Worst. Blogger. Ever.

I think I win some kind of award for blog negligence. But all that is about to change, my friends. I have been blog-spying on my college buddies and the guilt has finally caught up with me. I also recently purchased a new camera and the guilt surrounding that has also caught up with me. (Although, to be fair, it must be noted that the camera is tiny and red. Who could resist?!)

Since we last left off, dear readers, I have acquired a new pet in addition to our fearless hero, Guster the dog. The new pet is an orangish cat named Georgie, who has a penchant for swatting knick-knacks off shelves, tables, desks, etc. He also licks things. He licks things like my books. Yes, you read that correctly, my ridiculous cat licks my books.

The other HUGE news is that tomorrow I'm taking the GMATs. I've also been reading a book on stress. I'll let you make the appropriate assumptions about my present state of mind.

Two in Blue

Oona and JJ and I have been doing a little bit of a photo scavenger hunt, but I have only two photos to contribute. And they're mediocre. At best. So, I recommend that you go check out their photos and stay tuned for our next hunt...

Citizens Bank Park



It would appear that watched pots do boil.

American Gladiator NYC Tryouts

Yesterday I accompanied a friend to tryouts for NBC's upcoming revival of American Gladiator. I think these pictures tell the story better than I can:





Number 26!
















Menacing!






















Some of the competition (or a plant?) being interviewed for Best Week Ever.




























This man is enormous. If he does not make it on the show, there is no hope for anyone.















Number 26 running back to her adoring fans after finishing the tryout.











Nap-time.

Bad Dog!

I'm on vacation. Yesterday I received an email from my mother -- who is caring for my dog while I'm away -- saying that my darling little dog devoured 3/4 of a lemon pound cake and six (6!!!!) cupcakes in the span of 10-15 minutes when nobody was home. BAD DOG.

Below is my artistic rendering of the carnage:

Rant: Casual Fridays

I have some beef with Casual Friday. My office is pretty casual normally, so we're always toeing a particularly faint line between business and casual attire, but Casual Friday comes along and whaps me in the face every single Thursday night. And, remarkably, every single Thursday night all the remotely acceptable casual clothes disappear from my closets. Which brings us to tonight's dilemma...

It's Thursday night. I have no clothes. I desperately want to wear jeans, but all appropriate buttondowns have already been worn this week. Wearing my beloved pirate t-shirt is not allowed. Tomorrow's going to be seasonably warm (it's been unseasonably cool for the past few days), which complicates things further. Oh, Casual Friday, why do you taunt me with your denim-acceptability policy?

I'd rather just have Casual Everyday or Casual Never. Bah-humbug.

Legomania

There is a slight... OK, not so slight... chance that I need to go to Legoland. Behold: LEGOLAND

I have rekindled my love of Legos because of one guy: Nathan Sawaya. He's hilarious and builds stuff all out of Legos. While this is not even close to one of his best sculptures, it's got a terribly funny story along with it, which I have shamelessly stolen from Nathan's website:

There once was a very young boy,
Who came up with an ingenious ploy:
He made a wish
For his name and a fish,
To be made from his favorite toy.

Unfortunately, his name was Steven.

So you do get an idea of his awesome work -- in addition to his brilliant sense of humor, I've shamelessly swiped another image from his site. Here it is, my gift... ahem, Nathan's gift... to you:

Coming Zune?

So, I've gotten myself a brand-spanking-new computer and am re-sold on PCs (sorry, Apple empire). I had been considering a MacBook for a while, but eventually decided that with the new features of Vista being so similar to those of OSX and the compatibility of PC accessories, a Mac just wasn't the right choice for me.

And what a choice I made! I love my computer (thanks for the tip, JJ) and have had such a good experience with Vista, that I'm feeling very pro-Microsoft. So much so that I'm considering trading in my iPod for a Zune. But the thing that finally pushed me over the edge was not the wifi capability, nor was it the brown/green color, not even the prospect of no longer dealing with iTunes. Instead, the final push was this.

Stay tuned...

Singing Costco's Praises

Note the beatific light shining down from the heavens in this photo (shamelessly "borrowed" from the Costco.co.uk):

If you know me, you know my love for Costco. It's true. I do. I was just listening to NPR's Car Talk and the hosts (Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers) were talking about the quality of gasoline from Costco... which got me thinkin'.

