Amber & Home Sick

I am sick. My tummy is not good in several ways. I can't keep food down or up.

This is an illustration of how I feel.

I am going to go lie down, apply a kitty compress and watch several episodes of Psych on Hulu.

Amber & Root Beer

Back in my youth, I worked at America's Favorite Root Beer Restaurant. I started off as a cashier and learned how to make America's Favorite Root Beer Float. The mugs really were frosty on account of having little mug-chilling refrigerators. I was surprised by the popularity of the "diet float," consisting of diet root beer and frozen yogurt. Couple that with a burger and some curly fries and just watch the inches slough off your waistline.

It was then with great interest that I read this educational article in The New York Times. I remain a fan of Dr. Brown's (not this but this) although I've just learned it's owned by Pepsico which makes it slightly less quaint. Who knew there were so many root beer brands? And who knew what was in root beer or that it was the same thing as sarsparilla? I bet Diana did.

Amber & Pretty Feet

I'm not such a fan of feet. I think they tend to look a bit like fetus buds. But, I understand that although they are weird, they do a really important job and deserve to be treated with respect-- if only because they are an excuse to buy shoes.

So, Diana and I went yesterday to treat our feet to some pampering. Diana chose Priti Organic Spa in the East Village, and she made a very nice choice. We soaked our feet in geranium water with floating fresh flowers and I got my legs rubbed down with oil to finish. My foot technician, Maria, was very nice and gentle, but agreed with me that my heels were "nasty." I appreciated her frankness. Summer, sockless as it tends to be, wrecks my feet.

The end result is quite nice. What fetus bud has ever looked so princess?

Amber & Relaxing

It's my day off! I am going to do some laundry and house cleaning this morning, then CRD and I are going to have lunch at the place next door to Next Door, and then I am meeting Diana for some Happy Snoopy Time. Tonight, CRD and I have a double date with Diana and Kevin to see Get Smart starring one of CRD's favorite actors.

Here is CRD with his favorite actor.

Amber & Dreaming of Snoopy

When my alarm clock (aka Woody's paw pushing on my mouth) woke me up this morning, I had been having a really nice dream. In it, I was making scones for Diana's birthday party at the M'Finda Kalunga Community Garden, and the apartment smelled like magical cinnamon and hot bread. I was wearing an apron with Snoopy in a chef's hat on it.

Many years back, when I lived on Avenue B and Jimmy and I would have brumch on the weekends every week, there was one particular Sunday when I called Jimmy to confirm our plan and he said, in a sleepy voice, "I woke up dreaming of Snoopy." He couldn't remember the details of the dream, but only that it was very happy and left him with nice feelings.

I, too, woke up dreaming of Snoopy. And Scones.

Amber & Muddled

(photo by P. Greenberg for The New York Times)

One of my favorite cocktails is the Whiskey Smash! which CRD discovered in an article in The New York Times. It's sort of like a Gin Fizz, but with mint and burboun instead of gin, or a Mint Julep with soda and lemon.

The recipe came from Bobby Flay and can be found here. For some reason, though, CRD and I always seem to get mint stuck to our faces while drinking.

Anyhow, what made me think of Whiskey Smash! this morning was that I woke up and felt sort of fresh--like wanting to embrace change, but at the same time my thinking was a little muddled and sour. I was thinking of that combination of emotions and realized I have Whiskey Smash! brain today.

Amber & Too Much of a Good Thing

Moderation. It's a tough concept living as we do in a more, more, more, Supersize, buy in bulk America. I have trouble with Moderation in some key areas: namely coffee (it tastes so good, and they make it in Venti!), programs (is it wrong to watch the whole season 2 of Hart to Hart when it's right there on Hulu?), and food (salad is so good for me, if I just have thirds won't I be all that much more healthy?).

But excess leads to sleeplessness, an unvacuumed living room, and not fitting in pants. And those things lead to woe. The path to excess is paved with pairs of pants that don't fit right in piles in a messy living room that annoy you when you're up at 3 a.m.

Sometimes, excess is accidental. Like when your doctor accidentally gives you a higher mg dose of your allergy* meds than you usually get and so you keep taking one-and-a-half pills until you realize you've actually doubled your dose and that might be why your hands are shaking and you're getting nosebleeds.

