Potatoes in the Mist

D's putting up curtains as we speak. They are really rectangles of cloth...very cute, white with tiny purple turtles. It's because he doesn't want the people in the new building across the street to see him in his underwear. They don't have curtains, either. I ordered the new Madonna CD from Amazon. I was getting hooked on the smidgens of "Candy Shop" and "Heartbeat" over at iTunes. One song has a rhyme that cracks us both up: "shower/ours." She pronounces "ours" with two syllables to make it work. P.S. The curtain operation is stalled for now. We need a drill.

Third trimester is, in a way, the most dastardly of all...the energy and well-being of second trimester has fled...now I'm lugging around a bowling ball and trying to find the energy to go about everyday life. Deep fatigue and insomnia are a hideous mix. On the bright side...I love feeling him move. Sometimes he even does it when I walk now (formerly a quiet time for him). And after dinner he wiggles all his limbs, as if to say, "Yay! I just had some potatoes!" It's endearing. One of D's cousins gave me a copy of Belly Laughs... Jenny McCarthy's account of her pregnancy...not something I would have picked up on my own, but I enjoyed it. Who knew a celebrity could be so relatable? She even gained 60 lbs to my 43 (a total I am trying not to raise, although the carrot cake did win the carrot cake vs. popsicle battle tonight). At one point, she says she baked a pan of brownies each night and ate the whole pan by herself...D said, "And she only gained 60 lbs??...

It's funny how music can transport you to another time and place...I heard "I Wanna Dance (With Somebody Who Loves Me)" tonight and wham, I was in sixth grade. The future was so bright, Whitney had to wear shades. Later, I was trying to listen to Carole King's "Tapestry", but that CD is marred by another, worse association. During first trimester, when I was nauseous for THREE MONTHS, one of the few things that made me feel better was listening to "Tapestry." Now I can't play the CD because it brings back that wavy, shaky, icky nauseous feeling. Sorry, Carole. I was pleased to hear "The Right Stuff" a few days ago, though. Did you know the New Kids on the Block are reuniting? I was never a hard-core fan -- in other words, couldn't match names to faces -- but I welcome the revival of anything '80s. And I did see them open for Tiffany once (although the concert I *really* wanted to see was Def Leppard). I remember being at a sle...

Well, Madonna has a new CD coming out. I for one will be getting it. I've been a fan of hers since I was 9. I also like how she's totally inappropriate at 50 :D (Okay, she's almost 50; she was born in August 1958. And yes, it's sad that I know that. In my defense, I don't know the day ;)

Today, there is a big rainstorm/thunderstorm in Manhattan; it's romantic and scary all at once. AND I had the perfect cookie. I love the peanut butter cookies at Whole Foods, but they do not always get the texture right. I am seeking soft and chewy, but with a touch of "al dente" - i.e., Pepperidge Farm Soft-Baked are too soft for me. Whole Foods makes their p.b. cookies either perfect or hard (overcooked and brown). There is no in-between. I test the cookies by pinching them gently with a piece of parchment covering my fingers. Yesterday they had a perfect one, but some hooligan took a bite out of it and PUT IT BACK. I know, I know. Even grosser - my mind briefly entertained buying it, but I reasoned I had no idea what germs the transgressor left on the cookie. But today, I found the perfect cookie. And it was bite-free. Also, they were playing "Alone" by Heart in the store. I had forgotten this song's existence, but it brought me back to the summer of 1987...

My stomach is starting to precede me into a room. Or maybe it's just tonight. I have added a food baby to the regular baby. We went to Pizzeria Uno -- partly b/c I wanted pizza, partly b/c I wanted to give D a break from my persistent Thai craving -- it was like a voice chanting in my ear, "Red curry, red curry, red curry." So I gave the curry a break and got an individual deep-dish pizza. But that was not enough! It should have been. But it wasn't. So we got this really big, vile yet delicious dessert - a giant peanut butter cup with ice cream on top. I'm happy to say we didn't finish it. But we made more of a dent in it than we should have. The peanut butter cup had an Oreo cookie crust on the bottom. It reminded me of what I called "dirt" in Carvel ice cream cakes when I was four -- this textured, gravelly chocolate in the middle of the cake. I think I called it dirt to illustrate my simultaneous repulsion by and attraction to it. I found myself s...

I never thought I'd get nostalgic for the 90s. My heart was always firmly rooted in the 80s (after all, I was only around for five years before that). But tonight D and I were eating at an Irish pub and every single song they were playing was from the 90s. It must have been some kind of conspiracy because we heard "Sex and Candy" by Marcy Playground earlier, and now we were hearing Alanis Morissette, etc. In college I got so sick of "Linger" by the Cranberries that I used to say the Cranberries should be sent to their own private island, with all the amenities, not as a punishment but just so we wouldn't hear them anymore. Now I miss that song and was even briefly thinking of buying it on iTunes. I want to bring back lo-fi. There was something refreshing and bare about it all.