I started to make a mental list of all the things I use on a regular basis from my parents' local Costco. The list is staggering and shockingly incomplete, but also slightly amusing, so I thought I'd share.

- iHome alarm clock
- coffee beans and/or Senseo coffee maker (depending on the day)
- VHS/DVD combo player
- stereo
- various books in my bookcases
- my car (no joke)
- most flattering pair of designer jeans
- Guster's dog food
- Guster's bed and blanket
- ski jacket
- super-mega-deluxe AeroBed (for guests)
- sheets
- favorite sweater
- knife set
- digital camera
- hiking boots

And so on... I should also mention that Costco's per hour wage is significantly higher than its counterparts and the benefits package that full-time employees get is built around the philosophy that workers will stay if you keep them happy. Doesn't sound like the philosophies of a certain competitor. (Wal-Mart, ahem.)

I sound like an evangelist of sorts, but I'm truly impressed by the breadth and quality of Costco's offerings. And, while I try to buy locally wherever and whenever I can, for "big box" items, Costco seems hard to beat.

A Brief Brief on Bad TV (Briefly)

I admit that I have dreadful taste in both television shows and movies. A good portion of the weekends in my adult life (thus far) has been spent watching embarrassingly dreadful programming on the tube. And now, now that I have done something horrible and unknown to my back, I am spending even more time watching bad weekend television. It's pathetic. So pathetic, in fact, that I am hoping by posting this, I will be so shamed by my poor taste that I will turn to some more wholesome and yet still passive alternative... like reading... or finding a synonym for brief.

Foyer Photo

In my new apartment I have lots of blank walls because I'm not big on cluttering a space with pictures, but I do need more than what I have. So, I've decided that for the foyer (which is not nearly as big as "foyer" makes it sound, but I like saying "foyer") I need a picture and I want to print and frame a photo of Guster. He's a good-looking dog and deserves some space on my wall.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it is to help me pick out a picture. I've listed a few here and will post some more after this weekend -- provided I get some good shots.


(a) Run, Guster, run! -- needs to be cropped one the sides a little bit, too much grass.
















(b) Sleepy puppy










(c) Big yawn
















(d) Ennui
















(e) Slurrrrp! (The color's a little weird on this one, but maybe that doesn't matter. You tell me.)

Turning Light Green

So. I've been doing a lot of reading and a lot of thinking lately about carbon footprints, pet-safe household products, the caves the Hudson River glacier left across the street from my new apartment, recycling, and making fiscally-responsible choices. It feels like I'm discovering all of this information around the same time and taking it as an opportunity to reassess my life.

Now, if you know me well, you know that I used to shudder at the mere mention of the word "organic". No more! Thanks to Bark magazine, I learned that when it comes to household cleaners, paint, and flooring choices, organic means it's probably safer for my spoiled puppy. (I should mention that as I write this he is curled up in a doggie donut on the sofa next to me.) Which, in Bekah-speak, translates to "the word 'organic' is now a very good thing." After reading why organic is good for the dog, I started to read more to figure out why it's good for people. Besides those delicious pastries I get on Saturday mornings from the bread guy at the greenmarket a block over are organic and, boy, are they good!

Oversimplified, everything comes down to CO2 emissions -- the so-called carbon footprints we leave behind. Remember that hole in the ozone that in the 80's we were told not to widen by using hairspray? Yeah, that one. Now it's not just aerosol cans, it's a lot of things, but basically wasting energy or using products that require a lot of energy to produce leave a bigger footprint than if you use only what you need. The bigger carbon footprint you leave, the bigger you make the hole. Get it? OK. Moving along...

I already do my part to reuse: those blue New York Times bags come in very handy on walks with Guster, most of my cookware came from my mom's cupboards, my "new" year-old laptop is a hand-me-down from my dad, and I use cut-up tee-shirts instead of Swiffer rags. And I already do my part to reduce: I use CFL lightbulbs, I read the paper online instead of getting it delivered, I use Tupperware instead of baggies, I use a Brita pitcher instead of bottled water, and I am pretty good about bringing coffee from home in the mornings. As far as the third "R" goes, I've been horrible about seeking out the recycling barrels in the City, but, if you broaden the definition just a little, Guster is a recycled dog! All that is to say that I have been doing my part, but here's the catch: I was doing all that to save money. Hmm.

