I am getting some serious karma payback this week. Disaster week (as I like to call it) began on my birthday. I woke up sick as hell and spent the entire day in the bathroom. Seriously, eight hours folks. The Chef took the day off work to watch the boy and I wallowed in vomit and misery. Happy birthday to me.

Saturday rolls around and I feel better, not puking, and able to go to work. I went home and went to sleep. The Chef played mommy again and came home from work early to take care of the boy. What a man I married. Gotta love him!

Sunday morning I awaken fresh and new and excited for my big b-day party at the in laws. Fast forward 8 hours and Catcher is projectile vomiting all over the Chef. Poor baby is so sick, he refuses to leave my arms and then later on that night refuses to leave my bed.

We rise on Monday. Everything seems fine. The boy isn't sick. He's happy and he's headed to grandma's while the Chef and I head to some meetings. Our ten o'clock is running late so we both drive over to the Honda dealership to look at their hybrids. I am driving a work minivan because as of now we are a one car family. As we are leaving the dealership, I back up and hit a brand new 2007 CRV. Yes indeed, I hit a parked car. Of course the damage is minimal to my work van and serious on the Honda. Long story short, the damage done is going to costs about $1600. I filled a claim with my insurance, who then proceeded to go after my father's insurance (his biz is the owner of the car). Needless to say he is not a happy camper.

Hello Tuesday! A brand new day and my hubby, super dad decides that he is going to take the boy to the Great Lakes Science Center while I am at work. Everything seems to be all good. I come home from the mines and we all head up to the fabulous High Point pool to get our swim on. We come home, eat dinner, put the boy to bed, and start to watch the Cavs. It's looking like disaster week may be over but WAIT, it's not. Jon starts violently (seriously) puking. It is so gross. You know, having your baby puke is one thing, but having the man you have sex with puking is another. Especially because I really believe that all MEN are super over exaggerators when they are sick. This theory is based on my dad and my husband. When they are sick it is like the world had ended and they were left alone on this planet to roam forever. So, the Chef continues puking, which in turn cause the boy to wake up. It's now midnight. The Cavs lost, the hubby's sick, and the boy wants milk (which of course we are out of).

Today (Wednesday) I woke up at 6 to find every door in my house wide open and my husband sprawled across the living room floor wrapped in our comforter. I rush to get the boy ready and take him to grandma's so he doesn't get the sickness from daddy. I am now at work, sweating balls, trying not to step on any cracks.

Two more days of this shit and disaster week will be coming to a close. Wish us luck.

This was me on my birthday. No I wasn't hungover. Yes, I never left my bathroom.

Best Barfday EVER!

I would definitely have to say I am way more fulfilled being at home with the boy than I am at work. Now that I am back working part time, I feel like I a missing a part of my sons life. I enjoy being at work, sometimes I need the time away but I can tell you that when my day with Catcher rolls around I am a completely different women.
It is nice to get back into our daily routine even though it has changed drastically since the move. I love that he is so calm at the end of our fun filled day and I love that he chills out right before bed. I adore watching him while he sits in his playroom and reads himself books. I love talking him to the pool and seeing him trying so desperately to swim like the big kids (although I can def say I am not a fan of the 'moms'). These are the moments I am missing out on when I am at work and let me tell you each one counts. Each moment that I miss with him is a moment that I cannot get back. I hope soon things will start to come around and I will be able to stay home with him more than two days a week. Whoa. I can't believe I only have two days with him. Hold back those tears, mamma. There's no crying in baseball.

I have calmed down a bit. Thank god. I am so sick of getting so worked up about bullshit. I think I may also be panicking because Friday is my 28th birthday and that just seems so damn old, you know? I'm sure it doesn't help that my belly is already the size of a watermelon and my thighs seem to have enlarged by many many inches.
In other less grody news, we have finally settled on the building where Gastropub is going to be. It is an absolutely amazing building. It was meant to be home to a gastropub. I told my husband, the chef, that even if everyone walked away from this project right now, I would still want to go for it. That is how perfect the space is. Words cannot even begin to express...

