The Little Owl

On a recent Sunday I had brunch at a place in the West Village called The Little Owl. I was meeting someone for which there was the potential of playing, "Where do you want to eat?" "I don't know. Where do you want to eat?" For the better part of the morning. So instead I picked up New York Magazine, randomly picked this place out of the brunch offerings and said, "Let's go here. It sounds like it could be good." And it was.

It was tiny, of course. I think they have 10 tables and four bar stools. The kitchen looks like a closet and the prep room and lockers for staff are in the basement. On brunch mornings (weekends and they apparently do a popular President's Day brunch — who knew!) people start lining up outside about 30 minutes before it opens. I know this because I forgot what time they opened and got there earlier than I though I would. The person I was meeting was late. And so they wouldn't seat me until the "whole party arrived," which is understandable when you only have 10 tables and yet it was still annoying. They did however invite me to sit on this tiny elevated lounge area they had (hard to explain) in the corner where they kept the cell phone they use as a business phone and the laptop they use to play music for ambiance.

The music was great - as if they put my own iPod on shuffle. (There's music on their Web site, if you click on the link above. The music and Web site amused me for some reason.) And then they brought me coffee. For this I gave them major, major points, even as I secretly fumed that my brunchmate was 30 minutes late (that's about an hour I was waiting). He walked in right after a couple who took the last open table. So instead we crammed in with the two other people at the "bar". It turned out not to be so bad, though. One of the people left right after we sat down, so it turned out we had plenty of elbow room. Plus our coffee and water always stayed full.

The food was awesome as well. I had the fluffiest French toast ever with whipped cream and fruit and syrup. He had the applesmoked bacon (which apparently just tasted like regular bacon; minus points there) and pancakes. The menu also had heartier options for those who like their brunch to be more lunch and less br. The place was really adorable and I'd like to go back for brunch again and also to try their dinner menu. It looks good as well.

All in all, a happy happenstance find, The Little Owl.

American Museum of Natural History

Last week I finally went to the Natural History Museum. I think I went wrong somewhere in life because I'm obsessed with animals. I love visiting zoos and natural history museums and especially aquariums. I believe that I am actually part fish. (That said, I have I visited neither the Bronx Zoo nor the aquarium. I'm sure it will only take me another three years to get around to that.) I briefly flirted with the following professions in college: Marine Biologist, Archeologist, Astronomer. Seriously. I actually took 16 hours of astronomy before realizing the degree at my college was really just a physics degree with a little star gazing thrown in on the side. My college also didn't have an archeology degree. You had to study anthropology. But I digress.

Anyway, back to the Natural History Museum. This is not a place to visit if you don't have a lot of time. I had five hours and still only saw a tiny fraction of it. It is also an extremely confusing, sprawling place that at times makes no sense whatsoever. You wind up in places where it appears no one has been for many decades. This is what happens when you shun the maps and try to do things on your own. Finally, we went back to the front desk and picked up a map so that we could find the dinosaurs — because like every six year old in the world, I LOVE DINOSAURS. And I wasn't leaving without seeing them...or their bones, I guess would be the more appropriate wording. And in some cases their eggs.

It's ironic, I guess, that I love dinosaurs so much because my mom doesn't believe they ever existed. This is because there is no mention of dinosaurs in the Bible. I found this little fact out from my brother recently who told me my mom thinks people just stuck some old horse bones together to make them look like dinosaurs. I must admit, I was a little appalled.

So, in opposition to that, I give you even more dinosaur bones:

Ice, ice...you know

I may be an odd person for this, but I am captivated by the small, incongruous items of daily life. This results in my taking pictures of things no one else is looking at. The way a shadow makes bars on the ground, or wild flowers that in LSU colors, or most recently this arrangement of ice, which was created after several snows, some snow plowing, more snow, a warm day that partially melted the block, a little grit and then more freezing weather. I took a lot of photos. (The iPhone has allowed me to indulge this passion to a new degree. Before I didn't always have my camera with me and the one on my old phone was, I think, one of the first digital cameras ever inserted in a phone. It was really sad. I share with you only two because I know you all aren't as weird as me.



