Culture, Part 2

I guess I spoke too soon about exposing Josh to more culture since we went to the Met a few weeks ago. Josh's family came to NYC yesterday with the plan of viewing the ships docked for Fleet Week. However, they arrived so early that they viewed the ships already and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and back before our meeting time of noon at the South Street Seaport. We wound up going to the Met on my company's corporate membership. Yay job perks!

Now I enjoy going to the museum, but I don't stay more than an hour. I tend to wander through the galleries randomly and then leave. I also don't read the little explanation cards at each item because I don't really go there to learn. I just like the feeling of walking through the exhibits and viewing the art in passing. We were in the museum over two hours and Josh's mother read all the cards.

I got bored... then hungry... then starving.

In the end, I piped up about my tummy and it turns out that Josh and his dad were hungry as well, so we made our way downtown to Little Italy, where we had reservations at Da Nico. I've found that the restaurants in Little Italy are just a tourist trap, and I've found better Italian food far from that neighborhood, but Da Nico's changed my mind. The food and service were great, but the free zeppoles at the end of the meal were not (you're better off going to a street fair). If you ever visit Da Nico's give their spaghetti carbonara a try. It's awesome.

After Josh's parents left, I went up the roof of my building and read for a while. It was lovely, relaxing, and most importantly, quiet.

Culture

My coworker offered free tickets to Carnegie Hall for several concerts held this weekend. At first I turned it down because I didn't want to go by myself. Josh can only handle so much culture. Since he went to the Met with me a few weeks ago, I wasn't about to push my luck and have him sit through a concert that lasted over two hours. However, Jennie was willing to attend tonight's concert. We were both band geeks too! Our free tickets just came from the unsold tickets for the performance and we didn't do too shabby, being given orchestra seats.

I've never been to Carnegie Hall, and I was amazed at how beautiful the auditorium was, with the gilded ceiling and trimming. Also, people still dress up to attend concerts, unlike Broadway shows where audience members are frequently in jeans and t-shirts. During one of the intermissions, Jennie and I went to the balcony levels to explore. There are individual boxes there and each one has a door. We found that each box had an antechamber where people could hang their coats before going through a second door to actually sit in the box. It was very fancy looking, like something from a movie.

The performance was wonderful and I liked most of the pieces they performed. Each of the three sections of the performance was performed with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, but the choir groups changed. My favorite was the combined children's choirs in the last third of the concert. The two most notable pieces were Rossini's "Duetto Buffo di Due Gatti" (Comic Duet of Two Cats) and Chilcott's "Can You Hear Me." In the Rossini, the halves of the choir acted out the dueling cats and were so cute as they were singing "Me-ow!" At least the kids didn't have to learn much in the way of lyrics. In "Can You Hear Me," the kids signed the chorus parts of the song. It was lovely.

However, there were some rude people. The old lady next to me fell asleep and started snoring. Another woman behind me was unwrapping some candy, but took so long doing it, I thought she was unwrapping a dozen pieces. Then there was some guy who was talking with two people in his group and I was not the only one to turn around and give a dirty look until he shut up.

In the end, Jennie and I got some culture. I feel smarter already! S-M-R-T!

Culinary exercise

My kitchen was quite busy this past week. I made this lovely linguine with shrimp scampi recipe from Barefoot Contessa. I've never had shrimp scampi and always assumed that it'd taste like butter and garlic (not necessarily bad). This recipe was more well balanced because there was lemon juice in the sauce; the acidity cut through the butter like a... well, a knife!

Then I had to bake cookies for a bridal shower at work. I wound up doubling the recipe, creating eight dozen cookies. In the end, I didn't need to make that many because one whole box of cookies was left over (there were two of the box seen above). The cookies didn't even last until the next day though, because one of the managers wanted to take the whole thing for a party she was throwing. All my coworkers keep saying that I should open a bakery, but I keep saying that I wouldn't want to get up at 4 a.m. every day.

Josh and I also made ribs this week from Alton Brown's recipe. Sure, they take a long time (you have to start the night before), but it's worth every second. For these ribs, you don't need a grill. They're cooked via a braising method in the oven at low temperature for a long time. Then the braising liquid is reduced to create a lip smackin' sauce. Josh thought that the ribs weren't enough for a meal, so I suggested some mashed potatoes. He was so occupied with his video game that he didn't notice when I made them. I even upgraded them with chives!