Opening a business can take over your life if you let it. I am a passionate person and when I feel strongly about something it's no joke. I am on the fence about my own personal involvement in the opening of my husband's restaurant. Obviously I feel like my voice is subsided b/c of two things:

1. I don't know anything about the restaurant industry other than the fact that my husband works 80+ hours.
2. I am a girl.

I guess I just feel sidelined sometimes. I feel like my breath is wasted and maybe I should just shut the fuck up and concentrate on my own dreams. I mean I want to be involved but sometimes it seems that everything that has been discussed is so far away from the original idea that the two of us came up with. I wonder if I should just sit back and chill out. Why should I get so f'ng stressed out about shit that hasn't even happened yet? I'll tell you why. Because it's not just the Chef's future, it is also the future of my family. And that is what is most important to me.

Plus I am stubborn and strong willed and most of all, I am always right. About everything. Always.

Am I missing something? Do I not understand music? Am I going to have to actually boycott The Simpsons movie because of this? Please, Please, Please Say it Ain't So!

I can't believe how much time has passed since I last posted. So much has been going on that I have had zero free time. The Chef & I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Manhattan. He was catering the Roxy Paine art exhibit in Madison Square Park. It was an event that he had agreed to cater before he left Parea. It was a fantastic event. It went so smoothly and the food was unbelievable (as always).
The menu consisted of:

Braised Lamb Ribs
Raw Milk Pecorino & Raw Fava Beans
Tuna Spinallo
Spring Filo w/ Wild Ramps
Roasted Littleneck Clams w/ Veal Sausage



I was helping at the food table so I got to meet a bunch of art people, which is always fun for me considered my interest in painting and the arts. I met this crazy guy Steve who looked just like Jack Nicholson, he was a total art socialite and decided that he was going to crash the super exclusive VIP after party. He was a riot.
The art itself was so amazing. The pics don't do the sculptures justice. There were three and they were all so connected but so apart.





After the event, we took all of the Parea people who helped with the event to Barbuto, a favorite of the Chef's. There were 8 of us so we decided to order the tasting menu (4 apps, 4 entrees, 2 desserts). Little did we know what we were in for...





As you can see by the gluttonous pictures above being friends with the Chef is always beneficial.



When we got back to the CLE after a 2 hour delayed flight as well as one botched plane landing, we found that the Chef had some press come out for Gastropub in Cleveland as well as in NYC.

Check it out:

Eater

Cleveland Free Times

Cleveland.com



I am getting so excited and less stressed out about the opening of Gastropub. I think I will use this blog as a diary of the opening. I hope it won't be too boring for some of you. I definitely need some kind of outlet while all this craziness is going on so might as well blog, right?

More to come next week.

Can you tell how bored I am????

I am on my way to work this morning and I turn on the local college radio station. What do I hear? One of my absolute favorite songs ever being butchered by Greenday. Honestly, I hear Working Class Hero, a beautiful, passionate song, being sung (terribly) by none other than Billie Joe Armstrong. When I hear John Lennon sing the song I can't help but be overcome with emotion. I can't help but think of his struggles as a child orphan. I can't help but think of how hard it could have been for him to sit down and actually write Working Class Hero. When I hear Billy Joe Armstrong sing the song, all I can think about is how shitty his eyeliner looks.
I am totally turning into, no, actually I am a music snob. I think there are a few rules that need to be followed by the American Idiots of today.

1. Don't cover The Beatles &/or a Beatle.
2. Please don't think your John Lennon. Just because your producer wrote you some pseudo political punk pop song doesn't mean you are even close to being the artist or the man John Lennon was.
3. Don't forget your roots. Your first album was called Dookie, remember????
4. Last but not least, stop selling out. I hate that term but it fits Greenday so well. Hell isn't it the definition of Greenday?

