Saturday, October 11, 2008
$600 Caesar Salad and Wine. Wanting to take a break from pretending this San Francisco chick knows what she is doing to "promote agricultural sustainability" in the Massachusetts Commonwealth, we decide to take hubby up for an offer to go to NYC for Anna Bloviation's birthday. The plan is that hubby and son drive down and that Anna Bloviations leaves work early, walks along the Boston harbor front to South Station and hops on an Express train to Penn Station. As a sign of the times, the train is fully booked out but we manage to find a window seat in a "Quiet Zone" car (no talking, no cell phones). This means 3 1/2 hours of peace and day dreams with one text message to hubby telling him I can't pick up in the "Quiet Zone" and that I'm sorry they are stuck in horrendous traffic.
At exactly 8:57 p.m. we pull into Penn Station. My luggage is sitting comfortably in hubby's car stalled in traffic and I decide I'll walk from Penn Station the 40+ blocks to the West 77th Street hotel we booked via Expedia months ago. If walking up 8th Ave. amid the eclectic throngs is symbolic of the collective mood of the country then boy oh boy we are in trouble. At 9 p.m. people were already drunk, belligerent, and by the time I got up to 77th St. I thought I'd read 10 novels.
But before I could delve into the bowl es of America's mood I needed food. I ducked into a corner non-descript restaurant and ordered a glass of Pinot Grigio and half-way descent Cesar Salad. The waiter flirted unabashedly for a good tip and in true Anna-needs-food fashion I was done in under a half-hour.
Once past the masses of Mid-Town we hit 8th and Central Park where a very well-to-do woman exited her apartment building disheveled and tears streaking her cheeks. The plummeting stock market perhaps? Was her husband having an affair?
8th and 77th St. still looked promising for a nice hotel but the 250 77th St. West addressed told me I needed to veer west. West got a bit sketchier but still tolerable until I arrived at the hotel with a store front window of suggestive t-shirts. Time: 11:45 p.m. I enter said "3-Star" hotel to find out that our $296 room has a "shared bathroom" with three other rooms. Now hubby pulls up and won't even enter the lobby. Calls back and forth to Expedia reveal that other potential hotels are either sold out or want $450 per night even at midnight. And sorry, the sketchy hotel with the shared bathroom will be charging us $294 cancellation fee. We consider our options when a man walks by and throws up all over the sidewalk. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE NY. But that doesn't stop me from turning to hubby and saying, "This just isn't our weekend to be in NYC." I buy starving hubby a slice of pizza, hop in the car, and drive back to MA. Arrival time: 4:12 a.m.
Cost of Cesar Salad on 8th Ave.? $600. Ride to Penn Station, Cesar Salad, wine, and snatches of conversation on 8th Ave.? Priceless. Expensive? Yes. But sometimes you have to just cut your losses...
At exactly 8:57 p.m. we pull into Penn Station. My luggage is sitting comfortably in hubby's car stalled in traffic and I decide I'll walk from Penn Station the 40+ blocks to the West 77th Street hotel we booked via Expedia months ago. If walking up 8th Ave. amid the eclectic throngs is symbolic of the collective mood of the country then boy oh boy we are in trouble. At 9 p.m. people were already drunk, belligerent, and by the time I got up to 77th St. I thought I'd read 10 novels.
But before I could delve into the bowl es of America's mood I needed food. I ducked into a corner non-descript restaurant and ordered a glass of Pinot Grigio and half-way descent Cesar Salad. The waiter flirted unabashedly for a good tip and in true Anna-needs-food fashion I was done in under a half-hour.
Once past the masses of Mid-Town we hit 8th and Central Park where a very well-to-do woman exited her apartment building disheveled and tears streaking her cheeks. The plummeting stock market perhaps? Was her husband having an affair?
8th and 77th St. still looked promising for a nice hotel but the 250 77th St. West addressed told me I needed to veer west. West got a bit sketchier but still tolerable until I arrived at the hotel with a store front window of suggestive t-shirts. Time: 11:45 p.m. I enter said "3-Star" hotel to find out that our $296 room has a "shared bathroom" with three other rooms. Now hubby pulls up and won't even enter the lobby. Calls back and forth to Expedia reveal that other potential hotels are either sold out or want $450 per night even at midnight. And sorry, the sketchy hotel with the shared bathroom will be charging us $294 cancellation fee. We consider our options when a man walks by and throws up all over the sidewalk. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE NY. But that doesn't stop me from turning to hubby and saying, "This just isn't our weekend to be in NYC." I buy starving hubby a slice of pizza, hop in the car, and drive back to MA. Arrival time: 4:12 a.m.
Cost of Cesar Salad on 8th Ave.? $600. Ride to Penn Station, Cesar Salad, wine, and snatches of conversation on 8th Ave.? Priceless. Expensive? Yes. But sometimes you have to just cut your losses...
