Adults Night Out

In celebration of Katie's birthday, I had bought tickets to see The Magic Numbers at Webster Hall. Mike defected and so the ticket was passed on to Alison. So last night, we headed to Union Sq. for dinner at Republic (the curry duck noodles are so good) and then off to the show. The opening band was good, but the headliner was better. I really like the Magic Numbers, but sometimes (By this I'm referring to an extended period of standing) the repetition in their songs can get a little taxing. But it's done clever enough that just as you are thinking, "this part is getting a little old," they switch it up and.. Voila! It' s new beat. (Well, at least a good variation.)

What I was most surprised by last night was the percentage of older adults in the crowd. By older, I mean mid 40's and beyond. They were really into it (good for them!). The strangest was this pair of older men standing right next to me. One was dressed like a Beatnik and was dancing wildly (waving arms, stamping feet, head bopping and the finger-spread -feverish hand clapping combo) while his partner in crime was doing a slight variation of the chicken dance. (We saw him warming up, so to speak, before the band came on.)

It was fun and The Magic Numbers seem like such a sincere, cheerful bunch that it makes you like them even more.

Best Burger in Town

Can be found at the Duncraggen. That's right. Last night I went to Fairway and decided to make burgers for dinner (this is what's up next). But these were no ordinary burgers. These were lamburgers- a 1:1 ratio of organic beef to lamb. I seasoned them with fresh pressed garlic, parsley, rosemary, crushed chili peppers, sea salt, cracked pepper, and lemon juice. Toped with American cheese, Grey Poupon, a lightly futtered (fake butter) and toasted Kaiser roll with mixed green, tomatoes and red onions. For a side, I made sugar snap peas, grilled zucchini, and sweet potato fries (ok, I cheated with the fries). Oh yeah, and a nice cold Newcastle. Damn that was a good meal. With the left over lamburger meat, I added some fresh grated Parmesan reggiano and rolled them up into meatballs for a future dish.

My original plan was to add bacon to the burger. Mike thought that was a bit decadent...I thought the idea of three animals in one bite was pretty impressive. Like the Turducken, only better. Maybe not...that turducken looks pretty good.

That's not a woman-That's MAN, man!

I took a "gender test" today and of course it told me that my answers compared to the rest of the people who have taken this quiz were:
"5% more male than you -2% like you - 92% more female than you" meaning that I am, mannish. Then they gave me this offensive picture of what I guess they summarize to be the physical representation of my answers:

WHAT IS THAT?!

That is just about ugliest man/woman ( in a business suit!) I have seen in cartoon form or any form for that matter. Furthermore, if I were not a confident person, I think I would be crushed if someone told me that this is what they conjureded up from a quiz I took.

Then I realized that I took this same test in college. My whole lab took it and back then I got "76% were more female than your answers." This means that over the years I have matured into a...man. Hmm...I don't like this one bit. So upon telling Katie and Alison in lab, they said, "It's like you had a little teenager moustache in college and now you have a full beard. " Yes. That IS what this quiz is telling me. It's telling me this is the transformation I have made.

So for a while I was a little miffed by this test. How dare they say I look or resemble (either in spirit or internet quizzes) like a horrific man/woman (and I certainly DO NOT wear business suits!). Then I thought about many of the questions and I find that they are really unintelligent. For example, one of the questions is "Is a clam alive?" Apparently most men said NO while most women said yes. Well, maybe this test should be re-named "Are you remotely intelligent?" I'm being a little mean but really, see for yourself, the questions are a bit silly and definitely arbitrary.

And just to clarify, I do NOT have a moustache or a beard. (Oh the beauty of Photoshop....) Although after this picture, tonight I may not have a husband either. (Oh, and Josh, this may actually be worse than the one Mike put up.)

The never ending flight of stairs to nowhere

In order to train for the MA AT (90 miles in 7 days of hiking with one off day in Dalton, MA), I decided to do several things. The first and most important factor was strength training my legs for the weight of the pack as well as endurance (lots of uphill hiking). My legs are really strong now, but I am concerned about the total impact my legs will take in the course of 7 days. I began my training last night by going on the gauntlet for 30min at level 9-11 for 30min with a hiking pack. Inside my hiking pack was a very large but useless biochemistry textbook, my shampoo and conditioner, a stack of scientific papers (which I carry everywhere but do not read) and various other items. The pack I think weighed 15lbs at most and so it isn't really close to my actual pack weight (but I will work up to that).
After 30mins., I ran on the treadmill with my pack for 0.5mile at 11min pace.

