Odds and Ends

Item: What's the difference between a sardine and a 21st century airline traveler? Give up? The sardine is flat, while the airline traveler is bent in two places.

Item: Plan to get websites up and running THIS WEEK, what with taxes (gasp) filed and all, fat checks written that may bounce notwithstanding...these are 2008 taxes, you must understand...one problem with websites is that I still don't have Sarah and Aaron's wedding photos from the photographer, and the photographer has given her blessing for me to use them, and I KNOW they are better than mine, but I can't post them if I don't have them...

Item: I really like the format of Ruth Reichl's website, with the various activities, Gourmet job, bio, books, blog, etc. I like the way it looks. My plan is to have a base website, and two primary sub-sites, each with blogs and things. I think I have a pretty good concept but am slipping and sliding on this learning curve. I've drafted this thing to date about three times. About three more and I may seek professional help, except I'm broke. Until now, though, there have been serious distractions.

Item: Phil, Martin and I spent last weekend in New York visiting Sarah and Aaron. This time we stayed at the Marriott Brooklyn Bridge, which is not far from their apartment and cost very little more than other places we've stayed that were "bargains". The Marriott had the enormous advantage of an elevator, decent sized room, etc. In other words, I didn't have to go up four or five flights of stairs to get to our room, not to mention going DOWN same. Lord, NYC is expensive. I'm not sure how much we spent on cab fares, but I'm fairly certain I DO NOT want to know. No plans to add it up. We had some really good if not spectacular food. It was great seeing Sarah and Aaron.

They are doing great. She likes her job even though she's seriously stressed out much of the time. They are trying to decide what to do next, when their current jobs are over next fall.

The weather during the weekend was rotten (cold, rainy, dreary), and at one point we decided that staying in their warm apartment and playing Scrabble (I read e-mail instead) was far superior to actually going anywhere. It was a great weekend, though, we saw "West Side Story" the new production on Broadway Saturday afternoon, and went to Evensong at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Sunday evening. Afterward we had drinks in Bruce and Brandon's apartment in the cathedral precincts and dinner later in the "hood" with them. That cathedral's echo MAY NOT be better than the one at York Minster, but if it isn't better, it's really, really hard to tell. Music in that place just transports you. So THERE.

This morning (Monday) we had breakfast with Sarah at David Bouley's bakery, which is an odd sort of place, but the food was good. It is also very near her office. She went to work and we went "exploring", which lasted about 20 minutes, until we all decided what we wanted to do with the time left until we had to go to the airport was,......, TAKE A NAP.

So there. New York City is a great place to visit, but it'd be a tough place to live...

Item: I'm still furious that Gourmet is history. My last issue arrived the day we left. I DO NOT WANT a subscription to Bon Appetit, which is what they are going to give me, although I LIKE Bon Appetit. It just isn't the same sort of magazine. And to add insult to injury, the new PBS show that is a Gourmet spinoff isn't going to be shown in central Kentucky. It figures...

Cheers, Lillie