Jeanius Thoughts

For anyone who doesn’t keep up with my baby blog, do you realize how close I am to D-day?!?  Just a little over two weeks left to go.  I’m scheduled for Tuesday, June 3rd, and I am working up until the day of delivery.  If the kiddo were to come now, we’d be ready for him.  But I still have some odds and ends I’d like to tie up before he makes his grand entrance into our lives.  Here’s hoping he waits until his delivery date!

Harold and I are so very happy for the people of California.  Recognizing gay marriage in the largest state in our country is a big step for equality to everyone who deserves it.  We never understood how people who want to simply love one another, live with each other and raise a family together can be denied such a basic right.  (And yes, it IS awesome to be married to such an open-minded and open-hearted man.)

Ollie has been alternating between amusing us silly and annoying the everlasting shit out of us.  He has hit his terrible twos for sure.  It probably doesn’t help that my patience level is nil these days.  But it’s so funny what he’ll pick up and repeat to us when we least expect it.  Of course, I can’t think of any good examples at the moment.  Here’s one funny… I drink a lot of flavored seltzer water at home, and Ollie always takes a sip and grimaces and calls it “spicy muhl.”  Last night, I asked Harold why he told Ollie’s it’s spicy water, and he said he thought I had taught Ollie that.  How in the world does this kid come up with such stuff?

Best line of last night’s “Ugly Betty”: “I don’t want to be the rebound guy, I want to be THE guy.”  (*swoooooon*)

Happy Friday, y’all!!!

This is where I will be on my birthday.  With my family (H-man and Ollie) and wonderful friends (Jeanne, Lin, Hing & Chye). 

Ninth Avenue International Food Festival and Street Fair

Come for Argentinian, Brazilian, Cajun, Chinese, Cuban, Dominican, Ethiopian, French, German, Greek, Haitian, Indian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Moroccan, Pakistani, Polish, Puerto Rican, Peruvian, Senegalese, Sicilian, Southern, Spanish, Thai, Trinidadian, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese food – and more!

Working up from the south end of Ninth Avenue, you will be enticed by:

• chorizo sandwiches - from Esposito Pork Shop, at 38th
• the best sausage and pepper hero ever - from Giovanni Esposito & Sons at 38th
• clams and oysters on the half shell at the seafood stands (Central Fish and Sea Breeze) around 38th Street
• soupy, spicy gumbos, crab cakes and chicken curry - from Chantale’s Cajun Kitchen near 38th
• suckling pig and quail stuffed with fresh Greek spices and feta cheese - from Ninth Avenue International Foods, near 40th
• peppery crisp squid - from Siam Grill, near 42nd
• iced coffee and iced cappuccino - from the Empire Coffee & Tea Company near 42nd
• bourbon ham sandwiches, Texas chili with corn bread, mango barbecue wings and macaroni and cheese - from Good And Plenty To Go, at 43rd
• carrot cake and apple pie - from the Little Pie Company at 43rd
• chicken salad made with corn, black beans and jicama, and barbecued pork tostadas - from Zuni, at 43rd
• meatball hero - at The Holy Cross church stand on 43rd
• corn fritters gently flavored with shrimp, crisp spring rolls and nasi goreng - from Bali Nusa Indah, near 45th
• spanakopita and tiropita surrounded by the most delicate phyllo pastry that you will ever find, and then baklava or strudel - from Poseidon Greek Bakery, near 45th
• breads, brownies, cookies and cinnamon-raisin, garlic, rosemary or black olive fresh bread twists - from Amy’s Bread, near 47th
• jambalaya - from Delta Grill at 48th
• pork in mole sauce, wrapped in a corn tortilla - from Tacocina at 49th
• huge, inexpensive portions of Brazilian foods like bolinho bacalhau, a fried salt-cod casserole - at Rice ‘N’ Beans, near 50th
• Greek barbeque, octopus, lamb and chicken souvlaki - from Uncle Nick’s, near 50th Street
• pad thai, dumplings - from Wondee Siam, at 54th
• roast pork - at Ned Kelly’s bar on 55th

And somewhere along the way you will also come across:

