Part art, marketing and graffitti?

Last week, I borrowed by in-law's Prius to go shopping. I think it's a great little car. Any way, because they drove it from Vermont and it had snowed there, the car was pretty dirty. Of course some playful, unimaginative and compulsive person had to finger the words "WASH ME" on the rear windshield. But today I saw something interesting. Someone had fingered a website (URL) on someone else's car. A burgeoning viral trend?
Do I have to put myself on the "do not write" list?

Feel good plagarism

It was an exhilarating feeling, just as my daughter was falling asleep, she said to me, "There's no one in the world like you, Mom" and then she conked out. I thought it was the most heartfelt, most original, perfect, and sweetest thing in the world to hear. Just as quickly as my elation came, it left as I realized that technically, all she did was switch out a pronoun and parrot what I say to her almost every night as I tuck her into bed. "You're very special to me. There's no one in the world like you, Sadie."

Meatless in NY

A few weeks ago, I was treated to a most delightful, inimitable experience, brought to me by a benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous, so I will refer to this person as, Miss Havisham.

Miss Havisham works at Google and had casually mentioned many a times how she eats for free. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, in-between meal snacks and even takes a free, Google-provided shuttle to work. In March, Miss H moved from SF to work in Google's NY office. The fringe benefits in NY aren't as good as San Francisco, I was told, but still this was a chance for me to have a Googly experience.

Can I come eat for free, I asked. I wasn't too excited about it, I envisioned a college dining hall. After I made plans to meet Miss H at Google, I even gave Miss H a hard time about it. How am I supposed to get there?! Who the heck works in Chelsea?! I bemoaned.

But as soon as I arrived, I realized it was heaven. First of all, everything is so gimmicky and cute. The hallways are really wide so that employees can go to and fro using scooters (wonder if they have special insurance [from AIG, heheheh] because of this?). There are video game consoles peppered everywhere. Special storage units against the walls stored toys like Legos, etc. There were many in process Lego sculptures presumably made by fun-loving Googlers. Not to mention the requisite game room with foos ball, exercise equipment and other distracting sundry. And this has to be the ultimate, the entire building is a metaphor for New York. For example, we picked up her mail at "Wall Street" and had lunch near "Central Park". It was a great system; a stranger to the Google building like me, could figure out where I needed to go by the "address".

But that's not all....the best experience of all was the free food. The variety! The amount! The exotic! Vegan! Raw foods! Imported foods! ALL PLENTIFUL AND FREE!!!!

Check out this picture of complete satisfaction:

I'm holding a fresh(!) rambutan and coconut juice. In front of me is a delicious vegetarian spread (curried seitan, grilled tofu, etc.), the white drink is my favorite cocktail -- vanilla soy milk with skim lactaid and get this, they even had my favorite hot sauce - Tobasco brand Habanero sauce. Whatever my greedy little vegetarian spice-loving organic lactose-intolerant heart desired was there for the taking. I could definitely get used to this.

Outside of Google, I struggle with being vegetarian. At Google headquarters, the endless and delicious options makes it a breeze to eat vegetarian.

If I worked at Google, I could totally see myself giving up meat.

Starstruck and washed up

A few nights ago, I attended a wonderful event, 2008 Glamour Women of the Year Award. It was incredibly inspiring to see these women honored for their courage, bravery and accomplishments. Please click on the link and read their stories. I'll tell you one of them that really touched me. A little 10 year old girl, went to court get a divorce from her husband who was abusing her. This happened in Yemen, where child brides are common and divorces are not socially acceptable. As her story was being told and as she accepted her award, I was sobbing. I couldn't help it but think of my own daughter, had our circumstances been different, would I sell her as a child bride?

On to a more positive note, the dinner after the award was a real brush with celebrity. Jane Goodall and Nicole Kidman were less than 15 feet away. Katie Couric was inches away. Condoleeza Rice was also close by. I was truly star struck. Oh and Hillary Clinton, Salmon Rushdie, Tyra Banks, America Ferrara, Barbara Walters, Natalie Portman were also there.

Another really memorable part of the night was the chimp call that Jane Goodall made as she accepted her award. She's an incredible person, as were all the women who won an award.

