Meet Winston

This is Winston. I made him out of two gloves. He is awesome.

He has a little necktie, as he has learned from his CEO that it's important to dress well so you can be noticed at work. However, Winston is but a lowly production assistant and can't afford any clothes besides the tie. All the better, Winston thinks, because he'll be noticed for sure!

I have nearly zero sewing skillz, but I was guided by this neat book, Sock and Glove and it gives instructions for sixteen charming little projects. And even if you're not an expert crafter, the little wonky flaws make your little softy so much more adorable. At first I didn't think Winston looked so great, but as each day passes, I like him more and more.

The essential wedding day emergency kit

I was in San Jose, CA for ten days for my beloved cousin Jessica's wedding. I was probably there earlier than I had to be, but the airplane ticket was so much cheaper going on Friday after work. Anyways, with me being paranoid, I prepared an emergency kit. It had a nail file, sewing kit, Tide-to-Go pen, and band-aids.

While Jessica was walking around the restaurant in her gown, which had been bustled up, I thought about advice that had been given to me by the Rutgers Bookstore merchandise manager. She told me that if I want a gown with a train, get one that's detachable, rather than one that bustles, as her husband stepped on her dress and broke the bustle so she was dragging her dress around for the rest of the night. And the same thing wound up happening to Jessica, although not to the same extent. One of her bustle hooks ripped and left the bustle all uneven.

So it was off to the bride's changing room to figure out how to fix the bustle hook before the first dance. I'm sure this is very riveting subject matter to those who don't care about weddings. But we couldn't use the sewing kit (from the hotel I stayed at for my last business trip) to fix the hook because it wouldn't hold up the weight of the train, what with our meager sewing skillZ.

There was only one solution: run to my mom, expert seamstress and maker of clothing. Within 2 minutes, my mom fixed Jessica's bustle hook with a length of hotel kit thread and needle. She had me thread the needle 4 times and she did this awesome thing where she braided the thread together and made a thin cord that she then anchored as a loop into Jessica's train, replacing the old bustle hook, and bang! It looked like nothing had happened.

So that just shows you that you shouldn't have a wedding without my mom there. Or just get a wedding gown with a detachable train.

His name is Wellington

I decided months ago that our next pet will be named Wellington. A tribute to two of Josh's likes: beef wellington and Wellington Mara, the former owner of the NY Giants who passed away in 2005.

A couple months ago, we found ourselves with a third cat (in very loose terms), as we haven't taken him in and don't feed him. Wellington actually scared me with his attention to our apartment when I was home alone one weekend. I walked to the kitchen for a drink of water during a freelance assignment proofreading a horror novel that involved a black and white zombie cat. And then there was this black and white cat peering at me through my kitchen window!

But Wellington, as I've taken to calling this stray cat, is around very frequently, despite my not feeding him, and Morty and Eli love rubbing against the window when they see him. Wellie is very polite and hasn't peed on our window, and he's even gotten used to me coming right up to the window to look at his handsome face. I'm a sucker for black and white cats, and a total sucker for pink noses. Morty and Eli have noses that match their coats, but that doesn't mean I love them less.

I also don't know if he's actually a boy, but as someone who made all her stuffed animals male, it's easier this way.

Hanami

As a reward for my dogged efforts to produce a manly feast for the manly men watching the manly NFL Draft, Josh took me to view the cherry blossoms at Brooklyn Botanic Garden as I've never seen a lot of them at once. It was so crowded because of the Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival).

After my lost Friday night and Saturday, I expected him to follow through on his promise to take me to view cherry blossoms. I thought it was going to be a romantic outing for the two of us, as spare time is rare for Josh as a teacher, and when he has any, he's usually spending it as he wishes to relax. I'm used to it now, but it doesn't result in fantastic weekends. So when Josh said today that we'd be attending the festival, I was so excited. Before we left, Josh made his weekly call to his parents so they'd know he hadn't died on the job, and to fill them in on our planned visit to the BBG, only to find out that they were already at the cherry blossom festival! Fantastic. My first romantic outing with my boyfriend in goodness only knows how long, and his parents and little brother are also present. They'd already been at the BBG since 10:00, so we figured that they'd be gone by the time we got there at 1:00 (a couple hours away), but they said they'd hang around to see us in person.

We met up with them after making our way to the main tent, where performers displayed various Japanese arts. I avoid those kinds of things because it's usually a lot of gawking by people who remind me of a woman I used to work with who asked me, "What do Chinese people eat for breakfast?" Anyways, as Josh's parents (excluded from my generalization about gawkers, at least, I hope) wanted to stay and watch the performances, so Josh and I were free to roam. I was blown away by how many people were crowding into the gardens, and not so surprised by the number of couples I caught making out in secluded areas (i.e. underneath the branches of a weeping willow). I guess they got the spring (mating season) fever. The clouds even broke after a while, making the visit even better.