On Monday, I'm making my blueberry coffee cake for a welcome back breakfast for a coworker. I also have to fight this desire I have to make a key lime pie because there's no need for one of those!

Annette and Mark's wedding... again.

I spent a chunk of my evening uploading my photos from this past weekend's wedding events to Annette's gallery. You don't really think about it, but it is a bit of a production creating a gallery for a lot of people (but not just some random internet dude) to post their pictures to and keep them separate. While trying to fix the file transfers that failed, I noticed that amongst the crappy photos, I took some pretty cool candids. Of course, my pictures will pale in comparison to Tony's, but these cheapo pictures will be nice for Annette and Mark to have until the real thing arrives.

Now let's see if I can charge over $2000 to walk around a wedding taking pictures at random.

Graduations, weddings, and lasagnas, oh my!

I went to my brother's graduation from the Rutgers School of Engineering this past Thursday. Luckily, his graduation was indoors (at the RAC), so it wasn't affected by the rain. Every time I've been to Rutgers since my pseudo-graduation (I didn't actually walk), I feel these twitches of nostalgia. Thankfully, they bring up mostly good memories. When I watched Patrick graduate, I was so proud, maybe proud enough for both of us, since I didn't participate in my graduation ceremony.

On Friday, Josh and I left for Cape May to attend Annette's wedding. We got there in great time, in just about two hours, and checked into the Montreal Inn. If you go to Cape May, stay somewhere else; this place was very mediocre (bed was awful, air conditioning sucked). Since we only had a few free hours before the wedding weekend began, Josh and I took a stroll through Cape May and visited their Washington Street Mall. On our way back to the inn, we passed this beautiful house (seen right). It turns out that you can rent the place by the week and I thought it'd be really cool to get a bunch of our friends together and rent it for a week during the summer. It only costs around $2000! Well, maybe we should go during the off season when it's only $1500. Sigh, the Swan House will always be my summer dream house.

Annette and Mark's wedding was so much fun, like no wedding I've ever attended. Since it was a small private ceremony on the beach, there was no need for a bridal party. Katie, Annette's law school friend, and I served as witnesses on the marriage license, but when the officiant was performing the ceremony, he would have none of the "we're not doing the bridal party thing." Katie stood as Annette's "maid of honor" and I stood as Mark's "best man."

The reception was a lot of fun, apart from the cheesy two-person band Mark's mom hired. Mark and Annette had the yummiest and prettiest wedding cake I'd ever seen. I tried the strawberry shortcake and the raspberry flavors. Josh made friends with Annette's sister's husband at the rehearsal dinner and they got along so well they teamed up to make fun of Joe. When Annette's sister asked me where her husband was, I had to tell her that he was with my boyfriend gabbing away like two teenaged girls.

I heart Grey's Anatomy!

Wow, tonight's episode of Grey's Anatomy was so good I messed up my knitting.

I can't wait for tomorrow's conclusion to the season finale :)

The One with 45 States

If you're a Friends fan, you probably remember episode 7.08, "The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs."

This weekend, Josh and I tried playing the game where you try to name all 50 states in six minutes. It really is harder than it sounds. I embarrassingly left out five states:

1. Arizona
2. Iowa
   
3. Maine
4. Minnesota
5. Nebraska

The one I'm most ashamed about is Maine. At least Josh didn't name all 50 either.

Delicious Saturday

I had such a lovely day!

Today, I met Jennie and her twin sister Julie in Park Slope (Brooklyn). We went shopping for bags we don't really need at Brooklyn Industries. I bought my mother one of these in black for Mother's Day. She's always looking for a big bag to go to her fittings with, so it's a cool and practical gift. I have a smaller version of the same bag and I love it. I figure that if my mom doesn't like it, I'll have a new bag!

After that, we went to La Bagel Delight to pick up lunch. I ordered a whole wheat bagel with bacon-herb cream cheese. We went to Prospect Park to enjoy our bagels with an impromptu picnic. Well... it wasn't that impromptu because Jennie was prepared with a plastic picnic mat for us to park our tooshies. Thanks Jennie!