I really, really need to do more yoga. Yoga is the panacea for what ails me.

* Some people are allergic to anxiety.

Amber & Jean Arthur

I love Jean Arthur. She's super in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, both in the stylishness of her hats and just how derned likable and funny she is.

It's such a small world. Wikipedia tells me that Jean lived in Washington Heights like me, and then later taught drama at CRD's alma mater, Vassar College.

She gives a pretty good civics lesson, too. Educational.

Amber & Mice & Men

Oy. Yesterday. Oy.

All of my good intentions for laundry and chores paved a path to a sinkhole in my bathroom floor. I was awoken by my very pleasant super notifying me that my toilet had flooded the bathroom below mine and my toilet was in danger of falling through the floor.

After a whole day of plumber mens and black gunk and my toilet being in my tub, everything is back to normal. But, only two loads of laundry got done and I had to use the non-medical facility at Doctor's Medical Group because that venti iced coffee had to go somewhere. Turns out, there was a hole in the pipe that no one seemed to understand the source of. Mice?

So, I'm in work today, gardening, but will try to escape early to cram in all of the undone errands of yore, plus Girl Time with Diana, and Friendship with Kevin and CRD.

Amber & Chores

Today is my weekend. It is devoted to Chores, which anyone can tell you I am not so great at actually doing. I may start to do them, but then get caught up petting kitties or watching an entire season of Nip/Tuck and then it's the next day and the dishwasher has not been loaded and the floors have neither been Swiffered Wet or Dry.

Today, my focus is laundry. I had a few loads of dirty things when I moved in March, and have never actually reached laundrolibrium since. I am at an all-time record of maybe ten or eleven loads to do. I'd better get started. Right after I blog and then run to Starbucks for those little vanilla scones and a misto.

Amber & Shane's Birthday

iCal tells me today is Shane's Birthday. Sometimes, iCal is wrong, but I celebrate anyway.

Right this very moment, Shane is probably sleeping at Kevin & Diana's house downtown. So, let's just whisper him best wishes for his special being born day!

Amber & Projectile Hypochondria

I worry about Woody. Dr. Pacchiana discussed the risk of him tearing the sutures holding the ligament repair in place during his recovery and stressed we should only see forward progress.

Of course, when he says this, I hear, "Blah blah blah, something horrible could happen."

Well, now I'm afraid it has. I need a second, non-anxiety-ridden eyes to assess the situation, but the boy came out of the resty den on Friday and seemed to be limping a bit more. I tried to do the drawer test on his boo boo knee to see if there was any slippage, but I had no idea what I was doing.

Should I take the boy to the vet? It's hard to live alone. I need a live-in rational person who also does laundry. I just love my boy.

(Photos of W's suture removal by James  more here)

Amber & Follow Up

Diana sent me this, perhaps as follow up to this earlier post. Kevin explained to me that Freud wuld say ICanHazCheezburger is funny because we're infantilizing the cats, which was interesting, but also does not explain why the above image is so damn funny.

As Diana explained,

cat + papasan = cute.

CRD should get that papasan since it is his signature color. And fuzzy. And it comes with a cat.

Amber & Hulu.com

I love programs. I'll watch mostly anything-- notable exceptions being anything from the horror genre and any episodes of police procedural shows which revolve around serial killers. That's why I love Hulu. It keeps me up-to-date on my current programs, like The Office and Battlestar Gallactica, but they also have a priceless assortment of Classic Programs, some of which I watched with Grandma Louise back in the day.

I like to go whole hog into a program. Last weekend, in the intense heat, I watched all of season five of Nip/Tuck. It was horrible. Unrealistic, overly dramatic, and way too much gross "brow-lifting." But, I would finish one episode, be disgusted, and then go straight into the next. It's almost easier to click play on Hulu than not to. That show stinks. I can't wait for them to post more.

I also just finished the first (and only?) season of It Takes A Thief. That was superb. Young Robert Wagner says "groovy" and "that's not my bag" alot, the pretty ladies wear lots of groovy fashions, and he's a thief so there are burgles and heists! I highly recommend it. Years later, he goes on to marry Mrs. H and, as Max says, then it's murder.