Monday, June 02, 2008
Yes Ok It's Been A While... Turns out there is a lot to learning about cows and such. You've got your raw milk issues, your mobile poultry units (a.k.a. mobile poultry killing machines), your rabies, your gladiolus rust disease, your puppy shops, your greyhoud racing, and the list goes on and on under the roof of the Department of Agricultural Resources. Ever wonder why you never see baby pigeons, for example? Turns out pigeons only have a life expectancy of two years -- which means basically that pigeons are full grown after a month and breeding after 48 days.... How's that for trivia conversation at your next dinner party...
Sunday, December 02, 2007
"Yes...I believe there's a question there in the back."
Anna Bloviation's trying to learn everything there is to know about agriculture in 3 weeks....
Anna Bloviation's trying to learn everything there is to know about agriculture in 3 weeks....
Saturday, November 17, 2007
The movie Phenomenon (John Travolta , 1996) seems to have kept the boss (soon to be Commissioner of Agricultural Resources) up 'thinking' for 24 hours. He bugged me for a week to watch it. OK I watched it. My email back to boss:
The reasons you wanted to discuss Phenomenon:
1) You liked the shadows cast by the windmills on the FARM buildings
2) The solar power panels on the FARM roof intrigued you
3) FARMER Travolta's extraterrestrial encounter is the perfect segue for your finally spilling the beans that you once had a U.F.O. experience (which would explain a lot)
4) You want to know if I think this is a Scientology cult movie
I thought the movie was OK but I think it must be a guy's equivalent of a 'chick flick' (hubby liked it too) i.e. it expresses every mid-life guy's fantasy! Misunderstood genius escapes the clutches of the rat race (in this case the FBI that wants to exploit his telekinetic powers) and goes back to play in the sand box of his idyllic farm and make really cool toys; he has a great father figure in his life and a great best friend (and he's BLACK too!!!); he wins the heart of the beautiful woman nobody else has been successful in wooing; he gets great sex minutes before his death; and, he then gets yearly birthday parties held in his memory. What every guy wants!
I will give you that the shaving scene was really good i.e. I've often fantasized about shaving my husband with a really sharp razor... Must be tough to get around Travolta's cleft chin though.
The reasons you wanted to discuss Phenomenon:
1) You liked the shadows cast by the windmills on the FARM buildings
2) The solar power panels on the FARM roof intrigued you
3) FARMER Travolta's extraterrestrial encounter is the perfect segue for your finally spilling the beans that you once had a U.F.O. experience (which would explain a lot)
4) You want to know if I think this is a Scientology cult movie
I thought the movie was OK but I think it must be a guy's equivalent of a 'chick flick' (hubby liked it too) i.e. it expresses every mid-life guy's fantasy! Misunderstood genius escapes the clutches of the rat race (in this case the FBI that wants to exploit his telekinetic powers) and goes back to play in the sand box of his idyllic farm and make really cool toys; he has a great father figure in his life and a great best friend (and he's BLACK too!!!); he wins the heart of the beautiful woman nobody else has been successful in wooing; he gets great sex minutes before his death; and, he then gets yearly birthday parties held in his memory. What every guy wants!
I will give you that the shaving scene was really good i.e. I've often fantasized about shaving my husband with a really sharp razor... Must be tough to get around Travolta's cleft chin though.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Scary on Multiple Fronts. Anna Bloviations' last blog subscribes to locally grown produce but when she goes shopping with son she is all about the $134 dollars for two pairs of pants, two pullovers, three pairs of socks, and a hat at Express. This is in no doubt thanks to Chinese workers slaving at 30 cents an hour. Scary too is that when I wrote the below blog about Chinese vegetables I got a Site Meter hit from Beijing. Hi Mr. Orwell!! But where is my friend from Georgia? Unforgiveable.
Friday, November 09, 2007
See Anything Wrong With This Picture? Having just bashed Lou Dobbs for his frothy-mouthed zealotry of late, I do have to say Anna Bloviations was a bit taken aback by our discovery made of this frozen organic "vegetable medley" package from Trader Joe's. Looking for cooking instructions on the back, we found none. We put on glasses and still found no cooking instructions (obviously we missed the email on how many minutes to cook a vegetable medley). But what we did find in small black print at the bottom of the package was this: PRODUCT OF CHINA
Now it is my sincerest hope that the product being referred to is the bag and not the vegetables given that it makes absolutely no sense that broccoli florets should have to travel 7000 miles to get to my supermarket. Actually, I take that back. Given all the sub-standard, down-right dangerous products coming out of China these days, I have a problem with anything being a product of China i.e. 'Here are your organic veggies kiddies! Never mind that they are laced with rat poison and lead that rubbed off from the package lining.... ' One more reason to buy local produce my friends. Happy Lou?
Monday, November 05, 2007
Wolf Blitzer has gotta' be a robot right? Either that or the guy lives at the CNN studio -- pen between his index and middle finger as security blanket and a hair stylist sleeping at his feet. Lou Doubs is losing it and we love Jack Kafferty's dead-pan expressions.