Sadly with the warm few days we've had recently, I imagine this little ice kingdom is no more.

Hello February

I have no excuse for my total lack of blogging. I mean, I do have excuses — work, too much time on Facebook, nothing to write about, no one reading this anyway, blah, blah, blah — but in the end I really have NO EXCUSE.

It's probably because this blog has no direction; it has no theme. Since I moved to New York, it has slightly more of a theme, in that I try to write about local things that may interest all of you back home (back at all my various homes), but I don't really do enough for this to provide a steady stream of information like a blog needs. But as the snow outside has thawed and we have at least a few warm days on the horizon, I hope that this will change someone and I'll get out more and I'll have more photos/stories to share. In the meantime, here's a cute guy for ya:



More soon.

Roomie

So I'm one week into a new experience known as Roommate in the Living Room. That's right, I have a roommate. I also have a one bedroom apartment. But in true New York style, we've managed to cram two people into what's meant to be a pad for one person, perhaps two if they are sleeping together like my neighbors across the hall who are married.

So we sort of used furniture to cordon off a portion of a living room as her "roomlet" as I call it. The other half is more of a traditional living room. See photos below:



We're in the market for a Japanese screen to act as a "door" to the roomlet. The hardest part is trying to find a place for all the stupid crap I've acquired over the years. Why do I have all this stuff? I've done a pretty phenomenal job, but there's still a small pile and I'm just out of space. That's it. I do not live in a TARDIS. I need to learn to throw things away. Rats are embarrassed by me. Seriously.

Mount Guilian (Washington slept here. Of course)

Roland and I walk here quite often. It's a beautiful, wooded area with a nice view of the Hudson River. Today, quite unexpectedly, we saw a doe and her fawn in the woods behind the house. I'd already put the iPhone away at that point and wasn't quick enough on the draw to snap a photo.

It's always weird to walk up on nature like that. I mean, we rounded the corner and there they were and all four of us just froze and stared at each other. I'm not sure who was more surprised the deer or me. Then the deer took off. Roland wanted very much to take off after them. Luckily he was on a leash. I have every confidence that mama deer would have kicked his playful little butt, otherwise.

So back to the house. Mount Guilian was originally built in 1730 by the Verplanck family of New York and was used a summer retreat and plantation. In late 1782 through the summer of 1783, Mount Gulian was the Continental Army headquarters of patriot General Fredrich Von Steuben. The house was expanded in the 1800s, burned down in 1931, then restored in 1976. Now they put on things like children's teas and host period games. Plus I think people rent it out for special occasions.

iFight

iPhone and I had our first fight today.

I use my cell phone as my alarm clock. It's convienent, since I always have it with me, and means I don't have to buy an alarm clock. Normally, I don't really need an alarm clock because I work nights and so I just wake up when I wake up. But this morning I had a dentist appointment and needed to drop my truck off for an oil change first. So I set the alarm on iPhone for the first time. It went off as scheduled. However, it seemed to enjoy alarming too much and wouldn't turn off. In fact it wouldn't do anything except sound the alarm.

For 12 minutes I tried holding down the on/off button, the main menu button, I tried the volume controls. Nothing. Just a black screen and an alarm that wouldn't stop. With my old phone, I would have removed the battery at this point. That solves all problems. But any of you with and iPod or Phone knows that Apple installs the batteries so that they are not removable. And unlike iPod, there is apparently not special sequence of things that will reboot it when it freezes.

So finally, I had to hook it up to my computer and RESTORE THE FACTORY SETTINGS!!! This is extremely annoying and, frankly, quite ridiculous. It's not really something I want to go through every time I need to use the alarm. And though it asks you if you want to back up your settings, etc., before it wipes the phone clean and reloads it, it does not back up the iPod part of the phone, so then you have to reload the music onto the phone. I see a little talk with the Mac Geniuses in my future.