In closing, I offer you the song Working Class Hero. By the real Working Class Hero, Mr. John Lennon. If you want to hear the Crapday version, look it up yourself on YouTube.

Cheers.

As the ultimate celebration of motherhood approaches, I find myself revelling in the fact that I am actually a mother. It is hard for me to believe that the princess of all things party, the backstage butterfly, the self professed gypsy is actually parenting (a doing a damn fine job if I might say so myself) a spirited two year old boy.
Raised by my father while I smoked weed with my mother, I never aspired to be a mom. I never wanted that. My mother had done some things that completely turned me off of the idea. I think our relationship eventually frightened me into believing that if I ever had a child I would treat him or her the same way she treated me. I could not imagine that.
When I found I was expecting the future love of my life, I was scared and selfish. I was having a blast in NYC. I stayed out all night, I ate for free (thanks, Chef), I hung out with c list celebrities (hi jimmy) and rockstars. I didn't want a baby, hell I didn't even know if I wanted a boyfriend. But when it came down to it, something or someone (gma) encouraged my path to change. The road to motherhood would be my next journey.
After an excruciating 48 hours of labor, I knew I had become a completely different woman. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on my son that my purpose in this life was to be a mother. My life had chad changed in that split second and would never be the same again. I had (and still do) an air of confidence that was almost immediately instilled into my soul. I knew from day one that I was a fabulous mother. That may sound cocky or bold but I knew it as true, in fact I still do. The job description molded me into who I am now. I am a woman. I am a wife. I am a goddess. I am a lover. I am a daughter. I am a sister. I am a mother.
Something inside of me had grown and developed into this instinctual know how. It was like as Catcher grew inside me, the manual of motherhood was memorized into my brain. I felt the part. I wasn't nervous, well maybe a little, but for the most part I knew that I was doing fine. Better than fine.
Today, while Catcher actually naps, I sit and I look back on how I have done as a mother. How do I judge myself? Do I relish in the fact that my son eats vegetables and drinks milk every day, brushes his own teeth and adores Cat Stevens? Should I give myself a pat on the back for this? More often than not, I don't. I skip the celebration of my motherhood because I don't have the time. I am a prego mother of a toddler boy. I don't sit down. I dance. And I love it. I can't wait to do it all over again.

The hubster and I saw the movie 'The Fountain' last night at the big grand opening of the supersize movie theatre in S-ville. We had been wanting to see it ever since it hit the big screen but had never gotten a chance to rent it. It was worth the wait. Directed by Darren Arnofsky (3.14, Requiem for a Dream), The Fountain has to be the most visually appealing movie I have ever seen. It was so trippy that the hubs and I commented on how stoned we felt (we weren't) and how if we actually were high we would be freaking out. It also has to be one of the most heartbreaking movies I have ever seen. The general theme of the movie is rebirth and life which ultimately comes from death. At one point, I thought I might hyperventilate from crying so hard. The Chef even looked like he was on the verge of breaking down. Like all of Darren Arnofsky movies, the soundtrack was beautiful and made me feel like I was in a completely different world. This movie was very very different. If you do not like 'out of the box' thinking you will hate this movie. I loved it.

Happy Birthday Husband!!!!
MDH,
You rock. I love you. Times have been tough recently but I know we will make it through them. I am so proud to call myself your wife. Yaaaay Sawyer!!!
Hope you like your presents....

Love,
Chef's Widow

Monday Night Music Fix: Ladies Night!!!

I am in a serious chick mood. Which means you are too. Here are some lovely ladies I am into right now.