In front of the conservatory, we found a large pool inhabited by a few ducks. We were privy to a territory dispute when a third male flew into the pond and the already-present males chased him out with much flapping and splashing of BBG visitors. It lasted about 5 minutes, with the interloper flying away with his feathers ruffled. There was also a wedding reception taking place in the conservatory, and while I was admiring the centerpieces, Josh pointed out that it wasn't a traditional wedding, as the groom and groom were enjoying their first dance. Traditional or not, it was so sweet and made me tear up, while Josh was saying that he'd never seen two men dance together like that in real life.

I also saw some lovely spring green tulips, my favorite tulip (and that's saying a lot as I don't relaly care for tulips). But eventually, we made our way back to the main tent so Josh could talk to his parents and let them know that all was well in his life and they had nothing to fret about in their stereotypically Jewish fashion. If Josh's mother is afraid I'm not feeding her baby properly, he'll be home next weekend for her to fatten up with horse-sized portions of salad and fiber. I tuned out for most of that conversation, and we left soon after that for our apartment and our own dose of Japanese culture, which consisted of several episodes of Bleach. We were in good spirits until Josh started grading American History essays and got frustrated with his students and their lack of ability to construct sentences, let alone cohesive essays.

And that was the end of a weekend that went by far too quickly.

Manday 2007

Today was the first day of the NFL Draft, a very important day to manly men. After all, who the hell would sit around for several hours on a nice day to wait for teams to pick their next overpriced rookie who might not even pan out in the long run? Josh describes draft day as "the most important day next to Election Day."

Most important day or not, there was a lot of food involved. We made the usual ribs, lasagna, and sweet chex mix/trash. We also tried out a number of new recipes. From Ina Garten, I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and a brown rice with tomato and basil salad and Josh made a big expensive seafood salad. I also made Giada de Laurentiis' artichoke pesto for an appetizer. Yesterday, we did a lot of prep. Josh put the dry rub on the ribs while I assembled the lasagna, made chex mix, and baked the cupcakes. Considering Josh would have to be more of a host, he went to bed after cleaning the apartment while I baked until 3:30 in the morning.

We woke up at 9 today to start cooking again, but once the guests showed up, the cooking was left to me. I didn't get a break until the guys left for football in Prospect Park and I got a little nap. After some of the party left, the remainder played poker, and Josh won $40, which almost covers the cost of that seafood salad.

A visit and some rain

Annette visited me this weekend! I'd been looking forward to her visit for such a long time, as I've visited her a few times. She came in on Friday and saw my office and picked up a ton o' books from the grand take-shelf tour. After work, the grand food tour began, as I took her to the places I've told her about. We indulged in steak frites at Les Halles. We had dim sum at the restaurant where I saw Mario Batali, picked up buns and iced milk-teas, went to Grand Central Market, and had Austrian comfort food at Cafe Steinhof. And on Sunday, we had bagels and then slogged through the storm back to Manhattan so she could go home.

And now it's still raining.

A cake for the boss

It was my boss's birthday yesterday and I decided to bring in a cake to celebrate. I originally planned to give the recipe a test run at my mother's belated Chinese New Year celebration, but my dad kibboshed the idea because one of the dogs in attendance has been known to steal food off countertops (big dog, esp. when on hindlegs). So I broke my cardinal rule about not bringing in food that has not been proven a success before. It would be easy to get around that standard if I were making cookies, but when it's a layer cake, you can't exactly cut a slice and try it out the night before.

I was extra worried because I'd never successfully produced a layer cake. I tried once when I was in middle school, but the top layer didn't want to stay in place, and it was awful and I stayed away from layer cakes ever since. However, this Ina Garten recipe really tempted me and I gave in. It was really easy to make and the layers baked perfectly. I didn't use her frosting recipe though, because using a raw egg yolk in frosting sounds gross, and I was making it the night before, and I didn't have pasteurized eggs. I used the Magnolia chocolate buttercream recipe instead and all was good. The layers stayed where they were placed, and the frosting didn't fall off the sides of the cake overnight.

At work the next day, my boss, being the low-key type, agreed that I'd just put the cake out and he'd get the first piece. Absolutely NO SINGING allowed. I didn't invite anyone to partake, well except for Jennie, who had advance warning, but a crowd showed up for cake, not even knowing that it was for a birthday. Everyone liked the cake and there was even a remark of surprise that the cake wasn't store-bought. And there was the usual, "Why don't you open a bakery?" comment. The very idea scares me.

So I guess my boss got what he wanted with a low-key birthday, as people talked more about the cake than the fact he was one year older.