Reunion Dinner

Last night, after almost TWO weeks, Fiance and I got to have dinner together. Thrilled! More thrilling? He cooked it! Best future husband ever.

Things here a a little nutty this week (sometimes you have to go to the Bronx for work and take a lot of public transportation to get there) so here are some fast pictures from our Reunion Dinner. And of Dilly. Because I really like taking pictures of her and sometimes she is very funny!

That's what happens when you put food on the table for dinner. She things she is a person and that she can eat too (don't mind the AC hose in the background)!

This is the dinner fiance made us! Baked chicken, rice AND salad! Guys, we almost never have salad AND it had artichoke hearts in it...it was a big deal here on Tuesday night!

This picture might be my most favorite picture of Dilly ever taken. Fiance came home from his last late night of work on Monday and wanted a Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi (is there any better kind of Pepsi? I think not). Dilly wanted to snuggle.

This was the result. I laughed for about ten minutes, no exaggeration.

Books #14 & #15

Books #14 and #15 came and went in under six days (thank you body for not falling asleep on the train!) and I think I was on a little bit of a book high. Do you get that? All accomplished and happy that you finished a book instead of watching the NCIS Los Angeles marathon...despite your love for LL Cool J? Book high, people...its the new thing, obviously!

Book #14 was recommended to me by my boss who, knowing I loved The Hunger Games, thought that this would be a great read for me. He was right! Fair warning though, it is super dark.  

The Long Walk, which Stephen King originally published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman appears to be widely available under King's name. If you try for it under Bachman though, your library has to special order it for you from a library in Kansas. Seriously.

The Long Walk is set in the not to distant future where, on May 1st of every year, 100 boys start walking and do not stop until only one of them is left. Not to eat, not to drink, not when their sneakers fall apart, and not even to go to the bathroom. Ew. I love distopian stories  (The Handmaid's Tale is my favorite book of all time) but this was a tad bit dark, even for me. Overall though, I thought this was a great story and really hit home for me (slash made me a little terrified) as I'm considering doing this next May...hopefully they'll let me stop to pee.

Book #15 was significantly less impressive than book #14. Michelle Haimoff's These Days Are Ours came recommended by Hello Giggles Shiny Happy Book Club, so I thought I'd give it a try. The reviewer, Sarah Heyward, wrote of the story "Above all, there’s an impressive balance of wit and heart at work here, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t tear up a few times". Awesome, I thought, let's give it a try.

Set six months after September 11th, recent college graduates (who live in their parent's fancy, fancy apartments) are attempting to find jobs and regain some sense of normalcy after the attacks. I was expecting a more coming of age tale (as ridiculous as that sounds) but instead I got a bunch of whiny characters who spend lots of money (or their parent's money) on shoes that they don't wear to the office. I also thought that Haimoff totally dismisses the one person in the book who has a job by describing her as "on auto-pilot" while totally legitimizing the crazy "I want to marry this guy because his apartment is beautiful and his parents seem nice" rantings of the protagonist.

Overall, These Days are Ours was an easy read set in New York (which I always like). If you're not in the mood to be totally annoyed though, I can't say I would suggest it.

Weekend Wrap Up

On Friday night, me, Steph and my sister went to see Beauty and the Beast at Fiance's job.

And guys, I know I said it was a High School musical production of it and that that probably made you think it was going to be mehh OK. But alas! It was excellent! Not Broadway excellent, but excellent enough that the kids got a standing ovation after Be Our Guest and I cried a little at the end when they were all people again! And it was sold out, which Fiance was thrilled about AND I got to meet some of the kids Fiance works with every day. And ummm some of them wanted to take a picture with me. Which made me feel like they doubted that I existed AND that I was real old. Thanks, high school students! 

After the play, we were very hungry so we went to the Diner (which is what you do on Long Island, duh).  I got a BLT and it was delicious.

I woke up at a time acceptable for real people on Saturday and I went to the gym. The gym on a Saturday morning is basically unheard of in our house but I went! And after the gym I even went food shopping...I was super productive!

