Wicked Lake House party

After coming back from Houston I barely had time to unpack before we were off again on Saturday for Westhampton, MA for the Wicked Lake House party.

Puck came over in the early afternoon and we had some Chinese food delivered (including an excellent Peking duck) and went over our agreements for the party. This led to a little mini relationship check-in that was very positive. I also made peanut noodles to bring to the party while we talked.

We packed our bags and walked over the Shake Shack to meet Piper and get some food and drinks for the drive. I got vanilla frozen custard with chocolate truffle cookie dough mixed in, which was deliriously good. We walked over to a nearby park and Jet picked us up in the Dykemobile, a Ford Explorer like the one I used to drive in my previous life.

We had a little difficulty finding the house in the dark and snow, but we finally made it there and found the party in full swing. I met a girl named Katie right off the bat, and was surprised to discover that I’d already met one of the party hosts, Curtis, at my first public play party almost a year ago ("Slumber party" - May 17, 2011). He's a little too shy to have his picture here, but it's easy to describe him. Just think Edward Norton in American History X and you're about 90 percent there.

Katie is a grad student at Yale and she made these cute earrings that displayed symbols for quarks. One had a “T” for top and the other had a “B” for bottom (she identifies as a switch and her primary interest is in rope play). Of course when I pointed out Katie’s earrings to Puck, the award-winning astronomy student loved them.

Katie had brought a flogger she made herself to the party. It was unusual because its tails were made of deep red satin, stitched into segmented tubes and filled with rice, so it was quite heavy. I tried it out on D (previously referred to as Dee), but I was kind of afraid to let loose and have the pillows burst, which would have made a mess of rice everywhere. So she got off easy >: )

The same couldn’t be said about another girl who did a scene in the living room while I watched from the couch. She was topped by a very large, muscular guy using a variety of floggers, paddles and even bundles of rope. I’ve seen Piper take a lot of punishment, but this girl probably surpassed her in this instance (not that it’s a competition or anything, of course).

Other than flogging D, I didn't participate in anything other than conversation. Many people were playing with D's collection of stun guns, violet wands and other electric shock toys, but that is definitely a hard limit for me - I hate electric shock! I even have this tiny static discharge toy that I got from the Japanese bookstore that I use when I take my coat off at home. It lights up with a smiley face to discharge electricity when you touch it to metal.

In the wee hours while Puck was having sexy times with Kiernan downstairs, I scoped out the sleeping arrangements upstairs. There was one bedroom with two single beds and a smaller cot. Piper and Jet were sharing one of the beds and Katie was in the other one, so I asked her to move to the cot so that Puck and I could share the single bed. It was tight to be sure, but we somehow managed a fairly restful sleep from 4:30 am to about 11 am.

The next morning we had a communal breakfast preparation with some people making bacon and sausage and I heated up my leftover noodles in a skillet. Just like the last party, I had a dream; this time about Puck, Piper and me being in a gang and finding an abandoned Lamborghini. We were constantly trying to keep one step ahead of a rival gang of vicious thugs who were trying to steal the car from us. I also enjoyed the view of the frozen lake from the screened-in porch for as long as I could stand the cold being outside.

At the dining table, I noticed the girl who had bottomed in the living room the night before sitting by herself. I thought she had really pretty eyes, so I slid over to introduce myself. Amazingly, we had so much in common that we talked non-stop until it was time to leave. She's from Houston and went to Bellaire High School for a time, just down the street from my old house. Her house was very close to Ben's house inside the Loop. She's been through a house fire too. She misses the food we grew up with, but unlike me, she misses the weather too. Her name is Stella and she's attending school at Amherst College, studying wildlife biology. It was really cool making such a random connection with someone like that. I invited her to come to the Steampunk World's Fair coming up in May, but whatever happens, I hope we'll get to see her again soon.

Jet and Piper took us to the bus station in Springfield, where we boarded separate buses: me back to New York, and Puck to visit other friends and her sister in Massachusetts. They came back Monday night and stayed over a couple of nights. Last night we went out to a French restaurant called Marseilles and had a nice dinner to celebrate my raise and annual bonus, which I received on Tuesday. The bonus wasn't as large as last year's but still quite sizable by most people's standards.

