What kind of napper are you?

A.B. van der Weide

A.B. van der Weide Photography

Douchey Mcdouche

Infamous internet celeb and wannabe actor:

http://arthurkade.com/2009/05/27/philadelphia-magazine/

Making the distinction between racial and racist one furniture store at a time...

So Cool!

It's so simple and beautiful, it's complicated!

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

OMG, he's NOT being ironic in those Priceline commercials!!!

Note column to the top right of this website

And then visit http://www.tweetingtoohard.com/. Hilarious!

Who are Jon and Kate and their eight???

And why the hell does anyone care about them?

"I had broken a ligament and pulled a bone..."

I can't tell if this guy was trying to be funny, or if he really got the two concepts confused...

Check out the video

I checked out Lake Minnewaska State Preserve this weekend

New Palz is a cute place! For more pictures of our excursion, click here.

Glee a little too twee?

Is Fox's new fall series, Glee Club a little too twee?

I caught the pilot the other night. It was cute and inoffensive. I liked it. I thought it cute, positive and different. I can't, however, imagine watching it every week. Check out the pilot for yourself:

Glee Pilot

Please, just roll me back home

I met a former coworker for lunch today at David Chang's Momofuku Ssam Bar.

I don't even want to talk about the food, because it was too good for me to put into words. Let me just say I love chefs that love pork and offal. I love restaurants that specifically state on the menu, "We do not serve vegetarian-friendly items."

My friend and I both had the prix fixe, where we ordered different items and shared everything. As a take-small-bites-and-taste-everything-at-least-once eater, I like eating with people who can share.

My faves: Pork Buns, Blondie Pie

Afterwards, my friend and I went next door to the Milk Bar where I checked out the Marshmallow Cookie (it was ok), the Chocolate Cake, and the Banana Cake. I've decided that I like my cakes and cookies better when they're slightly warm.

My new teapot

My new kettle. It's tens of dollars less expensive than my old one, it's easy to maintain, and it works. I tried it today, and it whistled. Afterwards, nothing melted.

I had my eye on the lovely Le Creuset Ogive but decided to bypass form and function for just mere function. I'm certain my water tastes the same either way, so I won't lose sleep over it.

With the additional store credit from the original pot and a 20% off coupon, I finally bought the Wusthof knives I've been coveting for quite some time. I'd give up a fancy kettle for a handy knives any time of day. :-)

My teapot just melted

How can a company make a teapot that has an attached whistle that's not heat resistant? All I have is a melted lump of plastic where the whistle used to be...

I'm taking my teapot back. It's the second time I've had to take my teapot back (the first time, the whistle didn't work) and get a replacement teapot. This time though, I'm taking it back and leaving it there.

Word to the wise, don't buy a Chantal teapot.

He said WHAT?

At Trader Joe's this morning:

Man: "How are you today?"

Me: "Ok."

Man: "Just ok?" I shrugged. He said, "Yeah, me too. What are your plans for the rest of today?"

Me: "Eh, look for work? Run errands? Not sure yet. It's nice out."

Man: "What do you want to do?"

Me: "I wish I knew. Suggestions?"

Man: "You look like a swimmer. Maybe you can be a lifeguard."

K, M and Montie in Philly

I go to Philly to have dinner with college bestie K, her bf M, and their cute doggie Montie. K's getting her MSW and is usually crazy busy, so it was good to see her.

Sharing PBRs with K and M.

Montie offers me one of his toys. :)

K suprised me with two more pairs of split toe socks. I love split toe socks!

He said WHAT?

I wonder if there's something about me that just screams IF YOU'RE A STALKER, COME TALK TO ME.

I had a meeting in midtown today. As I waited in line at the security desk at the lobby, the man in front of me offered to pass my ID to the security desk. I almost handed him my ID, and then he laughed and said he was joking. He did, however, want my information so he could call me some time.

I "laughed" and politely told him I didn't think it was a good idea.

Unfortunately for me, we ended up in the same elevator together (with a poor woman who tried to pretend she was invisible). The man was very persistent and asked again if he could have my contact information.

Once again, I said, "NO."

He asked why I wouldn't give it to him. Since I was in an elevator, it was extremely awkward and uncomfortable for me to continue to have a conversation that I clearly didn't want to have, and I couldn't leave, I tried to be polite and make a joke out of it.

"I woke up this morning and decided that I wasn't providing my contact information to anyone today. Sorry," I told him.

He promised that he'd be back tomorrow to sit in the lobby and wait for me all day.

"Well," I said, "seems like it might be hard for you to get any work done that way."

It reminds me of someone I dated someone briefly last spring. Let's call him X.

X pushed things between us to become serious and exclusive (I'm not a huge fan of exclusive dating. What's the point, unless I plan on marrying someone?), and then quickly decided things weren't working out because he needed "to be free and to see what else was out there." This was after he already already made ridiculous declarations of his love for me within our first month of dating (which made me extremely uncomfortable because WHO DOES THAT?!?).

While I wasn't particularly happy that X had insisted I jump through hoops to "commit to an exclusive relationship with him" when I clearly didn't want to be exclusive only for him to realize that he needed to be "free," I didn't object too much because if I were honest, I agreed with him. Plus, I don't want to be with anyone who needs to see "what else is out there" before knowing if they want to be with me. If they haven't already figured it out, then they ought to go find out without my participation.

X was an inappropriate partner for me in every way possible. The only reason we began to date was because I had just ended a very important relationship with A (who is amazing and now a close friend), and I was in a vulnerable state. X had been persistently pursuing me for over a year, and he happened to call and ask me out at a time where it was hard for me to say no.

