Yes, I'm finally posting.  I got my apartment painted this spring and I also finally started to hang a few things on the wall, including this sign for the kitchen, which goes perfectly with my red side walls.  It's also doing a semi-decent job of concealing the outlet that is stupidly placed in the middle of the back wall.  Who puts an outlet there!?

Light posting means that I'm over-busy, which I am.  Work is bustling as it's new associate season, and I've been a busy bee on the social front as well.  This week is Rosh Hashana, followed by Yom Kippur next week.  I'm going to use this time to slow down a bit, focus, and do a little work on my apartment, purging some of my "stuff."  And I'm going to temple this year.  So there.

I know, I know.  Haven't posted in forever.  First, let me put up the recipes from the last beach weekend (because everything was delicious).  We started with peppered pears with blue cheese and fried sage, moved on to crab cakes with a chipotle remoulade, spice rubbed skirt steak served with roasted sweet potatoes, grilled corn with chipotle lime garlic butter, and arugula salad, and finished off with the Magnolia bakery's recipe yellow cake with chocolate buttercream.  Everything turned out well -- particularly the steak and the crab cakes.  I barely took any pictures that weekend, but will post them soon. 

Since then, I've just been running around a lot.  Will recap and post pictures soon!

Sorry for the light posting -- busy week.  Dinner turned out great this weekend (will post recipes), and had a great time at the Bon Appetit awards on Monday night.  Last night was Peruvian food and tonight is the Swell Season at Rumsey Playfield.  Details later!

Am off to the beach for my final sharehouse weekend.  Although I'm not sure the weather will cooperate, I know it'll be fun regardless.  Plus the food should be pretty damn good, as usual! Tonight is lamb tartare and an amazing Lebanese spread, and tomorrow I'm helping a novice group cook make crab cakes, pears with blue cheese and fried sage, spiced skirt steaks, grilled corn with chipotle lime butter, roasted sweet potatoes and an arugula salad.  We're topping that off with a special birthday cake for yesterday's birthday girl.  And when I return, let fall commence.

* Oh Elvis, I love you so . . .

"The day the world changed."

I started to write about my morning, then trailed off.  I couldn't do it.  The entry is still merely a few sentences that don't go anywhere.  Once I got there, I spent the entire day in my office, listening to the radio, getting in touch with friends and family, crying, feeling like the safety I had always taken for granted was gone.  When I finally decided to leave, and I turned down 6th Avenue, I was struck by the absence of the towers, now reduced to smoke.  When I got to 5th Avenue, and saw the familiar arch in Washington Square Park, no longer with the towers peeking behind them, I started to cry again.  The drastic change in the familiar view hit me hard in that moment; I knew then that the world had indeed changed.

Like the rest of the world, I grieved.  I thought about all the lives lost.  I worried about my friends who worked nearby who weren't yet accounted for.  I sat for days, glued to the television.  Then I joined the legal community and got to work, and started to heal.  To this day, it is still the work of which I am the most proud.  I still notice the view.

No time for commentary at the moment, although I've got plenty to say.

The updated singles map (things start to really suck in NYC after I hit 39, apparently); here's the old one for your reference.

The "Guyland" phenomenon and where it leaves women.

As some of you know, I am participating in a CSA this summer, which means that every week I pick up a hearty batch of produce (and sometimes cheese and eggs) from Norwich Meadows Farm.  Generally, this has been great -- I've been eating fruits and veggies galore and I've been cooking more often.  My one problem has been the apricots and plums -- I get so many that I can't go through them fast enough.  Last week, I had amassed a ridiculous number of plums, so I decided it was time to make something out of them, rather than trying to eat five plums a day just to keep up.  I ended up making this Plum Torte, which was simple and delicious*.  Of course I ended up bringing about 2/3rds of it into the office so I wouldn't have it lying around the house . . .

*I'm no Smitten Kitchen with the photos, but I try.

My friends Michelle and John welcomed their first daughter into the world early this morning.  Yesterday morning, both of them started using Facebook's status updates to let their friends and family know how things were progressing.  All day and night, I'd check in to see the current situation -- at the hospital, then back home, then back to the hospital.  There were photos of Michelle looking quite uncomfortable, sitting in a wheelchair, then a few hours later, John updated that Michelle was "on the dope" so they were both doing much better.  When I went to bed, the word was that the little one would be showing up at about 3 a.m., but I woke to find things still in progress.  At about 7:15, John posted a new status update:  "John is looking at his daughter for the very first time."  A few moments later, a name appeared, and pictures were up shortly thereafter.  Congrats to John and Michelle -- and thank you for taking the time to keep us all up to date -- it was a pleasure to be part of it all in some little way!  And hello to Gabriella Rose -- your parents are pretty damn cool.  Let's hope you dance like your momma and cook like your daddy!

Getting a little jump start on the fall cure (although I have no idea when it starts) with some major home improvement purchases.  Thanks to a sale at the Container Store and a re-design of my original home office plan, I spent less than expected on my soon-to-be-delivered, space-saving, wall-mounted desk and shelving.  I spend the leftovers on two other big updates/upgrades/space-savers -- a flat-screen TV and an iPod dock speaker system.  The only other purchase to complete my media upgrade is a proper iPod.  I am still using the first-generation iPod I got as a (very thoughtful) gift many years ago -- it's only a 4 gig.  80 gig, here I come!

These purchases will go a long way in helping move my apartment redecorating/updating forward.  Once they arrive I'll be able to sell my old desk and TV, buy a cozy reading chair for the bedroom, and perhaps re-arrange the living room.  Once things are more in place I can re-hang art, shelves, etc. and the place might finally feel like a cozy home again.  It has been in flux too long and I feel it draining me -- looking forward to doing some nesting in the cooler weather.

That said, I've been fully enjoying my Labor Day weekend, with parties and barbecues galore.  Today mght involve a trip to the beach . . .