Puck had a French onion soup and duck confit, while I had bouillabaisse and rack of lamb. The lamb was the best dish, and we had a delicious French Malbec red wine to go with everything. We also had a walnut cake with baked pears and a maple pecan ice cream. We toasted to happiness and love, and our love of New York where two people like us can be openly affectionate in the middle of a crowded restaurant without anyone batting an eyelash.

Pre-Wicked update

It's been way too long since I've posted, and so much good stuff has happened. I really do need to be better about updating, or else just take one of my rare breaks from blogging altogether.

The Saturday before last was Open Love NY's CineKink screening of the movie Three by Tom Tykwer, the director of Run Lola Run. As sponsors of the screening, O Man and I got to say a few words to the audience beforehand, so we got a little publicity out of it for Open Love NY. The movie itself was okay, except that until the very end, it wasn't really about polyamory. It was all non-consensual non-monogamy, or cheating, until the very end.

So the best thing I can say about it was that it had a "hap-poly" ending, or a happy ending attributable to polyamory, which would have otherwise been a sad ending for at least one of the characters if poly was not considered a viable choice. Now someone needs to make a sequel in order for it to truly be a poly-themed movie.

Monday night was Poly Cocktails, and one person came up to me to say that my speech at CineKink inspired him to come out after a prolonged absence from the poly scene - that touched me. Puck came for the first time in a long while and they had lots of fun being immersed in the queer/poly/kinky bubble for a while, especially after being with their family all weekend in Vermont.

Normally, Puck and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, but since this year we happened to be together on Tuesday, we had a little improptu recognition. I gave them a card at Poly Cocktails, and got us some theater tickets to see, appropriately, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" two months hence on April 14. We also went out for dinner Tuesday night at Sosa Borella, an Italian-Argentine restaurant nearby in the Theater District.

Thursday night Piper and I had dinner at the Tick Tock Diner near Penn Station (I'd only ever been to the one in New Jersey, but I have fond memories of it). I had a wonderful Crabcake Benedict, which is two perfectly poached eggs with hollandaise sauce and paprika; one of them on a crabcake and the other on a bed of sauteed spinach. Since my least favorite part of a traditional Eggs Benedict is the English muffin and Canadian bacon, this is a great improvement for me. It's kind of an Benedict-Florentine-crabcake mashup dish, but it works beautifully.

Afterwards we went back to my place to continue our Hitchcock marathon with Spellbound, starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman. Next up is another Bergman feature and one of Hitchcock's best: Notorious, with Cary Grant.

Funnily enough, it was only 24 hours later when I saw Piper again at Wicked Faire this weekend in Somerset, NJ. This was our "friendiversary" because Puck and I met Piper at Wicked last year. I'll write about this weekend's excitement in my next post, so stay tuned :)

Weekend wandering

I had an unexpectedly busy but lovely Saturday with my BFF Lori. I had posted on Facebook how unfortunate that last weekend there was so much going on that I missed because I was getting over my cold and this past weekend there’s nothing going on and I’m healthy, and Lori had the exact same situation. So we decided to meet up near the Met to visit an art gallery Saturday afternoon.

It turned out the gallery I wanted to go to was closed for renovations, so we visited the two galleries on either side of it, Skarstedt Fine Art and the Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery. At the latter, we saw a very interesting piece that is made from hand poured crayons mounted in a frame to create a Seurat-like image of colored dots.




We also went to La Maison du Chocolat for a taste of their very fine truffles and ganaches, then sat on a bench in Central Park to enjoy them and take pictures of ourselves. In mine you can see the new buttons on my coat.




I had to pick up my prescriptions, so we killed some time near my old offices at Agent K, picking up a grilled cheese sandwich at the Melt Shop and shopping at the Barnes & Noble. I got a few DVDs, including the BBC's Sherlock, the first two seasons of The Guild, and a documentary on Andy Goldsworthy called Rivers & Tides.



Lori invited me to come with her to her friend Andrew’s birthday, whom I’d met at her birthday earlier this year ("Seventh birthday" - July 19, 2011). We met at the New Malaysian Restaurant in a hard-to-find Chinatown alleyway, along with several other friends to enjoy a family-style dinner that included some of the best Malaysian spare ribs I’ve ever had.



They also served a Hainanese chicken dish which was almost exactly like my mom’s cooking, except her dipping sauce was much more potent. In fact, almost everything we ordered was super-tasty and satisfying.



I met one of Lori’s friends Jenny, a Korean girl from Australia (such a cute accent!). She, Andrew, Lori and I went to the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory for dessert.