Hello Safe Ride





Amy Winehouse




Lilly Allen

I have always been a dog lover. Never a cat person, always one for Team Dog. Since I adopted Potato near Tompkins Square Park almost three years ago, I have thought of myself as an advocate for the canine especially the bully breeds. This started because when the Chef & I moved back to Ohio the first time we were confronted with fear and ignorance, not only from strangers but also our family and friends. People in Ohio, we found, had a super negative view of pit bull dogs or anything that remotely resembled one. I read about the laws, I started a MySpace group, I sent bulletins. And then we moved back to NYC, the land of the pit bull. The state that fights Bully Breed Discrimination, the state that has laws fight breed specific legislation (something Ohio is known for). All was well again. My activism decreased, my interest subsided. That is until now.
We are back in the suburbs, the land of Hummer's, fake nails, and forgotten beliefs. I know that while we are in this land of ignorance and apathy we must play by the rules, however I guess I wasn't aware of how the rules in this town are bullshit.

Here we go:

Last week, Potato got free. He ran into the neighbors yard and almost got hit by his car while he was backing out of his drive. The Chef got Potato and took him inside. Not a big deal. This particular neighbor has 2 dogs that are constantly in his front yard running free and terrorizing Potato & Vito (who we never let into the front yard). Fast forward an hour. I am outside with the dogs in our 6ft. tall privacy fenced in backyard. I hear a very loud banging on my storm door (I have a doorbell). I answer and it is a very stern Animal Control Officer who tells me that he received a complaint about a pit bull who is CONSTANTLY free in the neighborhood. Bullshit. We have been home three weeks, and Potato got loose ONCE. Long story short, he tells me that my dog is 'VICIOUS' and I need $100,000 liability insurance as well as a 6ft. covered kennel in my already fenced in backyard. I told him that I was under the impression that the UNCONSTITUTIONAL pit bull dog laws had been changed. You see Ohio is the only state in the nation who has a law that says any dog who resembles a pit bull (big head, short hair, stocky body) is vicious. In other states, to be considered a vicious dog, the dog must have had a history of biting, attacking, or menacing someone or something. But not here. This white trash animal control guy informs me that even if the State of Ohio repealed or amended it's bullshit laws, the City of Strongsville overrules state laws. Awesome. So I introduce him to my 'vicious' dog, Potato. Potato licks him.
Now I am pissed. I am pissed that we moved back to this state. I am pissed that everyone is fat and loves GWB. I am pissed that my dog could get killed for no reason other than his looks. I am pissed that people are so ignorant and don't care to change their train of thought, not just about pits but about everything that's going on in the world today. I am pissed that every time someone sees that I am pregnant again they ask me if I am going to name the baby 'Pitcher.'
So what the hell am I going to do about all this anger? Well my friends, I am going to educate and educate some more. I am going to go grassroots for my dog. I am going to recite that poem 'When They Came' everyday and apply those words not just to me but to all dogs discriminated because of other dogs deeds. I am going to start a movement for my dog and all other bully breeds out there being discriminated against on a daily basis. I am going to start local because I know that I am not the only pit owner and other's in this area must be going through what I am going through. As of now I am going to promote my MySpace Group as well as start a Meetup. I encourage anyone and everyone (no matter where live) to join and be active. Write letters. Speak up. After the 'Potato Incident,' I found out that there are some people in the House of Representatives who want this law amended to change the definiton of a 'vicious' dog. I encourage you to write letters to all House members in support of House Bill 189.
You can find House member's contact info HERE. I also encourage you to sign the BAN BSL online petition that I will be sending to the House members before the bill goes up in May. Let your voice be heard!


Also check out these great websites that promote this cause:

Love Does Not Discriminate

Rott-n-Chatter

Dog Politics




PEACE 4 PITBULLS

Fridany Night Film Fix: Wedding Crashers Redux

Thirteen Things That Make My Toddler Pyschotic

1. Not being able to eat cottage cheese for lunch, dinner, and breakfast.
2. Not being able to go outside during a massive thunder and lightening storm.
3. Mommy.
4. Daddy.
5. Vito kisses.
6. Getting the play dough taken away from him when he is smashing it into mommy's new shag rug.
7. Anything.
8. Nothing.
9. Not being allowed to which the national average of 4 hrs of TV a day.
10. Getting bubbles stuck to his fingers.
11. Not being allowed to stick things in his ears (like pink insulation from who the hell knows where?)
12. Putting food on his plate if it doesn't 'belong' there.
13. Stepping in wet grass even though he is the one that took his shoes off in the first place.

