Merry Christmas to all

... and a Happy New Year!

The day after the October storm of '11

Well, I've been very inconsistent with all this social networking, but since there's sort of a seasonal theme I had going I'll try to keep that up at least. A historical snowstorm blew us all away last weekend just before Halloween. The last time it snowed in October in NYC was in the 1940's. Pretty freeeeakkkyyy...
(Just a note: these are from our new digs in Bay Ridge, BK)

There's always one in a crowd

I just read this article about Dave Grohl kicking out a dude who started a fight at one of his concerts.

It reminded me of a similar situation I encountered at a Queens of the Stone Age concert a few years back. Everyone's enjoying the rock when some big idiot starts mowing down the crowd and pushing people around. At first people managed to shove him away and he seemed to be removed by security, but somehow made his way back(!) egging people on to start punching him, which is what ended up happening. Right in front of the center of the stage. (I only got mildly knocked into.) As soon as it got into pummeling, Josh Homme halted the song and said to the crowd, "Ok, who's the a**hole?" And hilariously everyone pointed at the big doofus and he finally got officially kicked out. Then there was cheering and the song got started up again. I remember being impressed by that.

I mean, come on, we're not 17 anymore, we paid to listen to some good stuff and maybe bang our heads a little. I'm glad our maturing (I won't say "aging" because that's too depressing) rock stars support that.

Hands on

The hubby was featured in the NY Post representing "well-educated, energetic youngsters doing unique, retro, sustainable works."

And he just turned 30 last week! Look at him go!

For realsies?

There have been many predictions throughout history and some that mildly affected us (remember Y2K? how annoying was it to update all our computers?) but can we really expect to see the earth swallow itself up whole? In our lifetime? Who knows. I guess the one thing I'll take from all this is that as cliche as it is, we should really try to appreciate the small beauties of life and try not to waste the days given to us. Wait, do I now sound like the crazy person??

(As an aside, I now realize that these ads aren't so much to "warn" people about tomorrow, but a last ditch effort to sell these books before they're completely worthless!)

Hope springs eternal

Spring is always a beautiful time of year. Everything is just a little more comfortable, there are nice smells in the air, and there is a sense of hope and rebirth. Even in our front yard and neighborhood, there are lovely blossoms and buds of things to come.

Nature can be so fragile and gentle, blossoms last for only so long, and sometimes nature can be so powerful and violent, as we witnessed with fret in Japan last month. This spring's sakura cherry blossoms will surely be even more beautiful in Japan and bring some hope and peace to those around them.

Feeling angsty

Last night, we accidentally caught a glimpse of Idol and were mortified that some kid was attempting to cover a Nirvana song. I just listened/watched the whole thing and wow, nothing has ever made me cringe and want to pull out all my hair like this... ever! I was literally pulling my hair and soothing myself saying, "no, no, no...".

The thing is, Nirvana wasn't about singing or even playing music well, which is why it's so upsetting to first see someone try to mimic it and then to have J.Lo judge it. AND then on top of it all, the whole reason why this kid sang the song ("Smells like Teen Spirit" which is also like the cheesiest one to cover) was because he had to sing a song from his BIRTH year. Ok, my dear friends of my generation, do you not want to cry/throw up now?

If you must see it for yourself, I found the video on a an article entitled "'American Idol' desecrates Nirvana's 'Teen Spirit' as expected".

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. I'll never speak of Idol again, unless someone tries to cover PJ Harvey or Radiohead.

Is okonameyaki romantic?

Happy Valentine's...

Snow snow snow!

It being a whole new year, I thought about starting a whole new blog, but for now I'll keep this one chugging along. The snowstorms were relentless this year, it seemed like we'd never see it melt away. Kitty braved it and after some initial fear and wonderment, grew to love running through the snow and digging for treats (our neighborhood has a lot of discarded chicken bones and open cans of cat food lying around for some reason). Here are some highlights...

Enjoy the holidays!

Happy Holidays and here's to a great 2011!

Last bits of Fall

I usually get some good foliage shots, but this year fall got away from me.

Brazilian TV gets me

Check out my Brazilian TV cameo! They came by our shop to shoot some things and interviewed me but luckily they cut that part out. Apparently Brazilians never wear hats so they're fascinated by our need for them. They also call hats, chapeu like the French.

Espana, valle? no valle? valle.

When we landed in Spain, it felt so easy to get there. Why haven't we done this before? It's just a little plane ride across some ocean, was the first thought. But as the trip went on, we realized how lucky we are to have the opportunity to travel somewhere across an ocean.

We were sort of isolated initially in a resort city Malaga, a town popular for British vacationers. It was kind of interesting seeing things the quaint Spanish town thought us foreigners would enjoy. For some reason our resort had rifle shooting as an activity (which we accidentally slept through), and the last night the performer at the bar by our room was this amazing guitar nerd. He played everything from Queen to Bon Jovi.


We trekked on the Renfe train (very very reasonable prices) to Sevilla and Cordoba. Tapas, cheap beer, cafe con leche, beautiful architecture, Moorish history, friendly locals were thoroughly enjoyed.

Scott's Argentine accent was recognized much to his parents' delight! I was so thankful for Scott's ability to communicate. It made travel much easier and made for lots of odd and wonderful interactions with the locals.


