Sweet Blog o' Mine

That Boy . . .

just can't keep a secret.  I was on the subway today, peering over someone's shoulder at the cover of Details magazine, where my boy Jake Gyllenhaal is peering at me.  On the cover of the magazine it says something like "Jake Gyllenhaal, trying to deny that he's in love."  Isn't that just the cutest thing?  We've tried so hard to keep it under wraps, but you heard it here first, folks.  Jake and I are in love.  No matter that he's 10 years my junior.  "It's like an Ashton/Demi thing," says Jake.  He's so wise for his age.  Sigh.

Ah yes, back to reality.  Now, where was I?  Thanksgiving. 

Well, although Jake and I are, in reality, not all schmoopy in love, I do in fact have many other things for which to be thankful this year:  easy Thanksgiving Eve travel (despite last minute changes in plans), waking up to snow flurries on Thanksgiving day, two kinds of cranberry sauce, pumpkin cheesecake, reuniting with long-lost camp friends, family trips to the gym, lobster rolls with lots of butter (and no mayo), barbecue, Lucy, turkey hash, dim sum, naps, Rent, and a homemade turkey pot pie in the freezer.  Thanks to all for a great weekend.

Where Does the Time Go?

You know it's bad when your own sister is insulting the lameness of your blog posts (sorry, Katie, but I really was excited about the new sneaks!).  What I've learned is that there's no way to work out, write for Gothamist, and write here all before work, and unfortunately, this tends to come last.  And when I'm working out in the morning, I go to bed earlier.  It's a never-ending cycle. 

Last weekend, thanks to a hot tip from Tien, Rob and I headed out to Flushing to eat soup dumplings from Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese restaurant that set up shop for a few weekends here in New York.  Some say their soup dumplings are the world's best, and I certainly won't argue.  Not only were they beautiful, but they were delicate and light, and absolutely delicious.  After dumplings we walked around Flushing to check out the rest of the neighborhood.  All I can say is go take a field trip to the end of the 7 train because there is so much good food out there -- Chinese bakeries, hand-pulled ramen noodles, Chinese and Latin roasted chickens, Indian and Asian markets (where I saw these "tacos"), kabobs -- an overwhelming selection.  And you can even walk some of it off at the Queens Botanical Garden, which is right nearby.

In theory, I'm heading up to Maine tomorrow morning, but the weather reports (sleet, snow) have gotten the family in a panic.  We'll see how it goes.  Wish me luck and have a great Thanksgiving!

What Am I Doing Wrong? Using GMail

Those of you who have GMail may be familiar with the "Sponsored Links" section of the page, where Google thoughtfully selects advertising links related to the content of your email.  I had emailed Rob last week to ask him about a date he went on.  The subject line of the email was "date."  Google, in its infinite wisdom, selected the following links for my perusal:

Keep Your Mr. Right
Free Report - 10 Mistakes Women Make That Scare Away Mr.Right
www.CatchHimAndKeepHim.com

When it comes to Men
have you ever asked yourself - What Am I Doing Wrong?
www.relationshipheadquarters.com

I haven't yet checked out these links, but damn, Google, way to play into everyone's worst dating fears.  Nice. 

 

Happiness Is . . .

New sneakers.

You Know You're Too Busy When

You have to get up early, not to work out, not to write, but to clean your apartment because it's the only free time you've had to do so all week and your dad's coming.  Gotta love vacuuming at 8 a.m.

You haven't written anything decent on your blog in ages  (and I don't have time now, either, but I've got a few good posts up my sleeve.  I promise I'll get to some of them soon).

And on an unrelated note, I'm very excited about three little words tomorrow morning: Din Tai Fung.

By the Way

I forgot to mention one thing about this weekend.  At the beginning of the summer, I decided to get my hair highlighted.  I had done it once before, about five years ago, and figured since I'd be spending so much time at the beach, it might be a fun thing to do.  I didn't really like it all that much.  But, I figured I'd ride it out through the summer and put it back to its natural color in the fall.  This past Saturday was the day I decided to do that.  Let's just say that I had a bit of a run in with the box of Clairol -- it's not quite the shade I was going for -- it would have been great with my goth look, though.  All I can do now is be patient and hope that it fades a little.  It's funny -- people aren't quite sure what's different.  I had two people at work yesterday ask me if I had gotten a haircut.  I'll try to get a picture up here at some point.

