Wrightsville Beach

Beautiful beach, but no access to public showers forced me to trespass and take a shower at one of the rental houses. Most of the outdoor showers were padlocked but I found one that was just walled off... a quick shower made even less enjoyable when Viv told me the renters were coming back. I was very relieved she was mistaken.

Raleigh, NC sites

Does Chalupa qualify for cash for clunkers?

She's turning out to be a lemon, we might have to trade her in. She has a rash over most of her 10lb body, she's been so itchy she can only sleep a few hours at at time. Where she usually can sleep for hours and hours on end. Poor little thing, I was up with her at 5:30am, rubbing solarcaine aloe on her belly. Now, the vet also says that the fur hasn't grown back on her paw that was abscessed and it may NEVER grow back. Now she is no longer a cute little diva, she is a rough and tumble biker dog with the scars to prove it. How about it readers, time for a trade in?

It Might Get Loud

So over the weekend it was unbearably hot and humid so we decided to duck into the Chelsea Sunshine Cinema and press our luck by just seeing whatever was playing, and boy did it work out. It Might Get Loud posters are scattered throughout the city and I was definitely interested in seeing the doc. It features Jack White, The Edge, and Jimmy Page and their eclectic guitar styles and philosophies. This is a great film, well-crafted, well-edited, and researched. From the opening scene of Mr. White hammering together a homemade instrument to the last scene of the three heros playing "The Weight" (take a load of Annie ) and the three figuring out what parts they would play/sing I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had some great animation sequences that helped further the story along and were never distracting or out of place. The archival footage of a young "James Page" and old photos of Edge, and early photos of Jack were so much fun and again worked together beautifully to tell a story. Three very different personalities, different lifestyles, from three different countries, all with a love of their music. A must see.

Chalupa and another load of laundry

Her paw is healing nicely, the soft cone is definitely more wearable. Although she looks like she's about to get her teeth cleaned at the dentist.

...when you gonna make up your mind..

..when you gonna love you as much as I do.....

Yesterday was a great day, not only did we have tix to see the lovely Tori Amos, but we also had reservations for dinner at Bobby Flay's Bar Amercain. The place is enormous, and pricey, so we don't go there often but while we're here we decide to live it up. For appetizers we got the grilled pizza, the artichoke salad, and the side order of homemade potato chips with blue cheese dip. The waiter said the potato chips were a must and had them get to our table right away...and boy was he right. UMMMMMMMM...if I could bath in that blue cheese I probably would...Or I could just eat mountains of potato chips dipped in the warm blue cheesy goodness. Also worth noting in the bread basket, I only tried the corn bread and it was delightfully buttery with little bits of pepper..nice touch. And both Miranda and Dory LOVED it too. John passed, and dug into the more man-sized rolls. For entrees our waiter recommended the Halibut and Dory ended up getting it, John got the NY strip steak, Miranda got the Red Snapper and I got the Smoked Chicken. Everything was super fab.

My only complaints so far was it took forever to get another club soda (and when we got the check they charged me for 3 club sodas when I only had two...and had to wait quite a while for the second)...also the Asparagus salad had some of the tiniest wimpiest sticks to pass for asparagus I have ever scene. Miranda and Dory were convinced it was the wrong salad...but no it's just that Asparagus salad there means the tiniest bit of Asparagus with a mixed salad. John insisted we all get a dessert, I ordered the German's chocolate cake, which was divine and GINORMOUS, almost as big as the restaurant itself..and did I mention delicious? Dory and Miranda split the apple tart and were exceedingly happy with it, and John got the blueberry and lemon crepes and was also very pleased.

It was an amazing dinner, that could only be topped with seeing Tori at Radio City Music Hall. We had pretty good seats in the Orchestra but in row AA, so about 26 rows in front of us and we were to the left of the stage. But it was a great show, Radio City is a great venue and the set list had a healthy portion of old faves from her much earlier work. It was a fantastic night...and if you haven't figured it out already the opening title to this post is from Tori's song Winter. Other highlights: her cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit, Precious Things, a great re-mix of Talula, and Big Wheel. Couldn't have asked for a better night. Also the guy who played guitar also would play the stand up bass for a few songs...sweet.

orchids from a street fair

John bought me this at street fair. 20 bucks.

