My pitas page

our family is getting bigger....
no, not like THAT. c and i went to the pound after work last night and adopted a 6-month old chocolate lab mix puppy. it's a girl. names on the table include baci (italian for kiss...get it?) and lucy (because i really want to call out "luuuuucy, i'm home!"). i barely slept all night due to nerves. we pick her up this afternoon, after making what i am sure will be a majorly bling-bling trip to petco. wish us luck! (of course photos will be posted soon, somewhere....)

why i love playa del carmen
the day after a hurricane hits, everyone is back to drinking and hanging out. my kind of town.

hup-hup hooray
last night saw myself and a friend laboring with fabric and thread and creating what has turned out to be a super freakin' cool wedding chuppa. not an average tuesday night in the big city, but a touching sort of one nonetheless.

enlightenment
this weekend i took my first yoga class in a long time, and i already feel a new woman. funny how that happens. this weekend i also drank a lot of margaritas, and then indulged in not one, but 2 crepes at the bastille day street fair. those activities made me feel like a new woman in a different and not-as-good way. a side note: you must see "the wedding crashers", y'all. you can thank me later.

hitchens on woodward

ultragrrl
i would just like to point out that if ultragrrl and i were ever to meet, we would totally be best friends. except the fact that i am thinking that probably means i'm too uncool to be her friend. sigh.

this past week
first we get a reporter jailed for not revealing her source, in a story she never wrote and was never published. and it turns out the white house chief-of-freakin-staff is the one leaking info about CIA staffers. and then don't even get me started on london--those poor people. it's really quite enough to make you lose faith in all that is good and pure in mankind, you know? mostly i am resuming life as usual, working like a good little duck, and composing a scathing letter to the president in my head. whether it actually gets sent is another matter.

hello sunshine
this weekend was lovely, once we got past the driving rain on friday. actually spent some time yesterday working on my tan, and capped it all off last night with our "vamos a la playa" party. i love having all of our friends and favorite people (well, almost all of them) in one room. it gives you a glowy, happy feeling beyond compare.

holy crap
a-ha is going on tour! I AM SO THERE!!!!

july 4th is 1st
this may have been the best 4th of july weekend ever. ever! where to begin? saturday brought a jaunt out to the east end of long island to check out nascar racing at the very small riverhead raceway. we saw 3 races, including a figure-8 race which is as on-the-edge-of-your-seat as it sounds. and of course there were fireworks and weird things to eat and t-shirts were purchased and crashes witnessed. it all brought back memories of working at the amusement park in my hometown, selling tickets to its tiny raceway each summer saturday night. sunday was a super-fun baby's first b-day party again on the east end, a visit with c's granny accompanied by take-out applebee's, and then a july 4th party to end all such parties. hosted by c's cousin's husband's family (got that?) it was at their house on the water with amazing views and professional-grade fireworks set off on their beach by said cousin's husband wearing sunglasses for "protection" and lighting the fuses with a blowtorch. i firmly believe that one of the memories i will carry with me forever is of standing on that deck, three feet above the salt water waves, watching these gorgeous fireworks explode right above our heads and squealing like a kid. to the dulcet tones of neil diamond and bruce springsteen, of course. and this is only two of the three days of the weekend! monday was another "let's explore long island day" with a visit to the fish hatchery that c's relations used to drag him to far too often. there's a very, very big turtle there and you can feed fish. lots of fish. and then we went to sagamore hill, the historic home of president teddy roosevelt. they were having a july 4th party there, unbeknownst to us, and we got to see t.r. himself, hear a ragtime band, explore the first level of the house, and really just marvel at the whole grand estate-ness of it. cap this day off with the cheeseburgers on the grill and some hard lemonade (don't mind if i do) and you have before you a kick-ass weekend.

world trade center site redesign
new freedom tower design unveiled today, and while not as artistically exciting as the last, it's quite lovely and suitable i think. now all they need to do is start the rebuilding, already. hopefully they can get past the squabbles and get going.

did you ever
just want to pitch the carefully constructed life you have, and go have a damn adventure already? it's that kind of week, folks. wish me luck in my campaign to do some kooky stuff before (and not too long after) turning the big 3-0 this year. which i think i am going to call "29, part deux."

