St. Pattie's In Hoboken

Marcus and I hung out with my friend from work Stefanie this past Saturday. She lives in Hoboken, and this past Saturday Hoboken held its annual St. Pattie's Day Parade and subsequent debauchery. It was good fun, and we haven't seen that many drunk people on the street in a while. We went to Maxwell's, then ended up at a good ol' diner. I tried the Montecristo sandwich, something I had wanted to do for a while. I'm glad I did, but it's not something I think I'm going to want to eat again anytime soon. It was good, but not my thing, you know? So yesterday Marcus and I watched "The Game" on TV...it was entertaining, kind of like a practical joke gone way too far that it's not even remotely even funny anymore...and like you'd need therapy after. Then we watched the first episode of the shameless, loosely plotted Starz series, "Spartacus". It was like a soap opera, but a bigger budget: with more graphic and more unnecessary sex scenes, and over the top special effects. It was kinda funny for that reason. Today I'm going to Norma's to eat brunch with Terry-a, and later today I'm going to see my friend Jennifer, who's almost done with medical school. My cousin Norrel's in town, but unfortunately because of schedule conflicts, we can't see each other which sucks! Oh ya, in the spirit of the unfortunate exposure Charlie Sheen has been getting lately, Jimmy Fallon made a really funny spoof commercial starring as Charlie Sheen.

Oh Whatta Week

I feel like I didn't go to work much this past week...it was a pleasant change of pace. I had jury duty downtown, and I got out with no trials served after the two day minimum. So I'm glad it's over. But it was nice waking up a little later and getting home by 3:30 PM...in time for Oprah! Well, the past weekend I got my butt kicked by my trainer, and then I went to Stephen's place and met his new cat Cappuccino. A cutie and very high energy...he is going to get neutered so in the meantime I'm calling him the Arnold Schwarzenegger of cats because I can't believe this guy's reflexes and energy level! Then that night Marcus and I headed over to meet our newly born god child, Liam. It was great to see his parents, (our friends) and to meet him! Then the next day we headed to my parents' house to hang out and see my sister Caroline's new digs, a one bedroom apartment. It's a really nice, pre-war co-op. So that's exciting. Today I went to the gym and watched two really good flicks. First was "Transamerica". I liked it! And I saw a favorite of mine (I've seen it tons of times before), "The Mosquito Coast". Grr...don't want to go to work tomorrow...

Law And Order

Geez today was exhausting...I was selected for jury duty and I sat around all day...the morning was a drag, then we took lunch, and then of course I had the post-prandial food coma...as did my other possible fellow jurors. It was painful! And I have to go back tomorrow! It was so funny how exhausted I was considering how little I did. We recently watched "The Queen". I enjoyed it a lot, even though I wasn't expecting to. Marcus and I also watched that old Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail" on TV this past Sunday. Holy cheesy. It was great...

Movies Galore

The past few days things have been busy. Marcus came back from Switzerland and had a very good time skiing in Zermatt, specifically on the Matterhorn. He brought home obscenely incredible Swiss chocolate...it's so good, I've asked him to bring the majority to work and store them there and bring them home in stages so I don't devour all of it at once, since I already started. The past few days we've been watching a LOT of movies. We ended up getting someone else's Netflix movie...so I figured why not watch it before I put it back in the mail? (I didn't think it was really evil...) It was "Heist" starring Gene Hackman. We liked it, more or less. It's so funny, I can spot a David Mamet film anywhere! During the entire movie, I was saying "is this a Mamet movie?" because of the dialogue...and voila---finally at the credits, I saw it was! Then we also watched "Every Day" on Demand...it was entertaining enough. We also watched "Brooklyn's Finest" on TV...very disturbing, but a good flick. Then today I went to see my trainer and I had a great workout. Then I watched "Never Let Me Go" on Demand...a great, but seriously depressing movie. Damn.