So this is the new baby. My scanner is crap. If you live by me the pictures are way better in person and you can totally see the alien boy up close & personal. I can't believe how excited I am! I guess actually seeing my little guy really confirmed that we are having another wonderful bundle of joy and insanity:)

Monday Night Music Fix: Bjork's Wanderlust & Earth's Intruders (SNL)

The background music in Earth's Intruders sounds like a womb recording. I wonder if it is. I wouldn't put it past Bjork to use a womb recording as her bass line.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I like about being back in Ohio

1. My mortgage is half of our NYC rent, neither of us are working so that works out really well.
2. Signing up for a gym membership that costs $300/yr not $300/month.
3. My dad.
4. Our families.
5. My backyard.
6. The library. Yes there are libraries in NYC but they are confusing and a pain in the ass b/c you have to walk and carry lotsa books.
7. I feel really really SKINNY. And I am prego. Lotsa fatties in Ohio. No offense if you are large.
8. Food is so cheap. Organic milk is the price of NYC pesticide infested milk.
9. The Metroparks. It's like Prospect Park & Central Park combined minus the cracked out homeless folks.
10. Pretty soon my Gpa will be up from FLA and I am a big fan of him. He lives in same town and he cracks me up constantly without ever trying.
11. The news. Seriously it is hilarious. It's like watching The National Enquirer, no Wacky World News. Everything is soooooooooooooo fabricated it's funny. New York news was so sad and disheartening. If someone was killed in NYC you wondered how another human could do something, but if someone is killed in Ohio you wonder why it had four eyes and a blue leg.
12. My bizatches. Especially my BFF. I have missed her greatly. She is my rock and boy does she know how to listen to my long winded ass.
13. Papa John's pizza. Haven't had it yet but that garlic butter sauce has been on my mind since we crossed the state line.

Friday Night Film Fest: The Dark Crystal

I was just catching up on some of my favorite blogs when I ran across this post. Memory lane. Ahh I do love thee. In honor of Disney Afternoon Cartoon's I am featuring a Disney film for FNFF. It's no ordinary Disney flick however...scary, sad and dark, no Little Mermaid here.
You can watch the entire film on YouTube if you so desire.

In a faraway world a mighty astronomical event is about to occur,
the Great Conjunction of the planet's Three Suns. At this time, the
cruel Skeksis who rule this world from the castle of the Dark Crystal
are frightened to learn that an ancient prophecy may be coming true:
A survivor of the Gelfling, an elfin race they thought they had
destroyed, is seeking to restore the missing shard of the Dark Crystal
before the moment of the Great Conjunction, thus ending the tyranny of
the Skeksis. Hidden in the valley of the urRu, young Jen the Gelfling
has been raised by a tribe of mystics and knows little of the world
outside, but know his Master's dying words have charged him with his
mission to find the lost shard before it is too late. Traveling
through many strange places and encountering many extraordinary
beings, Jen races against time to unravel the mystery of his quest and
save his world from the forces of evil.

Confess HERE!!!!!!

Thirteen Vonnegut Quotes

1. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber.


2. History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.


3. The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide.


4. One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.


5. I still believe that peace and plenty of happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.


6. The two prime movers in the Universe are Time & Luck


7. Make love when you can. It's good for you.


8. We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap.


9. The insane, on occasion, are not without their charms.


10. Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.


11. Vietnam was an exercise in mistaken idealism; Iraq in cynical money-making. And there's no optimism or idealism now -- Americans are tired of knowledge. Our leaders, the C-students from Yale, know this. We're proud of being ignorant; that leaves virtue at our core. We aren't frazzled by knowledge like foreigners, so we can be trusted.


12. Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?


13. If you find your life tangled up with somebody else's life for no very logical reasons, that person may be a member of your karass.

My absolute favorite author of all time is dead. He inspired me with every word I read. In some way his mind helped form a part of mine.



Requiem by Kurt Vonnegut

When the last living thing

has died on account of us,

how poetical it would be

if Earth could say,

in a voice floating up

perhaps

from the floor

of the Grand Canyon,

“It is done.”

People did not like it here.

To read more go HERE & HERE & HERE.

Mr. V has always been a friend of death. With that said I wish him the best in the other world.

Leaving The Hampton's today and spending the night in Brooklyn with the Chef's cousin and his lady. Sad but excited to get home and actually see my husband. Although that won't be happening until Saturday as he will stay in Manhattan until then. But after that he's mine!

Happy Easter!

I just watched The Neverending Story with the boy and even though I have seen it 2 million and one times, my eyes have been opened to the underlying theme. I wish I had time to do an analysis of the film in comparison what is going on in our politico today. Yes I did take Politics & Film & yes it was my favorite class. How could it not be? Not only did I watch great movies like Strangelove and Clockwork Orange but I also got introduced to many many world war films that I NEVER would have watched ever. Anyways. Off to put jelly beans into plastic eggs and hide them in the scary forest surrounding our vacation house. Goodnight.

PS...What do you think of the name Atreyu?

Friday Film Feature: Grindhouse

This one's not out yet but if the movie was able to breakup the marriage of Rodriguez and his wife of 16 years, not to mention him ditching five kids, all for Rose McGowen you know it's got to be good or at least pretty f'd up.
Plus two movies for the price of one? Hells yeah. Now I won't feel so bad paying $16/ticket.


Grindhouse is a 2007 film. In the United States, the film is presented as a double feature of two full-length segments, one being a zombie film, Planet Terror, written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, and the other being a slasher film, Death Proof, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, with faux trailers advertising fictional films preceding each segment. In much of the rest of the world, the film will be split in two and each feature will be released separately.

The idea for Grindhouse came to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino when Tarantino would set up screenings of double features, complete with trailers preceding and between the films. "[Tarantino] would have some trailers and a movie, and then some more trailers and a second movie," remembers Rodriguez. "I thought, 'We have to re-create this experience for people and show them a double feature like this.' The double feature just came to mind [from] us wanting to re-create that experience."
The film's name originates from the American term for theaters that would play "all the exploitation genres: kung fu, horror, Italian horror—also known as giallo—sexploitation, the "good old boy" redneck car-chase movies, blaxploitation, spaghetti Westerns—all those risible genres that were released in the 70s." According to Rodriguez, "The posters were much better than the movies, but we're actually making something that lives up to the posters."
Rodriguez first came up with the idea for Planet Terror during the production of The Faculty. "I remember telling Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett, all these young actors, that zombie movies were dead and hadn't been around in a while, but that I thought they were going to come back in a big way because they’d been gone for so long," recalls Rodriguez. "I said, 'We've got to be there first.' I had [a script] I’d started writing. It was about 30 pages, and I said to them, 'There are characters for all of you to play.' We got all excited about it, and then I didn't know where to go with it. The introduction was about as far as I'd gotten, and then I got onto other movies. Sure enough, the zombie [movie] invasion happened and they all came back again, and I was like, 'Ah, I knew that I should've made my zombie film.'" The story was reapproached when Tarantino and Rodriguez developed the idea for Grindhouse.
During the time Planet Terror began to come together, Tarantino developed the story of Death Proof. Tarantino was fascinated by the way stuntmen would "death-proof" their cars so they can be driven headfirst into a brick wall at 60 mph and still protect the driver—as long as he's in the driver's seat. This inspired Tarantino to create a slasher film featuring a deranged stuntman who stalks and murders sexy young women with his "death-proof" car. Tarantino remembers, "I realized I couldn't do a straight slasher film, because with the exception of women-in-prison films, there is no other genre quite as rigid. And if you break that up, you aren't really doing it anymore. It's inorganic, so I realized—let me take the structure of a slasher film and just do what I do. My version is going to be fucked up and disjointed, but it seemingly uses the structure of a slasher film, hopefully against you."
According to Rodriguez, "[Tarantino] had an idea and a complete vision for it right away when he first talked about it. He started to tell me the story and said, 'It's got this death-proof car in it.' I said, 'You have to call it Death Proof.' I helped title the movie, but that's it."
I don't think there have been any good car chases since I started making films in '92—to me, the last terrific car chase was in Terminator 2. And Final Destination 2 had a magnificent car action piece. In between that, not a lot. Every time a stunt happens, there's twelve cameras and they use every angle for Avid editing, but I don't feel it in my stomach. It's just action."