Back at Jennie and Julie's apartment, we lazed about. Julie was thinking about making a lovely lemon cake that looked yummy in the magazine. Alas, she wasn't actually going to make the cake today (just the lemon curd), so I went back to Manhattan.

I met Josh on W. 14th, and we grabbed a quick dinner at A Salt and Battery, a large order of cod bites and chips with curry sauce. I love the way you can go somewhere in NYC and feel like you're somewhere else, like eating fish and chips in London. From there, it was a quick jaunt in the rain that everyone's been expecting to Balducci's. It reminded me of Dean and Deluca, only less snooty. Josh and I picked up some Rembrandt cheese, which is an aged gouda. It has a sharp taste followed by a fruity aftertaste. I'm also in love with the creamy yet crystalline texture of gouda (I'm going through an apples with cheese phase right now).

My day would've been complete if Julie actually made that lemon cake. I'm counting on a piece for Monday morning, Jennie!

What happens in Bloomsburg...

On Tuesday, I left for my first "business" trip. It wasn't so much a business trip as a learning trip. Our bosses sent Amber, Jennie, Shirley, and me to Bloomsburg, PA to visit one of the printing plants we use.

My Boss, P, told me horror stories about the Days Inn he stayed at when he visited the same plant. "Stay away from room 17. The water changes from hot to cold every three seconds." However, when we pulled into Bloomsburg, we were staying at the Inn at Turkey Hill. It's this gorgeous bed & breakfast and all the rooms are slightly different (i.e. colors, headboards, decorations, etc.). I felt so grown up, having my own room to myself. Actually, I was slightly scared because I'd never stayed in a hotel by myself. I considered packing a stuffed animal, but then I wouldn't have had room for much else in my overnight bag. Shampoo trumps stuffed animal.

For dinner, I had a seared tuna encrusted with three colors of tortilla chips for my appetizer. For my entrée, I had kobe beef flank steak, which was served with maple bread pudding and grilled poached pear. My dessert, crème brulée, was the most mundane part of the meal. The wine flowed freely, and I managed three glasses (more than I usually have) during the evening. Boss B would be proud. However, I didn't go nuts because I was afraid of saying something stupid, like promising contracts or something irresponsible like that. I can't believe my room was only $89 for the night. I realized in the morning that the slate floor in the entryway and bathroom was heated. Swank!

While on the plant tour, I learned a lot. It really helps to see the process that we so blythely spend thousands of dollars on with each purchase order we issue. I got extra giddy when I saw one of my books on the binding line (where the text block gets glued to the hardcover case and the jacket is folded onto the book). I'm a total dork.

I tried knitting on the way back to NY, since I felt reading while riding shotgun would've been awfully rude. My eyes were too tired from not getting enough sleep, so I only managed a few rows.

Sorry your knitting entertainment stopped, Amber!

I'm sophistimacated!

I had a pretty good weekend thanks to yesterday. Josh asked me what I wanted to do, so I suggested walking around in SoHo. Since he agreed so quickly to that, I decided to push the envelope and said we should go the Metropolitan Museum of Art instead. It's been over a year since I've been there, so it was time to take advantage of my company's corporate membership at the Met.

The lower flute is made of platinum! Sorry, my inner band dork came out in the musical instruments section.

After the museum, we walked across Central Park to shop at Zabar's, where we picked up some of the best smoked salmon I've ever had (gravlox to be exact). When I got home, I made an herb butter to go with the salmon and then turned 5 huge vidalia onions into French onion soup.

And then I satisfied my Grey's Anatomy craving. Three hours worth of season finale coming up!

Bummer

Okay, I'll admit that today, I wished I didn't live in New York.

Today, I wished that I lived in Boston because of this.

Yes, I'm a total dork for wanting to see John Williams (my favorite conductor/composer) conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra (my favorite ensemble) playing his work. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't heard a John Williams piece (Star Wars, anyone?).

Well, if you're in Boston, you're lucky. You can see the Pops playing John Williams music while being conducted by the Man for $17.

I hate you.