Chalupa in a soft cone

Our neighbor had a soft cone that we could borrow for Chalups, she's finishing up feasting on a treat in this picture.

Dumplings from a truck

I have a dream that for one full day I will only eat food items bought out of a truck. There are several food trucks in NYC, starting with the famous Mud truck (has great chai), there is a cookie truck (I have yet to see for myself), a dessert truck, and of course the ubiquitous Mr. Softee. There is also a knife sharpening truck that comes into our neighborhood mostly on the weekends. Today I took one bold step toward my dream and bought lunch from the Rickshaw dumpling bar truck stationed at 52nd street and Lexington Avenue. I paid $6 for 6 chicken and basil dumplings, and I was a little skeptical that the dumplings were a dollar a pop, but when I got them home and bit into one I was very happy. They provide a tbai peanut dressing for dipping. I was a little low on cash, but next time I'm gonna also try the watermelonade. Yum. Longish line, but the novelty of eating from a truck means bonus points.

Baltimore fun

Was down in B-more over the weekend seeing family. Had a nice relaxing afternoon Saturday, then had a late dinner at Nick's Fish House where three out of four of us ordered the $30 prefix menu and the three of us had three huge crab cakes to take home as left overs. Great atmosphere, live music, by the water, a good place to stop right off ot I-95. Then on Sunday morning we decided to head over to the Sunday Farmers Market for some hot outta the fryer doughnuts, I love the Balitmore Farmers market, we gorged on the mini-doughnuts, snowballs, and sausages. Yum. If you are ever in town I highly recommend stopping by, but don't get there too late, many stands sell out of their fine produce or baked goods or whathaveyou. It also pays to shop around must corn vendors were selling corn for $5 a dozen, and we found a guy with a sign that said $4.50 a dozen, then he only charged us $4 and threw in an extra ear. :)

Poor chalups

She had an abscess on her front right paw. Now she has to wear a cone when she's alone so she doesn't lick it.

How much would you pay for your dream?

El Paso in East Harlem

Hi folks, sorry for not updating my posts regularly, I figured no one was really reading this so why bother. But I heard in person from two friends who want me to start posting again, so here goes. A few weeks back my sister asked me to transfer her VHS video tape of her wedding to DVD. Since we own a combo DVD/VHS player I was happy to do this. But when I put the tape into the VCR part of the player, the VCR wouldn't grab it. I tried pushing it in myself, which I knew wasn't a good idea, but did anyway, and to make a long story short it's broken. We've maybe put five VHS tapes in the damn thing, we hardly ever use that part of the player. But go figure. So, fast forward and the DVD/VCR player sits in our dining room gathering dust, while we watch movies on our X-box. It was difficult but we finally found a place that would even attempt to fix our player and it happens that that place is in East Harlem.

So last weekend, we took a cab ride up to 105th Street and dropped off our DVD/VCR, and then proceeded to wander around looking for a place to have brunch. We stumbled upon a little gem known as El Paso. We walked in at just the right time, when they still had ample seating in the back court yard. And the place was just lovely combine that with a beautiful day and amazing delicious food and you've got a bonafide winner. I can't recommend this place enough, it's worth it to take a trip up there just to eat here. I ordered the roast pork burrito and it was just so flavorful. One small caveat was that the ends of the burrito were filled with chopped jalapenos, and a big mouth full was just a little too much for me..but if you like the hots..go for it. This place was beautiful, good service, great prices and mouthwatering food. I'm hoping maybe something else will break and we'll have to take another trip up there...I'm already counting the days until we can pick up the DVD/VCR player...they can fix it for about $130. Oh, and while you're up there walk around the corner to Third Avenue and buy an italian ice for $1 from the man with the little cart, and you have the makings of a great Saturday.