Today I wanted to focus on one of my favorite parts of Miss Pussycat, her nose. We believe our kitty to be the most beautiful of all kitties, and this teeny detail may be the biggest reason. When she was a kitten she had ringworm on her nose, and even then it was still adorable. Disease ridden, but adorable. She only got slightly irritated by me taking incredibly close range photos of her today. Penny let me know when she was done by putting her little paw on the camera lens, damn cute kitty. I then stopped and played some games with her, then gave her a couple of treats as payment for her hard work.
The initial idea for this years holiday photoshoot came from a picture of Terrence as a wee tike.
In just about every prepubescent picture of Terrence he is wearing red suspenders and a tie. For years I’ve joked with him that he always looks like he just got back from a Macy’s shoot. So I had to, for his mother, get him back in these suspenders. Since he was getting decked out in a childlike way, I figured I would follow.
Not that I dress all that differently as I did when I was a lass. My mother usually had me in tent dresses and saddle shoes, ruffled underpants. I stayed away from the ruffled panties this time around, I wanted to stay classy. I was simply going to have us standing in front of the tree in our tike outfits but Terrence thought the clothes wouldn’t make sense, by that he meant he wanted people to understand that he would never wear red suspenders unless there was a clear reason for it. That reason wasn’t clear enough so I had to quickly come up with some sort of photo story.
The more pictures we took, the more agitated Terrence became about his outfit. He was being a little brat, which I guess was him staying in character. So this is what my brain came up with for our Christmas card…
All in all I feel like we could have done better, Terrence was so ashamed of his silly suspenders and the lost concept that he didn’t send out his holiday e-cards until about ten minutes before midnight on Christmas day. Next year I suppose we’ll go back to a simple photo in front of the tree and leave the ill fitting suspenders in the past.
They added a new feature to @Twitter. Now your profile shows your most recent twitpic updates on the side menu. Guilty. I guess I do tweet a lot of pictures of Penny. But look at this kitty, HOW COULD YOU NOT!?
I haven’t been doing a good job at keeping you all posted on my Life List achievements, but I assure you I’m doing them. All the ones to do with food are seriously being taken care of, mostly with the help of Terrence. The Boy has always encouraged me to try new things, and since I made it abundantly clear that I was ready to be more food adventurous he has been pushing me all the way. He brings home a strange fruit or cheese every time he goes shopping. Saturday mornings he wakes up early and heads over to our local farmers market and returns with arms full of treasures. He usually enjoys them more than I do but I’m putting in the effort. I keep forgetting I’m supposed to be photographing most of these things I eat… but here are a few from a while back that we found in our local supermarket.
Carambola or Start Fruit as it’s better known. I thought these were delicious, but I couldn’t finish one. Terrence also didn’t enjoy eating them in any larger quantity than about 3 slices. The carambola were crisp and watery, I honestly don’t remember the exact flavor though (maybe why I should post these sooner after consumption). All in all they were weird, but tasty. Thankfully Dutch LOVED the star fruit and ate all that I gave him.
Cherimoya fruit was my favorite to look at, but not my favorite to eat. It was weird… the texture was very creamy. Terrence loved it, but found it a bit overwhelming to eat the whole thing. Thankfully we live across the street from his foody parents, who are always more than willing to try whatever weird shit we bring over.
The Pepino Melon I really disliked, but to be fair… I think we waited too long to eat it. This one definitely deserves a second chance. They were very juicy though, but made me scrunch up my face and do a little shake. But I’ll still try another one if I ever come across them again.
Now I’m all sorts of hungry. Wish me luck on finding more oddity fruits, maybe I’ll hit up the Asian Food Market later and score some. They’re very instrumental in my fruit eating over there. Yum.
Back in December I received my first Warby Parker home try-on frames, and thought it was so much fun that I decided to do it again. Hooray for glasses! The last time I got my frames in record time and was totally shocked and elated… this time it seems that Warby Parker have run into some fame and recognition so it took quite some time, although still very worth the wait. The last time I was able to keep the frames for 2 weeks, this time they had to be returned after just 5 days, which meant that I wasn’t able to bring them around to as many judgmental friends as I had last time. Which is why I’m going to be relying on your internet opinions far more than I did last time. Help!