I ended the night by taking a solo visit to Rockefeller Center and taking some pictures of the tree.



On Sunday I had a much more domestic day. I went to the gym for the first time in a while and did some more grocery shopping. I baked my brownies for Poly Cocktails Monday night (it was a potluck for the first time in a while), plus made a huge bowl of my peanut noodles for this week. That left me with a lot of dishes to clean up, but I still had time to finish my Lord of the Rings cycle on Blu Ray that I started a couple weeks ago.

Monday’s Poly Cocktails was a big success, and as usual lots of House PNJ people showed up in varying degrees of sartorial splendor.

The perfect pork

Ever since I moved to the northeast in 2006, I've been looking for the "right" version of one of my favorite Chinese foods, shredded Sichuan pork with garlic sauce. I grew up in Houston with a specific version of this popular dish and it's in my top 4 of favorite foods ("4 things" - August 30, 2007).

I'm happy to say that after five years of searching, I've finally found a reasonably similar version and it's just two blocks away in Manhattan.

The restaurant is called The Grand Sichuan and it's very similar to a restaurant called Grand Sichuan Eastern (minus the "The") where Puck and I had lunch together for the very first time back in 2008 (it's a block from where I used to work at Agent K). That restaurant has some wonderful spicy Sichuan dishes, but their shredded pork is all wrong.

The Feng Ling (the restaurant in Houston) version of this dish has the pork cut into thin strips no larger than 1/8th inch in thickness, and combines it with tender bamboo, black ear mushrooms and slices of water chestnuts in a thick brown sauce. Most of the versions I've encountered up here miss one or more of these elements - the pork pieces are too large, the sauce is too watery, or they add weird stuff like celery and carrots.

As a bonus, The Grand Sichuan's hot and sour soup is also a reasonable facsimile of Feng Ling's, although a little more watery (they probably don't add as much cornstarch), and I also tried the sliced conch in hot oil, which was mouth-numingly spicy the way Sichuan food is supposed to be. I'll definitely be moving this menu to the top of the home delivery pile.

Now if I could just find a decent crawfish etouffee and Japanese eggplant with pork dish in New York, there will no culinary reason to ever return to Houston!

Losing weight

It's chicken parmigiana day here at the office, which is hard to resist, but not impossible. It's the second week of eating healthy, and I'm definitely noticing the results. It's helpful that Polina is doing it with me, so we can support each other and swap cooking tips.

I always felt like my problem is not losing weight, but keeping it off. But I also recognize that my life over the last two years has been so chaotic that I haven't been able to focus on healthy eating, which leads to shortcuts like eating too much takeout and junk food.

It's also not helpful that Nearing provides tasty hot entrees, soups and desserts at work that are not always very healthy. It's like eating out every day for lunch already. Thankfully, they also provide healthy salads, sandwiches and fruits too - it's only a matter of choosing them over the other stuff.

Even after just my first week, I've noticed a difference in my waistline just by cutting out carbs and fat. I've also noticed a reduced craving and appetite for food, and I've come to realize that a lot of times I eat not because I'm truly hungry, but just because it's mealtime, or I'm bored, or I have food cravings. So by taking away food cravings and putting stricter rules about what I allow myself to eat, I'm drastically reducing the number of calories I consume per day. I also mistake thirst for hunger a lot too, so I've been drinking a lot more water at home than I did before.

Another plus is getting back into the habit of cooking food, which I used to do regularly when my family spent Saturday nights over at my place for dinner, playing cards and watching movies. Without that regular interaction, I got lazy with the cooking. I've only hosted one dinner at my current apartment (the True Blood marathon this past summer) which is too small for anything more than four people (and they'd better be cozy with each other). But this past week I made a grilled chicken breast with artichoke hearts in a balsamic vinegar sauce, a Chinese chicken stir-fry and fried tofu with hot bean sauce and pickled bamboo shoots. So I'm going to try and keep inventing new things as I go along.

I think more and more that I must be a submissive personality at heart. I like having the boundaries on food and feeling in control of what I'm eating because I'm following rules. I suppose the people who know me best would say I show similar patterns in other aspects of my life. I think I've always thrived with structure rather than chaos. I like routine, to a point. I don't know if it's a reaction to the maelstrom my life has been in the past six years, or if I've always been this way. If I was always this way, I don't see how I would be the person I am today because my old life had a lot more structure in it than this life ever will.

