The arguably-hideous-but-I-love-‘em things I’ll be wearing in place of my Uggs until I pick up a new pair. I bought these at the Skechers store in LA about four years ago and never really wore them because they’re kind of a pain to lace up and I’m lazy like that, but hey, desperate times.
(That sculpture on the right, by the way, is a Balinese statue that we picked up on our honeymoon in Thailand and Indonesia…and was SUPER fun to carry home.)
After dinner, we met up with Stephen, our buddy Greg (center), and Kendrick’s friend (now mine, too!) Pete (far right), who’s visiting from Australia and staying with us for a couple of nights. We went to an Irish bar on 85th Street called Ryan’s Daughter: friendly bartenders, good music, generous pours of Jack Daniel’s - I’ll be back to hit the dartboard and pool table.
Last night, Mom took Kendrick and I out for dinner after her weekly piano lesson (my dad is out of town, so it was just the three of us). We went to L’Allegria, on 9th Avenue, which is a place we used to frequent when I was in elementary school. It’s where I first tasted caprese - one of my favorite dishes in the world - and I distinctly remember that experience, because I felt very posh and grown-up eating it, and it sort of marked the first stirrings of my interest in being (relatively) adventurous when it comes to food (not that eating mozzarella, tomatoes and basil constitutes being adventurous…it just is when you’re nine and have never heard of the stuff).
L’Allegria has undergone a dramatic renovation since we last went - it used to be kind of cheesy and boisterous, and now looks like a Crate & Barrel showroom - but the food (I had squid ink pasta with salmon, and Mom tried the meat lasagna) is well-priced and reliable. No surprises, but sometimes a heaping portion of tomato sauce-drenched pasta is what I’m looking for in an Italian restaurant.
(By the way, I arrived at my parents’ place looking much cuter than this, in a sparkly top and leopard cardigan, but I was cold and grumpy from my epic shopping excursion and stole Kendrick’s ancient, coziest-thing-ever sweater.)
Just want to say thank you to all of you who re-blogged my Oreo Truffle post. I was pretty astounded by the response…so would you mind writing and telling me what, exactly, you liked so much about it? Was it the no-bake element? The DIY aspect? The fact that they can be used as inexpensive gifts? I would really love to know, so that I can give you more of the same!
A special thanks to:
On the way home from my incredibly successful (per usual) shopping spree at TJ Maxx (no gift cards this time, just plain old Visa, alas). I took the bus, which is unusual for me - I don’t think I’ve taken a bus since senior year of high school (I went to Dalton, on the UES, and lived on 46th & 10th, so the M11 and M86 buses were my best friends). It was so much more relaxing than taking the subway, and I was pretty much the only one on the thing, which was nice.
See how relatively attractive/clean this bus is? Back when I used to take them, they were rickety old things with cockroaches quite literally crawling around the seats towards the back (where the heating vents were, I guess). Seriously, props to the MTA (eek, I said “props”) for the facelift.