When I got home, Fiance still had three hours until he had to be at work for the Saturday show (did I mention I saw him not at all last week?) so we got to eat lunch together, which is my favorite! He made turkey burgers and they were also delicious! I ate a lot of sandwiches this weekend, can you tell?

And then Fiance had  to go to work, and I laid on the couch with Dilly and read my book until like 6pm. Guys, I finished a book on Friday and finished another one yesterday. Reviews coming tomorrow...I am a machine!

That's the Snuggie that the kids at work got Fiance for his birthday. That's right its zebra print...its super cozy!

Saturday night I went to the movies to see Friends with Kids with some friends (who have no kids...I am a joke-ster!).

It was great! I thought it definitely would have been #1 at the Box Office, but clearly I am not up on movie trends as something called 21 Jumpstreet also came out this weekend and apparently that was #1. And I think The Lorax was #2. All of this to say, I think Friends with Kid got a raw deal and you should go see it because we all loved it. I don't have any pictures from the movies because you're basically not even allowed to take your phone out before the movie starts without people judging you. Haters.

Yesterday, it was b-e-a-utiful outside and my sister and I went to Brooklyn to visit my Grandmother and to see my parents who were visiting too!

That's me driving! See the window is down? I love me some springtime!

Holly also came to Nanny's yesterday (with my parents, people she did not drive herself) and she is super goofy in her cone head. She wasn't crying though and she even ran around a bit, so she is definitely on the mend! I think the cone is making her self conscious, though and one of her little legs is shaved. Poor puppy!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and that you are getting outside today if you live in NYC! It is definitely time for some margaritas outside!

Friday's Letters

Dear High School Musical Production of Beauty and the Beast, be over now. Seriously. Fiance is working 92 hours this week. 92! That is no hours for me. I'm over you. I'm coming to see you tonight not because I really like Beauty and the Beast but because I want to see what takes 92 hours to accomplish. Please do not disappoint me.

Dear College Spring Break I love you because my students are all away and I can catch up on everything I needed to do AND start thinking about the Fall (seriously where is the time going?)! Also I can have lunch with my Bestie in the park and exchange books. I love you.

Dear Bloggy Friend Lauren, RUN LIKE THE WIND on Sunday! And then have some serious Happy Hour! That's appropriate after running 26.2 miles in the Los Angeles Marathon, no?

Dear Dilly, you are super cuddly this week which I love. But I do not love when we are watching The Daily Show, waiting for Fiance to get home, and you sneeze in my face because you are laying on my chest. I know you only have one leg in the front, but seriously cover your mouth. It is not lady like at all.

Dear Weekend, I am so excited for you. I plan on sleeping late tomorrow and then going to the gym. And then cleaning my apartment. And reading a crocheting a lot. I used to be fun on Saturdays AND on St. Patrick's Day. But now I'm lame-o. But content and lame-o, so that's an even trade, no? Yes!
 
Hoping you all had a lovely, lovely week! 
Loooove,
Kate

More Friday's Letters here and my first one here

Embrace the Camera: Holly's Lady Surgery

That's me and Holly over my long weekend at my parents' last week.

How cute is she? She is totally unimpressed with my desire to take pictures with her always, but still adorable! I would like you to know that I had one million more of these but I only posted these (Photobooth is a terrible thing if you have cozy pets). You're welcome.

That's Holly yesterday!She is so sad because she got her Lady Surgery yesterday (I don't like the actual word for it ICK!). My Mom sent me this picture with this text message "Your puppy sister is sad. She misses her ovaries."

HOW SAD does she look? And then I called my Mom last night and I could hear her crying! Seriously. I cannot deal and am distraught. She can't even sleep in her crate because of that cone. I told me Mom (and bet my Dad $20) that FAT CHANCE they are never getting her to sleep in there again.

I have to go now because I can't keep looking at this picture because its making me super upset. But I would just like to say that I might have to start calling Embrace the Camera "Kate poses with various cuddly animals". I'm only a little sorry (and by a little I mean not at all).

