Aurora Urbanalis

Note to CNN.com

Dear CNN.com:

This headline is f*cking unforgivable.

People died.

You should be ashamed.

Sincerely,
Mme Panique

La Famile Panique

Mon frère, mon mari, mon père, ma mère... et moi.

Heartfelt thanks

Happy Thsanksgiving!

YOU ARE HERE

Actually, you are at the Top of the Rock Observation Deck, but you are looking at Chez Panique. You can almost see right into the lobby! Awesome!

Now let's get back inside where it's warm.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

You know, cr'mberry sause time.

Goat's milk is magic!

I made cajeta this morning, and in the process learned that I like goat's milk. I think it would be the perfect thing with a slice of chocolate cake. Or on cereal. A little sweet, but a little tangy. Yum.

Blood on the linoleum

It was a free-for-all in Fairway this afternoon, but my meds make these things so much easier. Also the fact that I wasn't driving.

Big thanks to Big Kitty, who took the natural childbirth route while I had the emotional epidural.

A project to be completed later

I do think it's off to a good start, but I'm not sure what comes next.

Rubbing it in

Last night we saw All My Sons, and Katie Holmes wasn't half bad, even if she did take the stage glistening with Vicks VapoRub.

Tonight we saw the new Bond movie, and Daniel Craig did not disappoint. Speaking of VapoRub, that man could rub me with an emollient of his choosing, any time he wanted.

TMI?

Watching

A very small detail of a very small assemblage I finally finished.

More than a year after I started.

Is it so very wrong...

...that I have been completely ready to put up a Christmas tree since before Halloween?

Fall flowers

Bought these for myself on the way home from yoga, because... why not?

Socky McSockersons

Um, Bee?



Whatcha doing with that baby sock?



Nifty, huh?

Too late for your pleading looks, G-Love...

We already ate all the whipped cream.

Better days

I stopped on my way to yoga to take a photo of this... photo, on the sidewalk in the rain.

It's an underexposed view of someone's living room, with the Red Sox on the tv.

Elevated subway platform, 225th Street

Crossed feathers, on a warmish grey day. I think I'd like these on my coat of arms.

Third time's the charm

Well, I almost wiped out twice in today's raininess, but the third time my feet slipped I landed on my ass on the stairs down to the subway. It was a fairly soft landing because I had a hold on the railing. Every muscle in my body went into spasms, though, and even after yoga tonight I still feel shaky and sore.

Happy birthday to me!

I got so many sweet birthday wishes from friends and family today.



At the work/study gig, I got cupcakes (from Cupcake Café, my favorite in New York City) and coffee and a lovely letterpress print. Thanks, guys!



John and I had a delicious meal at BLT Fish, and I got home in time to open some cards and packages while watching my shows.

What a day!

The new patriotism

Cornstarch is magic!

I was making myself a fancy sauce tonight to put on an orange roughy fillet and it just wouldn't thicken. So I added a little cornstarch. I always forget how amazing the transformation is: instant sauce! Cornstarch is magic!

But not as magic as whatever was being sold through this sidebar ad (from the cooking site where I found the sauce recipe), a substance that apparently promotes weight loss.

And whiteness.

Unyoga

Erm. My Sunday night yoga teacher is off having a baby and I'm not really clicking with her replacement. Of course, I might just be irritable after my weekly Sunday afternoon coma nap. What is that about? Could my Trader-Joe's-meringue-cookie-fueled binges have created a cycle of sugar highs and lows that converge to crash on Sundays at 4pm?

Succulents

I bought the two plants in front today, but I'm taking this picture in the future.

The sunny future.

Treehouse blast-off in...

Three!



Two!



One! Blast off!

These pictures are from Tuesday afternoon. Today was infinitely more dreary, but at least it wasn't raining.

This day just gets better and better.

I don't mean that sarcastically. Today started out sleepy and aching, with drizzle and steam outside. It took me forever to get moving, but I got some household administrative tasks handled, then ran some errands and came home with the all-important pomegranate. A headache of bulging proportions swelled in my noggin all day long. I went to yoga, even though I didn't want to, and even though the substitute teacher got on my last nerve and there were thirty people in the tiny studio, the practice cleared my head and my heart. I left refreshed, if stinky, and found that the warm weather had prompted the mini-dog store next door to put puppies in the front window again!

Without further ado, a baker's dozen of photos of a little Boston terrier girlie, pretending to be asleep.

How it feels today

Like this.

Exactly like this.