Courtesy of Gaping Void

I am realizing very quickly that, given the amount of time I am dedicating to it, my eight-week Apartment Therapy project will end up taking more like 12-16 weeks. Sure, I'm clipping things for my style tray and have made some minor progress, but I am not slowing down my life enough to give it the time it deserves.  Sigh.  I'm supposed to be in week three, but I haven't completed all of the tasks set out in weeks one and two.  I have been buying flowers and am having another Sunday night dinner, and am starting to think about colors for paint, which is freaking me out a bit.  Well -- the "housewarming" I'm supposed to have at the end of the process may end up being a holiday party of some sort, which could be fun.  And speaking of not slowing down, tomorrow's agenda includes: Team Joe run, brunch w/Erika, Stone Street Oysterfest, and the Vendy's.  No, I'm not a judge this year.

Heading to DC today for a luncheon, then turning around and heading home.  Good times.

I'm getting quite the collection of bridge pictures from my bike rides.  Unfortunately, this bike ride was cut short due to rain on Saturday, but Lauren, Tara, Neil and I still managed to make the most of it.  My bike is now taking a brief vacation across the river in Williamsburg until I can grab it next weekend (thanks, Lauren!).  Saturday night I went to my first show at McCarren Pool -- quite a cool music venue -- to see the Chemical Brothers.  Definitely more on the electronic side than I'm used to but I really enjoyed the show overall.  I took some video of the crazy light/visual stuff that was going on -- have to figure out how to post it.  Still recovering from my brief bout with the plague -- feeling much better but have a bit of a cough still.  Due to sickness and general business, I am woefully behind on my Apartment Therapy, but still managed to have a few folks over for dinner on Sunday night (which is going to be a habit, hopefully), buy some flowers, clean out the kitchen "junk" drawer, get rid of a few books, and purge both the clothes on the rods in my closet and some of the shoes.  I'll pick a date for my "housewarming" as well -- at this rate it will likely be an early holiday party of some sort.  Have a busy week ahead . . .

I hope -- got slammed with a touch of the plague and stayed home from work yesterday, armed with the usual weapons.  Am headed in to the office today, but am picking up some tissues with lotion on the way to work.

. . . that I saw on the elevator screen at work today (although I have seen it elsewhere before).  "True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked." -- Erich Segal

You'd better believe it.

I have lived in the same apartment for six years.  During that time, every time I have a friend over who hasn't visited previously, they generally wander around the hallway for a while when they get off the elevator before they find my apartment.  Last week, much to my excitement, I arrived home from work to find small directional signs installed in the hallway of my floor.  I imagine that'll save my guests some wandering time in the future.

I had what might have been the absolute laziest weekend at the beach this weekend.  First, Friday night, I had a hot date with my couch and the latest Netflix arrival -- Mulholland Drive (which was good, but wacked).  I got up earlyish Saturday morning to head out to the beach, despite the lack of beach weather.  Other than a 4+ mile run on Sunday, my time at the beach was spent reading, lounging, eating, and sunning some of my less tan areas.  And believe it or not, this is the only picture I took all weekend, on the ferry ride home.

So this morning I'm lying in bed doing my usual repetitive snooze disorder thing while listening to WNYC.  In my fog, I hear a story about rappers Kanye West and 50 Cent, who apparently had some sort of bet going about the sales numbers for their newest releases.  During the course of the story, Steve Inskeep referred to "Mr. Cent," and Renée Montagne started cracking up.  I think it's the first time in all my years of NPR listening that I've ever heard them do that -- but it made me giggle enough to heave myself out of bed with a smile on my face.

Labor Day may be gone, but I'm still not done with the beach.  Not only did I stay out for the gorgeous weekend, but I stuck around to take advantage of the midweek night I had left.  Although the weather didn't cooperate, we made the most of it with a long walk (perfect for photos) and some extreme swimming -- despite frolicking in the roughest waves I had encountered all summer, I didn't get my bathing suit knocked off at all (bonus points if you can figure that one out).  I had a bit of an extreme run on Friday night as well -- we got a bit of a late start so ended up doing the return trip from Robert Moses in the dark.  I'm stunned I didn't twist my ankle on the sand path between the lighthouse and Kismet. 

This weekend brought some major eating in addition to the extreme sports -- a Lebanese/Middle Eastern feast on Friday night including some lamb tartare prepared by Rachel and her fantastic guest crew, and a multi-course dinner from Iron Chef Joe, featuring a spicy watermelon ceviche, corn flan with a charred corn and strawberry salad, figs Rockefeller with chorizo, grilled soy ginger hangar steak with stuffed tomatoes and edamame salad (with goat cheese -- that I liked and willingly ate!).  There were also biscuits with sausage gravy, and some excellent repurposing of leftovers with Frank's lamb ragu pasta for dinner on Sunday night, and another multi-course extravaganza on Monday night courtesy of the Laren/Frank MacGyver squad.  Seriously -- corn flan topped with lamb sliders and red wine sauce?  Superb.  And I somehow managed not to ingest a single piece of bacon until this morning, when I just couldn't help myself.  The pictures from the weekend are here.  And now back to that boxing I was discussing.

As you may already know, I finished a triathlon a few weeks back.  I told a friend what I had gotten myself as a reward for accomplishing this goal -- a pair of boxing gloves.  He looked at me as if I were insane.  "What?! Boxing gloves?! Most people would go straight for the Haagen Dazs."  Well, sure, I worked out a bit less and ate a bit more the week after the race, but have been pretty much back to business since.  Part of my new routine is going to be a Monday night boxing class -- the one that kicked my ass all over the place when I took it a while back.  There's a Tuesday night kickboxing class as a scheduling backup and I've been incorporating some boxing into my personal training sessions as well.  Why the boxing?  Well, it is an excellent cardio workout, not to mention an amazing stress-reliever.  Having a crappy day?  Go to a boxing class and punch the hell out of a punching bag -- I guarantee you will walk away feeling better, although possibly a bit sore.

Off to the beach for the weekend -- who says summer's over?