Even more snow

[In this photo we see Roland contemplating the existence of snow: "Snow, why are you so wet, snow? Why do you fall from the sky? Snow, why aren't you here every day of my life. Oh, how I love you, snow!" And he really does love snow, just that much.]

iBucky

As I no longer have a boyfriend — or much human contact of any kind outside of work — my new best friend whom I spend all my time with, is my iPhone [pictured left, in bed]. iPhone (which, per Apple, is used without an article, just as one would use a name - i.e. "There are many new apps for iPhone." or "iPhone and I are going to dinner tonight.") does take some getting used to. Mostly setting it up is complicated when you have to call a number to deactivate your old phone and activate iPhone and you don't have a landline, so you get cut off in the middle of the directions on what to do next. But we got it activated and now I've been happily loading it up with music and amusing free apps that serve no real purpose, like Magic 8 Ball. (As iPhone a questions, shake it, it answers.)

What I haven't done a lot of with iPhone yet, is talk on it. I realize how little I actually talk on the phone any more and I wonder if that's universally true. Do people talk on the phone less than ever before. I mean, at work I still talk on the phone. Talking to people is kind of the point on newspaper journalism. But in my personal life, everything is e-mail and text messages. My boyfriend used to call and we would speak a lot, but he's the only one. I called my brother for no apparent reason, just so I could use the phone. Ironically, the phone part of iPhone was what made me buy it. I'd heard all about the fancy applications and its use as a iPod, etc. But I hadn't heard much about it as a phone until I was watching the demos on the Apple Web site. I'd been secretly coveting iPhone for a while, but until some Christmas cash showed up couldn't really justify the purchase. But then when I saw the visual voicemail, I knew I had to have iPhone right then and there. So I ordered one.

Visual voicemail allows you to look at a list of who's left messages and you can choose which one you want to listen to by tapping it. You can also rewind, fast forward and pause the message.

The best part of the phone part of iPhone, however, is that I can actually get reception in my apartment. My old Samsung (God rest its soul) was very shady in this area and in fact, on the night before iPhone arrived, I had through it on the floor in anger after it dropped an important call and then I couldn't get a signal out. It also, randomly, would decide the SIM card was invalid and I would have to turn the phone off and then back on.

Finally, because all iPod stuff is standard, iPhone fits into all my preexisting iPod accoutrement, like the speakers I have in the living room. You can also hook iPhone up to your TV and play movies off of it. I don't have any movies in digital form, but I still get excited over the idea that I could watch the movies, if I did.

It's sad that this is all I have to get excited over these days, I know.

Snow Days

Though it's pretty much all melted away in today's bizarrely warm weather, here are some pictures of the recent snow storm(s) we had. I'm not sure of the final inch count, but I'd guess we got 8-10 inches, easy.

Christmas blues (and silver)

In New York, it's an unspoken rule that Jewish employees work the Christian holidays, and then Christians work the Jewish holidays, so everyone gets to celebrate without too many problems. Except where I work. Where I work, our senior editors, who are mostly Jewish, take off all the holidays. In fact my direct supervisor (who is also middle management) jokes that next year they're going to start taking the Eid's off.

I bring this up because I'm at work on a Christmas Eve night. Two other middle management editors were here with me earlier in the evening. We are all Christians. Meanwhile, upper management, as always, took the day off. And the rest of the week. While it is Hanukkah week, they did not take the first part of the week off. Instead, they took the part of the week off that the Christian holiday falls on.

I'm a little annoyed by it, but more so I feel sorry for my boss who wanted off to spend the holiday with his family upstate. Instead he had to work today and then drive up after work. Then he has to be back at work Friday morning. Merry Christmas, eh?

In other news...

The New York Times has a column today about hooking up written by a dude named Charles M. Blow. I kid you not. Something tells me that was lost on the editors there.

Amusing Bumper Sticker of the Day

I saw it on a mini-van on my way to work:

"I'm straight, but I'm not narrow."

I assume as in "minded."

Winter, my new mortal enemy

Learning to navigate snow and to dress warmly (but not too warmly so I sweat and then get sick from being wet AND cold) have been quite the adventure since I moved north two and a half years ago. Now in my third winter, I'm doing OK with the first two, but what I haven't mastered - indeed what has gotten worse - is the dry air.

