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Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Take Me In

The girls and I are back from a whirlwind weekend in New York! We had all been invited to a cousin's Bat Mitzvah, but Andy (well, Andy's knee) definitely did not feel up for the long ride, so he and Pete stayed home and "bached it." (That doesn't look right, but it can't be "batched," right?)

After studying all of the possibilities, we decided that the the best idea of all was for me to not have to drive at all. So we got up very early on Saturday morning and hitched a ride down with Lauren and Gary. We played word games for nearly 4 hours, stopping only once for a bathroom break. We got a little lost heading into Brooklyn, but it turned out that the turn we had missed would have led us to a major traffic jam—Mom and Dad did make the proper turn and ended up late to the service because of it! 

The Bat Mitzvah was held at the Church of Gethsemane, which hosts the Kolot Chayeinu congregation, and we lucked out and found street parking a couple of blocks over. Gary just had to knot his tie and slip on his jacket, but we 4 had to change into our dresses in the back seat. I am here to report that it is just barely possible to wriggle into Spanx under those conditions.

The service was lovely, and we were relieved when Mom and Dad finally showed up. From there, we drove a mile or so to the party, which was held at Deity Lounge (only in Brooklyn would you have a Bat Mitzvah service in a church and the party in a converted synagogue, amiright?). The parking gods were definitely being kind to us—this time we got street parking directly in front of the building. Deity is a very cool place, and ideal for such an event: The grownups were upstairs and the kids (and their loud music and crazy dancing—yes, I'm that old) were downstairs. It was so nice to connect with relatives I haven't seen in years—one cousin I had last seen when I was pregnant with Steph in 1996! Steph and Julie had a ball, coming upstairs every now and then to check in. I made it downstairs at one point and did the photo booth thing with them:

The food was delicious, and the dessert was rows and rows of high-end bakery versions of childhood favorites like Ring Dings and Twinkies! Yum! We were among the last to leave the party—why make that long trip if you're not going to milk it for all it's worth, right? Lauren and Gary graciously offered to drive us to our hotel, and we did manage to get lost again thanks to my maps app, which sent us ridiculously off-course. They then left to go stay overnight with friends in New Jersey.

We got settled in our room and then went out to find dinner. It turns out that there are bazillions of restaurants on 5th Avenue in Park Slope just a couple of blocks from our hotel; we walked up and down and finally chose a cute little Italian place called Campo de' Fiori. Julie declared it the best pizza she'd ever eaten, mainly because of the sauce.

The next morning we had continental breakfast in the hotel, checked out, and off we went! I knew we didn't have enough time to actually do anything, but we planned to see as much as possible. Julie really wanted to take a cab because she'd never ridden in one and because if we took the subway she wouldn't be able to see the Brooklyn Bridge. So we took a cab to the Staten Island Ferry, which was a surprisingly great take. The terminal is clean and nicely organized; you board the ferry and get a 20-minute ride across the harbor. We were told to stand on the right, so we got a great view of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Then we got off in Staten Island, turned right around, and got onto a different ferry for the same ride back (standing on the left this time, of course). The whole thing took just under an hour—and was free! It didn't hurt that the weather was magnificent.

We asked a ferry guy for directions to Ground Zero, but he wasn't too sure. We then asked two different police officers, who were also a little unclear. I was shocked—it ended up being about a 10-minute walk, and they didn't know how to tell us to get there! We started walking, saw the Wall Street Bull, and then finally saw a few signs. We didn't go into the WTC Memorial, but we did see the site where the old buildings went down and the new buildings are going up.

