I love when people come to visit

Deirdre, our great T-bird friend is here in her annual trek for some alone mommy time. She has two adorable girls who as a mom of one is amazed that she doesnt escape more often.

She and my good buddy Shirley (another Tbird) met at House for drinks. This was not the plan as they were going up to some italian institute thingy but they decided to come down to meet me to provide support in my hour of need. I just had gotten laid off earlier in the day.  I was happy and grateful to have the company. Needless to say that I enjoyed 3 vodka martinis to celebrate and not commiserate. 

I love House by the way. Its a cute place on 17th between Park Avenue South and third. I just like the ambiance of the place and its not Mexican or too too crowded.  I have never eaten there but only gone for drinks. I am sure the food is fabulous and one day i will.  

I had to pick Alex up from Friday Night Fun Night, a chance to meet up with her preschool friends. 

We continued onto my apartement for some chinese and more banter. All in all not such a bad ending to a terrible start. 

Twilight - why it pays to be 15 and overlook stuff

I went to see Twilight because I read the book (and liked it) and the times for Slumdog Millionaires did not work for me. First, the book is so much more appealing as a story than the movie.  The two leads for the most part are perfectly cast and have a lot of chemistry together. Sadly, the dialogue is just ridiculous and not believable. It was so cringeworthy but again I am not 15. I just kept thinking back to the book which I never felt that it was written that way.  The special effects and fight scenes were not great either. Maybe its because the studio did not believe in the movie and was only budgeted at $15 million. There was one scene where Bella and Edward as whizzing through the trees and my only thought was Crouching Tiger did it better and I wanted to see more of the scenery. That is not what I should be thinking, right. 

this is another pet peeve of mine for hollywood movies. Why they cant seem get naturally dark haired actors to look like natural looking blonds. Every actor who was supposed to be blond looked bad. The coloring was so off it was annoying and distracting. Also Jacob's wig looked like a wig. Cant these people see this in the camera when they are filming. 

I am hoping the success of the movie will lead to bigger budget that gets them a better screenwriter and special effects. 

I love when it rains = getting something accomplished

It's now almost the end of 2008 and I finally finished my 2007 scrapbook.  Procrastination does not begin to explain how this happened. Sadly, I missed a few photos but at least its done and I still have an entire bag of stuff to go through and organize. 

If only I could get 6 other rainy days in a row, I could finish 2003-2006. I can only hope, right. 

Build a Bear is the devil in bear's clothing

We had originally planned to go out of town to a friend's house unfortunately the rental costs were just a little much. Our concession was to spend a fun action packed mother-daughter day.  We have been to build a bear once before in Virginia. As you can imagine, a suburban mall in the summer is so much more civilized than going to a midtown new york city location 2 days after thanksgiving. Good lord how may choices can there be. 

This concept is so deliciously ingenious, really. The bears or other stuffed animals cost pretty much the same as other stuffed animals. It's all the extras that will kill you. 

My daughter never goes for the obvious. We started with the koala bear and then she was swayed by hannen's decision to get a dinosaur.  This went on for awhile since I wanted to get something and more importantly cheaper. Alas I did not win that battle. 

Then of course we moved on the accessories. Good lord. Oddly the each item was not all that much. $3-7 a piece but you add them up and next thing you know its $30 worth of stuff plus the sound that is stuffed in the animal. 

And you know what I am going to subjected to for the next god knows months. Bloody hannah montana.   I even tried to get her to switch to high school musical. No luck. This is truly hell on earth. 

We then stood in line to get the animal stuffed. This is actually a nice touch, they ask each child to take a heart and rub it on their forehead, cheeks and tummy and place inside the animal. Alex then went over the drying station and rubbed her new friend. She spend a lot of time doing this and she loved doing it. 

Oh I forgot each doll has stuffed inside the bar code so that in the event its lost, the company can track the child down and have the animal returned. 

Watching Alex  picking out her animal, the clothes and just plain enjoying the experience, pretty much melts my cynical heart. I know she will remember this time together so it was worth the trip.

Mom's Dinner at Jack's

After 5 years, a group of us moms finally met for together for drinks and dinner.  It was soooo to get out out that I met through my lovely child. Its kinda of sad to think that without our respective children, we would never met in a city of millions. My preschool experience was great and the parents I met were incredible and I think that is unusual. 

What I loved about the evening was  that we spent most of our time talking about politics, religion, our upbringing and not about our children. 

Its refreshing to get out and just laugh without a care in the world. 3 glasses of wine also help. 

No More Excuses

The election is over.

I can't come up with a catchier title because all my choices were taken or too long or people did not like. So I have to move forward and go with this one.

My first order of business is to tell you why I am going down this path so you should tune in. 

Yes, I am planning to write about fabulous but warning, I am no Kimora Lee Simmons or even aspire to be (ok, I wouldn't be turn down a trip on a G5 or a yacht), there will be no tales of club openings or premieres. I live in New York City so there is plenty to capture about my life and friends.