Amber & Grandfathered Cats

An important date passed without my even noticing it. My cats are officially grandfathered. My rent stabilized lease dictates that you have to keep your cats openly in your apartment for 90 days without objection from your landlord before they are grandfathered into the apartment. We moved in on March 1st, and so June 1st marked three months. They can stay! Happy Grandfather, Kitties!

I Googled "grandfather cat" to find an appropriate graphic and came up with this.

This raises a whole other set of issues. Like: if cats could blog, would they really be such horrible spellers? And, why do we assume that the old man cat would have boring stories? Are we not interested in our heritage?

Amber & Fame

Tiggy and I are considering auditioning for America's Next Top Model. We have lots of experience now that some of our modeling work has been published in JPG magazine. Jimmy took this photo which we'll add to our reel.

And, thanks again to Jimmy, if they ever have an America's Next Top Male Model, Woody could apply. Or, at least, his tail could.

Amber & Feels Like 97

I am going to call these folks today. I can't go another night without AC. My sunburned neck got stuck to the pillows. My apartment is an oven. I'm really, really hot.




It's too hot to blog.

Amber & Heat Waves

It sure is hot. I have nothing to say that Marilyn can't say better.




She certainly, certainly, certainly can, can-can.

Amber & Lonely Boating

I love Wonder Woman. Well, I loved the TV show starring Not-So-Little Ms. Linda Carter when I was Little Amber. CRD and I have recently attempted watching the show again and discovered it was a little dull and not very well acted. But boy could she smile and make granny-panties look hot.

Kevin passes along this news item about the woman behind the wonder. Apparently, Ms. Carter was boating alone and discovered a body on the banks of the Potomac. I wonder: what was this woman doing boating alone? And I wonder: did they then call in Bones and Agent Booth?

Still, she'll always be my hero.

Amber & Doctor Who

I love Doctor Who. I started watching it in middle school. It was on our local PBS station at 6 and 11, and some days I would watch the episodes twice. I love the techno-babble, the long striped scarf, the weird aliens, the suspense and the idea of a lone traveler, roaming time and the universe, and making friends with human ladies along the way.

In high school, David Semanki and I volunteered at a traveling exhibit and got to ride in the yellow Pertwee car. And, we went to the very same convention that James went to and sat in the same room watching Shada, the famous lost episode.

Now, James and I have been watching the new series where the Doctor is handsomer, younger, and has better special effects than ever. It's like old times, but with new hair dos.

Amber & Metablogging

Blogging is one of the joys of my life. Really, it's not the blogging I like best; it's making reference to my blog with my friends who compose my audience in its entirety. (Except for those poor folks in Iceland who keep Googling "puff coats" and being disappointed.) Yesterday was a prime example of that joy. My post was a direct reference to CRD's post of the same day, and the whole exercise was made worthwhile when CRD said my post was hysterical later in the day. Mirth.

My Facefriend, Kirk, has a blog which he describes as "a site i never update hanging over my head like a little black rain cloud." The tragic flaw of his blog is not in his over-promising and under-delivery but rather in his audience. You, my dear readers, do not expect daily blogging from me. You know if I fail to post that it was because I had you over for dinner and drank too much wine, or that we went to the outlet malls for the day and shopped until I was too pooped to post, or because my cat [insert medical issue here]. Why tempt fate, I say, by failing to be discriminating in your audience? Only aim for readers with high quality expectations but low quantity requirements.

Amber & Japan, Hair

I made a hair appointment with Jacqueline for Friday. On our last episode of Amber's Hair, Jacqueline gave me a super cut and a nice, cinnamon color. I've been thinking about going shorter now that it's getting pretty hot when I'm out weeding the Garden on the weekends and have been doing Research using the Internet.

I found this site, apparently famous for its wide selection of dos. They have a whole "Hairstyle Gallery" specifically for short hair (or maybe short women?) So far, I really like this one best. But, I'm not sure my hair is capable of that kind of body, except after hat-wearing. Or, maybe I like this one?

Amber & Babies Named Hazel

I now know TWO young lassies named Hazel. It's easy to tell them apart, though.

This is Young Miss Hazel. She likes monkeys and singing Eee eye eee eye yo. We are buddies.

This is Baby Hazel. She likes being held in a swaddle by Harmony, with Owen and the Pee and Poop dolls Nick gave her looking on. I have not yet met her.

What a beautiful name for two beautiful, but very different, little girls.