Jul
4
Happy 4th, Everyone!
Filed Under entertainment, food
A few days ago, Little Brown Pen posted about Pier Village in Long Branch. We live about 15 minutes away, so when we were looking for a beach to head to for the 4th today, we decided to go there. We had a great, chilled out lunch at Sirena and then hit the beach. Next time I would love to try the beach club at Avenue, but for today we were happy as clams with the crowds on the beach.
Look at all that sunshine; it makes for a happy Adam. We didn’t know what to do after the month of rain that was June.
Me in the convertible.
Even the most serene beach is overrun on the 4th. That’s half the fun!
Jul
3
Thanksgiving and Christmas in July
Filed Under entertainment, food
So this is a turducken. Our friends Dan, Ken, and Laura Ann threw this Thanksgiving in July party at Dan’s house yesterday, and it was pretty much so they could showcase this turkey/duck/chicken concoction. We waited with baited breath for hours while this thing roasted away (a bacon explosion helped pass the time), and just before we left for Christmas in July Adam and I got the first bites of it. We only got as far as the turkey layer, but it was yummy. I was a turducken skeptic, I have to say I was surprised to find it was delicious. All that duck fat made it really moist. And neither of us got salmonella poisoning, so that’s a huge bonus!
It was quite a party, but I’ll admit that I did not feel cool enough to be in Dan’s Chelsea apartment. If nothing else, yesterday made The Reeves realize just how suburban we are, and that’s fine with us. It was pouring rain on the way to Dan’s, so we arrived separately (Adam from work, me from the ‘burbs) but equally soaked. Then we made our way from Chelsea to Brooklyn in that sort of gross post-rain mugginess that comes from a wet summer in NYC.
But we made it, happy but slightly worse for wear, to Brooklyn for my friend Maggie’s Christmas in July extravaganza. She had quite a spread, which we appreciated since a large part of our time at Thanksgiving was spent waiting for things to cook (it was the kind of party where the buildup is the whole point). A cookie decorating station (totally stealing that idea), homemade buckeyes, and melon wrapped in prosciutto. All excellent and delicious. And there were Christmas tunes playing from her iPhone and Christmas ornaments as prizes for getting in the spirit of things. I won a mini Christmas sweater with a penguin on it for picking up the “Mulled wine!” chant. I was very excited by that, it’s going into the ornament collection in the attic. I have to say, I also loved that Maggie thought outside the holiday color box by going with a pink Christmas theme rather than the typical green and red. This made it feel like summer, but with Christmas!
So exhausted and partied out, we made our way back home well past our bedtimes (I can’t remember the last time we were getting in at 1am, another reason we realized how uncool we are). We’re totally spent today and still recovering, but we had an absolute blast at both parties. Once in a while it’s fun for us to pretend that we’re cool, energetic people who go to multiple parties in multiple boroughs in one night. Once in a while.
Jul
2
Wag by Patrick McDonnell
Filed Under art, children's books
This was one of the ARC’s I received when I attended BEA09 back in May. I know, it’s taking me forever to post these. This is the second review of a BEA book, the first was Pingo.
Wag is due out in October 2009.
There are few things that get a universal happy response from small children like puppies and kittens. I’ve never seen a member of The Picture Book Set resist a book that features them.
This does not mean that every book featuring puppies and/or kittens is GOOD. Kids might like them, but the adults doing the storytelling might find them excruciatingly dull. Come on, grownups. We’ve all read a book to munchkins that they fell out over, but we nearly fell asleep 2 pages in. We’ve all been there.
So here is a delight for kids AND for grownups. Patrick McDonnell’s Wag, featuring Earl and the gang from his MUTTS comic strip, is just fun. It’s entirely about the joy Earl finds in wagging is tail. He wags it for snowflakes, for belly rubs, for friends, and just because. But why does his tail wag? We find out at the end, and it’s really very sweet. The illustrations are sure to delight little kids, and adults will find it charming. It’s a true example of how the simplest joys can make us happy. I dare you not to smile with this one.
Jul
1
Huh
Filed Under entertainment, thoughts
So my blog has decided to close the comments on any posts 2 weeks or older. I did not opt for this setting, and it’s only started doing this in the last few days. In fact, this setting is deliberately not selected. I tried to change it this evening, but it hasn’t reopened the comments. So when I’m a little less sleepy I’ll look into reopening those comments (and by I, I really mean Adam).
Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day. Adam’s friends Dan and Ken are throwing a Thanksgiving in July party, complete with turducken. Their fiesta begins mid-afternoon, hopefully when Wall St. has been freed for the holiday weekend. My friend Maggie is also having a Christmas in July party tomorrow night, so we will be making our way from Thanksgiving in Manhattan to Christmas in Brooklyn tomorrow. I’m getting plenty of sleep tonight to prepare myself for all the excitement. I’m not good at staying up late, I need to brace myself.
You know, since summer break started I really have been unable to focus on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, email, voicemail…anything that keeps me linked in to the world electronically. I’ve been in a frenzy of party planning and house cleaning, so I haven’t actually, you know…relaxed much. I’m trying to cram in all the stuff I never have time to do during the school year. But today was a good start. I sat in my PJs and looked at magazines all day. I had a giant pile building up over several months, and I got through almost all of them. So that was relaxing. But then I followed that up by vacuuming and washing all the floors downstairs. So that was less relaxing. But still very satisfying. My TwitterFox window says I have 1415 unread Tweets, I still haven’t gotten on top of those. Now it’s another big weekend, and I’ll be celebrating 3 different holidays. Perhaps on the 5th I’ll start relaxing.
Jun
30
My First Dahlia
Filed Under home
I’m really excited about this one, but it keeps drooping over. I need to get out there and build up some more soil around it so it’s better anchored. Especially before that next bud opens up. At the moment a strong breeze knocks it right over. It was fine until this flower bloomed, and now it just can’t stand up under the weight. But man, this flower is gorgeous. I’ve been waiting for these yellow/white dahlias to bloom since I planted the bulbs 3 months ago.
So my tulips bloomed and faded, my lilies bloomed and faded, now my dahlias are starting to bloom. I still haven’t planted anything like annuals, and I need to weed again. Actually, it’s more grass overrunning the flower bed than weeds. It’s filled with clover, too. All this rain isn’t helping keep it out.