Book #13: The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook

The average rating of The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook on Goodreads is 3.44. Because Goodreads has rarely steered me wrong, this average prompted my reading the book upon discovering it on my Kindle (have I mentioned that a bunch of the ladies in my family have the same Amazon account? Totally awesome). 120 pages in, my Mom told me that no Kate, no one purchased this book...it was free on the Kindle Blog a few months ago. Warning bells, my friends...warning bells.

I really had high hopes for this one because it is set in England and I love books set in England! The plot was less than stellar (girl leaves boy, boy embarks on makeover journey, boy enlists the help of annoyingly attractive best friend and obviously attractive personal trainer, boy falls in love with personal trainer). Sorry for the spoilers. Worse than being predictable, Ex-Boyfriend was filled with terribly hackneyed one liners. And I thought the ending was terrible. Positive of the book: I love tea and then drink a lot of it!

I was apprehensive about giving this book only one star, since that piece of crap Steve Martin wrote got zero. I'd like to take this time to say that there is a BIG jump from zero stars to one star! This was an easy read and the characters were likable enough whereas the crappy Steve Martin took me forever and I hated the characters and worse than anything it made me NOT LOVE STEVE MARTIN ANYMORE. Tragic.

I'm hoping to finish Book #14 by Saturday morning except that I have to be careful with it because I had to get it out of the Rare Books section of the library. And it has a broken spine and a special label on the cover. So I feel like I can't read it on the subway for fear of...well a lot of icky things can happen on the subway. This post was much more ramble-y than I wanted it to be so WISH ME LUCK and farewell!

Of Miniature Landscape Design

Here we are folks, Part Deux of Kate and Lenore Take Philadelphia. MAY I PRESENT TO YOU today's installment: Of Miniature Landscape Design! 

We arrived at the Flower Show at 10:15AM, guys! That is a full three hours earlier than we arrived last year and ummm the Convention Center was already filled with uppity white elderly couples.

Have I mentioned that after the past two years places with a lot of elderly people with walkers slash wheelchairs give me anxiety? Because they do. Luckily, I was able to overlook them because the Flower Show was SO lovely.

This post is basically going to be a conglomeration of photos I took on my phone. Which is not an iPhone and I apologize in advance for the non-artsy-ness. I will also comment on these photos when I feel it is appropriate. Enjoy!

Do you like these flowers for a wedding? I believe they are too bright.

This man was performing a "how to make a bouquet" demonstration. You can't tell here, but he's wearing a headset microphone. Brittany Spears style, my friends. Please note the elderly. 

Please note that while this sign LOOKS like its for miniature landscaping its actually for the tiny, tiny flower section. The theme was Stargazing (obviously). Look how pretty! 

I loved this one! But the most important part of this picture are the words above the flowers. See that there? "Judges Comments"? This is our favorite part! They say things like "Middle flower is disproportionate to rest of piece and ruins aesthetic." Which basically means "Bitch please, you are not getting the blue ribbon". 

This was one of my favorite parts and I think that we totally missed it last year! Shadow boxes with themes! UGH they were so good! This one below won first prize and it was awesome. Doesn't it look like its real? 

I love these giant stone pots! I want one million of them in our home, but Fiance would have to lift them and they look super heavy. 

I feel like there were a lot of miniature things this year...look at those tiny flowers!

I loved this one! The stranger next to me felt the need to inform me that it is a Christmas Cactus. In case the sign next to it was unclear...thank you elderly woman!

I love that ball-y one in the middle! My Mom got a miniature terrarium to hang on the wall in our kitchen. I'm going back to PA in two weeks and I'll be sure to let you know if its still alive!

Did you know I went to Hofstra? Have I mentioned that I love love loved it? Did you know they are famous for their tulips? Needless to say I l-o-v-e-d this display! 

And now the part I KNOW everyone has been waiting for! MINIATURE LANDSCAPE DESIGN! 

There are even tiny statues! And a little wrought iron fence! I just love it so much (notice all of the exclamation points!)! 

SERIOUS QUESTION(S): Do we think my Mom and I could do this? And if we did how do we get them into the Philadelphia Flower Show? Or any competition, really? Advice please and thank you.