The scarlet Asiatic lilies in my Japanese garden are in bloom right now.
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In the Garden: Asiatic Lily
Posted in gardening
Tagged asiatic lily, in the garden, japanese garden, lilies, red, scarlet
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Wedding Dresses & The David’s Bridal Nightmare
I’ve recently been acting as one of my engaged friend’s wedding dress fashion consultant. Our first destination was Priscilla of Boston, which I was familiar with from bridesmaids dress shopping last year. They have tons of lovely, expensive gowns. And when you’re a tall size 0, like my friend, everything looks amazing on you. At PoB you get your own large, nicely appointed fitting room and a personal attendant. We had to wait awhile for our salesperson, but they brought us water and generally treated us very well.
The next day we went to David’s Bridal. What a nightmare! Anything under $800 looks like total crap. I think you’d be much better off spending your money on an off the rack dress at Nordstrom or Macys. The experience was also pretty awful. There was 2 rows of dressing rooms on a raised platform in the middle of the store. The rooms were tiny and anyone with the bride how to mill around in the area between the dressing rooms to see. I will never go back there – but at least you can see the comparative quality of what you get at a cheapo place vs a boutique.
Posted in fashion, shopping
Tagged davids bridal, priscilla of boston, wedding dress, weddings
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Grandma’s 87th Birthday
Monday was my grandmother’s 87th birthday so we went out to dinner at Long Valley Brew Pub and back to my aunt’s house for cake.
I made the big G a vanilla bean cake with mocha frosting and my aunt bought a strawberry shortcake. So grandma had to do double duty blowing out candles.
I didn’t have any of the strawberry shortcake (not my fave kind of cake), but my cake was indeed super delicious. Not bad for whipping it up the night before!
From the Garden: Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle is one of the early harbingers of summer. I can remember raiding our neighbors honeysuckle bush for a taste of that sweet nectar. Now I’ve got my own honeysuckle in the Japanese garden. And yes, I still eat it.
The honeysuckle blooms are fading and I’m sad that their amazing fragrance will be gone until next year!
Today’s Nail Color: Tart Deco
Today’s Nail Color is Essie Tart Deco.
The color is actually less intense and orange than appears in this photo. It’s a bright matte coral. 
April + May Showers Did Bring May Flowers
A pretty copper colored rose from my garden. But the real question is what do May flower bring?
PILGRIMS! har har har!
Running Goals
I’ve started running, for the first time in over 10 years, on March 12, 2011 in order to train to do a triathlon later this summer. When I started I was slow. Really slow. But I’ve been running 2-4 times a week for the past 2.5 months and in the past week I’ve almost reached my ultimate goal – being able to run a 30 minute 5k. Right now I’m at 10:17 min/mile. I believe in order to reach that I need to run 9:40 min/mile. Sooo..I’m upping my goal. I want to hit a 9 min/mile pace by the end of July.
So here is a chart of my progress. The bars are my pace and the line is my cumulative pace.
Late Spring Garden
Apparently April Showers + May Showers = Lot of flowers blooming in late May,
Right now my roses are starting to bloom, my cherry tree is full of green fruit, the clematises are starting to flower, and my Siberian Irises are exploding with amazing purple flowers.
Now if I could just get my veggie garden and cutting gardens started. This weekend!
Find the Future: A Timeline
Finding the Future at the New York Public Library on Friday night was exhausting and exhilarating. I will do a full write up at some point but for now here is bit of a timeline of my adventure.
Friday, 8:30am – Wake up
Friday, 9am – Start working (from home today, yay!)
Friday, 3:35pm – Waiting for the bus
Friday, 3:45pm – The bus arrives 10 minutes late
Friday, 4:30pm – Sitting in traffic at the Lincoln Tunnel Helix
Friday, 5pm – Arrive at Port Authority
Friday, 5:20pm – Meet my new friend Alexa at the Au Bon Pain in Port Authority
Friday, 6pm – Grab dinner at Chiptole with Alexa
Friday, 6:45pm – Walk up to the library, take a photo with the Lion mascot. (Side note: Is that Patience or Fortitude?)
Friday, 7pm – Enter the library and get my VIP Adventurer pass
Friday, 7:15pm – Can’t get into the app, get technical help
Friday, 8pm – The doors are closed and we’re locked in until 6am
Friday, 8:15pm – Given the choice of a closer staircase and one across the room, my companions and I decide we are too impatient to fight the crowd across the room and choose Team Fortitude.
Friday, 8:20pm – The event kicks off with an introduction and the revealing of the 7 secrets of the game by Jane McGonaigle.
Friday, 8:35pm – My team heads to the children’s room and unlocks our first artifact of the night. The wall mural.
Friday, 8:45-10pm – We work our way through the Gottesman Room and Map room unlocking many artifacts.
Friday, 10:05pm – I sit down to write my first story. Charles Dickens’ Cat Paw.
Friday, 10:05pm – I discover I can’t sign into the website
Friday, 10:10pm – Find out that our passwords were reset and successfully login.
Friday, 10:35pm – I discover that I can’t submit my story due to server issues.
Friday, 11:40pm – Head down into the stacks for a rare tour. Try to avoid hitting head.
Friday, 11:48pm – Discover someone’s future hidden among the books in the stacks.
Saturday, 12:30am – Go hunting for more artifacts.
Saturday, 1:30am – The website is no longer syncing with the mobile app. Start to manually activate artifacts.
Saturday, 2am – My future finds me. Thanks Reilly!
Saturday, 2:30am – On the hunt for John K to deliver his future. Finally track him down over with Team Patience.
Saturday, 3am – Time for snack/Red Bull break. Find people asleep in the snack room..
Saturday, 3:15am – ..And on the tables in the Rose Reading Room.
Saturday, 4am – Breakfast time!
Saturday, 4:30am – Having written 8 stories, I decide it’s time to go take some photos.
Saturday, 5am – Jane announces that even though they won’t be able to bind the book we’ve succeeded in writing it!
Saturday, 5:20am – Get on line with the rest of the 500 to sign the book.
Saturday, 5:28am – I sign as an author of the book. I’m officially going to be in the NYPL catalog.
Saturday, 5:38am – I exit the New York Public Library, triumphant. And tired.
Saturday, 6am – Arrive at Port Authority to sit and wait.
Saturday, 7:30am – My bus departs.
Saturday, 8:20am – I am back in bed for a nap.
Posted in books, nyc
Tagged #findthefuture, adventure, books, find the future, nyc, nypl, qr codes, scavenger hunt
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