So clever

I stumbled across this blog today - ikea hacker. It's a site where people send in the ways in which they have improved or found unusual uses for IKEA products. It's everything from decorating drawers to using cushion fabrics to make skirts. As the owner of many an IKEA product, I appreciate these ideas and only wish I had more time and work space to try more of these out myself.

Thanks for the laughs

Today I clicked on Kat's blog and saw the sad, sad news that Harvey Korman passed away today. I imagine he's already got the angels in stitches. I am just barely old enough to remember watching the Carol Burnett show and the mere thought of him on that show makes a laugh start to rise in my throat. We'll miss you, Harvey.

"I pee"

"I pee" goes down in the non-existent baby book as Theo's first sentence. I don't think he actually knows the pronoun "I" and I'm pretty certain he doesn't know how to use it correctly in a sentence and yet, I'm pretty sure that's what he said and he had, in fact, peed.

Just after bath and pre-jammies he was running around naked. Rich was cleaning up the tub, I was getting his pajamas out of his dresser and Theo came into his room and said to me "I pee."
I said, "You peed?"
"Uh huh."
"Can you show me where?"
I followed him to the doorway between the bathroom and our bedroom where he points. At first I didn't see anything so I thought he was just saying that since he had been sitting on his potty earlier that day or maybe he said something completely different like "apple" or "airplane" both of which sound like "ah pee" when he says them. But then I tilted my head to change the angle of the light on the floor and sure enough, there was a little puddle. I was actually nothing but proud and amazed at my little boy at that moment.

Am I missing something?

For the third time in as many days I have seen a woman walking down the street wearing a tiara. Is this some new fashion trend I have missed hearing about? They have been three very different women: one Asian, two white and spanning in age from their 20s to their 40s and none of whom looked like they had just stepped out of the pages of Vogue or anything. It's very bizarre.

One good thing about winter: it hides some of the worst fashion crimes out there. With the on-set of summer weather New Yorkers are revealing their true colors and sometimes that means revealing a little too much. I'm no badge-flashing fashion policeman and Lord knows I'm sure I make my own mistakes, but I think mine tend more toward the less figure-flattering variety rather than the figure-flaunting. I'm all for celebrating all body types and all, but some figures should not be flaunted. Others can be flaunted but maybe not in black fishnets, knee high boots and denim shorts that are basically underwear (true story).

Maybe it's not me

I think there is something wrong with my oven. How hard is it to screw up chocolate chip cookies from the recipe on the back of a bag of chocolate chips? I think it must be pretty hard but I seem to have figured out a way. That's why I'm thinking it's my oven's fault. Maybe I have an oven demon that eats all the goodness out of food. What would you make of that Joss Whedon? Buffy never slayed a kitchen demon, unless you count Ted, who did make excellent chocolate chip cookies...

Vomit comet - update

So, it turns out something went wrong on the ground and this guy's $200,000 dollar helium balloon floated away without him. Here's the story. While I personally would never, ever want to do what he is planning, I'm disappointed for him. I can't imagine coming so far and then watching your dream literally float away from you before your very eyes.

Same old song

Tonight I was watching a little bit of a Top Chef rerun and I cracked myself up when I pictured myself on that show. I can get so ambitious in the kitchen and usually my meals turn out mediocre at best. In general I've been a bit more lucky with baking but tonight I tried to make these homemade granola bar thingies for Theo and they are a complete disaster. I basically just made granola with a bunch of stuff in it. Sigh. Once again, I put out my appeal to the universe: send me a personal chef!

Vomit comet

Um, this story in the New York Times makes me want to lose my lunch. I don't think I can begin to get into the mindframe of someone who thinks this is a good idea.

Michael, Michael Motorcycle

Mike and Jackie came to town this weekend and over dinner last night Mike said, "I read your blog the other day. I'm not mentioned at all." He said it as a joke, of course, but here, Mikey, is my homage to you:

Mike and I became friends our sophomore year in high school. This coincided with the year Mike's star was on the rise, so to speak. He wasn't yet THE hottest boy in school because A.G. was a senior and definitely held that title, but Mike was a close contender. I'm not sure what happened that year, but there was a strong coalescence of friends and the group of us became inseparable for the next year or so until the parents of one person in our little family decided most of us weren't fit to be friends with their daughter.

I was certainly not immune to Mike's long dark hair, "fuck-me" eyelashes (as Kurt used to call them), good taste in music and odd sense of humor. Somehow - I'm still not sure how I finagled this - I convinced Mike he needed to drive me to school. I have an October birthday so while all my friends were turning 16 and learning to drive in 10th grade, I had to wait until 11th grade before I could drive myself anywhere. Anyway, because Mike and I were friends I didn't think much of the fact that I got to drive to school and back with him every single day. I'm sure lots of girls envied me. Sure, I thought he was cute and all that, but he also starting dating one of my very good friends so instead of crushing out on him like I did most other cute boys, he simply became a very, very close friend.

Mike also had an older sister who had even older friends (i.e., able to purchase booze) making his house a great party house. His parents regularly left town and he had a pool. Need I say more? I learned how to play a lot of drinking games at Mike's house. *(Um, I've heard that Mike's mom sometimes reads this blog so if you're reading this Marilyn, I hope this isn't new news to you and if it is, that we're all old enough now that you can laugh at it).