The Weekend Wrapup

After the Vendys and a whirlwind of a week, I stayed in Friday night.  I must have been exhausted because I slept for 12 hours.  Saturday I went to the gym, visited the Dosa cart, then headed up to Westchester to spend the afternoon with a group of my high school friends and their kids.  It's quite overwhelming as the one single, childless person the group, but it was great to see everyone.  The kids I had met before had gotten huge!  I've got to tell you though, there's nothing like spending an afternoon with your friends who are married and/or have kids to make you realize that there's absolutely no rush to get there.  All in due time. 

I came back to the city to spend a mellow night with my cousin Sara, who's a sophomore at Barnard.  We went to see Shopgirl (my advice is to wait for the DVD), then had a late night snack at Village Yokocho.  Every time I go there I remember how much I love it.  Late night yakitori, dumplings, and other Japanese small plate dishes.  Mmmm.  After that, I finally took my friend Brian up on his offer to come over and sing karaoke at his apartment.  Brian, who I met through my work at Gothamist (he represents cookbook authors and was with me the night I was out with the author of The Vodka Cookbook), was recently featured in an article in the NYT real estate section -- he's got a karaoke stage in his apartment.  So Sara and I headed over and sang until the wee hours of the night.  Can't wait until next time.

Today I had a delicious brunch at Augie & Lauren's and had about two minutes to breathe before heading out to Brooklyn for Katie's mom's beer stew.  Stuffed, I spent some time cleaning my apartment tonight, gave myself a quick mani/pedi, and am heading upstairs to give Augie a little blog tutorial.  After that it's a good night's sleep before my last session of boot camp.  Woo hoo!

The Coveted Cup

Not only was the Vendy Awards celebration so much fun, but I spent some time chatting with the AP reporter, who ended up quoting me in an article that's now all over the place.  You can't hear the emphasis ("riDICulous") in the quote, but those of you who know me can surely imagine how I said it.  Apparently there's an NPR piece on Weekend Edition tomorrow, a WNYC piece early next week, and a Food Network piece in January or February.  I'll keep you posted.  Before I head out to Westchester for to see my high school friends and their respective broods (I'm the only single, childless one in the bunch), I'm going to head over to the Dosa Man, one of the finalists, for lunch.  I've been dreaming of his coconut chutney since Thursday night!

Whatcha Doin' Tonight?

If you don't have plans, support the Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center (run by my friend Sean) and taste the wares of some of the city's favorite street food vendors at the Vendy Awards. There will be an open bar of wine and beer, and the finalists will be selling their food (at their usual street-level prices) to guests in attendance. A team of esteemed judges (including yours truly) will determine the winner. After the honors are bestowed, DJ Diallo Internationale will spin world music into the night.$35 tickets available online or at the door. 7-10:30 pm, 27 East 4th Street in Manhattan.

Non Sequiturs

Those of you in the beach house know I've been talking about this all summer -- there should be an alarm clock that wakes you up with the smell of bacon.  Guess what --  my birthday's coming up. 

I was walking home from the subway last night, when I passed by Reservoir.  As I approached, a guy stumbled out and said, "can I ask you something?"  "Sure - quickly." (I wasn't slowing down my pace)  "Can I have your number?"  "No." "I have money," he offered.  "Great," I replied over my shoulder.  I didn't stop to find out how much he would have paid.  Sigh.  At least he got right to the point.

I was asked to be the fire marshall for my floor at work.  Apparently this is a very important position which involves jumping into action when I smell smoke or hear a fire alarm -- my job is to call a few other key people on my floor.  Hopefully I'll have time to do this before the smoke gets too close to my office.  Oh yeah . . . and I get a nifty flashlight.