Curry recipe

I'm rather proud of the curry chicken and onion dish I made last night. I think it's my best ever, sort of a fusion of Indian, Thai and Malaysian influences.

Here's the recipe that I made up - it's not very exact.

Ingredients:
4-5 large onions, cut into eighths
2 1/2 pounds of chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
16 oz. jar of Indian curry cooking sauce
12 oz. can of chicken stock
4 tablespoons of chopped garlic
6-8 jalapeno peppers, sliced
2 large limes, quartered and squeezed
2 tablespoons of Indian lime pickle (or relish, as it's sometimes called)
1 tablespoon of sambal oelek
1 tablespoon dried red pepper flakes
Coarse sea salt to taste
Olive oil

In a large saucepan on high heat, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic and onions until translucent. In a large pot, heat the curry sauce and chicken stock until simmering, add the chicken and boil for 10-12 minutes until just cooked. Add the onions and garlic, limes and juice of the limes, jalapeno peppers, lime relish, sambal oelek, red pepper flakes and sea salt to taste. Stir over heat until thoroughly mixed and serve over white rice. Serves 8-10.

I'm also enjoying a little renaissance of 80's music, especially of the electronic variety. I downloaded some New Order songs like "Bizarre Love Triangle (remix)" and "Shellshock", and I was lucky to find the Pet Shop Boys' album Very in the used bin at CD World last week. Listen to this glowing review from Amazon.com:

Ask people what their favorite Pet Shop Boys album is, and their answers will vary--but ask people what the most important Pet Shop Boys album is, and 9 out of 10 West End girls will say Very. The snide ambiguities that churned behind prior PSB posturings were ripped away on this release, with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe finally pulling more than punches. Self-awareness is one of the major themes on Very, with "Yesterday When I Was Mad," showing the band could send up themselves as well as their friends and lovers; meanwhile, "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Type of Thing" both carries one of the Boys' best melody lines and serves as one of their most literal confessions. There's also a more threatening, foreboding tone to the record as set by the opening "Can You Forgive Her" and the closing Village People cover, "Go West." Originally an anthem leading gay men to San Francisco's promised land, the Pet Shop Boys' version is delivered from the beleaguered trenches in the war against AIDS. The results are as ominous as they are brilliant. -- Steve Gdula

This is one seriously fun album, with some of the most melodic electronic music to come out of the 80s, in my opinion. If nothing else, can anyone name another band that has been able to cover a tune by the Village People and not make total fools of themselves? Case closed - it's currently on the heavy rotation list on my iPod.

Give a massage today!

I'm feeling pretty lethargic from our monthly staff lunch today, in lieu of our weekly bagel Fridays. We had crispy tacos catered in, and I think I exceeded my limit slightly (I ate three). New York actually makes great guacamole, but you'll have a hard time finding a jalapeno pepper around here, outside of Bobby Flay's restaurants. Still, it was a nice reminder of the good Tex-Mex I miss from Houston.

I am massively disappointed that my neighbor has slapped a security code on their wi-fi, which means I can't mooch off them anymore and now I have to pay for the service to be installed. This happened to Agnieszka too recently. I suppose it's a sign of all the distrust and suspicion in the world today that you can't leave your Internet access free to the public anymore.

A couple months ago I was giving Bee a back massage using her favorite lavender oil I got for her at The Body Shop, and I noticed some moles on her back that I hadn't seen before. I told her she should see a dermotologist, so she made an appointment. The ones on her back were fine, but they checked out the rest of her and found one on her hip that just came back as potential trouble.

So here's what I want everyone to do - go to your loved ones and offer them a back massage. It doesn't have to be an erotic or sensual massage, just the experience of touch and a quick check for any suspicious looking moles. While you're checking their back, ask them to check themselves the next time they bathe. It's a nice way to express your love for someone - the instant gratification of a massage, plus the long-term health benefit of checking for skin cancer. And if your situation allows, go ahead and check them for breast cancer too :P

I've been thinking a lot about love, and the future, and my family situation. Tara and I had a long talk about it last night before watching The Thomas Crown Affair (which we discovered that they filmed most of the museum scenes in the New York Public Library where we saw the Jack Kerouac exhibit). While it is true that I try to live in the present as much as possible, I also want many things in this life that require some planning - to buy a house, to travel overseas, to build a polyamorous family - or they will never happen on their own.

