Quintessential France

Years ago, I went on a family trip to France and the clever tour guide did one over on us. While explaining a very French thing to do in Paris, he pointed to the right side of tour bus at the Parisians outside sitting at small tables at the bistro. People watching. It's underrated here in America. Most people eat and go, never tasting their food or enjoying the time. It seemed so French, so clever, so essential to the ideal of joie de vivre.

And then he said there was something even more French. Just look to your left. And there it was. He was so clever to distract us with the bistros that we never noticed we had just pulled straight up to the Eiffel Tower. A move so clever, it produced gasps and oohs all around. A majestic site for sore eyes, I must say.

Nice One, Mate

Last week, Joe and I went to see the Supersuckers. And for some reason he thought 2 beer koozies for $5 was an incredible idea. Nevermind the fact that the slender beer bottles didn't fit the koozies that night, hey, they kept our brews cold throughout the show.

I can't attest to how good the show was. I was too tired to focus and I can't actually remember any of the show that night. But Joe has promised me that was great. Something about the Supersuckers Drive-By Blues, awesome, and sweet leads me to such a conclusion.

Let's "FACE" It

My mom's had some work done.

Therefore I will get some work done.

Nothing major. She just had a chemical peel, teeth bonded, eyebrows tattooed. The most major thing was the time she got that crease stitched into her eyelids. For one reason or another, when I tell people that my mom did these things they think it's weird. Like, "Only people in Hollywood do that stuff." But to me, it's not as bad as getting major work done like liposuction or implants. The other stuff just makes sense to me.

So there will be a day when I do some home improvement. I already have a list, in no particular order.

Teeth bleached
Underbite fixed
If there's laser surgery for cellulite, sign me up.

As my body changes through the years, I'm sure I will have different items on this list, but this is just for now.

ICE IT ... and get back in there!

I'm obsessed with this tag line. I pass by this print ad at Dunkin' Donuts every morning and I love it. LOVE IT!!!

The Little Apple

After spending 2 days in NYC under the wing of Dan the Man, I feel like the big intimidating city of New York isn't as big after all. I still have bad sense of direction and still didn't understand where I was going, but walking in the same neighborhood over and over again definitely helped me feel not so small.

There is definitely one thing for sure, there's too much to do. I felt like I wasn't doing what I wanted to do during my visit, but only because the choices are never ending. And if something didn't pan out, it didn't ruin your evening. Deciding on what to eat...forget it. You might as well agree to come up with a system to choose restaurants for you. But it's all the reason to keep coming back.

Among the highlights include strolling Central Park, going to 2 Broadway shows, pushing through Times Square, and trying to identify the celebrity on the blue carpet. And things went quite cheaply. All this really made me realize that the city wasn't for crazy people. Like, hey, this place is actually habitable. I could live here.

Maybe next time, I'll make it to downtown, eat at both Tiny Thai and Cozy Thai, do some shopping, and take in another museum.

Goat Days

Rainy weekends are disappointing for me. After staying in an office all week, I look forward to spending the weekends enjoying the sunshine. Today it is raining but it gives me good reason to clean the house and organize all the things that are lying around.

Here is my "to do" list:
1) vacuum upstairs
2) clean the cat puke I missed earlier this week
3) clean the bath tub
4) go thru the mail and pitch trash
5) put important papers in pile for filing
6) fold laundry
7) paint fingernails

What the Hell is That???

This is scary!!! Where is Wallace and Gromit when you need them?

Cartoon Sophalopalus

Yahoo gives you a chance to create an avatar. It's pretty cool. Think it looks like me?

Random Shite #8

I noticed those little orange and white striped signs on the side of 83 today. I suppose that means construction will soon start and PennDOT will make my daily commute royally shitty.

Anything tastes better when it's made with bacon.

I never have luck at the pump when I'm filling up. I seem to be attracted to the most expensive gas stations in York County.

Things I Highly Doubt:

The existence of "get rich quick" schemes
The reunion of Smashing Pumpkins
Me winning Powerball
Me getting a tax refund this year

I Have a Reservation

Tony Bourdain is the host of this travel show (Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations) that concentrates on the food culture of the featured destination. Man, this show is good. Tony seems like the kind of cool guy you'd want to hang out with. And he always seems to find the greatest places to eat and experience the night life.

a) He's irreverant.
b) He doesn't always think the food is great.
c) His sarcasm speaks to me like a flaming pie.
d) He always likes to mention that his all-time favorite band is the Ramones.
e) If there's a segment that's going south, his remedy is to find a bar and drink.