I'm red-faced to admit this, but it had never occurred to me that "downtown" means "down" as in heading south and "uptown" means "up" as in heading north. Duh! (Well, to be fair to myself, we don't use the term "uptown" in Boston.) That was a revelation in terms of navigating. So I knew we had to start heading uptown in order to eventually catch our 2:30 Bolt Bus at 34th and 8th. We went down into the first subway stop we saw and said, "Driver, take us to Times Square!" Well, actually, we bought our tickets and hopped on the next train that came. It was just a few stops, and then I watched the girls' faces as we emerged to street level in Times Square! This is what they wanted: crowds, noise, lights, skyscrapers, excitement, and that feeling that everything in the world is happening right around you at that moment. We walked around, bought junky souvenirs, gawked at the pricey stuff in the M&M World store, people-watched, and spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find public bathrooms. We ate a quick and yummy lunch at Pax Wholesome Foods. (Meanwhile, did you know that in New York, all restaurants have a sign posted in the window for their grade in sanitation? Are there reasons that someone might choose to eat in a restaurant that didn't earn an A? Ick?)

Then, with the girls still starry-eyed and me still dragging our suitcase behind us, we continued heading uptown. We wanted to get something to bring with us to eat on the bus ride, but we again ended up spending most of our time trying to find a bathroom. We were stunned that there wasn't one at Starbucks! When we were just about desperate, at last a sympathetic cleaning lady at a Burger King let us use theirs without waiting in the mile-long line to buy something first. (I would've been happy to buy something, but the line was moving so slowly.) We ended up just buying a bunch of Luna and Cliff bars at a little market. We didn't want to tempt ourselves with too much water, because we knew that the bus was going to make only one stop for a bathroom break, so we had just one bottle with us.

We finally made it to the bus stop outside the Tick Tock Diner, which is in view of the Empire State Building. Our driver apologized to us because instead of one of those sleek, fancy Bolt buses, we had a dumpy old Peter Pan bus that did not have electrical outlets as we'd been promised! My iPhone was just about out of charge, so that was a big bummer. He thought we would have wifi, but we didn't have that either. My iPad had plenty of charge, so I ponied up the $20 for a month of 3G in order to catch up on two days' worth of Scrabble and Words With Friends games, to text Andy, to see all the Bat Mitzvah photos my cousins had already posted on Facebook, and to check my email. The good news was that this bus did have a toilet in back! This was a huge relief to the girls, who had been very concerned about waiting until we stopped at a rest area.

The bus ride was uneventful, and we ended up not stopping since we had the use of the bathroom. The girls were glad that the driver decided to avoid the traffic on 95, because that meant that they got to add New Jersey to the list of states they've been in. We arrived at South Station just before 7pm and were very happy to see Andy and Pete and to get home.

As you know, I am very much a Nervous Nellie, so I am pretty proud of myself for having done this weekend excursion on my own. The girls really enjoyed their first taste of New York. Next time we will do it at a more leisurely pace.

Book Group

We met last night to discuss The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht. I didn't know what to expect, because the book has been met with such fanfare in the press, particularly for a young author's debut, but then I had heard a lot of people who didn't like it at all. I ended up really enjoying it, although I would stop short of calling it one of the best books of the year.

The story takes place somewhere in the Balkans. It seems clear that it's the former Yugoslavia (where Obreht is from), but specifics aren't given. The main character, Natalia, is a doctor, and her grandfather was also a doctor. He shared with Natalia his stories about a tiger that had escaped from a zoo and terrorized his childhood village, and about the "deathless man" he met at several key points in his life. After his death, Natalia wants to find out more about her grandfather and about the characters in these stories, including the woman who became known as the tiger's wife. 

And that's all I'll tell you. The writing was gorgeous. Nearly every page had a sentence that struck me with its elegance or interesting way of describing something. 

The group was split—several people didn't like the book much or at all, but a few of us did. I initially attributed that to the fact that some people just don't like magical realism, but some of these people do like it—a lot—but just didn't like this one. So I don't know. I happen to love magical stories, and in any event you could read this book quite literally and just accept the magical parts as stories that aren't meant to be real, as tricks that people in all cultures have for comforting ourselves and explaining the world. Some call it religion, some call it myth, and some just allow it to be woven into their lives without calling it anything.

Next month we're doing Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I thought I was the last person on the planet to read it, but apparently not.

Half a Century

So far being 50 means nonstop eating.