A month after X ended things, he came back and wanted to try again because he thought he had made a mistake, and he missed me. I had started to come out of my A-break-up-induced funk by then, and I didn't cooperate with X's attempts to restart things because he wasn't someone I wanted to be with. I was polite. I went through the motions of going on a date with X, but...eh.

I don't trust wishy washy people, especially men. There's something about wishy-washy men that reminds me of temperamental children. They always want the shiniest and newest toys, but they lose interest quickly. I've heard my share of stories about wishy-washy men who decide, after 20 years of marriage, a mortgage and 3 children, that married life isn't for them. It's sad and a little selfish for them to make that decision with disregard for how their actions will affect their ex-wives and children. If that's the way they felt, perhaps they ought to have realized that before having a family? Anyone who starts throwing "I love you" around after only a month of dating someone is one of those men.

After X's second attempt to "date" me, I didn't hear from him for a while. Then, I ran into him a few times, and we were polite to each other each time. I had no hard feelings towards him, and I can't imagine that he'd me mad at me in any way. The last time I ran into him, he called me within minutes of seeing me to ask if I wanted to stop by his home to check out ___________ (insert whatever hook here, like art, gadget, whatever). I may have an annoying tendency to take people at face value, but I am not completely naive. I politely declined.

Since then, X occasionally emails, texts or calls (and usually leaves vmails, since I almost always screen calls unless I'm in a rush). It seems to happen about once a month, probably when he's a little bored and lonely and wonders where his friends are or what everyone's up to. According to my apartment super, a man fitting X's description even stopped by my apartment once to ask if I still lived there. Every once in a while (about three or four times now), I'll get a voicemail from X telling me he's at my gym and hoping to run into me. (I live in the West Village, he lives on the East side, and we both have gyms within 2 blocks of our respective apartments.) While I want to tell X to bugger off, I don't because we operate in similar social circles and I would prefer things to remain friendly. But, I do think that X is a stalker if I've seen one.

Happy birthday, K!

I haven't seen K in over two years. We went to college together. He and his lovely wife are expecting their second child in a month. It was so wonderful to get to celebrate his birthday with him!

K celebrates his 32nd bday in K-town.

This commercial cracks me up

Chuck Strikes Again!!!

http://www.romaniantimes.at/index.php?id=509

Happy birthday, MN!

MN re-celebrates her 29th birthday at the White Slab Palace.


With A.

With A, M and MN.

Right in my own back yard...

The biggest mistake one can make upon exiting the B at the last stop, inhaling undertow-flavored air and narrowly passing a man in a fake Gucci shirt and a rabbit hat hawking caviar from a foldable outdoor table, is to assume that you’re seeing a passable facsimile of Russia. Brighton Beach is far more interesting. What you’re actually getting is a kind of double-blind guess— a Jewish immigrant’s idea of what an American’s idea of Russia may be. And that’s what makes it arguably the most fascinating ethnic enclave in New York: It looks just as exotic to the ethnicity it enclaves.

Like its freak cousin Coney Island, the neighborhood known as Little Odessa is as much a state of mind as a location: stuck between two worlds, with its own culture, slang, radio, TV, magazines, and illicit pharmaceutical industry (think less meth and more FDA-unapproved heart drops). It’s too singular and ornery to be a true tourist trap. Unlike Little Italy, with its defanged Mafia lore, Brighton Beach frowns at suggestions the “Russian mob” has ever even existed; its secrets are still secrets, and its past is never far away.

http://nymag.com/guides/everything/brighton-beach/

Welcome to the jungle...

NYC used to be fun and games of another sort. This is what Manhattan used to look like before white people showed up...

http://digg.com/d1tJFy

Even better than LOLCATS!!!!

OK, just kidding b/c nothing can ever top LOLCATS in that saccharin hurt your teeth way, but this comes pretty darn close:

http://www.latfh.com/


Although more in a hurt your eyes and your brain sort of way.

Ah, you fucking hipster. How is it possible that I both love and hate you...

Not sure what the big deal is

but I've read about this place.

The Gates, gorgeous in its chandelier and marble splendor, was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. There's standard front bar area and a medium sized room in the back that's lined with banquets and tables for those who love bottle service.


A friend and I were there Sunday night for an "exclusive afterparty." It was so exclusive, that it was mostly dead even by Sunday night party that start at 10pm standards. But, it was open bar, which is the real reason to show up anywhere, especially a place that is calling itself a super luxury restaurant/bar:

On May 8, Danny Kane and Rod Surut (Naked Lunch, Gemini Lounge) will reopen one of the city’s truly lavish spaces, the former Biltmore Room (the marble walls alone have been valued at $2.4 million) as a “super luxury restaurant/bar,” the Gates. Promotional director Redd Stylez (Home, Guest House, Cain) is overseeing an “ambassador” program that awards keys (the lockets double as pens or bracelets and don’t actually open the front gates, which used to belong to the Biltmore Hotel in midtown) to 125 members of the “New York City elite.”

Um, seriously? What the heck is "super luxury"? Who is New York City elite?

Give me a break.

My favorite part of the announcement isn't so much the Gates as much as this reaction:
...each member will receive a gold enema necklace that can actually inform the doorman that the person coming his way is the king of all douche bags... give me a freaking break. To be seen in the next season of the Real Housewives of Jersey City.
By onestopnyc on 04/21/2009 at 7:26pm

Agreed!