You need to Tivo this show.

In other news, I'm going to NYC at the end of the month. Maybe I'll track down Tony's restaurant and see what he can do.

Movie Review: Trois Couleurs

We're waist deep in the middle of this French trilogy. So far we've seen Bleu, which is about this lady that loses her husband and child in a car accident and the measures she takes to start a new life. I'm on the fence on whether this installment was enigmatic or totally boring.

Then there was Blanc, which is about this guy that finds himself divorced from his wife that he still loves and the measures he takes to prove his love and get her back. It's quite twisted in the end and much more entertaining than Bleu. You even see little bits of Bleu woven into Blanc as certain shared scenes come and go throughout the movie.

We're waiting on Rouge to come in the mail, with the expectation that things will be tied together neatly by the end. We shall see, you never know with these artsy fartsy French films.

So far: 3 eggrolls.

Jack Black is Like Buttah

Jack Black's wit and wisdom makes everything better. Take for example, the Kids' Choice Awards. Had I known he was host, I would've watched.

And take also, a pilot episode in 1999 of a show created by then-nobody Ben Stiller that got rejected by Fox. It's called Heat Vision and Jack. The title alone might have been indicative of a loser, but take a closer look and it actually starred Jack Black and Owen Wilson's voice. Again, had I known he was in it, I would've watched (that is, if Fox would've also serialized this awesome show).



Heat Vision and Jack

Canada 2006

I have pictures of our trip to Canada on the internet. There were a ton more pictures on the camera than I put up, but these were the highlights. If you are truly interested in seeing the other pictures, just imagine more of the same and then just add 3 feet of snow.

Canada 2006

The Trifecta of Fashion

In high school, I watched a lot of Fashion TV on VH1. I knew what real fashion was then. I don't know a good pair of Jimmy Choos from Payless anymore, but if Fashion TV was still on, I think I'd be the chic-est girl on the block.

There were 3 people on that show that guided me to expensive taste:
Elsa Klensch
Andre Leon Talley
Anna Wintour

They made me wish I could afford a John Galliano or a Badgley Mishka. They made me wish I was Eva Herzigova in a slinky Herve Leger. They made me believe that the models were from another planet.

Quick. Name All the Hip Hop Groups You Can.

Remember back in the 90's when you could name all the hip-hop acts on 2 hands? There weren't enough acts that they had only a one hour show dedicated to hip hop (Yo! MTV Raps, for those of you who don't remember).

Today, there are literally as many hip hop acts as there are rock acts. Way too many to keep track of. And now they have their own channel.

You know what - good for them. I'm glad that they've come into their own and became legit. They even have different styles of rap. Like how rock could be broken down to modern rock, alternative, goth/industrial, etc. There's like gangsta rap, old skool...different sub-genres. It's crazy.

The Mozzer Finds a Reason to Live

Is anyone else here as surprised as I am that Morrissey is still alive? When I was about 14, I was so sure that I'd see a tribute article in Select magazine celebrating the genius of a guy that is possibly the most miserable git on the face of the planet. Of course, it wouldn't be an easy death. Morrissey is the type of guy that would go for the suffering. Something like hanging or drowning would only do for the Mozzer.

[I am also surprised that Dave Gahan has narrowly escaped death by his own hand on several occasions, but that's a whole other blog all together.]

And yet Morrissey this time around has finally found a reason to live. And then decides to sing about you-know-what. Yeah. I can't believe it either. Never in my lifetime would I peg Morrissey for being happy or finding sex. Yeah, the most asexual guy on the planet sings about a good old romp. Who would ever guess? But he did it on his newest album, Ringleader of the Tormentors, due out in 2 weeks. You can actually preview the entire album right now on MySpace.

I've never been a big Morrissey fan. I like the radio singles and that's about it. Although I'm happy for his newfound happiness and love, I think I'm just gonna wait for his greatest hits album.