Of course love cannot be planned, so part of this means figuring out what my family and I want to do with the love we have - how we are going to express it, what it means to each of us, what we're willing to do to nurture it, and what we want it to grow into. These are questions that are pretty simple for a conventional couple - fall in love, get married, live together, start a family, live happily ever after. For my family, there are a lot more options on what to do that we all have to figure out without the aid of fairy tales and archetypes to guide us. And while the path we take may not be the shortest or most well-trodden one, I'm hoping that we'll all still end up in the land of happily ever after.

A Valentine - with garlic

Happy Valentine's Day everybody! Just wanted to send some of the love in my heart out to the world.

For those interested, here is an excellent article in the Washington Post on polyamory, reporting from the recent Poly Living convention in Pennsylvania, sponsored by Loving More Magazine:

"Pairs with Spares" - Feb. 13, 2008"

I spent most of last evening peeling about six bulbs of garlic and packing the whole cloves into two jars, along with fresh sliced jalapeno peppers, oregano, black peppercorns and red pepper flakes. Then I filled each jar with white vinegar and distilled water, and added coarse sea salt. I sealed the tops with cellophane wrap and lids and put them in my refrigerator, and in about a week or so, I'll have some pickled garlic and peppers for a garnish. The large jar is for me, the smaller one for my friend Lori, who wanted to try it.

Tara came over as I was about halfway through my pickling, and we chatted while I finished up, although the smell got to her after a while. She's the only person I've ever known with such an aversion to garlic (who isn't a vampire, at least).

Afterwards we watched a little of the Rockets-Sacramento Kings basketball game, and listened to Porcupine Tree's Nil Recurring in surround sound during halftime and fooled around on the couch in the second half. Unfortunately, she had to leave, or else she could have seen the exciting finish to the game, where rookie Steve Novak hit a game-winning three-pointer with 2 seconds to spare, and the Rockets won by two.

I'm looking forward to seeing my friend Agnieszka tomorrow night - in fact, I'm thinking about taking tomorrow off just so I'm not too tired after work, as it's been a bit of a struggle this week to get out of bed. We'll see how I feel after lunch about it.

New glasses redux

Ah, the weekend. It seems even more welcome after a short week. This week has been pretty crazy for me, actually. On Wednesday I got thrown a job to put together a response for a request for qualifications for a climate change coalition. Luckily I was able to borrow from our unsuccessful bid for the ethanol coalition last year, but I still ended up staying until about 8 pm Wednesday, then just got it wrapped up at 5 pm right before the deadline on Thursday. Lucky too because I had planned to take Karina to get her hair cut at my salon in Chinatown, and I kept her waiting for about 10 minutes because I was late getting out of the office.

The upside to this week is that we got free pizza in the office on Wednesday, and Friday we had our monthly luncheon, free lasagna and salad in lieu of our usual morning muffins and bagels. Apparently it's Italians who run things around here, or that's the safest thing to order for everyone. Personally, I'd love to see some Mediterranean food or Vietnamese food ordered once in a while. Ethiopian is probably not good for big groups since you eat with your hands - you might catch something.

Anyway, I'm sure you all want to see my new glasses, so here's a shot I took this morning from my Web cam - these frames are by designer Michael Kors:



And I also got my old Anna Sui glasses back with my new prescription lenses:



Headed out to do my errands now - the vegetable dumplings were such a hit last time with my family that we're doing it again tonight. I think I'll make some for myself this time also, and maybe I'll make a red vinegar ginger sauce to go with it. Some fresh garlic would be nice too. Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

First peek at new glasses

For those of you who haven't seen them yet, here's a shot of my new Valentino glasses, which will be the first and last time you'll likely see a photo of them:



This was taken during my sick day, so this is what I look like when I roll out of bed in the morning, more or less. I set up my web cam for the first time since moving to New Jersey, practically, to take this shot.

The reason why you're not going to see these glasses anymore is that they don't fit me right, and Costco can't seem to get them adjusted properly. Apparently, the lenses are too large for the frame to handle. So on Saturday I went to Costco and exchanged these for another pair of reddish colored glasses, plus got my old Anna Sui frames refitted with my new prescription as a backup. I should have both pairs of glasses in a couple weeks.

Today my family and I went out to dinner at Harold's deli in Woodbridge, where I had my first beef tongue sandwich, along with their legendary pickle bar. It was very tasty, actually, like pastrami that melts in your mouth *licks lips*.