Once I started reading, I found that I could make a few more changes without sacrificing the stuff that I enjoy. 'Cause I'm not giving up showering to save water, that's for sure! For example, rather than using paper napkins at the office during lunch, I use a cloth napkin I bring from home. On the days that I wake up too late to make a pot of coffee, I know that if I bring my travel mug to Starbucks I'll save at least one cup, one cup sleeve, and two paper napkins. Still Starbucks, just in my mug! And on Saturdays, if I take a second to grab a couple canvas totes or a backpack, I can avoid getting extra plastic bags at the greenmarket. (Besides tasting better, the produce at the market is way cheaper than any grocery store in the neighborhood!) Those are the little things.

I'm not planning on making huge changes, like giving up my car -- which, by the way, gets amazingly good MPG for a non-hybrid. I'm not perfect and I'm not taking the full leap into becoming a model citizen in ecological terms, but I'm trying to be better without giving up many of my creature comforts. At the risk of sounding like a true hippie (the horror!), the bottom line is this: I've finally moved to a beautiful and remarkably green part of the City and I don't want ruin it.

PS -- If you haven't already, you should sign up for the daily tip emails at www.idealbite.com.

Added By Popular Demand

A couple friends have suggested I add this photo, so here you go:

New Bedspread

A few months ago my roommate and I realized that we had bedbugs. Fortunately I didn't get too many bites and was able to get rid of them. (Knock on wood they won't come back!) To be sure, I washed all my bedding and ended up getting a new summertime comforter from IKEA. Guster prefers the bright new duvet cover to his dog bed. Go fig.

Hair of the Dog

LibraryThing = awesome

Unofficial Disclaimer: This post is, in part, a plug for my good friend's company, but it's also a plug for something really, really, really cool out there on the web.

I'm reading a really fantastic book on the best-sellers lists right now. You may have already read it, but if you haven't, check it out here. There's a really fascinating section on the educational model used in Sesame Street and how minor tweaks to it revolutionized children's television programming.

Now for the plug part of the blog, LibraryThing is pretty amazing. Tim and Abby (the latter being a close college friend) have reportedly turned traditional library science on its head. While I can't speak to that since I don't know all that much about the traditional system, but I can speak to the awesome new features being added what seems like daily. They've just added a groups feature and I hope you'll all stop by, sign up (I forgot to mention that you do not need to include ANY personal information!), and take a peek.

Houseguest

Over the Fourth of July weekend, I dog-sat for a friend of mine and tried to work on my photography skills. I have a problem with "doggie red-eye" showing up in most of my pictures.

All that being said, this may just be my favorite picture of the little houseguest:

San Francisco

It's been just over two weeks since I returned from California, so it seems only appropriate that I post some of my favorite San Francisco pictures. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do...

The Boy in the Bubble

I work on the Upper West Side and just in case you've been living under a rock for the past few days, David Blaine is in an 8-foot spherical "human aquarium" in front of Lincoln Center and will be for a whole week before he attempts to hold his breath for 9 minutes. It's Day 2.

Some coworkers and I went to see him at lunch today. The aquarium and Blaine by themselves are relatively boring, but the onlookers are a different story entirely. Their fascination with death-defying feats has never been more apparent to me. Reactions to Blaine's form of performance art, in my eyes, can be divided into two categories: (1) hope and youthful amazement -- much like children who are thrilled by quarters that magically appear from behind their ears -- and (2) morbid curiosity of what it would be like to see the famous magician die. My reaction falls more into the first category and less into the second. I took several pictures and have attached a few of the better ones. Enjoy.

Sunny Saturday

Thought I'd share a little slice of New York in the spring...

Valuable Life Lessons

Over the past two weeks, I've learned the following valuable life lessons:

(1) People will have pity on you if you're broken. Some may even offer to do things they don't ordinarily like to do. For example, cat-people may offer to walk your beast of a dog.

(2) You should go to the doctor on a regular basis. If you wait, oh, say, four years between visits, the doctor is likely to find a greater number of things wrong with you. You will then have to go to a myriad of appointments with specialists.

(3) When your metabolism shoots through the roof, you can eat whatever you want. You will, however, be the hottest (and not in the good way) and sweatiest person. Ever. It's gross.

(4) Swallowing a radioactive pill (prescribed by your doctor) does not make you glow in the dark.

(5) Labrador retrievers do not understand crutches.