My birthday celebration began last night when Andy and I went out for a wonderful dinner at Mistral, which always feels special. I started with the Maine Lobster and Mascarpone Tortellini with English Peas, which had me quite literally mopping up the sauce with scraps of bread so as not to lose a single drop. For my entrée, I went with the Pan-Roasted Atlantic Halibut with Rock Shrimp Risotto. Yum, yum, yum. Oh, and we had a delicious Malbec/Cab blend (Malbec is our new fave). For dessert, we shared the warm chocolate torte with vanilla ice cream and sauce anglaise. Stuffed to the gills isn’t even the word.

This morning I got breakfast in bed and lots of presents! Beautiful earrings and an equally beautiful bracelet, plus fancy chocolates that I will not share. Oh, and flowers and pretty desk accessories and more.

And the most exciting thing of all, a Lytro! It’s a new kind of camera that is like something from the future. “Unlike a conventional camera that captures a single plane of light, the Lytro camera captures the entire light field, which is all the light traveling in every direction in every point in space.” Whatever that means to people who understand such things, to me it means that I can take a photo and then focus after the fact on whatever part of it I want! And you can too! Here, for instance, is a photo I took today:

If you click on the flower, it comes into focus and Steph recedes into the background; if you click on Steph, she sharpens up and the flower goes blurry! And you can double-click anywhere to zoom in. I am really just getting the hang of it, but you can see many more cool examples here.

We then had brunch at the Biltmore. Julie and Pete got the French toast, which is like no other French toast you can imagine: thick-sliced cinnamon-swirl babka coated with Cap’n Crunch and corn flakes, drizzled with vanilla icing, and served with warm apple butter. Be still, my heart.

When we got home, Julie had made a scavenger hunt that took me all over the house following her clever clues. My treasure was a clay cat that she made.

And then, because we hadn’t eaten enough yet, we went out for Chinese food with Andy’s parents, since Jerry’s birthday was last week. And then came home to a decadent chocolate cake from Que Brada. I’m never eating again. 

Throughout the day I got loads of phone calls and emails and Facebook messages and tweets all wishing me a happy 50th! Julie’s soccer coach reminded me of what Gloria Steinem said when someone told her she didn’t look 50: “This is what 50 looks like.” Indeed! 

Getting Ready to Celebrate

Pete turned 13 yesterday! And that means that he's a teenager, on his way to becoming a man! It also means that his Bar Mitzvah is fast approaching.

EEK!

The nice thing about having been through this once already is that I don't have to start from nothing. Number 1 on the To Do list was to get the same caterer, Linda at La Bonne Maison, because once she was locked in I knew that all would be well. Because, really, once the dance music starts and Pete and his friends are happily cavorting about, all I'm interested in is serving the most amazing food to my adult guests. I don't care about fancy invitations or a videographer or any of that, but the food has to be spectacular.

Linda had to postpone our meeting for a few weeks because she was empaneled on a jury—murder in the second degree!—but we finally sat down last week. I was tempted to go with the exact same menu as last time, because every bite was to-die-for. But Linda reminded me that there are other things to eat out there, and also that a June menu should be different from a February menu. She's right. So we are still trying to figure all that out. The sample menus she provided are already covered in drool, and I know that whatever we choose will be splendid.

I had sort of thought that Pete could just wear a jacket and tie (well, you know what I mean—and pants and a shirt), but "everyone" is saying he needs a full-fledged suit, so I will probably cave and get him one. (That he'll wear once and then outgrow.) As for me, I've decided to wear the dress I got for Steve and Cliff's wedding last year and never got to wear again. I can wear the cardigan during the services and then whip it off when it's time to party. I tried it on last night and still feel happy in it. The girls will need new dresses, though.

Pete's Torah tutoring is going along fine, and he will meet with the rabbi next week to start work on his D'var (teaching), the speech he makes in which he talks about his Torah portion and why it's meaningful to him. Andy and I also have to give a speech, about why Pete is so awesome, and we haven't set down so much as one word of that yet. And there are a million other details, but I know from Steph's big day that nothing else really matters once you see your kid up there and look around at the sanctuary filled with friends and family there to celebrate with you. Well, that and the Petit Filet Mignon with Herb Butter hors d'oeuvres.

