I was so excited about today's beach day with Kelly that I took a long shower last night when I got home from work, shaved my legs, waxed, packed my stuff for the day after and set 3 alarms to wake me up at 8am. My alarms rang but none of them woke me up. Mike walked in my room and woke me up instead.

This is what I call his "Abercrombie white boy heading to the hamptons" look.

But the weather this morning was gray and cloudy and soon it began to rain. So we canceled the beach trip and I was stuck with nothing to do on my day off. Much sooner than expected though, the rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun came out, bearing its scorching rays on us. Kelly had already made other plans at this point so I walked to Cheryl's for brunch. My god I love this place. I've tried several other brunch places in my neighborhood and despite them also serving good food, only in Cheryl's do I walk out fully satisfied. Food here is so good for the soul. It's the kind of food that I will want to make one day, if I ever do decide to open my own joint. I got the strawberry pancakes with Chantilly cream with a "side" of scrambled eggs and a "side" of bacon.

From there I decided to head to PCRichards & Son to see if they have the same price for the brand of air conditioning I planned on getting at K-Mart. But when I got to the subway station, I decided to walk all the way to Atlantic Ave (about 2 miles) under the intense summer heat and humidity instead of seeking refuge in the air conditioned train cars. It was a good decision too since I never would have discovered the street fair that lined the streets of 7 ave in Park Slope. I decided to check it out and I soon regretted ordering my "sides" of eggs and bacon since there were booths stretched out as far down 7 ave as the eye can see and people milling around and the air smelled of grilled bbq, corn on the cob, shawarma, funnel cakes, mexican food, a fresh lemonade stand on every other corner and a host of other things.
Halfway through (or was it?) I doubled back and headed towards Atlantic Ave once again. By this time I had already purchased a bag and two glasses. One of them was this

PCRichards & Son was selling the unit for $25 more than K-Mart's price so I hopped on a train and headed to the east village K-Mart, bought the AC and hopped on a cab back to Brooklyn. I hauled all 42 pounds of that unit up two flights of stairs and spent an hour installing it. My room looks like a tornado hit it but later became soooo grateful that I will no longer suffer in my hotbox.I took a quick nap after, cleaned up then showered. I decided to make a simple pasta pomodoro for dinner so I made a quick trip to the market on the next block then proceeded to cook while watching The Dave Chappelle show.
I was dripping in sweat out there so I was keen on heading back to my room, turning on the ac and enjoy a nice comfortable sleep. Which I shall get started on right now...

With Michael being in the house as our official temporary honorary roomie, a.k.a. he's crashing in the living room for a month before he sublets Mica's room when she leaves for Tennessee for 6 weeks starting June, being vegan due to his allergy to anything dairy, we've been doing much less regular cooking in the house and I've been mindful of reading ingredient labels on items I bring home so I don't accidentally try to kill him by offering him toast (true story).

I had an all vegan dinner at momofuku a few days ago with that jar-of-pickles+shiitake-buns+ginger-scallion-noodle combo and it was fabulous.

Today, I've managed to recreate two of me and Mica's favorite dishes. The anchovy plate from Prune and the ginger scallion noodle from Momofuku. Did I succeed? Oh yes. Good enough for me to not need to venture out to the city when I'm craving for both. Now, if only Scott Bryan had his recipe for the organic roasted chicken online(along with everything else in his delicious yet expensive menu). I haven't had the opportunity to go back to Apiary yet. Lately I've been trying to cut back on the expensive meals. The man's a genius but a every time I eat there I spend no less than $50 for dinner. Meals in my own kitchen will have to be sufficient for now.

Ginger Scallion Noodle with quick pickled cucumbers and baby bella mushrooms in grapeseed oilMarinated anchovies with celery hearts and toasted almonds

Last Sunday, despite gloomy skies, I went out for a quick photowalk by the Hudson River with someone-we-shall-now-refer-to-as E. So E and I met up at B&H photo since he wanted to buy a 50mm before the photo trip. I ended up purchasing a light umbrella and a 32" 5 in 1 reflector, the latter I've been meaning to buy, the former is something I thought I could use for my makeshift studio. We walked towards the Hudson River and walked down until we ended up in Frying Pan. The place is named after the lightship that's also docked by the pier. It's basically a boardwalk equipped with seating and a stage for bands who play at night. It's a great place to sit and drink beers by the water. Coincidentally, Michael told me about this place just two days before, since he went there with a couple of friends and they were dancing in the ship's boiler room. He insisted that we had to go there and that day, E tells me it's also one of his favorite places in the city.





Full photo album can be viewed on my facebook. Not my facebook friend? Tough.

Now excuse me as I watch the Lost series finale.

It really is.

Woke up at noon. (hooray for unemployment!)

Spent 5 hours watching Lolita off of Youtube. Took time downloading 16 part clips of 10 minutes each. When my eyes started to get strained I figured it was time to yank my eyes off the macbook screen. Got off my ass and went out for a walk to the park carrying a magazine and home-made iced coffee. It was a nice cool afternoon so the walk was a good idea. I got to the park and sat down to read my magazine. I had the hardest time reading it because my eyes were too tired from staring at the screen for so long so I tried flipping through the pictures. When even that didn't work (I kept seeing double), I gave up and took a good long walk around the village.

I noticed that a lot has changed in the neighborhood. I took the same route I used to take when I'd walk to to school back in high school. Several houses have popped up in what used to be large vacant lots. I could see why a lot of people automatically assumed that we were rich living in this village. There seems to be a lot of large houses around and a significant number of them are painted in various shades of orange. What's with the orange?!

I got home and decided to continue on with my workout since I was already sweaty from my walk. I've been planning on doing more exercises now that I have more time. Was supposed to make it a morning routine but seeing that I've been having a hard time waking up earlier than noon, I guess the afternoon should be alright.

Tomorrow I will continue the last of the paperwork I was supposed to have finished last week. I have to do it. I have to!...unless I find something more fun to do.