Then there was one...

I've only had three hubcaps on my car for the last few years.  One day, the front passenger side hubcap was on my car, and the next day, it was just gone.  I didn't think it was a big deal so I never replaced it.  But this morning, as I left my condo and headed out to my car, I noticed that both hubcaps on my driver's side has disappeared. 

How long has it been like this?  There was a really bad storm last night so my first thought was that they flew off in the 60 mph winds, but now I'm not sure.  Would I have noticed if they flew off while I was driving on the highway?  And here's the most important question: should I purchase new hubcaps for my car or just take off the lone hubcap that still clinging to that back tire? Decisions, decisions...

Sprinkles, for Real

Almost five years ago, when Anthony and I were in Phoenix, Sprinkles was opening a location in Scottsdale but we were a few weeks too early.  I remember being so disappointed because I'd heard great things about the place, but just within the last couple of months, Sprinkles has headed east.  There is one in Washington DC and another store just opened on the Upper East Side.

The cupcake craze might be waning but I'm still on board.  I'm not a huge cake fan so cupcakes are the perfect size dessert for me and I'd love to try Sprinkles since it was the first all-cupcake bakery. And after seeing a photo of the inside of the store, I'm in love with the giant stools that look like frosted cake.

Has anyone ever been to a Sprinkles bakery? I wonder how the cupcakes compare with Crumbs...


Photo courtesy of New York Times

This is why...

we don't shop in bulk.

This box of Cheerios is so large that it doesn't even fit in a cabinet.  I'm glad our BJ's membership is a free 60-day trial.

NYC in Motion

New York is one of the greatest cities in the world, and it's one of my favorite places.  This time-lapse video from filmmaker Josh Owens is spectacular. So much happens on such a small island and Owens catches the beauty in all of the small things that make Manhattan great.  I especially love the traffic as it funnels in and out of the streets.  What's your favorite part?

Mindrelic - Manhattan in motion from Mindrelic on Vimeo.

Via Gawker, via New York magazine

Weekend Highlights

 
The weekend went by quickly, as all long weekends tend to do.  It was uneventful for the most part, and we didn't even attend a barbecue (I actually kind of missed that but am anxious for a day when we can have our own barbecues).  Some highlights:

• I received several emails from Anthropologie about their 'Huge Holiday Sales' so on our way to Greenwich on Saturday to see Anthony's mom, we stopped.  Not only didn't I get anything, but we banged into a table that had about 100 mugs stacked high and managed to knock a few off so that they crashed and broke into a million pieces.  Major props go out to the salespeople--we felt so badly and offered to pay for the merchandise about ten times (four broken mugs=$32), but they were calm and collected and wouldn't take our money. I'm not sure I can ever go back to that store though. 
• Anthony's mom took us to a new place that opened in Portchester called BarTaco for lunch.  It was right on the water and even though we all got a bit more sun than we expected, the food and company were really great.  They serve mini tacos and tamales in fresh corn tortillas, and I almost felt like I was in San Diego, which is a wonderful compliment.
• Speaking of San Diego, all I've been thinking about is going on vacation.  Just a day or two near the ocean would be ideal.  Anthony and I aren't able to get time off together until August but maybe I can find a last-minute deal and we can actually take a trip this summer.    
•  Last year at this time, I was planning a surprise trip to Baltimore for Anthony's birthday, but this year, I still don't have any concrete ideas.  I'd love to take him on a day trip to celebrate, but I can't decide on a location.  Any ideas?
• There were a few moments this weekend that were perfect.  On Saturday night, we spent time with my college roommate and had a great time, talking until we were the only ones in the coffeeshop, and then moving outside to talk by our cars for another two hours.  Some of the best times we've ever had have been when we are doing nothing of importance, and I forget sometimes how much I miss that.  
• I also sat out on our balcony for the first time and was able to almost finish a story I've been working on while balancing my laptop on my knees.

How was your holiday weekend? Did you enjoy the sun and humidity, or did you feel like you were melting like I did?


Image courtesy of weheart it/yourhousecat.tumblr.com

White Walls No More

Growing up, my room was plastered with posters.  Any picture or card that I liked was attached to the wall with some kind of tape, and it basically stayed there until I moved out after college.  My dorm room walls in college were covered too.  The Muppet posters and certificates from elementary school were replaced by postcards and author quotes.  Since I've always decorated in some way, it's weird to think that the apartment that I just moved from, the one I lived in for four years, had nothing on the walls.

At first, I was too busy.  I wasn't able to take time off from work when I moved initially so I wound up unpacking at night and on weekends.  I put a few things aside that needed frames before they could be hung, but I never got around to buying any.  Then, for some irrational reason, I was worried about putting holes in the walls and getting charged for it by the landlord.  And now, I'm in a new place, an adult apartment, and I plan to actually follow through this time.

I've been collecting postcards for years, back to when I was eight or nine years old and bought a few in a hippie/bead store in Brattleboro, Vermont one weekend (yay, Beadniks!).  I have this idea of creating awesome collages with the mostly black-and-white postcards, along with framing some pictures of my family and Anthony.  And I have some photos from past vacations that might look nice if they were enlarged.  The goal is to make sure that people know that Anthony and I live in this place, and to make sure it reflects our personalities and the things we love at least a little bit.

I've had my eye on these Paris pictures for a long time.  I love Nichole Robertson's blog, Little Brown Pen, and her posts are always so wonderful, whether about France, traveling, her family or cheese (one of my favorite topics!).  Her photos focus on the little things that I love, the details not everyone notices but that add character and make a place special, like chairs, bicycles, sidewalks, coffee cups.  Now that her shop has these color collections in postcard-size, I think it's time to go ahead and buy them for our new home.  They remind me of the three days I spent in Paris and how, even though it was snowing and freezing, everything I saw was beautiful.  If you have time, check out Nichole's blog--it'll truly make you want to visit Paris.

 
Images of Color Postcard Collection from Little Brown Pen

Lunch-Hour Netflix

 
Lately, I've been trying to take a break for lunch.  Work gets busy for some reason right around the time I'm supposed to leave for lunch so more often than not, I wind up eating my sad sandwich at my desk while typing contracts.  At a certain point, it became clear to me that I may actually need to take that time to re-group.  In the past two weeks, I've watched three movies on Netflix while on my lunch break at work, using the iTouch that Anthony bought me in January.  I think that I've definitely underestimated the benefits of a 30-minute midday break.  I'm not only refreshed for the remaining five hours of the day, but I'm also watching movies that I know Anthony wouldn't want to see, including:

Brief Conversations with Hideous Men: a John Krasinski-directed adaption of a short story by David Foster Wallace which was dark, scattered and extremely intense and was probably better as a short story, no offense at all to John Krasinski, who bravely cast himself in a very unlikeable role against type. 
 

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work: although I did feel like much of this documentary was scripted, parts were quite raw and emotional.  I had no idea that Rivers' husband had committed suicide, I didn't know much about her relationship with Johnny Carson, and this was an interesting view into the life of a true legend, a female comedian doing things in the 1960's that no one else was who is trying to stay on top as she gets older. 

Please Give: I really enjoyed this movie about a New York City family and their elderly next-door neighbor. To me, the characters were all flawed and 3-dimensional, and overflowing with emotion and guilt, although they couldn't always explain why, which made the film even more realistic.  Catherine Keener is wonderful, as always, and I appreciated what the film was trying to say (money isn't everything, but if you have it, it can't always make you happy, etc., etc.) even if there were uneven moments.

Share: Do you have any movies that you think I should add to my Netflix queue for lunch-hour enjoyment?