New Goal

Ok, so I've failed miserably at completing my goals from the beginning of the year. I just haven't had time to devote space to Cutlery Corner or post pictures (mostly, I just don't have any worthy pics to post). So it's time to state some new things to accomplish for the summer.

Create Summer Concert Series 2006 (aka Peepo Stock)

I've just had a craving to go to shows lately. Something I really enjoyed doing back in the day that I haven't been doing lately. I haven't been listening to cool new music lately, mostly because cool new music is near impossible to find on the radio or on TV. But since Joe got Sirius, I've been hearing some decent stuff. So I guess I was wrong about the state of affairs in the music industry. There's stuff out there, you just have to find it. Plus, the bands I like are either aging or becoming irrelevant or breaking up. So let's get started.

* Gogol Bordello play at the Troc in April. Aaron and Alisha love them, so this is a likely starter for the summer series.

* Fall Out Boy, Hawthorne Heights, All American Rejects play in Hershey in May. Yeah, these are C-list bands right now. Yeah, the concert is on a Wednesday. So a more likely choice for May could be...

* HFStival. This year this concert is allegedly at Merriweather, which is cool. I like Merriweather. Line-up is still in the rumors and wishlist phases, but this would be a great opportunity to see some great favorites and some new up and comers. Some of the rumored include Smashing Pumpkins or Chili Peppers or Dave Matthews. But on the more interesting note, Angels & Airwaves, Depeche Mode, The Strokes are also rumored to be there.

I haven't seen any interesting bands playing out towards June and July, but I'm looking. I'm getting excited about the prospects of making this a fun summer.

Out of Office Assistant

We're off to Canada next week. Take some time to soak in some cool clean air. Taste some glacial water. Relax in a remote town where no one speaks English. We'll get a chance to head up to Saint Sauveur for some snowboarding and see how much I've really learned this year.

This will be the first time we'll see little Isadora. Play with Gabby and see how the barn is coming along. We're going to have lots of fun.

I always always always freak out before a trip. Even though it's no big deal if I forget something and I can always just go out and buy an extra pair of pants or something, I feel like there is never enough planning to do ahead of time. Right after this I'm going to start putting together mix-n-match outfits for the week, so I can save space in my duffle. Toiletries. Sleeping clothes. Snowboarding equipment. Clearing out the fridge. Getting the cats' stuff packed for boarding. Light cleaning (I like coming home to a clean apartment). Charge the batteries. Pick out CDs. Launder clothes I want to bring.

Ugh, I gotta go. I gotta get started.

Sushi

Sushi eaters in my area are funny. They still treat it as a novelty instead of just going somewhere to eat food. This is usually how an outing goes:

First you need a group of people, but there are times I've seen just 2 people at a table. One person out of the group is the designated sushi expert and within 5 minutes becomes the designated Japanese culture expert. The only apparent qualification to gaining this designation is that you have eaten sushi at least once before. The expert makes suggestions as to what is good to eat and what things are probably most like regular American food. The rest of the group listen attentively and then start discussing the menu choices they are about to make. And then comes the safety net.

Typically, newbies are unsure they will like salmon and tuna in their raw form. So they also ponder the hibachi choices. You know, just in case.

When the food comes out, this always happens. Everybody asks what everyone else ordered and then stares at it. But let me make the distinction here between this situation in a sushi restaurant and this situation at an American restaurant. At your common steak house, you may ask your friend what they ordered and you may even ask if it's good. But you never ask if it's good and then watch them take a bite to see if they go choking out of their chair. That's the difference. At sushi restaurants, people here watch the expert eat their piece first and wait to see if everything is ok before they attempt their own piece. It's just a look on their face that makes this situation different.

The rest of the meal also usually incorporates more conversation about the food (at the steak house, you ask if it's good and then you move on to normal conversation topics) and then here is where the expert whips out Japanese culture as if they used to live there.

"You're suppose to eat the beans, not the whole pod, silly."
"Wasabi is pretty strong so be careful. It's actually a vegetable, did you know that?"
"There's tofu in your soup. It's really good though, you should try it."
"You just put it in your mouth and it clears your palate for the next piece. That's how the Japanese use it."

This goes on throughout the entire meal until they leave. I've been witnessing this over and over again to the point of wondering when people will ever just get over it and just eat the stuff.