You Can Say You Knew Me When

What would you do if you got an email purporting to be from a very well-known and well-respected person, inquiring about hiring you? You'd assume it was a scam, right? So did I. And I was wrong.

The other day I got an email from one Michael Ruhlman, who very interestingly has the same name as that famous writer/chef who gave us The Elements of Cooking, Ratio, Ruhlman's Twenty, and more  (oh, and for those who prefer to explore the world of cooking via TV, who was also a judge on Cooking Under Fire, Next Iron Chef, and Iron Chef America). The Michael Ruhlman in the email said that he was looking for a cookbook copyeditor for a new project, and would I be interested? Ha Ha Ha. Like I was born yesterday! Why don't I just send you my bank account PIN right now?

But then I looked at the return email address, and it was the same one that the real Michael Ruhlman uses at his website.

Gulp.

So I replied, tentatively. How did you find me? And it turns out that he Googled "cookbook copyeditor," and lo and behold! The first thing that came up is this interview with me for the Copyediting blog! My email isn't there, but my blog URL is, and from there he found my email address.

Here's the deal: Michael wrote a short, single-subject* cookbook, and his wife (and food photographer extraordinaire) Donna convinced him to self-publish it to the Kindle, as a kind of experiment. But for that he would need to find a copyeditor on his own ... and that's where I come in! Yes, after some emailing back and forth to get to know one another and discuss the project, it's a go! Really! I'm downright giddy.

*I've been sworn to secrecy. No, I won't tell. I said NO.

Raindrops on Roses

These are a few of my favorite things:

1. I'm the only one in the house who likes guacamole, and I really like it. Still, I'm not likely to eat a whole recipe's worth (or purchased tub) in one setting, and it doesn't keep well. (Yes, I've tried squirting lime juice all over the surface, and pressing plastic wrap down over it, and leaving the pit in—invariably there's a part that turns brown and I get grossed out and toss the whole thing.) So I was delighted to discover that Wholly Guacamole makes these adorable little 2-ounce packs that can keep in the freezer! They defrost in no time. So now I can get my guac fix whenever I need it.

2.a. Several people posted this on Facebook: To pass the time during long flights, artist Nina Katchadourian goes to the lavatory, adorns herself in tissue paper costume, and creates hilarious self-portrait photos in the style of Flemish Renaissance paintings. 

2.b. Steve sent me this link to a Sorted Books project, also by Nina Katchadourian (what are the odds that I had never heard of this person and then I find her twice in one week?). Awesome. And then I came upon this collection of Book Spine Poetry—I would like to try this on my own bookshelves!

3. I don't watch American Idol, but even I am aware of at least three instances when Simon Cowell sneered at and ridiculed a contestant for being unattractive and overweight and then was blown away by the person's performance. First, of course, was Susan Boyle, then came that cell phone salesman, and now this teenager. If you tell me you don't have tears streaming down your face watching this, I won't believe you.

4. Here's a letter Keif Richards wrote to his aunt when he was 18 and had just run into his old schoolmate Mick Jagger.

5. Check out this funny list of fake Massachusetts towns. (Hint for non-Massachusettsians: The last one is real!) Twitter pal ken_homer added Scrotham to the list.

6. After all these years, I only just discovered that I could download the entire Red Sox schedule to my iPhone! It's easy.

7. Re the title and opening line of this post, somehow Julie had never seen "The Sound of Music" until last week. She couldn't believe I knew every single word to every single song. 

Sewage

You should be grateful that I've spared you the details of our latest sewer line woes. Well, until now, that is, so I guess you can stop being grateful. You know how we're always having sewer backups in the basement? (You might recall that the most recent one was late at night while Andy was in the hospital. Good times.) So it happened again a few weeks ago, and I called Big Famous Drain Cleaning Company as usual. After the cleanout, the guy suggested I have another guy come out the next day with his snaky camera thing to do a colonoscopy on my house, so I did.