I’m hardly home when I receive packages so it’s always nice to get that text message from Terrence alerting me to the fun. When I arrived home to my box o’ Parker’s Terrence was actually rushing out the door to class and I quickly showed them to him and felt robbed of the fun… so instead I had a picture party with Dutch. Dutch didn’t give me any opinions but he was helpful nonetheless.
As I opened the box their were 4 frames I was super excited for and one filler frame, I had initially requested to try on the special edition Japhy frames in pink but received a phone call a few days prior to my packages arrival to inform me that the pink ones were not eligible for home try-on. It still confuses me why I was able to select them, I sure hope they’ve since fixed that glitch because it made me sad. The woman on the phone asked me if I’d like to see another pair instead and I told her to leave the spot empty since I wasn’t at a computer and had no clue what to pick… she offered to surprise me with one. I didn’t really like them at all, hopefully one day I can make it to one of their things in the city to play with the pink Japhy’s.
My objective in this bundle of frames was to find a dark frame to suit my face, to find a clear frame that my friends won’t hate on me (I love them all), and to have fun with Dutch (who, now that he’s old is much more willing to sit still in front of a camera). I’ve so far succeeded in two out of three, unless I have any takers of the clear frames… eh… ehh.
Penny has learned a lot of weird dog behaviors from growing up with Dutch as her brother but lately I think she’s begun teach him some of her odd tendencies instead.
Exhibit A, the strange napping habits of pets:
Penny has been sleeping like this since she was a kitten and all of a sudden a few weeks ago I walked into the office to find Dutch in a very similar position.
These two absolutely kill me. Dutch being 10 years older than Penny I can’t imagine how she will ever get on without him, unfortunately we’ll likely be finding that one out the hard way sooner or later… with fingers crossed for that ladder. We have the best children, EVER!
And if Dutch and Penny’s napping habits ever graduate to this type of adorable I will have to die several times over… I couldn’t be contained.
Here is our Charlie Brown Christmas Card, I knew we’d find a use for those old Halloween costumes eventually. Here we are, starring in no particular order…
Terrence as Linus Van Pelt:
Ana as Sally Brown:
Dutch as Snoopy:
and Penny as Woodstock:
I hope you all enjoy your holiday! Please keep in mind that theirs twelve days of Christmas… so if I see any trees out on the curb before January 6th I’m gonna cry. You don’t want to make me cry do you?
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year & A Happy 3 Kings Day to you all!!!!
(ED Note: Click on our Christmas card to see outtakes from the entire photo shoot)
I was first introduced to Warby Parker frames a few months back when I was reading through my blog feeds and was immediately smitten. My favorite part was being able to select up to 5 pairs to have sent to you for home try-on. Back then the waiting list was around 6 months long and I was slightly discouraged from putting my name in the hat. Recently I decided it was time to do so and discovered that the wait was dramatically slashed, only 5 days. I was floored and immediately submitted my try-on order. They even arrived a day early, nice. Before opening the package I went out to dinner with some girlfriends and had them assess the frames on me. The following morning, still without looking at them on myself, I asked for Terrence’s opinion. Now I felt prepared to look in a mirror. Most of the frames come in a variety of colors, so more than looking for the perfect pair I asked that my pals consider the shape of each frame and the color on my skin tone. The responses varied person to person. Still a bit lost I brought the pairs with me to work and asked a few colleagues. Sadly, the results are still up in the air. Most of my work responses were indifferent, my close friends were blunt to say the least, and Terrence seemed either indifferent or strongly against. At $95 a pair I’m not opposed to buying multiple frames, all 5 pairs together still don’t equal the amount I’ve paid in the past for any pair of my regular Selima Optique lenses. Which have in the past cost me well over $500 with the lenses included, whereas Warby Parker’s set price of $95 includes lenses. Sure the quality of the frames aren’t in the same league, but they’re not far apart either. So without further ranting I give you the results of my Warby Parker home try-on fun:
In some cases I think that Dutch may look cuter than I do in the frames… he got a smooch and a biscuit for being such a good sport.
Ok really, I need your help. I still may do another 5 pairs before actually purchasing. But I need all the feedback I can get. Leave a comment, send an email, text me, do something. Even if you just want to tell me how horrible I look, just be gentle.
Thanks.
