Festival of Noise 2010

Dear friends,

This 4th of July, I was honored to be able to perform a song with the best garage band this side of the Mississippi: Kleevage! In this second annual Festival of Noise, I performed "Gold Lion" by one of my fave bands, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs alongside my very great friends. A brave soul managed to record the whole thing, and you can see it here:

Kleevage does Gold Lion

Now I know why rock stars do what they do. Hooray for noise!!

The Happiest Place on Earth

No, I'm not talking about Disneyland, people. I'm talking about a place called The Chocolate Room. Conveniently located about 10 blocks walking distance from my apartment, The Chocolate Room is a magical wonderland devoted to, you guessed it, chocolate. I had the Dark Hot Chocolate, which was like drinking warm melted milk chocolate served in a cappuccino cup, followed by the Flourless Chocolate Cake with red raspberry sauce. It will take at least 6 hours for me to come down from all that sugar and caffeine, but it will have been WORTH IT! And of course I had to bring something home for Rich: a Chocolate Room special Peanut Butter and Jelly chocolate bar. My new Mecca!

Snowmaggedon

Lots of snow on the ground and more inches every hour. It's so lovely! Since I don't actually have to shovel anything or dig the car out and drive anywhere, it's not so bad. I feel for those that have to do those things!

In the Lap of Luxury

My dear husband knows what I like. For Christmas, he gave me a half-day package at Manhattan’s finest day spa: The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, New York. The spa is on the 35th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel at Columbus Circle, conveniently located next to Trump Towers with a phenomenal view of Manhattan and Central Park. To make it even more fabulous, my friend Tifani joined me.

The day began with a pickup via private car at my apartment in Brooklyn. When we arrived at the spa, we received a tour of the facilities, and then moved on the “Heat Experiences” which entailed a soak in the Jacuzzi, a tropical rain forest shower, and a steam in the Amethyst Steam Room. After the steam we were perfectly relaxed, so we retired to the Tea Lounge to wait for our therapy technicians to fetch each of us for our treatments.


The half spa day entails a 2-hour something blissful called a Time Ritual, a bento box lunch, and an 80 minute facial. The Time Ritual began with a footbath, followed by a brushing of the skin with a dry bristle brush to improve circulation and skin tone and an apricot and peppermint oil scrub to exfoliate and rejuvenate. After the scrub was an unbelievably fabulous 80-minute deep tissue massage.

Following the amazing Time Ritual was the bento box lunch. Again, the spa did not disappoint. Lunch consisted of a 5-course meal that included red grapefruit slices, mesclun salad, tomato and fresh mozzarella, scallops and asparagus topped with a pineapple salsa, and a dollop of crème fraiche with strawberries. Served with the Mandarin Oriental’s special chef’s blend antioxidant berry tea. Are you kidding me? It was amazing!!


After lunch, it was my turn for the 80 minute facial. I don’t remember much since it was so relaxing that I slept through most of it. But when I emerged my skin was smooth and glowing like I’ve never seen it.


It was such a luxurious experience and I savored every moment of it. Since the Mandarin Oriental was kind enough to share their recipe for the delicious berry tea with us, I will share it with you so that we can all indulge in a little savory luxury:

Chef’s Tea from the Mandarin Oriental NY
6 cups water
4 tbsp Mountain Berry Tea
½ mango chopped
1 stalk lemongrass
½ cup honey
1 inch fresh ginger, sliced
1 slice of lime
1 slice of lemon

Steep together for 15-30 minutes and enjoy!

* Images courtesy of Tifani, the fabulous photojournalist.

I Believe I Can Fly

On New Year's Day, Rich, Mark, Tifani and I took a Flying Trapeze class at Trapeze School New York. This event was my birthday gift to Rich as I thought it would a fun and unique experience for all of us. We were all pretty excited about it until we got there and realized what we were being asked to do. Jump off a 23 foot platform? Dangle from your knees? Do a FLIP?

For the first half of the class, everyone - including myself - was pretty ticked at me for making them do it. But by the end, we agreed that it was such a cool and exhilarating experience that we want to go do it again.

Tifani took some awesome video of Rich and I performing our final task of the class - making a catch!!

The Blizzard of Aught Nine

For all of the hype, the snow storm was fairly tame in our area. Compared to the Icy Enema of Aught Eight that we experienced in Hood River last December, this thing was little more than snow flurry.

But, the several inches it deposited in the New York area did cause traffic snarls, power outages, airport delays, school closures, and generalized anxiety amongst people up and down the eastern seaboard. It caused Buster to frolic in the snow, and caused me to bundle up scarves, gloves AND mittens, hats AND earmuffs and my warmest coat. It also caused our neighborhood to look especially Christmas-y, beautiful and clean, blanketed in white.

Thievery

Farewell sweet bike. I will fondly remember the 8 years we had together. Your name was "Specialized Rockhopper," and you were indeed special to me. You were a hybrid, able to navigate both pavement and mountain trails, although you weren't particularly efficient at either. No matter...I loved you just the same.

Our morning rides to work around Monterey Bay were challenging but exquisitely beautiful. We spent some quality time together in New Mexico. When we moved to the northwest together, you introduced me to Syncline and then went on to carry me around Post Canyon. One time you took me on a crazy adventure down Coyote. That was nuts.

Even though you were a western gal, I thought you would have a happy life in New York City! I was looking forward to you and I sharing rides through the park come springtime, and maybe even a trip upstate together in the summer.

Now someone has snatched you from me, like a thief in the night. Actually, it was a thief in the night. And if I find that person, I will push them off of you, kick them, and claim you once again.

Dear Specialized Rockhopper, I will miss you and I hope that your new life is at least as sweet as the one we had together. And I hope you give your new owner massive saddle sores.