I hate you too, bike thief

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deryid/3835365190/

So cute, I might puke.

http://gawker.com/5270201/pixar-search-no-further-for-your-next-adorable-character

What I've been doing the last two weeks

I've spent the last two weeks hiking, camping and attempting to surf on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica with the Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound School (CRROBS). I did a similar trip with CRROBS last winter and had a blast, so I decided to take advantage of my current situation and return while I'm still on the east coast.

Unbeknownst to me, I would spend the next two weeks with mostly boys between the ages of 14-18 who, once they believed I wasn't 16, took to calling me Momma because I was "old enough to be their mom."

We hiked Santa Rosa National Park, and camped and surfed at Witches' Rock and Avellanas. While I probably would not choose to re-visit Costa Rica with this particular group again, I had a fun and interesting experience nonetheless. A fun, funny, frustrating, exhilarating, exasperating, disastrous, fortuitous, infuriating, annoying and amusing all at the same time experience. I'm glad I went.

Enjoy the pictures.

I'm all for green

but this might be a tad too crunchy for me.

http://nymag.com/guides/summer/2009/57478/

The girls have a room, used mostly for playing (they don’t have homework), but everyone sleeps in the family bed, a king mattress plus a twin pushed together. “The girls love it,” Chew says, “and I’ve gotten used to sleeping with a foot in my face. If Blake and I need privacy, there are plenty of other places in the house.”

I do love this concept though: http://nymag.com/guides/summer/2009/57477/

“There are 1,000 worms in here,” Annie Novak says, cracking the lid on a box filled with scraps of newspaper and small squirmy things. The earthworms are about to be relocated to the soil spread across this warehouse roof 50 feet above the Greenpoint sidewalk, where, Novak hopes, they’ll get to work aerating the soil. Urban gardens are nothing new, but the scale, location, and imagination of Rooftop Farms—the name of this project—is stunning.

Brigantine, NJ

P, Manchmod and I went to Brigantine, NJ for the weekend. It's a very beautiful island, despite some of the hilariously ostentatious homes and the neon casinos in the background. NJ can be a beautiful state. For more pictures, go here.

I wish I could paint like this

AL and I went and checked out the work of Valeri Larko one weekend in late April. She does small size studies first, and then large scale paintings. The industrial subject captured in paint is a nice juxtoposition. She told us it takes her months to finish a painting. I don't know how she does it -- it's a study in perserverance.

This is what happens when you hang out with sheep

Longboarding in NYC

So Uptown Skate School is running a coupon special for skateboard (longboard, mind you) lessons. I've signed M and me up for a lesson, although I'm nervous.

I took skateboarding lessons at Chelsea Piers one summer with the hare-brained idea that I would be this super cool badass chick doing crazy ollies and other stuff (that I wouldn't know about, since I know nothing about skateboarding). I was 27, and everyone else was 8.

It's funny how fantasies exist purely in one's head for a reason, as my mental imagery of my skateboarding prowess came nowhere close to reality. At least not in this universe. I am deathly terrified of heights. When my instructor put me at the top of a mini-half pipe, I promptly decided skateboarding was not for me. I gave him back his board and went home.

yeah, them jews are keeping me from obama too...

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1615917,w-wright-obama-jews-061009.article

Happy 3* Birthday, R!

VDM is beyond tacky

KB and I caught up over dinner at Via Dei Mille (VDM). The place is marketing itself as Soho's version of Cipriani, but it's got a long way to go before it can come close.

The service needed serious help and training. We arrived to a raucous happy hour event at the front of the restaurant. Our hostess didn't realize we had a dinner reservation and almost wouldn't let us in. Once we were seated, we were asked by the wait staff to move to two different tables. We eventually ended up at a table next to the bathroom. Our server took so long to check in on us between courses, we often wondered if he had forgotten about us.

The food was mediocre at best. Our server recommended the meatballs to start because they were one of the more popular dishes on the menu. After tasting the dry underseasoned hunks of meat, I didn't want to imagine what the other starters were like. I cleaned my plate anyway. Mostly because our server took a long time to return to our table, but also because I was worried that my entree was going to be worse. My Dover Sole entree wasn't that bad. It wasn't great either, and at a $28, I would have expected the sole to taste less fishy and the tomatoes to taste less canned, but I was happy to take what I could get.

Finally, the clientele came nowhere close to the sceney trendsters and socialites at Cipriani's. I didn't realize that it was possible to be even more obnoxious than euro-trash B&T, but the orange-tinted women next to us that compulsively took flash pictures of themselves every 2 seconds or so proved me wrong. They wore acid-washed cutoff jean shorts (newsflash: 80s clothes were ugly, which is why people in the 80s stopped wearing them once they reached the 90s), and one girl's shorts were so short, KB asked me several times if she was wearing pants (upon closer observation, we realized she was). KB and I were grossly engrossed, not because we wanted to be, but because the flash going off in our eyes every 2 seconds or so forced us to participate. We were further fascinated and horrified when a meathead stallion and a S&M outfitted bleach-blond walked into one of VDM's single serving bathrooms together and then reappeared 15 minutes later. Eew.

As we left, one of the proprietors apologized for making us move several times (which we appreciate). He then NAME DROPPED (can you believe it?!) and explained that they had to reorganize the tables because Rihanna's party was running late. We doubt Rihanna would actually go there. Unless they paid her.

If I were a betting gal, I'd say VDM won't last long unless it makes some drastic changes. It's a good thing I'm not a betting gal!

Love the clever riffs

in Jonathan Monk's new exhibit, Rabbit Redux, which is at Casey Kaplan until June 20.

LEGO appeals to the hipster nerd in all of us

as it rolls out Frank Lloyd Wright Collection® LEGO Architecture sets... Among them are the Guggenheim (shown below) and Fallingwater.

I love mascots

I know that's weird, but I'm a little obsessed with them. Not in a creepy fetishist way, but because mascots usually involve the anthropomorphization of animals. Animals don't have human characteristics! That'd be CRAZY! (Except for the animals on the Brian Fellows show, that is.)

RIP Dr Tiller

RIP George Tiller. Thank you for your bravery and dedication.

You were a pillar in your community and were mercilessly gunned down while entering your church, a place a sanctuary, love and worship.

Thank you for being a courageous man who stood by your convictions despite death threats, bomb attacks and a previous shooting. After being shot in both arms during the 90's, you still showed up to work the next day all because you understood that the ability for a woman to choose to have a child was essential to her ability to be free.

The Tiller Murder And Its Ramifications - CBS News

Sperm facial, anyone?

A few years ago, I wrote about a disastrous date with Mr. if-you-market-it-properly-people-will-buy-anything-even-beer-named-cum. Well, I guess he was right. Sort of.

According to this blurb in NYMag:
Spermine, a powerful anti-oxidant originally discovered in, yes, human sperm, is said to diminish wrinkles and smooth the skin. The substance is now being synthesized in laboratories and sold by a Norwegian company called (seriously) Bioforskning. Spermine facials (really) cost $250 at Townhouse Spa, where the substance is penetrated with ultrasound and infrared light (a more basic treatment can be found for $125 at the nearby Graceful Services). Also available at Townhouse for $175: snail-secretion facials.

Here's the link to the company that produces and sells the stuff: http://www.skinscience-spermine.com/english/index.html

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.