I had some people look at me strangely. The lady next to me asked me what I was training for and I told her, "The Miss America pageant...(pause) Just kidding. It's for a long hike." She didn't say anything after that. I think she might have been weirded out by me.

The next stage is to increase my time and weight on the gauntlet. My Thursday gym class incorporates a ton of squats, lunges and push ups (which I also do on other days though not to the extent of this class). I do all the leg stuff with weights and so I think I am covered in that arena. The other idea I have is to go to a studio cycling class at least once a week and try not to die in this class. The instructor is really cute... so that's incentive.

If anyone has any ideas or advice, I would appreciate it.

Random thoughts and events

This week has gone so quickly. And quite frankly, all this work is taking away from my beer/night cap time. It's been all work and gym this week. Not tonight! Tonight I go out and get myself a nice cold McSorely's and, oh yeah, come back to lab for a 12am time point. I guess the lesson here is to take what you can and make the best of it, but really, I think the lesson is don't go to school (at least not one that eats your life. Haha Mike! It's too late for you!)
In other happier news, here is a random list of things that either have happened or are planned.

- Recently, I have been on a big brussel sprout kick. I've been incorporating them (mostly in the sauteed form) into casseroles and salmon dishes.

- Today I had to make a figure using Adobe Illustrator while listening to KEXP. I think it came out pretty good. Here's a part of it:

If you understood this figure, we need to talk.

-Happy St. Patty's Day. A bunch of us plan on drinking some McSorely's tonight.

- The other day I bought The Best of George Michael while at Borders with Alison. She deemed me "loser" and decided to run off in the store while hugging her new Asian friend, Margaret Cho. I also purchased Gwen Stefani's Love. Angel. Music. Baby. All was forgiven. We both wanted to go see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs then realized that we will be in Philly for a meeting. Science really interferes with my life.

- I had a serious case of Barbie arms after lifting chest and triceps a little too vigorously. In case you don't know what I am referring to, it's when your arms are so tired that they cannot be raised (In my case to shampoo my hair. I had to smush my arms against the tiled wall to raise them.) resulting in a fixed old school Barbie-esq form. [Only the arms though...I don't resemble Barbie in any other way. Even my feet are too big and my head is really small.]

- I am so excited! Today Trader Joe's opened in Union Sq. but it's a good thing I didn't go as it was a mad house and...AND...the Shake Shack is opening next week! Fancy! Shake that thing at the Shake Shack (Ok. I made that up but I am so excited that I am doing a little dance.)

- Tomorrow Mike, Vijay and I plan on hiking a good portion of the NJ AT. It will be a long day hike and we plan on ending and coming back to NYC to hit up Corner Bistro (after some lab work of course). This means more McSorely's Dark Ale.

- We are planning our vacation this year and plan on hiking the MA AT. This is a great endeavor since Mike and I have very few vacation days this year (i hope, i hope, i hope i get permission to write...) and Vijay has a million things to do before he becomes a francophile. This is a 90mile hike and are trying to plan it out so we can hike it in 7 days. My massive Asian quadriceps and calves are ready. I can't wait.

Well this is all the news I can currently think to report. Actually, there is more but I have a time point and well, you know how the rest goes.

Woods and Fine Dining (Oh yeah, and A LOT of wine)

The plan was to hike, camp for the night and have a quick exit the next morning. This was altered once we finished our highly confusing loop (it was starting to mildly remind me of the Blair Witch Project ) and reached our campsite. Mike and Vijay have re-capped the events, so all I will say is this sums up the overall morale at the campsite but add to it a sense of disappointment. I will add, since it was conveniently omitted by Vijay, that about a good mile to the campsite he was sneezing "PIZZA HUT" which represented the potential but half-joking escape plan for the night. Clearly he had an agenda before we got to the campsite. Haha.

we decided that since we are not camping, that we should do something different in NYC. We never go to fancy places for dinner and so to celebrate Vijay's future home, we decided we would have a night of fine dining French-style. I tried to get a reservation for Balthazar but of course it was not possible. So while trying to find a restaurant, Mike and Vijay watched really bad TV (I mean really bad...I think they were watching COPS.) and drinking A LOT of wine. In fact, I think Vijay had 500mL and Mike had almost 1L. (We know this because we had poured the wine out into Nalgene bottles for the hike. Oh and they drank it out of the Nalgene. High Class!)

