One of my doormen was trying to teach me, the hopelessly unhip, new slang. Well, let's put it this way -- it's new to ME, even if the rest of the world was wise to it long ago. So one synonym for sweetie, or beau, is boo, as in, "My boo was kind enough to say it tasted okay, even if it was as heavy as a rock."
So my boo was telling me that some urban planner (Robert Moses?) once said that people get bored with the view quickly, so it's a waste to plan for that (which would explain some spectacularly ugly highways attributed to him). After 4 years and 6 months, I have yet to tire of my view. I also think having this open vista is psychologically ... freeing?
I mean, let's face it, NYC is crammed full of tall buildings (although Hong Kong still takes the prize for ingenuity in cramming in sliver buildings with, say, 600-700 sq. ft. -- yes, for the whole building, including elevator and fire stairs) and living and working in a sea of skyscrapes, your view is frequently of another building if you're lucky, or an airshaft if you're not.
So being able to enjoy sunsets like this is really a tonic.
Other tonics are excellent friends and loving family members, all of whom have called or e-mailed since reading my super-nifty (not) news. As a tribute to one of them (and also because I was going through some old photos while avoiding filing and sorting mail) I give you the photo below, which was taken in a Jersey City marina in September during a stroll with my boo.
Said friend also asked/pointed out that I was a bit unclear (I suspect probably because I was so freaked out) when I posted about the dimensions of the tumor. It is not 0.6 mm, but 6.0 mm -- like the size of a pea, or your pinky fingernail (unless you're Yao Ming or Shaquille O'Neal).
Speaking of orders of magnitude, one theory as to why my baked goods have been superdense & un-fluffy lately (angel food cake, coffee cake, and now...this one!) is that my baking powder has lost its oomph. So when I make stuff they taste okay (or at least everyone is too kind to say otherwise) but their density is a bit startling.
Like this simple sheet cake I made for my fella (his birthday is manana) which tastes okay but is only about half as high as it should be. DOH!
Thankfully, between my friends Jackie & Marci, my guy, and my massive sweet tooth, we killed off half of the cake by tonight, including the insanely sweet vanilla buttercream frosting I made (which looks like Fluff in this photo). And just think: this recipe had 1 WHOLE CUP LESS of confectioners' sugar than most recipes! Jeez! Americans are crazy! No wonder my sister always uses about half the sugar called for in a recipe!
Alas for my friends and myself, my technique is to usually stick to the recipe for my initial try and then adjust accordingly in the future . Now I understand why people adjust recipes drastically and append notes in their cookbooks, or on cooking websites such as MyRecipes.com (if only I had found THAT recipe, which used a more sane amount of sugar).
Experienced cooks may know all this but I am new to the game. Or as my ex Matt put it (while enjoying my pumpkin bread pudding and leftover roast beast w/ honey roasted root vegetables during his visit on New Year's Day) "Who are you and what have you done with S?"
Some things never change though, like my propensity for procrastinating, avoiding filing, and generally letting paper pile up and overrun my apt (resulting in a call to a commercial shredding company last summer). Witness: I am blabbing here instead of dealing with 2 mounds of paper currently spreading across my carpet!
So my boo was telling me that some urban planner (Robert Moses?) once said that people get bored with the view quickly, so it's a waste to plan for that (which would explain some spectacularly ugly highways attributed to him). After 4 years and 6 months, I have yet to tire of my view. I also think having this open vista is psychologically ... freeing?
I mean, let's face it, NYC is crammed full of tall buildings (although Hong Kong still takes the prize for ingenuity in cramming in sliver buildings with, say, 600-700 sq. ft. -- yes, for the whole building, including elevator and fire stairs) and living and working in a sea of skyscrapes, your view is frequently of another building if you're lucky, or an airshaft if you're not.
So being able to enjoy sunsets like this is really a tonic.
Other tonics are excellent friends and loving family members, all of whom have called or e-mailed since reading my super-nifty (not) news. As a tribute to one of them (and also because I was going through some old photos while avoiding filing and sorting mail) I give you the photo below, which was taken in a Jersey City marina in September during a stroll with my boo.
Said friend also asked/pointed out that I was a bit unclear (I suspect probably because I was so freaked out) when I posted about the dimensions of the tumor. It is not 0.6 mm, but 6.0 mm -- like the size of a pea, or your pinky fingernail (unless you're Yao Ming or Shaquille O'Neal).
Speaking of orders of magnitude, one theory as to why my baked goods have been superdense & un-fluffy lately (angel food cake, coffee cake, and now...this one!) is that my baking powder has lost its oomph. So when I make stuff they taste okay (or at least everyone is too kind to say otherwise) but their density is a bit startling.
Like this simple sheet cake I made for my fella (his birthday is manana) which tastes okay but is only about half as high as it should be. DOH!
Thankfully, between my friends Jackie & Marci, my guy, and my massive sweet tooth, we killed off half of the cake by tonight, including the insanely sweet vanilla buttercream frosting I made (which looks like Fluff in this photo). And just think: this recipe had 1 WHOLE CUP LESS of confectioners' sugar than most recipes! Jeez! Americans are crazy! No wonder my sister always uses about half the sugar called for in a recipe!
Alas for my friends and myself, my technique is to usually stick to the recipe for my initial try and then adjust accordingly in the future . Now I understand why people adjust recipes drastically and append notes in their cookbooks, or on cooking websites such as MyRecipes.com (if only I had found THAT recipe, which used a more sane amount of sugar).
Experienced cooks may know all this but I am new to the game. Or as my ex Matt put it (while enjoying my pumpkin bread pudding and leftover roast beast w/ honey roasted root vegetables during his visit on New Year's Day) "Who are you and what have you done with S?"
Some things never change though, like my propensity for procrastinating, avoiding filing, and generally letting paper pile up and overrun my apt (resulting in a call to a commercial shredding company last summer). Witness: I am blabbing here instead of dealing with 2 mounds of paper currently spreading across my carpet!
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