In the past winters this has resulted in cracked hands (very painful) and constantly chapped lips (there isn't enough lip balm in the world) and a pair of really nasty looking feet bottoms. I live in an apartment, so I do not have a humidifier hooked up to my heating unit. I've considered buying a freestanding one, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'd probably not clean it out properly and then mold would grow in it and I'd have a whole new set of problems.

Anyway, this winter something new presented itself. Itchy, itchy skin. The kind of itchy where I can't sleep at night and when I do I have fitful dreams about scratching my legs, and in fact am probably scratching my legs in my sleep. I haven't itched like this since I had the chicken pox as a child. And yet, it's not a pox or poison ivy because there's no rash or bumps. At least not initially, now with all the scratching my legs are pretty gross. It's mostly my legs (upper and lower), though now my upper arms are itchy too (though nothing like my legs). I tried putting lotion on them - including Vaseline intensive rescue clinical therapy, which is supposed to be prescription strength, and Gold Bond Ultimate Healing lotion, which has worked wonders on my hands. But nothing has helped. Today I'm going back to the store for something to help with the itching, which hopefully won't make matters worse by drying out my skin even more.

Any suggestions or tips?

Not dead yet

I survived both the repairs to my heater and the blood letting (a.k.a. layoffs) my company had today.

In other news, my downstairs neighbor/stalker moved away. I now have zero stalkers. Hurray!

Uh...shouldn't you shut the gas off first?

So a couple of guys are at my apartment trying to fix my heat (radiator around the baseboards). And I hear one guy say to the other guy, "OK, we only get one shot at this."

If you don't hear from me again it's because they've blown up this apartment. Again.

Your morning cup o' ketchup

I like to talk to you a minute about breakfast. In particular the two egg and cheese on a roll. My favorite is actually two egg and cheese on an English Muffin, but that isn't really offered at delis around the region and so I go with roll or, preferably, bagel when it's available.

However it's not the bread I want to discuss, but what they ask me every time I order this combo. "Ketchup, salt and pepper?"

That's right, ketchup.

I'll admit that I'm naturally prejudiced against ketchup. I don't like it even on fries, so obviously I wouldn't like it on eggs and cheese, but at least I understand it on fries. But on eggs? Seriously?

I think, maybe, I've seen little kids put ketchup on scrambled eggs before, but little kids will put ketchup on anything. Some children use food as an excuse just to eat ketchup.

I have learned not to make a fast of disgust when they ask me, but when I answer with "no just salt and pepper" they look at me as if I'm a freak; as if I had ordered a monkey and seal meat sandwich. But I'm pretty sure that I am not the freak in this one. That New Yorkers are the freaks. All I'm saying is there's a reason McDonald's doesn't put ketchup on the Egg McMuffin. And if anyone loves ketchup, it's McDonald's.

Tired

I am both tired of campaigns and tired of doing employee reviews. I'm also tired of waiting to hear about layoffs.

We're losing 19 to 20 people as of the first week in December. It's like I work in a funeral home these days. People are walking around trying not to get noticed and also spending all their time NOT working and instead guessing who will get laid off. I've suggested we start a layoff pool where we all stick a dollar in for our guesses.

Our company's stock fell by half in the third quarter from last year to this. So our corporate overlords won't have to cut back on the number of yachts they own, they're jacking up the employee portion of healthcare costs (resulting in many employees dropping their healthcare all together - something I'm debating on doing if I'm even around) and, of course, dropping the employees altogether.

I'll see you all in the rice lines.

Rochester by the Sea/Great Lake

I still refuse to believe that the Great Lakes are actually lakes. Lakes are what people back home go fishing on. You can see to the other side. There are seas smaller than Lake Ontario. And don't talk to me about salt versus fresh water. I refuse to hear it.

Autum

This year the foliage has been beautiful. I drove up to Rochester this past weekend and it was like driving through a painting. I would have stopped to take photos along the way, but I was late both coming and going and didn't have time. I'm particularly sad that I didn't capture all those little villages nestled between hills surrounded by red, orange and gold trees and also the Erie Canal, with which I've had an odd fascination from childhood...but I'll save that story for another time. But I will share some photos of the upstate leaves that I do have.