In the end we went to Brasserie 8 1/2. It's a very mod atmosphere with mod French cuisine to match. The food was fantastic! We ordered a very nice Cabernet Sauvignon and each had a first and second course. Here is the list:
First Course:
Vijay-Portobelo mushrooms and goat cheese with candied beets and lavender meringue
Mike- Maryland Jumbo Blue Crab Cakes with artichoke & sea bean salad, grainy mustard sauce and lobster roe
Me- Crispy Zuchinni Blossoms with Maine Lobsters, roaster corn & picquillo pepper relish, avocado and tomato powder
They were all great, but the crab cakes was the best. BEST! They were perfect.

Second Course:
Vijay-Horseradish Crusted Ocean Stripped Bass
Mike- Red Snapper (it is not listed on the online menu)
Me- Wild Artic Char in Scallop Crust with "TUNA BACON"

TUNA BACON! The striped bass was delicious, but I think my entree was the best. The flavors were so delicate and the tuna bacon...wow. We also got dessert (creme brulee, PB&J sundae and chocolate pistachio French dip- all good, but I have had better creme brulee). It was a lot of fun and the restaurant has a great lounge, something I will have to re-visit.

It was a great meal and I highly recommend this restaurant. So even though we didn't camp, we had a great night and slept in warm soft beds. This morning we were going to go for a walk in Fort Tryon Park, but it was raining, so I made tuna melts with French fries and PB & dark chocolate covered Granny Smith apples. Yum. Great weekend.

WHY Hot Asian girls and Geeky White men?

This was the title of a post I came across in the NYC craigslist. It made me laugh out loud.

Yesterday I went to the movies and for some reason there were so many interracial couples (asian girls and white guys) milling about the theatre. Now I've got to admit that I've never dated an Asian girl before but since I've gotten (in NYC for only 4 months now) here my eyes have been opened to the fact that many of them are just, well, Hot! So, I'm in the movie theatre and couple after couple are just some of the saddest pairings I've ever seen; a hot asian girl with a DORK of a white guy. I mean I understand if this was one, or two couples but it seemed to be the rule. One of the guys was like fat and bald and wearing a members only jacket. Another was clearly 20years older than the really cute asian girl and looked like he just came out of a homeless shelter! Yet another was dressed in a really cheap suit and dirty payless shoes and holding hands with a real asian hotty. Not only did her borrow her cell phone 2x online but SHE PAID. I later saw her buying him a bevy of concessions. I'm just wondering what the hell is going on here? I look at these girls and they are attractive. I've taken piano lessons before so I know asians are smart. Maybe Asian women just like dorks, or guys who take advantage of them? It was clear that none of these guys could ever get a date with a normal white girl that's for sure. Maybe Asian women look deeper and maybe these guys had a lot to offer? I don't know. Can someone tell me what's going on here? Maybe that's why in 4 months I'm yet to meet/date (not that I've tried) an asian girl here. They are all taken by the social misfits of the city! Are there any cute asians out there that like attractive, tall, built, educated white men that have their own cell phone, will pay for the date, and doesn't look like a chubby Woody Allen?

I think my favorite part is the, "I've taken piano lessons before so I know asians are smart." Really? Is that how you know that they're smart? Any other inferences you would like to make? I also like the descriptions of these male social misfits. I have to give this guy credit for creativity and humor but check minuses for his inductive reasoning skills. Maybe women who pay do so because they are independent, like to have some level of control or just want to because it's a nice gesture. Maybe Asian women look deeper at a person's personality, but let's face the hard truth. There are many women willing to look "deeper" and date an "unattractive" man because he has something to offer....like money or status. It doesn't necessarily have to do with having a kind and loving heart and it certainly has nothing to do with being Asian. And you know what, geeks are cool. So cool that I, an Asian female, married one (geeky white male). Still, it was a humerous post and it has the overtones of people in my social circle (making this guy uncreepy) which made reading this extra enjoyable.