"Oh, lady, you got trouble!" was the gist of that experience. I could see on the screen as the camera ended up submerged in, um, let's just call it "water" well before it even reached the street. The guy told me that I needed them to dig a hole in my yard to "jet" the blockage out toward the street, but oh no! Turns out our sewer line is 14 feet underground, which is more than double the usual depth. So "That's gonna cost ya!" to the tune of something like $10,000. And they hoped it would do the trick, because if it didn't, I'd be in for more than twice that to dig up all the way to the street. And they also strongly suggested I not use any water until I did this.

Fortunately, a cooler head (Andy's) prevailed; he called the city DPW, who sent their own cameraman out for a repeat colonoscopy. (In the meantime, we flushed as little as possible, did the dishes in a pot and then dumped the dirty water behind the garage, went to the laundromat, and showered elsewhere or not all.) The city has no axe to grind because they are not in the plumbing business. This time the camera did not end up submerged, although we saw lots and lots of tree roots. (It's those darn roots that the cleanout guys are always getting at—we don't flush anything besides toilet paper.) Our quaint old main sewer line is made up of two-foot-long sections of clay pipe, and at every seam all of those quaint old trees outside send their roots in to wreak havoc. The city guy said that a good cleaner-outer guy should be able to get the roots. So we called a local plumbing company who came and did it. Then the city cameraman came again and got the camera all the way to the street without getting stuck on anything. All of this took more than a week.

The upshot: We need to get cleaned out prophylactically at least twice a year, not just when the basement toilet starts gurling. And we should consider replacing the main sewer line at some point with PVC. Or we can look into lining the current pipes with PVC, although ours are so bendy that I don't know whether it's feasible.

Also: I am so angry with the guys from Big Famous Drain Cleaning Company. They called me every day that week to say, "Karen, I'm really worried! It's going to rain tomorrow and then we won't be able to dig, and you can't wait any longer or you going to have a basement full of sewage!" And they were wrong, wrong, wrong. It used to be that they were the only ones who would come on a weekend or at night (which seems to be when all of our sewer backups occur), but that's no longer the case, so I will never call them again.

Bee Season

Today was one of those days that just plain sucked. The worst part was that my Internet was down, and I had a deadline to meet. I tried to work at Starbucks, but for some reason my old MacBook Pro wouldn't get online. I'm sure my client understands (well, I hope so, anyhow!), but I just don't do missed deadlines. Well, it turned out that the modem was dead, so I'm back online. (No idea what's wrong with the MacBook, but I rarely use it anyhow.)

Yesterday was a much better day, because that was when Julie came in second in the all-city spelling bee! She got out on the word INAUGURATE, which I think is a very hard word for a fourth grader (and for many adults, as I discovered when asking around today). She got plenty of other hard words, like TOBOGGAN and TENDENCY and FRIGID and RENEWAL. And now it's just two weeks until the school spelling bee!

As Good As Hametz

I made these chocolate cookies for Passover, and my kids have deemed them worthy of year-round eating. They are delicious but extremely rich and dense, so one is plenty.

Chocolate Passover Cookies

½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
½ cup matzo meal
¼ teaspoon coarse salt
4 large egg whites
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Add melted chocolate, matzo meal, and salt. Beat until mixture just comes together. (It should be thick.)

In a clean bowl (I have only one bowl for my KitchenAid, so I had to wash it out to reuse it) and with a whisk attachment, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into chocolate mixture. (There was no way this was "folding." The chocolate mixture was like cement, so I really had to mix hard to get the egg whites incorporated. But it still worked out fine.) Add chocolate chips, and stir. Let stand 15 minutes.

Scoop 2-inch balls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. (It said that a single batch would be 14 cookies, but I made a double batch and got 36 cookies.) Bake until set, 10–12 minutes. Let cool on sheet on a wire rack for 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to rack, and let cool completely.