As Scott said, we liked how things just kept happening around us. In Sevilla, we just happened to be going the same time U2 was in town and a lot of the hostels decided to jack up their prices (regularly 20 euros, U2 prices 300 euros a night!). We managed to find a normal priced hostel where we met a young Argentine who was traveling for 2 months across Europe. Good conversationalist but insanely stinky feet which we recognized once we bunked with him. I mean, we're not that sensitive but seriously, I've never been woken up from a scent. It was like a punch in the face! So the first night, not so rested.


The second day in Sevilla happened to be the day of this nationwide strike, Huelga General. It was more of a party in Sevilla and a march with hundreds filing down the historical streets so sadly lots of places we wanted to visit were closed. But we decided this was cooler anyway.

In Cordoba, we saw the amazing Mezquita with its mixture of Muslim and Christian architecture and art but also landed on the day they announced their candidacy for European Capital of Culture.




I also found a historical hat shop and met the owner, a 5th generation haberdasher. The shop was like a museum and he showed us a beautiful handmade, traditional flamenco hat.

Due to our NYC stubbornness, we walked A LOT and were pretty exhausted by the end of it. Ironically we did not siesta though we had to work around the siesta hours. We definitely could have used better timing, but overall our timing allowed us to be a part of some historical events.

While walking on to the plane, there was an older couple in front of us, older but fit. And I whispered to Scott, maybe the next time we'll be able to take a trip like this will be when we're their age. Hopefully we'll have more adventures in store for us yet!

Back to back medals baby!

But that's not what the Shorinji Kempo Taikai (tournament) was about of course. It's not about winning, it's about working hard to accomplish a goal, and feeling a sense of accomplishment... and winning 3 medals again! I mean, I really shouldn't brag, but it's my blog so I shall continue to say that I was very pleased and surprised to win in all 3 categories that I entered in. I also have to thank all my friends and family who came out to support me and watch and cheer. It was really great to see friendly faces in the audience.


The main difference in this year's Taikai was that my dojo, the Shorinji Kempo New York City Branch hosted the 3 day event which included a study session as well as the big event. Helping to host an event with over 100 participants from all over the U.S. and Canada and special guests from Japan was quite an experience. I don't think I've ever been so stressed and filled with anxiety and excitement in my life. Ever. Did I mention I was asked to M.C. the whole event? I have also never worked so much on so little sleep. I believe Scott can attest to a slight mental breakdown the night of the last day.


But we did it and people were happy and we learned a lot about how to organize an event and what mistakes not to make again (order more vegetarian meals, who knew they were such an angry bunch), and definitely felt a sense of accomplishment. And did I mention I won some medals?

A note: I think I changed something before on my comments preferences and I just noticed that I hadn't published a bunch of them. Apologies! And thank you for reading. I was so glad to see people are still reading! I'll try to be more consistent with the posts for your reading pleasure...

Music under the stars

Beautiful night. Free music all week at Bryant Park. Guess it's officially Fall.

Jonesin for the beach

I had been dying to go to the beach at least once this year so I finally went on one of my random days off. Fearing it to be the last hot day of the season, I hopped on the LIRR transferred to a bus and made it to the sandy shores of Jones Beach. It was a gorgeous day. There were a few obnoxious teens still on summer break, but aside from that it was quiet, sunny, and breezy. I had just gotten a Nathan's dog, laid out my blanket, put some lotion on, sat down ready to take a bite when a freaking seagull shat directly onto my crotch! But I wasn't going to let that bring me down. No sir. I figure if it happened once, at least it wouldn't happen again. And it didn't and I frolicked in the waves a bit, got a slight tan, and was on my way back to Queens, refreshed and sun-kissed from my one day at the beach.

Wedding on the farm

Two of our dear friends, Evan and Melissa had a lovely wedding party last month at the Queens County Farm Museum. Apparently Scott used to come here on school trips as a kid so it was a little nostalgic for him. They were some cool ducks and peacocks and sheep roaming around, but all was classy and lovely in the barn where the happy occasion was celebrated.

Scott was asked to make a speech and just hours before we were making the final edits to the speech. I was the "unofficial" photographer so I had my own problems! But he had to wait two painstakingly long hours before the big moment (in front of everyone, on the top of the steps!), and started to feel a little nauseous but when the time came, he knocked it out of the park. He still surprises me. His speech was really from the heart which was easy because Evan is one of his oldest, dearest friends, and he loves Melissa. Evan's parents even thanked him for his lovely words.

Next month, another of Scott's best friends is getting hitched and he has to prepare another speech. Adam made a pretty awesome speech at our wedding so it's going to be another tough one! Luckily Scott only has 2 friends really so once he gets through this next one, he should be free and clear.

Coming soon...

Sunday, Sept. 5 at 10am! More info.

Niece Natalia born today!

3:05am... and we stayed up all night waiting for her. Congrats family!!

Waiting for the Prez

Apparently President Obama was in NYC today and just happened to pass by a certain hat shop in Soho. We were hoping he'd pop in, but I heard he had a party to go to. Maybe next time. Here's what really happened... click



Most people were excited and clapping but one dude yelled out something angry about the economy. Ah, gotta love New York sometimes.