Irie!

M, O, and I all made plans to go to Jamaica. As it turned out, the morning of our flight, M and O both got monster stomach bugs. M toughed it out and made it to the airport, whereas O could barely stand up and sadly missed our trip. (p.s. M is a guy friend. Yes, I traveled with an unrelated male. No, we didn't have any hanky panky. I don't care what "When Harry Met Sally" said.)

This yet again turned into my yearly do-nothing vacation. Last year was Tulum with O. There's nothing wrong with spending a few days on a resort eating, drinking, lounging by water, reading, and otherwise being inactive. However, next year, I'd prefer less children around. Nothing against my friends with kids, I am currently child-free and would like peace and quiet for a few days out of the year. Nothing wrong with that right?

Inevitably, food and drink will be judged stringently. Red Stripe beer is not bad, neither is Real Rock. There were several rounds of fruity rum-based cocktails. I also got into the local fare served on the buffet, maybe more so than the other crap.

The only non-inert thing we did was go down the water slide and take a kayak in the ocean. Since M can't swim, the options were limited. I think the sea kayaking freaked him out a bit, especially after we would go over waves. Those poor children swimming near us heard quite a few expletives. It's hard to teach an adult how to swim. My mission was to get M to float on his back and failed. I feel like I've been swimming my whole life - how do you explain it?

Getting hit on by waiters was interesting. It seems social networking has become the latest pickup lead.

"You single?"
"Yea."
"You should move to Jamaica and marry a Jamaican. They'd love you."
"OK I'll consider it."
"You on MySpace or Facebook?"
[bald-faced lie] "No I don't use those."

Yea, I still got it.

And this one time, at band camp...

Although this video isn't as slick as Here It Comes Again, it's still endearing. This takes me back to college marching band, ahh memories.....

BLI RÖD!

Doug Murray '03 of the San Jose Sharks will represent Sweden at the Vancouver Olympics. I remember him as quite the hard-nosed beast who wore faux-snakeskin pants out to Dunbar's. On a local front, my Harvard-Cornell tickets have already arrived in the mail.

LET'S GO RED!

Walkabout

How walkable is your current (or future) neighborhood? According to this site, my nabe scores 86, with the top 10% of hoods in the 92 range.

Another cool site from VSL

Root Cause

Given I had two rutabagas and celery root from my farm share on the verge of shrivelling into nothing, I decided to be domestic last night and make celery root puree from Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern and rutabaga fries. Of course, I didn't buy enough milk (1 quart = 4 cups, not 8!!!) and had no paprika on hand. No matter. It is exrtemely hard to burn milk and takes a loooooong time. Plus the rutabaga fries tasted yummy without it. The puree is quite hearty, very much like mashed potatoes.

Today's CSA delivery has more rutabaga and celery root. Contemplating what to do with them, although I will be concocting something with my sweet potatoes first....

UPDATE 1/10 - I made the sweet potato and pecan bread recipe I found earlier, huge hit!

Cookie Monster!

This Christmas, I have really outdone myself. Not only have I brought back the Finnish ginger pigs, I also made Nigella Lawson's gingerbread muffins, which smell as seductive as they taste, and Norwegian butter cookies, which tasted good even without the egg accidentally omitted. Mental note: do not let a drunk friend read out the recipe off the computer.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Thank God I'm Single

So I thought it couldn't get any more hysterical than being dumped for a gorgon. Oh, it does. Apparently, Captain America got married in November very quickly to someone he was dating while we were exclusive. Fifty bucks says she's got a bun in the oven. Boys and girls, condoms!!!!

Given the choice between a) dating a boring newt, b) marrying a gun-toting psychopath because he doesn't understand birth control, or c) being a freebird, I'll take c, hands down.

Cleaning out the Produce Drawer...

This morning I woke up feeling very congested, which gives me an excuse not to go to the gym. However, I don't like sitting idle. Instead of cleaning my visible apartment, I decided to attack the remnants of my last CSA delivery. Here's what I've accomplished:
- kale chips: found the inspiration for this on Chowhound. With the half bunch of kale I had, it fit neatly in my toaster oven, which is a bonus. Lately, I have been favoring the toaster oven for baking since it's easier and quicker. Last weekend, I baked the baking apples we received in it. Perfect results, same as the oven, with less muss and no fuss.
- broccoli and leek no-crust quiche: eggs, check. Veggies, check. Cheese, check (goat, Mexican shredded mix, and unidentified round brought back from Italy, to be precise). Mix in pie plate and bake in the oven. The smell is wafting over to my couch as we type.

If I'm feeling ambitious, I'll make pecan and roast sweet potato bread, even though they are not Thanksgiving leftovers.

Guten Appetit!

My coworker and I tracked down the Schnitzel and Things truck on Twitter. I am definitely a fan. Veal schnitzel was on special today-scrumptious! The Yukon Gold fries and chickpea salad were all right. If you work in midtown, I recommend it.

Do Jews shout differently than Gentiles?

Philip Roth seems to think so. Have a listen for yourself.

