It will always make me laugh when she licks her foot.
Happy Halloween!
Here's this year's costume, babies.
Baby Dog as Spiderman
Spiderman!
An Average Night At Home
These guys.
Fury of the Day - Ask Me How I Want My Burger Cooked, Canada
The main difference between the United States and Canada? In the U.S., you will always be asked how you want your burger cooked - but in Canada you will never be asked that question since they assume your answer will always be something like, “Duh, of course well done.”
WHEN DID THIS BECOME THE NORM AND WHY?
Really. Why!? It's such a small thing seemingly, but how did this catch on and become an internationally known custom? For the longest time, I wasn't even aware that people ate their burgers anything less cooked than well done. And why is that, you ask? Well, Canada raised me that way. It was only after visiting the U.S. that suddenly I was given many more options. And you know what? "Medium" is kind of amazing.
My real beef (hahahah not sorry) lies with the fact that the youth of Canada will experience this same trend and not learn for many years that there, infact, are many more options out there.
And if you're looking at me like, "I know a place in Canada where they ask you how you want your burger cooked" then you can go right to hell. Of course there are places that are exceptions. But typically speaking, those places are either exclusively-burger places or fancy-ass restaurants. And it shouldn't be that way! Every place should ask! Why should we, the people, not have a choice in the matter?
If you think I'm being too passionate on this issue, you're wrong.
Autumn Decorations
We all fall into two categories of people - those who seasonally decorate and those who do not. Guess which one I fall into.
I love walking into a home and being able to feel what time of year it is. There's something that makes me so happy about someone putting that much effort into their daily surroundings. Here are a few that I made and put up when I was visiting my parent's house recently.
I know these are little subtle, but that doesn't make them any less lovely, in my opinion. And if you think I'm a snob about the kinds of decorations that people put up, you'd be dead wrong. I find the most gaudy of decorations just as pleasurable to see as the more demure ones. I'm really just a fan of people celebrating any kind of holiday or season. And when you're ready to move on to the next season, you can always store them in your handy holiday decorations box.
Secrets of a Great Bath
I don't know why, but I have a feeling that you're not taking enough baths. Am I right? I feel like I'm right. And if you're trying to tell me that you're too busy or your tub isn't clean enough for such activities to take place, I'm disappointed in you. The luxuriousness of a bath is something that we all have access to (provided you own a tub). Why are we constantly passing up the opportunity to bask in some hard-earned peacefulness? Do you feel that you don't deserve it? You're not worthy of a twenty minute dip? Nonsense, I say. You do deserve such a life. Quite honestly, maybe you're just unaware of how to specifically make the most of having a bath. You know, a proper bath. So here's what you need to have:
- Candles. That should be obvious, but maybe it isn't. The strong, harsh lighting of most bathrooms simply won't relax you to the fullest, so you'll need tiny little tea lights that surround you. They're crazy cheap from any dollar store, like those ones shown above.
- A cold drink. This complements a hot bath more than words can describe.
- Bubbles. Not the shitty drugstore kind, but, like, an Avon brand or better. Those bubbles are the money bubbles.
- Scrub mitt or exfoliation glove. Since you'll be soaking it up anyway, you might as well scrub some of that old, dirty skin off.
- Body scrub. This just makes sense if you're trying to come out of this tub soft as hell.
- Scrunchie. If you have long hair, it just makes sense.
- Face mask. What better time to use a face mask?
- Pumice stone. For the feet!
- A pad of paper and a pen. These'll be useful 'cause your mind will be so clear that you'll remember things that you need to do or ideas that come to you or other things of that nature.
- More than one clean towel. I love getting out of a tub and having a ton of clean towels at my disposal. Maybe that's just me.
And most of all? Keep your cell phone OUT of the bathroom. You should bask in the time away from it and most importantly, you don't want to be one of those losers who drops it in water. I feel no sympathy for those goons. Happy Tubbing, tubby!
(P.S. I hate that 'tubby' is a mildly offensive word. It's so funny and lighthearted, I wish we could all just use it lovingly and obliterate any negative connotation with the word. Let's work on that.)
Autumn List 2015
Of course I'm going to make a list of autumn things to do and of course I'm going to tell you about it. Off we go!
Go apple picking.
Make tiramisu! (What's that? This isn't a typical fall thing to do? I can't hear you?)
Take photos of Baby Dog in the leaves.
Go to Goodwill to figure out my Halloween costume.
Watch Hocus Pocus.
Decorate the front porch of my parent's house.
Scent the house like autumn.
Try the new soups at Sweet Janes.
Visit the oldest cheese shop in NYC - Alleva Dairy.
Check out Washington Mews in Greenwich Village.
And I'll probably peruse this list a little, since, you know, OCTOBER IS COMING.
Happy 30th Birthday, Harmeet!
This woman is probably the kindest person you'll ever meet and you should feel a little bad that I MET HER FIRST. Happy Birthday to my longest and best friend out there. Thank you for endlessly being you and inspiring everyone around you. Love you, jugs.
Revisiting My Summer List
With the summer finally coming to a close, I wanted to reflect on that list I made earlier in June. Remember how I made a list of things I wanted to do this summer? Let's see how that went.
- "Try the frozen hot chocolate at Astor Bake Shop (Queens)" - did it and wrote about it!
- "Finally visit the rooftop across the street - there's a hotel across the street from me that has a rooftop bar that I've always wanted to go to but never have (Queens)" - didn't do it, which is weird because it's crazily close to my body right now.
- "Finally eat a Nanaimo bar for the first time (Toronto)" - did it! And they were crazy good, it's probably a good thing that I haven't been eating them my whole life. Thank you to Mrs. Battiston for making me a batch!
- "Go to City Island (Bronx)" - sadly, no. But I'll aim to go next year.
- "Go to Montauk (Montauk)" - I had the chance to, but no - it collided with plans to be in Toronto, so yet again, I'll have to wait for you, sweet Montauk. I did manage to make it to Long Island, however.
- "See this year's installation at the rooftop at The Met (Manhattan)" - shit! Totally forgot about this one.
- "Successfully grow something in my backyard (Queens)" - totally did this one! The wheatgrass!
- "Check out the Jefferson Market Garden (Manhattan)" - did it on the way from the burrata ice cream.
- "Get the burrata ice cream at Dominique Ansel (Manhattan)" - oh hell yeah.
- "See a movie at that gorgeous AMC on the UWS @ 84 street (Manhattan)" - nothing good was ever playing!
- "Try an egg cream in Forest Hills (Queens)" - uh HUH.
- "Visit the Edgar Allan Poe cottage (Bronx)" - Nope, it's hard to get people to want to come to the Bronx with you.
- "Blog Idea: Photograph Each Hour For A Day" - I was never up to date enough to do this one, that's my bad. I still intend to do it!
- "Blog Idea: Outfit Of The Day posts" - My outfits sucked this summer? Haha. They didn't, I just forgot I wanted to do this.
- "Blog Idea: Vlog!" - I swear this one is still gonna happen soon.
All in all? Six out of fifteen things got done.
Yikes. Does it make sense that I still had a pretty wicked summer? 'Cause I really did. Behold, summer!