time to make the donuts...or so they think
so there is a dunkin donuts going in on our block, right next to the grocery store. despite the fact that i used to live on their coffee (with cream AND sugar, all while being a good 10 pounds lighter than i am now--something science has yet to explain), this development disturbs me greatly. i live in a still somewhat undeveloped part of new york city. and yet up the block there is a subway, across the street there's a barnes & noble college store, and now there is a DD. no small coincidence that they are opening up directly across the street from this cute little indie coffee shop that has good, yummy things to sell. but many people in the hood will no doubt opt for DD's lower prices, driving said cute indie out of business. welcome to the strip-mall-ification of 10th avenue. i am totally writing a letter to somebody about this.

pooped
i am so freakin' tired this morning. the weekend was much fun, culminating in a quiet and quick dinner at this local place that i'd never been to before but will certainly be going back to. hit the gym this a.m., and continued to sweat all the way to work--it's 76% humidity out there. come on predicted afternoon thunderstorms! (did i mention i got my hair cut? i did and i love it. it's very me.)

tom cruise is stupid

the heart is a lonely hunter
besides being one of the best book titles around, this is one powerful read. for the first couple hundred pages i was interested in the characters, but sort of wondering where the story was going. and then in the last 50 pages or so it's like getting punched in the gut. i couldn't put it down and you end with this rush of sadness and hope and despair. i had to put the book down and stare into space for a while, contemplating my own humanity and so on. quite something, highly recommended.

greenwich street
despite the address given in this post, this is the greenwich street apartment building c and i lived in for about 2 months when we first moved in together. it makes me sad that it's coming down....and yet angry because all these people (developer, government, etc.) kept telling us it was perfectly safe to stay. i guess we know how that story turns out.

don't look back in anger
saw oasis last night at msg, and WOW cannot even begin to describe. c bought the tickets through their fan club, so we were in the 10th row on the floor. i'll repeat that: 10th row on the floor, people! in madison square garden! we were so close it was like being at a show at the bowery ballroom. except that waiters were coming by with glasses of champagne, which never happens at the bowery. they had to play some songs from the new album, but they really hit their groove with the "classics": wonderwall, champagne supernove, live forever.... they are quite good at the expansive-stadium-style song to get all the knackers (myself included) singing and swaying along. and they closed it out with my generation, which is kind of ironic: while the brothers gallagher are still dreamy in that total-bastard way, it's plain they are no longer the angry young men of yore.

crafty, aren't we
this weekend i take a train to the family homestead in massachusetts to spend some quality time with the folks. we'll be hitting this olde new england craft fair on saturday, which i have to admit i always find fun. it's cool to see the creativity out there, even if some of it isn't my cup of tea. i also get to see my grandpa, who turned 80 this week. and sunday night my brother plays at cbgb lounge back here in nyc, so come on out if you like. the time was supposed to be 10, but now it's 7, so just call me if you're interested in going and i'll hit ya with the latest update.

english springer spaniel
last night i went to my boss's house to meet the newest addition to her family--an english springer spaniel puppy. the dog is very cute, very well-groomed, and very well-taken care of. but as i sat there petting her, i became certain i am not ready to be a dog owner. boss says she now weighs social options by whether she wants to go out or stay home with the dog. i have to say i do that now, too...but my other option is hanging with the husband, and most of the time he wins out. dogs just aren't as cool as actual people who love you back.

book 'em
after waiting and waiting for fares to go down, we've said "f it" and booked our flights for ireland this summer. yay vacation! boo aer lingus and yer anti-airfare-sale attitude!

watch h get showered
in a manner of speaking. this weekend was one of total fun and wedding excitement. friday night was the bachelorette party full of good tapas, great white sangria, and dancing to the hits of the 80s and 90s on the far west side. saturday was shopping on canal street and eating vegan food with dear t from north carolina. sunday was bridal shower madness in brooklyn--we helped get the place ready to go, and i think h had a very good time, not to mention she scored a lot of good loot, which is really what you hope for your friends at their bridal showers. then t and i had dinner with n and h at their place, got ourselves back to the apt. and fell into bed pretty darn pooped, and now t is on a plane home while i sit in my office and think about how i really need to eat and drink healthily this coming week to do penance for the last 72 hours. all in all = fantastic weekend and happiness abounds.