Check out Grindhouse.

Thursday Thirteen

13 Things I miss about NYC/Brooklyn

1. The way people dress. Apparently the Ohio 'uniform' consists of a striped polo shirt and khaki's no matter what sex you are.
2. Nannies yelling at kids. In NYC the nannies are the assholes to the kids. They were the ones who would yell or be inappropriate towards the kids in public. It was very sad but kind of expected. Not in Ohio, first off no one has nannies. Second, it is the mom screaming at her kids in a public library. Very impressive.
3. The pedestrian lifestyle. I have been back in Ohio and have barely made it to the curb to take the garbage out. So depressing. How am I going to get my daily dose of low impact cardio? Plus gas is ridiculous. I never realized how little money we spent on gas in NYC. We probably filled our tank 5 times in a year.
4. Target. I know, I know. There is Target in Cleveland. But it's not the same. Target in Brooklyn was hard core. The lines were long. The people were mean. The walk back (10 blocks) was tough especially loaded with a stroller, a child, and 10 filled bags barely hanging onto the stroller. But it was an adventure. A day at Target was like a day hiking in the Rocky Mountains.
5. Franny's. The best pizza on the planet.
6. Fresh Direct grocery delivery service. Check out the website if you've never been.
7. Brunch. Not that I can really enjoy the finer aspects (bloody mary) of brunch anymore. But still it's nice knowing that the option for a great Sunday meal is available. The only Brunch in Ohio is at Ponderosa.
8. The boy's Gymboree class. Silly isn't it? I never made one friend (besides the teacher) yet I miss it. It was so much fun watching him be crazy around all the stuffy parents and their uber cool kids.
9. Taking the boy to the garden at The Brooklyn Music Conservatory. Even in the dead of winter he would run up to the frozen fish pond and demand to know where the 'ishies' were.
10. My friend Meredith.
11. The Chef's days off. We always did something together as a family. Granted the Chef is still working in NYC (we are in The Hampton's as I type this) and we haven't really settled. I am sure that when we do, we will still have our family days.
12. Oshimi lunch special. 1 California Roll. 1 Spicy Tuna Roll. 1 Brooklyn Roll. 1 Miso Soup. 2 Pork Dumplings. Edamame. $7.95!
13. Riding my bike with the boy in Prospect Park. Although I only did this a handful of times I really loved it. We made it around the entire park and would stop and see the crazy geese. So much fun and the boy adored it. Even now if we walk past a bike he starts screaming 'mike, mike' and throws a massive tantrum.



Stay tuned for next week's TT..."13 Things I don't miss about NYC/Brooklyn"

I still haven't gotten settled enough to really sit down and actually write a post. We are still in NYC-Ohio limbo and we head back to The Hampton's on Thursday for Easter. Not excited about another drive to and from the Big A. Hopefully the boy will be cool and handle the 7 hour drive like a pro. Yeah right. Not saying that he is going to be a monster but let's just say that my little angel has been testing the waters of the terrible two's lately...

Monday Night Music Fix: Bowie. Labyrinth. Awesome.