Saturday's Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge

We had PERFECT weather on Saturday, so we thought we'd make the most of it. After each going to the gym (not being married I don't have access to the NYU gym, so I frequent Lucille Roberts), we wandered around the neighborhood until we found a restaurant that had open air seating. Unfortunately it was in the shade, so a little chilly. But the price was cheap and we could people watch, which was fun.

We walked to the subway, and right before we descended at W4th Street to catch the A to Brooklyn, we were handed free cokes in glass bottles. Ah, memories of the shop and opening those sweet cokes and dr. pepper's on the old bottle opener. And the taste - wow. Can't beat the taste of crisp coke in a bottle. YUM. So we took pictures of that.

Onto Brooklyn, we walked from the Brooklyn side to the Manhattan side, then walked south to South Street Seaport. We enjoyed the STRAND Outlet store (18 miles of books), I found an "Owen" New York bike plate, and we saw crazy people, giant boats and the Brooklyn Bridge from another angle (see the last photos).

All in all, a pretty good outing for a spur-of-the-moment idea. ~Mari.

Peepshow from My Window

NYU students get naked for Earth - Campus

Shawn was making lunch on Thursday when he was distracted by a parade, of sorts, basically naked people chanting down the street. He didn't notice they were naked - from 5 flights up I guess the paint on their bodies and the signs that covered them distracted him. I noticed when I looked but wasn't sure enough to tell him until they were walking down the street. What a pity.

Anyway, I found this article and realized what it was about. (Couldn't understand their shouting/chanting or read their signs ourselves) I wish I'd thought to stick my camera out the window to show our perspective of the event. I'll get better at training myself to be at the ready for camera ops.

~Mari.

My Boys

Keep finding oldies and goodies to test out my digital scrapbooking knowledge on - I am killing myself, sitting at the computer much longer than work requires me to, but I LOVE this stuff. How can I ever go back to paper and scissors and glue and everything looking like a Kindergartener did it???

~M.

Sad Story

I've come across this article in the clippings from work. Breaks my heart.

Report Cites Abuse of 91,000 Babies Under 1 - washingtonpost.com
Neglect, Abuse Seen in 90,000 Infants - AP
Study Finds Abuse in One of 43 Babies - New York Times
1 in 50 infants abused or neglected - Baltimore Sun

They don't have previous data to know if this is a trend. But most of the abuse in these youngest babies (less than a week in some cases) is neglect. Maybe it's just new moms not knowing what to do? Either way, it's just horrifying.

Here's the definition of neglect for this study: the failure the meet a child's basic needs:

"That can be anything involving the provision of appropriate housing or food or clothing or even access to medical care."

It also shows all the different headlines and the way the newspapers handled this story.

I don't know the answer. But I hope this much press makes something happen.

~Mari.

Tea Tree Oil Shampoo

When I went home for Easter and the wedding shower, Beth and I had our hair blown out - just as a treat. I was half asleep from the early morning plane rides and anxious to get back to playing with Owen, visiting with family, etc. SO I wasn't the best client for the hairdresser. She was nice though, and gave me a valuable tip.

Two things were happening - the area of my scalp closest to my forehead (I guess my hairline) was flaking. This has always been the case (well always being since I've been in grad school I think...maybe longer) - so I just deal with it, comb it out and move on. I've tried some dandruff shampoos, and it's not always super noticeable or bothersome. WELL, the hairdresser told me that it isn't dandruff but dry scalp - probably caused by stress (imagine that). She recommended tea tree oil infused shampoo. She washed, dried and styled my hair, and my scalp was a lot better - less flaky with only a few little red patches that needed to heal. Well, a week and a half later, I've been washing my hair every other day (or maybe every third day - hard to keep track w/o work outfits and hairstyles to keep me on schedule) - and my scalp is 500 times better. My hair hasn't lost any body or curl or anything, plus I love the sweet pepperminty smell of the shampoo and the thick conditioner. I bought some Triple Threat shampoo from Duane Reed drugstore. And it's working great. I love new, successful beauty tips!

The hairdresser told me I was shedding a lot of hair though (tell me something I don't know) - another thing caused by stress. I've always had lots of hair, and I still have lots of thick out of control hair, so I've never been bothered too much by losing some. But maybe THAT will be the next hair thing I tackle. Possible causes are stress, of course, and lack of protein. But I eat meat every day, so we'll see.

Maybe when the wedding's over my stress will be gone - YEAH RIGHT... Meanwhile I'm enjoying my sweet smelling hair and non-itchy scalp. Ta Da!

~Mari.

Digital Scrapbooking

I went to Michaels in Queens this weekend - to pick up some supplies. I've got all my bells done for the wedding (Gran is starching them for me!) - and I needed something else to crochet - before I start on my next effort, the chromium star blanket. Anyway, while there I picked up this magazine: Digital Scrapbooking Magazine

It has inspired me... So I'm probably going to have a whole new "craft" to obsess over!

~Mari.

FOUND

Ah, the blue tooth headset is snugly in my ear. It was hiding at the bottom of a box of junk in my closet. How it got there, I'll never know. I'm just glad I found it.

The DVD player is on the fritz still. I got it to play video, but no sound. I've had that problem before, but usually it will work itself out. Anyway, it's time for a new DVD player. Today is Shawn's birthday, so he can pick it out. :)

We're going to an off-Broadway play tonight, then dinner to celebrate. Two years ago I was planning him a big, kid-themed 30th birthday party. This year will be much more laid back. I'm sure he's wishing it would be with more than just me, but whaddya gonna do? Here's what we're going to see: My First Time.