For Better or Worse

It's been busy lately, for better and worse... so I've neglected my beloved blog. Let's see...New Year's Eve Marcus I did something a little different for us. We participated in the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run at Central Park! It was a lot of fun, and made me feel healthy...since my knees no longer allow me to run, we walked as briskly as possible. And I appreciate Marcus taking it many notches down for me (he's a marathon runner). So it probably pained him just a little to have to be walking. The next morning, New Year's Day, we ended up at Norma's, the breakfast joint at Le Parker Meridien. Yummy! Hmm...Marcus and I have put in an offer to a two bedroom co-op downtown. The owner's accepted the offer, but now we still have to sign the contract (pending the lawyer checking out everything and giving us the okay), and get approved by the board. So there are still a lot of hurdles. I'm excited, but I'm also trying not to get too emotionally invested if things fall apart. That's hard, considering I'm already pretend decorating in my mind. Some of the many hurdles we're passed have been the apartment inspections. Our inspector was excellent, and we also got the place checked out by a bed beg detecting dog. That happened today and the place passed with flying colors. We used Simon, a petite, black, mixed breed dog from Bell Environmental. This is the same place that makes the ads of Roscoe the Bed Bug Sniffing Dog. FYI, Roscoe has his own Facebook page AND a game on the iPhone! Interestingly, one of my patients, Daysee the beagle, was just sent down to one of the bed bug sniffing academies in Florida to become a professional! So exciting. I have also discovered ways to watch movies that are in theaters online. I watched "Black Swan" on movies2k and I really enjoyed it. Kind of reminded me of a Polanski film I really love called "Repulsion". Anyway, Marcus just left Geneva on business and he says it's beautiful, and there's chocolate and bakeries everywhere. He also said I'd really like it there. He's now in the Swiss Alps to ski with his friends, so that should be fun. Today I saw Terry-a and we caught up over lunch. Tomorrow I'm going to see my family, and Sunday I'm going to MoMA with my vet school friend Amy. On a sad note, a few days ago our family pet parrot Periquito died...he had gout and kidney disease and finally succumbed to it. He's been part of our family for almost 30 years, and I can still remember the day he first arrived at our house...I'm glad he's no longer suffering, but he'll be missed.

Post Blizzard...Way Behind...

I just realized I still haven't finished recounting my trip to Italy...yikes. I definitely will need to finish that up, just need all of my photos uploaded. In the meantime, a lot has happened since my last blog entry. Christmas just passed, which was fun. We went to my parents' house, and as usual, there was tons of food. On Christmas Day (we celebrate on Christmas Eve), Marcus and I had a movie marathon at home. First I cooked us some breakfast: scrambled eggs, pancakes (from scratch, of course), and ricotta with fruits and honey. It was pretty good. Then we started the movies. We watched all three "Lord of the Rings" movies...it was an all day, all night event, but well worth it! And Marcus is a Lord of the Rings guru, so any questions were promptly addressed. The next morning we headed to the University Club for brunch. Marcus was recently accepted for membership there. At first it was so nice because we were literally the only ones there. Unfortunately some other diners crept in during our meal...oh, well. I had a very good omelet. Then the blizzard hit, and I didn't make it to work (darn). I got to watch "The Unforgiven" with Clint Eastwood. What a great movie! I never had interest in Westerns, but this didn't seem to be your typical Western. Today Marcus took the day off and we checked out MoMA. We finally got to see the "Counter Space" exhibit, and of course the permanent collection (gotta get my dose of Matisse). We then ate lunch at Pret a Manger, then we ended up back home in our neck of the woods. We decided to try supposedly "Manhattan's Best Coffee" at Kaffe 1668. I always hesitated because of the attitude I got from the staff, but I was intrigued. We ordered (overpriced) drinks, and were met with hipster-ish attitude. When I commented on this to Marcus, he said "you can't have hipster attitude in Tribeca...you're in the wrong place for that." And it's true. Go back to LES or Williamsburg for that sh#t! You in Tribeca now, b#tch!

Intermezzo

Yesterday and today I've been slightly under the weather, so I wanted to take a brief break from recounting my trip, since I don't think I can appropriately give it the attention it needs to fully describe it just yet...so I'm going to digress and talk about a really good movie I finally watched: "Inception". Marcus and I ordered it On Demand yesterday. And we really liked it! I actually just watched it again this afternoon. Good stuff. Highly recommended. (Although I do think that Ellen Page was miscast in this movie...but loved her in "Hard Candy".) Yesterday Marcus and I hung out with Terry-a, Steve, and the crew. It was good seeing them. But what a yucky, rainy day!