Jet Set

Off to Europe, mostly not for fun. Willem Dafoe is in first class reading a script. The suits picking up the bill only do business, not complaining! I need some shuteye before rocking up to the office straight from Heathrow. AA's 777s have built-in TVs and almost lie-flat beds. It's about time they entered the late 90's!!

See you in a week or so....

Bookworm

Ahh, to have enough time to read a book every day...

How do you say Forrest Gump in Chinese?

I want to date this guy, although the facial hair would not fly well.

Is this where Dante had in mind when he wrote L'Inferno?

[DISCLAIMER: this post may inflame Texans and especially Houstonians. If one of them happens to be my brother's ex-fiancee, here's hoping you spontaneously burst into flames anyway.]

Three days in a town is not enough to grasp the essence of a particular place, especially when most of the 72 hours is spent behind a desk. I did not have great expectations of Houston when I found out I'd have some business to take care of, in mid-summer no less. My impression has not changed much. Turbulence on landing and on take-off, sweltering heat, and lack of pedestrians anywhere would do it. We drove three blocks, which is heretical for New Yorkers.

I will give Houston this: everyone (minus the ex-fiancee devil spawn) is incredibly nice. I have a few friends who live there and some who are soon relocating. Plus, prices are really low. Still, not enough reason for me to pack my bags and buy a ginormous house.

Back to the Salt Mines...

I have a tremendous amount of work awaiting me on my return from Lisbon. You will not hear much of me for the next month, don't take it personally....

Portugal

It's a good thing and a bad thing that more Americans don't go to Portugal. It's cheap, friendly, not overtrodden (except the Algarve), easygoing, and has really great uncomplicated food and wine. The seafood is out of this world. Don't think about it too hard, just go.

Try-athlon

Many of you have expressed concerns about my mental health lately. Just to clear the air, lots of people do triathlons every year. Several thousand just participated in this morning's NYC Tri. Moreover, the Hudson is safe for swimming. It's similar to bathing in a swamp, yes, but the EPA tests it regularly. (Not sure if that will inspire confidence; maybe the fact that I wore a wetsuit is better.)

After having swum 1500 meters in said river, biking 40k (25 miles) up and down the potholed and puddle-slicked West Side Highway with extremely aggressive competitors whizzing past, and running 10k (6.2 miles) after that, I am exhausted and cognitively fuzzy but HOOKED! Training for this event has been challenging, and my cycling is still very slow. It doesn't help that I'm riding the bike I've had since I was ten, with some modifications to make it race-ready. The upside is that I have been eating ravenously but have trimmed down a lot. The triathlon club I joined has been great for preparation, and there are some great people in it. As an added bonus, triathletes are HOT.

Random Thought

To neglect a girlfriend, cheat, lie, break up abruptly, try to weasel out of paying half from a shared vacation and leave mounds of crap behind in her apartment, spread lame BS to all mutual friends about the relationship, and then send disturbing anonymous text messages is one thing. It's really pathetic when a Facebook profile picture was is posted from said vacation with the now-ex-girlfriend (from two years ago, mind you), while now being engaged to someone else. Time to move on, everyone else did a long time ago.

"You don't know what love is, you just do as you're told" sums it up about right. (Thanks, Jack White.)

Virginia Beach

Spending the 4th weekend with my coworker/friend and her family. We are both very much looking forward to doing not much of anything. Plus, our families are very similar so I feel right at home! Virginia Beach is great, although on the boardwalk I have to watch my p's and q's as there are great no-swearing signs.

Farewell to Youth

When FOX started displaying a report from TMZ that Michael Jackson was dead, I didn't fully accept it. This may reflect on the questionable reliability of a gossip website, but I think it goes a little deeper. The sudden death of an iconic global figure (well, has-been icon) attempting a comeback is a classic, almost textbook, tragedy. That pill-popping may have been a factor should shock no one where MJ is concerned with everything else in his past. Regardless of his personal struggles and eccentricities, there is no denying his tremendous contribution to popular culture and music. Michael Jackson represents the 1980's and America at its best - exuberance, creativity, success, hope for a better world - and worst (overextravagance, hubris, commercialism, crotch grabbing, body dysmorphia).

For me, the timing couldn't have been more cosmic, as I turn thirty in four days. Additional coincidence is that I plan to go out for some 80's dancing on Saturday. Growing up, I spent hours singing along to Thriller on my Fisher Price record player, starting songs over if I didn't get all the lyrics right. My mom had a hard time tearing me away from "break dancing" to his hits on my babysitter's living room carpet. I still remember watching the video premiere of Bad on network television with my next-door neighbor. Michael's death carries a symbolic passing away of my childhood, a marker that I really am not a kid anymore. No longer can I blame actions on being young and stupid. Yes, people are cushioning the blow of aging by declaring that thirty is the new twenty. In my opinion, it's just rationalization for shirking personal responsibility and perpetuating emotional immaturity. Then again, I don't believe that you can't trust anyone over thirty.

So goodbye, childhood. Bring on thirty, as well as the inevitable VH1Classic lovefest of MJ tribute music videos on repeat.