Ramen obsession

Here's a fun article about the fanaticism of ramen aficianados in Japan - it's about a New Yorker who moved to Tokyo to open his own noodle shop. As usual, the movie Tampopo (often mentioned in this blog) was an early influence for this chef. However, I have to correct the synopsis in the story in that it was a woman, not a man, who was obsessed with creating the perfect bowl of ramen. The man was simply helping make her dream come true.

"Trying to Out-Noodle the Japanese" - Wall Street Journal, Sept. 29-30, 2007

It was a relatively uneventful weekend, other than some personal drama on Saturday. Mostly, I spent the weekend shopping for clothes, as this was my final chance to use my birthday discount at Loehmann's, on top of the other discounts and coupons they were offering. Friday night after work I went to the Manhattan store located on 16th Street and bought a couple of shirts, and Saturday night I visited the store nearest to me in New Jersey and bought a purse, a black pantsuit for my upcoming business trip to Utah, and several skirts, a couple of which were of the evening wear variety. I don't really expect to have any occasion to actually wear these, but they were so beautiful I just had to have them "just in case". I'm sure any shopaholic knows what I'm talking about.

Sunday I went to Target to pick up a few necessities, and noticed there was a lot of stuff on the sale racks since summer clothes are being phased out. I found a couple nice shirts that fit me well, plus a few more skirts. All in all, it was quite the shopping adventure this weekend.

So today I was poking around the Net looking for something to do this Friday, the night that the rest of my family is occupied with their own individual pursuits. I was checking out the New York LGBT Center calendar and saw a listing for a "Super Massive Cuddle Party" this Friday night. If you don't know what a cuddle party is, here's a list of frequently asked questions.

Despite what it sounds like, there's nothing sexual about it - it's all about learning to express yourself through touching, which has been one of my areas of interest for a long time. The first time I'd heard of cuddle parties was a couple years ago on a Lifetime channel show about non-traditional social practices that included a woman who taught other women how to striptease for their husbands and similar such topics. In the vein of having new and different experiences, I'm happy that there's a opportunity to participate here. It should be interesting if nothing else.

Funnily enough, this morning I was taking some required sensitivity training at work, and the message was repeatedly brought up that there should never be a reason for employees to touch each other in the workplace (other than handshakes, etc.). While of course I understand the reasoning behind this rule, part of me feels it's really a shame that touching has become such a taboo in business environments. At least that hasn't stopped some infrequent-visitor clients and employees from sharing a hug now and then, for which I'm grateful.

Scenes from a French restaurant

It's extra-busy today at the office, so no time to write, but I wanted to post this Web site of a restaurant that I'm dying to try.

La Mangeoire

If anyone has the opportunity to visit me in the Midtown area, we can go to this cool French restaurant, which is only a block from my office. If the weather is as nice as it is today (73 degrees, clear and dry) we can sit out on the patio and watch people walking by on Second Avenue.

Craving ramen

Obviously one thing I miss on my diet is pasta. Next to Italians, there is probably not another ethnic culture in the world more concerned about quality noodles than Chinese, who are credited with inventing noodles, or at least being the first to write it down sometime between 25 and 220 CE (Common Era).

One of my favorite movies of all time is Tampopo, a story that celebrates the art of Japanese ramen. This is one of those cult classic movies that has been in and out of print a couple times in the past 20 years, but it's available now from Amazon. I first saw this movie at a film festival at Rice University with a girl named Darien, who is probably the president of some company in China by now (she got a job at Andersen Consulting, shipped off to China and I never saw her again). But enough about that - the movie is hilarious, sexy and practically invented a new genre of "noodle western" movies in Japan.

So today I saw this restaurant review for a new noodle shop called Ramen Setagaya Ramen Setagaya in the East Village that referenced Tampopo. Told you it was a cult classic! So now I'm dying to watch the movie, and then go down to the restaurant and try it out.

Of course, I have to wait for a few weeks because whenever a restaurant gets a good review by the New York Times, it's going to be crowded and crazy in there for a while. Plus, I have to get into Phase 3 of my diet before I slurp down a bowlful of ramen.

The week in review

Guess it's been a while since I've posted (a week, which is about my limit these days). I've been pretty busy at work, not hair on fire busy, but lots of things piling up on my desk that need my attention. So I only have time for a brief recap on major events over the past seven days - please forgive the tone of brevity.