if you didn't want to move to mexico yet with me,
perhaps this will sway you. leaders of the christian right will be jointly interviewing republican presidential candidates for the '08 elections. that's got to violate that whole church-state-separation thingie, right?

in the name of h's upcoming weekend o fun
i present to you, the dancing george bush website. oh yeah.

it's been said before,
but baby, it's hot outside. friday night saw me sweating to beat the band in my first co-ed soccer league game. we won 7-6 due to my pele-like husband who scored four goals. i played defense, also know as where the crappy players are stationed. but it's ok--i'm learning. saturday saw chuppa-material shopping with H's friend C. such gorgeous materials were purchased AND we are going to be in the background in a fabric store on an upcoming "project runway"--check your local listings, of course. then it was shopping with A for more materials for a certain someone's party this weekend, and THEN C and i watched "shawshank redemption." i cannot believe i'd never seen that movie before--it was amazing. sunday was apartment-cleaning in anticipation of having a houseguest this weekend, financial-tidying for the sanity of C and myself, and i baked a strawberry-rhubarb phyllo pie to boot. busy? heck yeah, but in the way that lets you know it's summer. (and the living's easy.)

cafeteria
last night i had such a pleasant evening with one of my oldest friends (as in i've known her the longest, not as in she's old). paper-product-shopping, sequin t-shirt-buying, all topped off with comfort food and two of the strongest mojitos i've ever had the pleasure of being acquainted with. and some great conversation about the sort of things you can't necessarily talk to just anyone about. it quite hit the spot for a tuesday night.

summer is here
yesterday, sunday, was a perfect day. spent the bulk of it in the sun in central park in a swimsuit, getting a sunburn. and hanging out with friends and eating too much cheese. welcome back summer!

Book Expo America
This weekend was that time of year again--this year Book Expo was at the Javitz Center in good ol' NYC which was a great commute for west-side-dwellers like me. Saw a lot of folks in costume, saw Kim Catrall and Tom Wolfe in person, and saw a lot of galleys being given away. Cheesy as it sounds, it really does make me believe that my job is a good job, and I am doing something somewhat noble while earning a paycheck.

rob and amber get married
i never watched them on "survivor", but grew to really like the pair of 'em on "the amazing race"--he's so stereotypically boston it does the heart good. so of course when rob and amber got married last night on national tv (pre-taped) i was so there. and so was c, though no doubt he would say he only watched it because i wanted to. which is totally not true--he thinks rob is awesome, mostly because he too knows how to make a smart ass comment about someone to their face, but still come off as a stand-up guy. ah, how i love him (c, not rob).

world's first underwater restaurant
as gorgeous as the setting is, i think i'd be too worried about a sudden crack in the glass to truly enjoy this dining experience. and what if you order fish? i think you'd be getting some funny looks from their relations on the other side of the window.

fiesta!
this was such a good weekend. friday was a "sick day" wherein a wedding cake was made (i actually got an e-mail from the bride the next day raving about it--people, go on the honeymoon!). saturday was running and playing soccer in the park, delivering said cake, and seeing U2 in concert. i don't mean to sound all cynical, but it just wasn't as good as the last tour. which makes me sad. sunday = empanada dinner day which means frantic housecleaning and chopping of onions. as far as i could tell a good time was had by all. i love our friends (and family people of course).

i'm back, and tanner than ever
no, not really, but i wish i was. which has led to the latest obsession of c and myself--owning property. but not just anywhere, because why make it easy on ourselves and own property in the continental u.s.? instead, we're thinking playa del carmen, that little town of so many fond honeymoon memories. condos there are super-cheap (as you can see in the link above) and there's really nowhere the prices there will go except up. and with hipster home magazine domino saying it's ok and even adviseable to buy your second home first, so we can't be too crazy to think like this...right?