My advice to this guy- There are a lot of unattractive people in this world (physically, morally, mentally...) and as I get older, I am starting to realize that there actually is someone for everyone. Therefore, I think you notice the unattractive paired with the attractive people more often than anything else. So I am sure you will find your girl (Asian or not) to fufill you dreams. If not, well, I guess I was wrong about the someone-for-everyone comment.

Oh yeah, I probably just opened myself up as a hit for many bizzaro Google searches.

Tasting Panel- My future career

I am so excited. Trader Joe's in NYC?! Read the article. One day I will be like Ms. Lori Latta. This, without a doubt, is my destiny. This news just made my day. I may have to move to Union Square... instead, I will write them a letter about the advantages of Washington Heights. It's an official count down to March 17th.

Sound of Silence

Have you ever had one of those mornings where everything seems eerie? I left the apt. this morning and immediately I felt something was off. I stopped into Starbucks on the corner and it was virtually empty. This is NEVER the case. I looked around skeptically (is someone dead on the floor, is the coffee being poisoned...) and ordered my coffee. While walking to work, the usual sound of children yapping on the way to school was absent. In fact, there weren't may people out. Is it a holiday? It reminded me of two things:
1. The beginning of the film 28 Days Later (stupid activists) where there isn't a single individual in all of the streets of London.
2. My 5 day experience in St. Louis , MO (Which was a lot like the beginning of 28 Days Later and didn't get any better the whole time I was there.)

I get to the lobby of my building and there isn't anyone around. No delivery person, no one at the coffee cart. I get to lab and it's so quiet. Now it's starting to creep me out. But then I thought, "Hey! Maybe everyone vaporized and now I don't have to go to work anymore or finish my thesis!" I start dancing and a few minutes later people start showing up. So I put on my headphones, crank up Wilco and head to the microscope room to "look at slides" but in actuality, to sit there and drink my coffee while hoping that they announce I don't have to be here anymore. Hmm...I like lunch...maybe I will stick around for lunch.

Guggenheim Dance Party

Last night Katie told me about a party at the Guggenheim, more specifically, a dance party. Well, this sounded fancy and so we signed up for the RSVP list through FlavorPill and decided to meet at around 10pm. Since I haven't been going out much lately (Aside from the gym [Though I have to say I love LOVE my gym class on Thursdays. My instructor is so awesome.] I really don't do much on the weeknights.) and the recent events of being sick and looking like a disheveled bag lady wasn't making me feel very good. Not to mention we went to The Stokes concert this week and left before the encore because we were both too tired. (Yeah it's lame, but I really did not like the fact that people were smoking and I was coughing up a lung. The concert was great however.)

So I wanted to do something fun. Dance party at the Guggenheim with Carlos D from the Interpol as the DJ? Sounds great! I have to say I was met with hesitation from Mike who dislikes really loud events and crowds (haha...You're living in NYC!). To his defense, he has been really overworked lately. I left lab at 8pm and went home to get partied up! By 8.30 I was out the door to meet Mike at the gym so we could get dinner. My mistake was to eat New England Clam Chowder (my favorite!) for dinner. Why? Because I am lactose intolerant and boy oh boy, did that do a number on me.

We make it to the party and it's pretty cool. It's so interesting to people watch and I have to say that the crowd was largely Caucasians and Asians. Our being on the list got us in faster and allowed us to get free beer in the VIP room. Fancy. Katie, Jonah and Matt were already there. We walked to the top, hung out, got my free Budweiser Select (so gross), then decided to dance. It was fun. I love dancing, especially to really good indie rock/80's. However, I couldn't stop burping from the soup. I was being discrete about it, but the smell was so rank that I noticed people looking around thinking, "Man! What the hell is that?!" Oops. Finally, Mike pulls me aside and says, "Is that you burping?" I start laughing. He says in such a serious way, "You really have to stop. It's so beyond gross. I think it's making me sick. And I think Katie thinks it's me." HAHA!
Sorry. It was a fun night, though it was a short night. And if anyone else was made sick by my burps, I am most sorry. I'll have to go out again some night, but no milk products beforehand.