My oldest nephew (he was born when I was 17, he'll be turning 15 in November) is really into music, so I always ask my sister which CDs he'd like for his birthday and Christmas. I am always somewhat humbled by his selections, because I've never heard of them! This time, though, I was tickled by the huge contrast between the two. His taste seems to be an uneasy mix of emo and metal. The emo CD featured an open-faced, friendly-looking young man on the cover and pointed out: "This CD is packaged in recyclable materials, with a carbon footprint of zero!" The other CD's Album Description on Amazon simply said, "We wanted to make a metal CD you could crank in the car. Rock on!" or something like that. The cover looked a bit like Appetite for Destruction. So for some reason I got to thinking about my early music. I had those big headphones like you'd wear in a small plane. My sisters gave me Elton John and Madonna to listen to (it was 1984, I was 9) and...

Leah just sent me on a little trip down memory lane. She mentioned Corey Hart in her blog entry. In fourth grade, I thought Corey Hart's "Never Surrender" was the most comforting song on earth. I believe it belonged to my sister, and I'm pretty sure it was a 45!!!!! (For any young 'uns reading my blog, it's a small, round piece of vinyl with a hole in the center.) I got my blood drawn yesterday and it was the most painless blood-taking ever. I have to applaud the nurse's mad skillz. She had me squeeze a ball in my fist and tied a tourniquet tightly around my arm, but these tactics are probably standard. So I don't know what her secret is. But she got my vein on the first try. So I was impressed.

So tonight, we went to Rainer-land. But first, we stopped at Fornino for some yummy, thin-crust pizza. I highly recommend them if you live in NYC. They have a great variety of pies, a cheerful staff, and an impressive selection of desserts. Even better, they don't play any songs after 1989. The Doobie Brothers, the Bee Gees, early Michael Jackson, and De Barge all made an appearance. The waitress recommended the tartufo, which pretty much knocked our socks off. (We put them back on before we left.) It's hard to describe, but it was kind of slices of chocolate ice cream with an accent of vanilla ice cream, and it had a crisp-but-not-hard chocolate coating. The plate was also dotted with whipped cream and sprinkled with cocoa powder. Rainer was elated to see me...not to brag or anything ;) He was a kneading maniac, moving from my legs to my hipbones and stomach. I think he has very sound judgment -- he relaxes when the music is soft and mellow, and doesn't like it when songs ...

So D and I saw Shoot 'Em Up tonight. It was fairly violent, as the name would imply. But it was a cartoonish sort of violence that was hard to take seriously. Clive Owen was good, and his role may even cause a surge in carrot sales. (You'll have to see it to find out why.) It was interesting seeing Paul Giamatti as a villain. He doesn't really have the looks for it, with his round face and owlish glasses, but he pulled it off fairly well, aside from a certain stagy quality when he spoke. I would give it a B or B+ -- it was more inventive and interesting than most action movies, but it did have a very rough edge. After the movie, we visited Rainer. I think the heat was too much for him. He kneaded my leg for a while, but didn't linger in my lap, preferring to lie on the cool floor instead. I rubbed his belly, which he seemed to enjoy. I also patted Hayes, who definitely has less personality but is a nice cat anyway. DG pointed out that Hayes has the same amount of person...

I can't sleep. I know people say that if you have insomnia, it's probably a sign of some deep anxiety. Unfortunately, the things that flick through my head when I can't sleep are as follows: 1) The skin on my collarbone feels weird. Maybe it will be better if I lie on my side? No, then my arm will fall asleep. Guess I'll get up and blog. 2) All the songs from Rubber Soul (a Beatles album I recently rediscovered). The shawl I'm working on is taking forever. It has 90 rows (or it will when it's finished), and each row has 100+ stitches (160 in the beginning, but there have been periodic decreases). However, I love the colors. The finished product might be too busy, but making stripes is fun. I'll just wear it with a very subdued top ;) Am pondering whether to see that ping-pong movie with Christopher Walken. I am definitely a fan of his, but I read once that he'll take any role he's offered. Fortunately, it hasn't scarred his reputation. But it mea...

Every once in a while I remember something that had been eluding me, and it makes me happy. A while back I was trying to recall a book I read when I was a kid, about a girl who had two British soldiers quartered in her house during the Revolutionary War. Then tonight it hit me... Rebecca's War! I looked it up on LibraryThing , and sure enough, there it was. (I highly recommend LibraryThing, by the way. Periodically they put up lists of Early Reviewer books, and you can bid on them. Then they send you a free advance copy to review.) I also found a song. A while back, I tried to find this song on iTunes, typing in "I Could Never Be Your Woman" and "I Could Never Be a Woman" (because it was kind of hard to hear what the singer was saying). More recently, I read a snippet about Michelle Pfeiffer's and Paul Rudd's upcoming movie, I Could Never Be Your Woman , which was inspired by or features the song "Your Woman" by White Town. Yay! With the correc...