They all encouraged me, or rather everyone on the audience to follow our dreams. Sadly, I'm not sure what my dreams are and I might be totally washed up, since I'm in my 30s. Seems like anything good that these women did or if they got a calling, it all happened when they were really young.

XXX

This is too much! While I'm working, my kids' caretakers are encouraging my children to make lesbian porn. Blech!!! Daisee's lips are often full of boogies.

Museum quality kids

Ode to Joy

This really hurt my ears and warmed my heart when I heard Sadieeee (LOUDLY) hum Ode to Joy on the telephone "...la la la la la la..." while I was at work.

Smartvoter.org a great website

I'm proud to be a citizen of the United States. I've voted in every election, ever since I qualified.

I'd like to share a tip for New Yorkers, California, Ohio, and a few other states covered by http://www.smartvoter.org/ What a great website! I gave them $50 today.

Gasp!

As an update to my post on Blaze, I can not believe that funkins cost $20 a pop!
This leads me to believe that the lit up displays that I saw were done years and years ago (by cheap Chinese labor), stored in a "Christmas" attic and displayed and foisted on at $15 per person, once a year to unknowing citizens like me.

Best Halloween ever

I always dreaded Halloween. And same with my husband. We'd like to blame our parents for not instilling a Halloween spirit. This is because a good Halloween costume, as well as Halloween decorations requires not only time, creativity but big $$$.
Last night, Josh and I went to a Halloween party where costumes were mandatory. Ever since the evite arrived and I accepted, I was very nervous about what kind of costumes we were going to wear. Hours before the party, we went to two different Halloween costume stores and almost left empty-handed. None of the costumes really appealed to us and the prices, even at 50% off seemed ridiculous. Finally, I convinced my sullen mate to get some face paint and that we would figure something out.
After we put the kids to bed, we were nervously pacing, thinking about what to do with our face paint. Ultimately, Josh was transformed to Frankenstein and I into a bunny. For the first time, our costumes weren't especially extra-lame. I even made a cotton tail out of cotton balls. But the best part about my costume was that I stuffed my bra and became a really big chested bunny. It was an inside joke, for those who knew me. Because they were so realistic, those who didn't know me, thought they were real -- as they didn't realize that that was part of my costume!
It was really fun and strange to be big chested for one night. I got a lot of attention. Even my friends seemed to like me a little more. But I also felt very self-conscious. I didn't know how I should be dancing or crossing my arms (under my big boobs, I found out from a real big-boobed friend) and I kept walking hunched, trying to hide my big rack.
The party was awesome. The host put an incredible amount of work into the decorations and setting. He had built a haunted house and a horrific maze to walk through -- fun and creepy!!! In front of his house, he erected a gigantic tent, full of delicious home cooked food and desserts as well as this really cool jet engine that generated heat for the tent. There were TVs/screens everywhere playing all sorts of horror movies. I even played Guitar Hero on Wii -- fun as heck! He even had professional DJ equipment and disco and strobe lighting in two separate dance areas. Oh and an open bar (Josh had waaaay too many drinks) and a professional tarot card reader who told me my fortune with the utmost persuasion to the point that I was spooked. Unbelievable that he doesn't charge for such efforts, I felt really guilty at the end and wanted to pay him something.
I had such a good time. I felt like a teenager; we came back home at 2AM!!! I told Josh that for the first time, I felt Halloween magic and felt inspired to think of ways to impart some Halloween spirit to our kids.

Nice hike

We (me, Daze and Josh) took a nice hike today at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. It was only a half hour drive but it felt like we were in a different region (New England-y) well as a time warp. The towns we passed through were so charming. Farms, horse country, etc. We saw some delicate looking trees with dainty pink leaves - it was like a cartoon/fantasy. Then we ate at the Katonah cafe, a cute little place with all sorts of people. Usually we end up eating with either loud Chinese people or other parents with kids, so it was nice to mix with the rest of the population. The only bad feeling was that Sadie was not with us; she was hanging out with my mom and sister. Any good experience or feelings I had while I was with Josh and Dase, came with a little guilt that I was cheating on her.

Almost....

These would have been perfect except one of us had to closed our eyes. Aw shucks!

Am I Bi-Polar?

Pirates

Fish

Crypts

Mastodon?