(Ed Note: I decided on the Webb’s in Amber, they’re absolutely lovely.)
A few weeks ago I had a pretty jam packed weekend, Terrence, his sister Beth and I embarked on an adventure to Washington DC for the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, and I desperately tried to find a venue to exploit my amazing hollween costume (made by my mommy).
It all began a few months ago when Terrence showed me this…
I fell out, it was one of the best things I’d seen since the Bed Intruder Song… which in retrospect wasn’t all that far apart… but still. Up until then I was trying to figure out a way to dress as iamamiwhoami for Halloween without having to be all naked and such. It began as a joke that quickly turned to reality when my mother and I made a dash for the fabric store after a friends wedding ceremony and right before we packed the car up and moved mom to Queens. It was like a last chance rush to greatness. It was a perfect idea, I thought. While all the girls were shivering in their blank as a whore costumes I’d be all cozy in my fleece Panda costume, ingenious. I learned how to flawlessly say “Never say no” in Arabic, I got the Buddy Holly and the Picks version of True Love Ways set and ready to loop on my phone. Now I just needed to squeeze in time to wear the suit.
We’d been planning to follow John Stewart and Stephan Colbert to DC, but sadly the rally was strategically planned for the weekend before Election Day, which also happened to be Halloween weekend. Since we had to leave at 4am to make it to DC in time that meant no partying on Friday night. We were optimistic about returning to Staten Island in time to party after the rally but a last minute change of plans got us home just after midnight… I’m too old to have pulled that one off, I needed bed. I tried to squeeze in a nap on the 4 hour drive home but Terrence, who was running on 2 hours (if that) of sleep was relying on me to keep the music upbeat and sing-a-long-able. We did an excellent Tiny Dancer, one that would have made Cameron Crowe jealous.
The rally was pretty awesome, I am glad that we went. We were somewhere in the middle of the nearly 200k person crowd. My favorite part was being apart of a MythBusters experiment, mostly because I’m a giant nerd. The experience would have been made better only by some miracle that my genetics didn’t suck, it sure would have been nice to see most of the things I heard.
It was an experience I’ll tell my children about, I only wish I were more articulate so I could express just how awesome it was.
When I woke up on Sunday aka Halloween day the only thing I could think to do to show off all of my mothers hard work was to go trick or treating with my nieces and nephews. Only by the time I actually woke up and got all ready, all of them were done. Whatever happened to trick or treating at night? When I was a kid we didn’t start until the sun went down, this year all the kids were done by 3pm and all the houses barely had candy anymore… not to mention they all looked pretty annoyed that we were bothering them at dinner time. Thankfully my oldest niece is thirteen and was completely willing to stick it out with us and ring all the bells.
We had fun. My mom really enjoyed taking us trick or treating. I had reservations that I might still try to party that night, but when me and Julija got home and began to dig into our haul I lost my appetite for showing off. Maybe one year I’ll throw myself a Bronx Zoo themed birthday party and be able to show off my Panda suit.
Don’t worry John, it was worth it. No matter what the media had to say about your moment of sincerity, I dug it.
Currently Listening: Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
As I’ve mentioned before I’ve been working on a music mix for my goddaughter/niece, Riley. It’s a song from each month of her first year. I take my duties as godparent quite seriously, it’s my job to guide her in the absence of her parents. And since my brother and his wife don’t listen to anything outside of radio Disney, I feel it’s my job to show Riley the way. Today is her 1st birthday, I’ve decided to put a copy of her year one mix on this adorable memory stick I found on Think Geek. Since I always have to over do everything I also decided to continue the tradition and make her a mix every year until her 16th birthday, at which point I’ll present her with all the mixes in this, very plain and classic music box. I decided on giving it to her then because I think she’ll be old enough to appreciate it. Not that I won’t let her hear and enjoy all the tunes in the meantime… I do have to (co)raise her up right you know.
In case you’re curious here’s the finished line up for her mix:
Perhaps not all of these songs are child appropriate, however, I was sure to not use any with curses; but man is she missing out because those were some quality tunes. I am going to try to be more conscious of posting updates of Riley’s monthly songs, with the loss of imeem I feel like I’ve been slacking on the music content of this blog. Thank goodness for my brothers complete lack on interest in rubbers or I might not ever right about music again. Hooray!
