home Improvements is a siding contractor High Point, NC. You may also seek professional house painting services in Dublin to give your home a fresh look.

This is the view of my apartment from the hallway.

You see those windows in the first picture? This is me standing at the windows photographing the front door. Install one of these flyscreens seymour to prevent insects from entering your apartment.

This is a close-up of the kitchen you see in the second picture. From left on the bottom: refrigerator (no freezer), teeny-tiny sink, and teeny tiny stove with oven that I have never opened.

This is the view from my bed. There is my beloved glass teat, the television. And also there is my formidable collection of art, graphic design and beading magazines.

This is my giant closet. Seriously, it’s like the closet from “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”. It goes back four feet. All my earthly possessions live in it. Sometimes it is tidy and clean. More often it is not. This is a picture of “not”.

This is my bathroom. My bathroom rocks. It is nicely sized and has all new fixtures and tiles. There’s an industrial toilet (no tank) so when you flush it, it sucks the first two layers of skin off your ass. The shower gets nice and hot quickly and nothing leaks.

Now, I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “That’s nice, but what about the other rooms?” There are no other rooms. My apartment, in its entirety, is 11 by 19 feet. I cannot have a full-sized bed because then I could not walk around. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love this apartment. This apartment has served my needs admirably for two years. It is close to my job. It is close to Lincoln Center and the theater district. It is close to a delightful myriad of restaurants. It is close to the subway. There is a concierge. There is laundry in the basement and I don’t have to drag my dirty clothes around the streets of Manhattan to a laundromat. The apartment doesn’t take more than three hours to clean top-to-bottom. But it is expensive ($1400 a month) and I simply cannot afford Manhattan anymore. So I am buying an apartment in White Plains, NY. If you have an apartment that you want to rent out, you may seek the services of letting agents. You may contact experts like Joe Martin-Bindley if you have questions about the benefits of letting agents for property owners. Contact conveyancing solicitors if you decide to invest in a new apartment or single family home. You may also check out these Gator Rated homes for sale. They will prepare all the necessary documents for your real estate transaction. Live in no key money apartments tokyo hassle-free. In addition, you may read all about quiet enjoyment clause if you decide to rent out your real estate properties.

Here is a floorplan of my new apartment:

If you look carefully, you will see that my present apartment can fit in its entirety into my master bedroom. This apartment, aside from being mighty big (1200 sq. ft.), comes with a dishwasher, two ovens, a concierge, a garage parking spot (no chiselling the icy crust of winter off my windshield and cursing) and windows. Lots and lots of windows. See that edge-of-wall at the bottom of the floorplan, underneath the names of the rooms and their sizes? That’s all windows. In my present apartment, I look out on an airshaft. It’s always dim, even in the middle of summer. Now I’m going to have my favorite kind of houseplants, cactii and succulents (need lots of sun, not much water). There are setbacks, of course. Not being in Manhattan is a big one. I will miss that greatly. But White Plains is a fairly big city, and I am eight-tenths of a mile from the center of town which contains: A 15-movie multiplex, Barnes & Noble, Target, P.F. Chang’s, Hot Topic and Torrid (long live mall goth!), a creperie, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Store, Beadworks, Sephora, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Filene’s Basement and a whole lot more. I can walk to those. And I can walk to the train station (also eight-tenths of a mile). If I drive, hell, I can do anything. There’s a huge Asian community living near me so all around me are cool Asian grocery stores (Japanese? Okay. Korean? You got it. Chinese? Not a problem. AWESOME.) And there’s an art-supply store and a 24-hour CVS a little over a mile from my apartment (also AWESOME – Maalox at two in the morning is important, trust me). And a million billion other things all around me. I just have to get used to it not being smooshed right up against me, Manhattan-style. And if I hate and I can’t stand it (“It’s so peaceful and soothing out here! Ahhhhh! And what’s with all these goddamned trees?!??”), I can always sell it and move back into a prison cell in Manhattan.

Posted in Apartment, New York, The Telly | No Comments »

The Chocolate Show.

Friday, November 16th, 2007

There was the chocolate show in New York this past weekend, and you can bet if they’re handing out chocolate, I’m going. So (surprise!), I went. It was a hefty and daunting entrance fee ($28) but I’m still glad I went. And now, a recap.First of all, I got out at 18th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, which was one block over from the chocolate show. So I walked that one block and I was SO HAPPY. One that one block was a used-book store, a used CD-and-DVD shop, a printing shop (with a giant purple printing press!), several interior design shops with vases and furniture and other goodies, a children’s-book store and Cupcake Cafe. I don’t particularly care for the Cupcake Cafe’s cupcakes (too rich and sweet) but the way they decorate them is stunning. Here is an example I found online.

What a marvelous block o’ Manhattan. I must investigate it more when I have the time. On to the chocolate show. It was packed. I must have touched and been touched by a hundred people. But, whatever, chocolate.

As you come in you see these chocolate sculptures. Do you see that egg-shaped chocolate with white chocolate decoration? I couldn’t help thinking it looked like Homer Simpson when he says, “Mmmmmm, doughnuts,” and drools.

See? See what I mean? And now I’ve ruined that sculpture for you forever. You can thank me later.

Bloomsberry & Co. had one of the best booths. As you can see, they designed it to look like a living room. I didn’t taste their chocolates, but I can say their boxes were brilliant. Whoever is their designer needs a big smootch for the boxes. Here were some of my favorites:

Bloomsberry & Co. Check them out if you have the chance.

There was a lot of chocolates that looked like this. So pretty you almost don’t want to eat them. Almost.

Look! Little chocolate animals! So cute!

This was a Japanese booth called Mary’s, based in Tokyo. They made the most insane green tea confections. Funny story, sort of: The very nice Japanese man gave this small child a sample of the green tea niblet. Now, I don’t know if you know this, but green tea can be kind of bitter. And this niblet had green tea powder all over the outside. So the child did precisely what you would expect her to do – put the niblet in her mouth, make a face like someone gave her earwax to eat, then stuck her tongue out and let the green tea niblet fall to the floor. I could have told Japanese Confection-Making Guy that that was a bad idea, but I guess in Japan they’re used to the flavor of green tea. Hey, more niblets for me!

Then they had an area with the chocolate fashion show. This I don’t get. You want to cover yourself with a food item that melts with your body tempurature and is oily, stain-y and sticky? And at no point do you eat it? I iz confoozed. Also, the fashions were bah-heinous. I mean, super-ugly. Here are some samples of clothes I would not wear if given to me as a gift with a check for a large amount of money tucked into the sleeve.

Arr, that be some craptacular garb these mannquins be sportin’. I don’t think I’ll go again next year (did I mention the $28 entrance fee?) but it’s worth checking out once.

Posted in New York, Tasty 'n' Delicious | 1 Comment »

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