Mike also had an annoying dachsund named Pepper that no one except Mike's mother liked. When she died none of us were particularly sad about it. (Again, sorry Marilyn)

Mike drove the Golden Nugget. No idea what kind of car it really was. It was a stick shift, it smelled like cigarette smoke and we used to listen to Smashing Pumpkins (Gish), Jane's Addiction (all of it), Red Hot Chili Peppers (pre-"Under the Bridge"), Soundgarden and Pearl Jam very, very loudly.

Mike, Ali, Kurt and I went to the very first Lollapalooza together. Looking back, I can't believe my mother let me drive to Orlando for an all day concert and spend the night in a hotel room with three boys. I love you, Mom, for letting me do that. Of course, Mom knew each and every one of them and knew we were all just friends but still.

I learned that Mike gets really cranky when he's hungry.

Mike and I went to senior prom together. By this time he and my friend had broken up (friend of the aforementioned ridiculous parents) and I was in a state of semi-crush. We decided that if we had no other dates lined up by a certain time we would just go together. I knew that Mike had his eye on S.D. who was breaking up with M.C. but had already agreed to go to prom with M.C. I was also in a state of semi-crush with M.C. but he pretty much still only had eyes for S.D. The worst part? Everyone thought S.D. and I were sisters yet here were these two cute boys making puppy eyes at her leaving me feeling like chopped liver. Anyway, went to prom with Mike, nothing magical happened between us and after prom he and S.D. started dating anyway. Figures.

Shortly thereafter we went away to college: me to Boston, Mike to Gainesville. He and S.D. broke up eventually and Mike and I started a really lovely correspondence - back in the day before email so there was still the excitement of getting a really terrific 4-page letter in the mail full of a friend's handwriting. I think we were on the verge of something more than friendship when he suddenly started dating one of my best friends who was also in Florida. I think at that point I kind of gave up on waiting around for him and turned to Boston boys for my crushes instead.

At one point Mike decided to live in a trailer in the woods of Tallahassee.

Many years have gone by since we were in high school and throughout those years Mike and I have drifted in and out of touch. We would always see each other at the holidays, we both ended up in Tallahassee at one point, I moved to Seattle with Rich, he moved to Austin then Boston with Jackie. He came to our wedding. Now that we are in New York and he is in Boston we have seen each other a lot more and it seems a new branch to our friendship is starting to grow.

In many ways he's still the same Mike although now he makes a mean cocktail, lives in a beautiful home light years away from his trailer in the woods, has a wife that cracks me up and has a sweet dog named Addie that everyone loves. Do you still blast Gish in your car Mike? Anyway, I love you Michael, Michael Motorcycle and I'm glad you are still in my life.

Marketing madness

I went to Toys R Us today to buy some new things for Theo for our big trip to Greece next month. All I wanted was some stickers, some coloring books, maybe some cars or trains or some other fun little things. Do you know how hard it is to find anything anymore that doesn't have some tie-in to a movie or TV show? Everything is Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine, Speed Racer, Spiderman or whatever the summer blockbuster/hot educational show du jour happens to be. It's everywhere and it's really depressing. Even when I try to buy my kid a toothbrush it has to have some character on it. Has it always been this way? Was I just oblivious to it as a child because I was so absorbed in the marketing myself? Am I getting too worried about this stuff? I just don't want my child to be a commercial. Why do I have the feeling I am going to have to let that go?

Do you really have nothing better to do?

I read this in the New York Time today. Arlen Specter wants to investigate the whole Patriots videotaping scandal. I was against the time and attention Congress spent on baseball and I am equally if not more incensed that a Senator would seriously consider this kind of investigation a good use of time and money. Are you really that desperate for re-election Senator Specter? Just retire already and make room for someone who gives a damn about something important.

Summer vacation

Yesterday was NYU's commencement so for the past week or so as exams finish and the students start to leave, I have been seeing parents parked on the street loading up the cars full of stuff and preparing to take their kids home for the summer. Seeing this makes me wistful. I had to fly to get home from college so I never had that experience of being "picked up" at the end of the year. But I remember that feeling of packing everything up, saying goodbye for the summer and looking forward to spending the next few months hanging around my mom's house, working some summer job that paid enough for gas, food and maybe a little bit of savings for the next school year and just generally taking it easy. 

Seeing all these kids going home for the summer made me wish that my mom or dad would just come pick me up and take me home. I miss that time when I was done with school for the year leaving me with a limited amount of responsibility - no papers, no exams, no projects and reading only books I wanted to read. But most of all, those summers were a time when someone else was the grown-up. Someone else worried about bills, groceries, meal planning, housework. Sure, I did my share to help around the house but for the most part my summers were so easy.

Now I'm the grown-up. I have a child to raise, a house to keep clean, laundry to do, a marriage to tend, bills to pay, ambitions to sort out. It all happens and it's all a part of becoming the person I am now and the person I am growing to be, but it sure would be nice to have the summer off. 

Yay Whitney!

Yes, I watch America's Next Top Model. Not only did Whitney win and not only is she the first "full-figured" model to win, but she's from Atlantic Beach, which is basically Jacksonville. Congrats girlfriend - make us famous for something other than Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Jaguars.

R.I.P. Robert Rauschenberg