Here's a pic of the hat I just finished: I look rather bleary at 1:30 am, but I wanted to show the hat to y'all. It's a beehive pattern from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller, and it taught me how to use circular and double-pointed needles. If you haven't used them before, the circular needles are pretty easy to use. The double-pointed needles take some getting used to. It amused me, though, the Martian look of the hat while it had four double-pointed needles sticking out of it. Tonight we heard "You Give Love a Bad Name" at the Irish pub, and I told D that Jon Bon Jovi is on Liz's list. I still think "Livin' on a Prayer" is his masterpiece. I remember how we all skated intensely to it at Roller Palace, feeling the depth of Tommy and Gina's struggle . Or maybe that was just me. And how did they do that "wo-ah wo-ah wo-ah" microphone thing? Genius ;) They also played Def Leppard's "Photograph" at th...

So I finished my hat today. Isn't it cute? The pattern claimed that casting on 72 stitches would make the hat big enough to fit any adult. I was skeptical, because my head is large (23"). So I cast on 8 more stitches, and knit a little more than the recommended 9 inches before I started decreasing. Well, guess what? It's a little big. It's not a problem, because I can roll up the brim and I've already gotten compliments on it. But now I know that 72 stitches would have been enough, and I can proceed with confidence when making hats from this pattern in the future. I had a little trouble sewing up the seam. I tried to teach myself from a book, but I could tell I wasn't doing it right. So I went to my current favorite yarn shop. It's adorable. They have a dog who naps in the store. They also have cute knitting magazines lying around (I want a subscription to Rowan now). The owner was kind enough to teach me how to sew the seam, and she didn't just teach m...

We went to Zen Palate with AT tonight. In its own quiet way, Zen Palate is one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. D blasphemously claims that San Fran restaurants are better than New York's, but I think San Fran lacks good middle-of-the-road restaurants. It has great high-end restaurants (Millennium; a Greek restaurant called Kakkori Estiatoria or something similar; Chez Panisse in nearby Berkeley), but if you don't want to spend a small fortune, you're stuck eating at an Indian restaurant whose menu features male goat brain. (I guess the female brain is not as tasty.) At Zen Palate, I like to get the veggie loaf with spaghetti; the veggie loaf is similar to meatballs but much better. For dessert, D got a vegan chocolate raspberry cake, while AT and I both opted for banana pie. The cake was delicious. Also, I added Scotland, PA to my lengthy Netflix queue (about 400 movies) based on AT's recommendation. What could be wrong with a Macbeth retelling set at a fast-food res...

I always like receiving emails from my niece, who is 11. Today's missive: Hi guys! How you doing? I'm over at Dodo's house right now. Happy New Year everyone! Yippie for 2007! How is yoga, Aunt Bearette? How is work, Uncle D? Well, I gotta go! Dodo is taking us to the park! Love, H Dodo is her name for my mom (her grandmother). She started calling her that when she was very young and Mom basically reinforced it by asking her, "What's my name?" Then she would say in her little 3-year-old voice, "Dodo," and everyone would laugh. So the name has stuck to this day. H and her brother love the park, which is near my old high school, down the street from the house where I grew up. They told me, "The slides have a lot of information and swear words." When I asked them, "What information?", they said, "Who loves who." I guess that is a succinct description of playground graffiti. In other news, I realized that everyone proba...

D and I tried to see The Good Shepherd tonight, but it doesn't come out until December 22. My enthusiasm is dampened by the fact that it's 3 hours long. But we'll probably see it anyway. "Coupling," which used to show at 10 pm on Fridays (we managed to catch it once), seems to no longer be on. Tonight they had "Secrets for Aging Skin with Dr. Denese" (who should really not be spelling her name that way). It's hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it's about 50 degrees outside and people are running around in shorts, but Sarah McLachlan's CD "Wintersong" is helping. It's really good. ~~~~ The crossing buddy is a New York phenomenon. It is a friendship that is formed without words and lasts only a few minutes. Yet it serves an important purpose. Walking is the best way to get around New York. Cabs take too long and eat up your cash. The subway is cheaper, but you have to wait for it, and half the time you end up sitting in s...

I have a singular lack of things to write about. Here's what's going on in my life right now. 1) I have a new schedule for October at one of the places where I teach. They're a little scatty with details, and their print schedule is, um, a little different than what the director and I agreed upon. So I emailed her and she confirmed that what we agreed upon was correct. The thing is, tomorrow I'm supposed to teach there at 5:30, but the schedule says 4:30. I'm thinking maybe I should show up at 4:30 and 5:30 until they get things worked out. 2) I got some more Billie Holiday CDs. You gotta love the bargain rack at Virgin. I got three CDs at the following prices: $4.99, $6.99 and $8.99. (This is turning into a very numerical post.) 3) D is fasting because it's Yom Kippur. I'm not fasting because I'm not Jewish and you would never catch me fasting for any reason. However, they do this thing called "breaking the fast" and this year we will be going...