Dinosaur

Recently the hubby and I went to a very popular event in the Hudson Valley called "Blaze". Over 4000 carved pumpkins lit up, touts the website. There were some pretty impressively carved specimens as well as delightful scenes, like of dinosaurs, an underworld, pirates, etc. See our pics here or check out the website http://www.hudsonvalley.org/

Little dinosaur hatching. Cute!

Footprints

OK...now I have to tell you that Santa isn't real. Don't read on unless you like spoilers and don't mind knowing the truth, even if it's ugly.

WARNING: UGLY TRUTH AHEAD

I was very dismayed to find out at the end of the Blaze tour that many of the pumpkins are not real, organically (coming out of the earth) grown pumpkins, but manufactured, foam "funkins". Still hand carved though, the attendant assured me.

This little fact completely ruined my enjoyment and Josh's (but his only slightly). It did not seem to affect our four other companions. In fact two of them even felt relieved that they were not real. (Go figure!!!!) I felt misled, cheated and fooled. Wish I hadn't known, because prior to that, I was delighted, amazed and mesmerized. Do I need anti-depressants? You be the judge.

Nice picture

of my husband and daughter.

Breakfast on the Continent

Don't these series of photos of Daze look like she's some kind of blond ingenue in Europe? They crack me up.

Flying Dazee

I love this picture that I took of Josh and Daisy. She's channeling Superman or a mannequin. I have no idea how she can be so straight and erect.

Highly amused

Who knew that 3rd graders of the Scarsdale public school district could have so much sensitivity to the zeitgeist and aptitude for political satire?

Posted on windows in almost every shop in Scarsdale village are paintings that either won or received an honorable mention for a Halloween themed contest. The content of two such paintings?

One channeled the Edvard Munch "Scream" theme, a pale faced creature with the signature "O" for lips and a look of pure horror. However, the subject was clearly a woman with glasses and brown hair. "Scarah Palin" is her name. "You betcha, I'll getcha" was her scary quote.

Another one was a bat with big, pronounced, girly pink lips. "A bat with lipstick is still a bat", it read.

What would Emily Post think?

While waiting in the doctor's office with Dazee, I noticed a very well dressed and groomed mom with her son. She had on makeup, designer shoes, held an expensive handbag and carried a few designer label shopping bags. She just seemed so pulled together that I was shocked by what was to follow. At one point, her son came up to dear old Daze and was either going to strike her or did strike her or roughly snatched a toy away from her - I don't really recall the details. What was impressed upon my memory is that his designer-clad mom quickly swooped in and struck him, in an effort to stop him in action. She felt a little shock or maybe even embarrassed at her own behavior but overall, I think she felt justified in taking that action. She profusely apologized for his behavior. I thought that the apology was misplaced. I really did not mind that her less than two year old kid was going to hit mine or take a toy away from mine, I think that's normal behavior. I think her hitting her kid was more shocking than anything. I'd much prefer to see a kid lose self control than a well-groomed adult. Disturbing!!!

White Collar Crime

I just got back from the A&P with my husband who attempted white collar shoplifting, used me (unbeknownst to me) as his accomplice and got caught.
He "bought" 2 cans of ultra-premium pasta sauce ($8 per can) by placing them into his cart. He then used 2 coupons to get them for free. As he scanned each coupon, he handed them over to me to give to the cashier. During this transaction, I was not allowed to chit chat with him. I didn't understand why he was being so grouchy. My attempts to make friendly talk was met with aggressive shushing and belligerent waving of the hands. Any way, then he scanned another coupon and asked me to give that coupon ($4 off) to the cashier. His criminal mind was trying to scam $4 from innocent parties. The $4 off coupon was for the sauces that he already got for free. He wanted them to pay him!!! He wanted his net to be 2 jars of sauce and +$4!!!
The cashier stopped him dead in his tracks, called him out on it. "What?! You got the sauce for free, you can't use another coupon!" she chastised. Josh wasn't even embarrassed. "So? I know!" he bellowed proudly and took the coupon back. If I were her, I would've ripped up the coupon and scare him a little by calling the cops. In any case, I wanted to bury my head in the sand.

Girly girl

Dazi actually looks like a girl when I put her into this adorable Peter Pan collar shirt.