Working backwards then, I talked to my old boss in Houston last night online, the gay one. I told him about my interview on Monday (more about that in a moment) and let him know what I've been up to. My old company is having a 20th anniversary party in September and all former employees (even me) are invited. If it weren't for the fact that I have practically no vacation time left, and it's the day before an opera I'm seeing (more 'bout that later) I would totally go. But alas, I think I shall have to wait for my boss's retirement party, which could come as soon as January.

Last night I also started my allergy shots, one in each arm each week for the next seven months. No adverse reactions yet, but it's a very low dosage of allergens (dust mites, bermuda grass, aspergillus mold, feline dander and ragweed, in a tiny little cocktail vial). After seven months, I'll slowly transition to monthly shots for the next few years.

Tuesday I got to get out of the office for the afternoon to attend a green communications conference since I'm on Agent K's (my office) corporate reponsibility team. There was a great presentation by the lead marketing communicator for the Ford Escape Hybrid - she was British and I love how foreigners have all these different words they use, like "crikey" and "flippin' HUGE battery". Anyway, she sure made me want to buy a hybrid SUV for my next car, except that I just owned a Ford Explorer before Yoshi and I wasn't really happy with it.

On Monday I had my job interview at the new firm, and wouldn't you know it, that was the day it rained like monsoon season in southeast Asia. I wore my new shoes that I'd just bought on Saturday, and I got soaked! I think I got extra points for venturing out in that weather though. The firm is a mid-sized company similar to the one I left in Houston - the owner actually knows the owner of my old firm - and it's 80 percent women. We had a nice little chat, I showed them my stuff and they asked what kind of salary I was looking for. Unlike last year when I was looking for my first job in New York, I didn't feel any pressure to get the job, so I told them honestly that they would have to pay me in the six-figure range to get me to leave a large firm like Agent K to come work for a firm nobody's ever heard of. So we'll see if I make the cut to the next round.

Sunday Tara and I had a date planned, but the day didn't start well due to some lingering issues from an incident on Friday, but we did manage to salvage the day with a trip to the Natural Science Museum. I wanted to see parts that I hadn't seen yet, so she took me to the gem and mineral room. On the way we passed a new anthropological exhibit about the evolution of the human species, everything from our physical development since Neanderthal times to the development of our culture, language and music (which Tara found fascinating since she's a musician). Here's a photo of some early carvings of the female form made by primitive man.

In the hall of minerals, we saw samples of all the gems and minerals of the world, many of which you could touch. The latest of this collection was this giant sample of stibnite, which reminded us of Kryptonian crystal technology in Superman's Fortress of Solitude (the original one).

There were also some pretty amazing samples of various crystals, both in raw and cut form, and of course, gold (a display of traditional prospector's tools).

We ended our visit with a quick tour of the Rose Center and the Hayden Sphere, which dominates the north end of the museum.

Saturday was a very productive day for me - I bought a new summer dress, dust covers for all my bedding, a couple pairs of new shoes, a TV stand, cleaned up my apartment, washed all my bras and sheets, etc., etc. Also, it felt good to sleep in late because we were out late on Friday night picking up Harry Potter books for my family at midnight. We also had a very satisfying dinner at Cheeburger in Palisades Center right before midnight. I'm not as big a Harry Potter fan as the rest of my family, but I do like the movies, and someday I might get around to reading the books.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the dinner Agnieszka and I had at a Polish restaurant called Royal Warsaw last Monday, I think. I had steak tartare again, which was very interesting. You can see they do a deconstructed version where you mix the ingredients together yourself (the chopped things at the top of the plate) and serve it with the raw egg yolk and additional condiments like smoked sardines, pickles and mushrooms.

Even more interesting was Agnieszka's dish of flaming kielbasa, served atop hunter's stew, which is kind of like a mild sauerkraut-based stew. It arrives in a blaze of glory at the table, which had died down a bit by the time I'd whipped my camera out to take a picture of it.

So that's the gist of my adventures in the past week. On Friday, September 21, Agnieszka, Carol and I are going to see La Boheme at the NYC Opera, which should be fun. It will actually be the second time I've seen La Boheme this year, but since it's one of my favorites and the other two are new to opera, I don't mind at all. Then on August 5, a week from this Sunday, my family and I are finally going to see the Police in concert at Giants stadium. So many fun things happening lately - I feel so blessed!