Ugh - I just got forgotten myself. I was supposed to be in a conference call with work - and just yesterday I was told "we'll always call you - no need to call us." Well, they didn't call me. I feel like leaving. I may take a walk to calm down.

Happy Birthday Shawn. ~M.

Losing

My Bluetooth headset for my phone - without it, my conference calls are a nightmare (I have to hold a hot cell phone to my head for more than an hour, sometimes two)... plus I am going crazy - where could it be. I intentionally left it here so as not to lose it during travels to DC and OK... But it's not where it should be, and I can't figure out where I would have moved it. I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have moved it and that I did not. But where is it???

My DVD player - I know where it is, but it's broken. We tried to pop in "Barefoot in the Park" last night (we've finally signed onto a Blockbuster mail-in movie thing) and it didn't work. We tried another DVD, and just horrible noises coming from the player. We watched a DVD last Thursday, just before we left for OK - and it worked fine. WHAT happened? Who knows? All I know is I need to buy another DVD player...

My mind... so many details, so many thank you notes, so many invitations to create and address. PLUS work and all that entails. Right now I'm waiting for a 17MB file to download from the shared drive... Someday I'll teach people to compress their PowerPoints - not just to make my life easier... I'm such a gretch.

Our friend Coretta did a test cake for us - it's SO gorgeous. I don't want to ruin the surprise BUT I do want to post the image and compare the difference between Beth's and my "test" cake. HA!

Captain Cranky

Using a tutorial, I made this comic-book effect. I kinda like it. I'm practicing because I might do something like this for say the wedding rehearsal - or the bridal shower or something in my final "wedding book" that I'm planning to create using Blurb.com... Although I'm sure I'll make MANY books with that site. What fun!

~M.

Starbucks/Walmart States

Starbucks/Walmart update

Came across this in a blog I read (not the one linked, which is the original source).

Two posts in one day, but this is too good. It cracked me up... ~Mari.

wikiHow: How to Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup

How to Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup - wikiHow

One of the things on my iGoogle page is the "how-to of the day" and this is one of today's. (There are actually about three that come up during the day, rotating the oldest ones off)

It reminded me of one of my experiences with Shawn's family - we were eating our first Thanksgiving dinner together. I laughed a LOT! There's no getting away from it - it's in EVERYTHING.

Except diet coke... Slurp!

~Mari.

old glasses

For reference a picture of him with his old glasses.

New Glasses for Shawn

Can you even tell the difference???

PRWeek: Femmes on the Web

Teen girls outnumber boys as creators of Web content - PRWeek US

I guess teenage girls spend their time dishing about others - and tearing each other down. And boys are busy...playing games online?

Who knows. I just found it interesting.

~M.

NYT: Girls Getting Older, Younger

Never Too Young for That First Pedicure - New York Times

I didn't have a manicure until college - and it's not something I keep up. I guess this is just a "sign of the times" - but BLUGH.

But I wish the innocence of dolls and Barbies and all that could last a little longer for little girls today.

NYT: Bridal Gown Trends

The Bride Wore Very Little - New York Times:

"According to a 2006 survey by Condé Nast Bridal Media, 16 percent of couples choose a destination wedding — a fourfold increase from a decade ago. The same survey found that only 46 percent of brides are married in a church or synagogue, down from 55 percent the year before. With weddings transported to other locales comes a loosening of conventions.

Whether they marry in a walled garden, on a tennis court, on a yacht or at the beach, “brides are more focused on the after-party, and on personalizing it,” Ms. Bratten said."

Think this might be part of the reason so many marriages end in divorce? Because the brides focus on the celebrity and "after party" of the event/wedding, instead of the marriage itself?!

It's still so hard not to get sucked into it...the bridal machine, designed to suck all your savings and spit you out on the other side of your wedding a little let down, like the day after Christmas, but with no Boxing Day Sales... It's going to be great though - because I'll be married to the best guy ever! Whee.

~M.

Jellybean Sudoku

index.sudokucards

The things people make... I think I want the Jellybean one!

~Marilyn Jean, the Jellybean. =)

S&B

From WWD:
TV, the Next Frontier for Steve & Barry's

When Shawn's cousin Robbie, and his wife, Tabby, were in town last weekend, we had the BEST time. Their mutual cousin Kellie, a true New Yorker, took us around. The natural history museum, China town, Little Italy, Times Square, Toys R Us, etc. Robbie makes me laugh hysterically - I think we were just on the same wavelength or something. And it was good to spend time with Tab. She's pretty awesome.

And Kellie - well I could write a love letter about her, but I won't. Needless to say, I'm a LUCKY LUCKY girl to get to become a part of this family.

SO, this ties into the S&B article above because one of the things we did was go to Steve & Barry's to look for souvenirs (R&T's daughter, Sarah, wanted some sunglasses). They had a pair of running/casual shoes on sale for $9. They were a dark greeny-grey with purple edging. AND they had a size 11. Holy heck!

So I've been sporting new kicks this week.

Happy Valentine's!!!

PS Can't wait to get my hands on a Spock T-Shirt from S&B. TOO cool!

Via Perez

"There is a strange pecking order among actors. Theatre actors look down on film actors, who look down on TV actors. Thank God for reality shows, or we wouldn't have anybody to look down on."

- George Clooney

I literally laughed out loud!

IHT: Swag for Blogging

Beauty bloggers begin to pull in the swag - International Herald Tribune

Interesting. I'd have to write about beauty products, get an audience and be more diligent about posting... Not for me, but it's an interesting phenomenon.

Onward. ~Mari.