• alligator, shark, lobster, shrimp and catfish nuggets
• burritos, jerk chicken and curried chicken
• cheescakes - from Martha Francis
• french pastries
• fried elephant ears
• full pigs rotating on spickets over an open fire
• grilled corn on the cob
• kokoretsi (lamb livers and sweetbreads wrapped in intestines)
• paella
• soft shell crab
• steak sandwiches
• turkey drumsticks

Even at the Ninth Avenue Food Festival, there are the standards – mozzarepas, zeppolis, funnel cakes, and egg creams – but this is one street fair where they are outnumbered by fabulous foods that you actually don’t see at other fairs.

Should be a yummy time!  Harold and I are especially excited to take Ollie to his first NYC street fair.  We also have dinner reservations at one of my favorite Japanese tapas spots, Typhoon Lounge, at St. Marks.  I can’t wait.

Why do people create blogs and excitedly announce them to friends and famiy - only to never update them?  I have just purged a bunch from my Favorites links and blogroll.  I feel mildly better now.

(And why yes, I’m VERY cranky today.)

Ollie is obsessed with flushing the toilet.  Luckily, he doesn’t do it unless the toilet actually needs flushing.  Our water bill thanks him for this, at least.  The other day, poor Harold was using the bathroom, and Ollie slammed his way through the bathroom door and waited patiently.  Then he raced over to the toilet and flushed, waving excitedly into the bowl and yelling, “Bye bye appah pee pee!!”  Harold and I were both doubled over, because we were laughing so hard.  It was seriously like he was waving to his best friend or something.

The good news is that Ollie’s love of flushing is helping with potty training somewhat.  He WANTS to pee on the potty so that he can flush the toilet.  The only time he has been consistent is when he first wakes up in the morning.  Often, his diaper is dry, so the first thing I do is put him on the potty, and he has a successful attempt.  He gets SOOOO happy and proud of himself - a big cheesy smile spreads across his face.  I’m not really pushing the potty training (I hear toddlers often regress when a new baby enters the picture), but I’ve been generally happy with his interest in going potty and his attempts in the past week and half or so.  This morning, he flushed and again waved enthusiastically at the toilet bowl as he yelled, “Bye bye Ollie pee pee!!” 

Ollie spent some time playing with his “puppy” on Saturday morning.  We often tell him this toy dog is the closest he’ll ever get to a pet dog.  And we’re totally serious.

And here Ollie is feeding his puppy a cookie, as he told me.  We’re considering getting him a pet fish, although even that seems a bit high maintenance for us.  Sucks for our kids to have such lazy parents.

Brilliant episode last night.  Loved every flippin’ second of it.

Fluffy Fingers… ’nuff said.

Upon the insistence of others, here are some pictures of Ollie’s hair.  As much as I was trying to avoid pictures until it grew out a bit.

Pre-haircut, looking shag-tastic….

Post-haircut, and I promise it looks worse in person than in the pics.  See how pissed he looks?!?  Heh.  The best word I can think of to describe his hair in its current state: unfortunate.

I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who didn’t catch yesterday’s episode.  But EWWWWW.  And if you did watch it, then you know what I’m talking about!

I was so gung ho last week to get started on my spring cleaning.  I had big plans to clean out my closet and dressers in the bedroom over the weekend.  I know it doesn’t sound like much fun, but to a nesting mama-to-be, I was psyched!  Then came this dratted cold, which started off as a scratchy throat after we switched on the AC last week (mid-80s temps).  At least it waited until the weekend to take a turn for the worse.  I slept most of the weekend.  And that is no exaggeration!  Thank goodness Ollie is a sleeper, because Harold and I woke up at 9:45am yesterday, and I said, “OMG, Ollie is still sleeping?!?”  (Mind you, this is after I passed out at 8:00pm the night before, too.)  What a far cry from his 6:00am waking days.

We did get out for a bit yesterday - Harold insisted I needed fresh air.  Ollie got his first hair cut in a barber shop.  He seemed afraid and kept saying NO whenever I told him he’d get his hair cut just like appah.  When Harold’s cut was done and it was finally Ollie’s turn, he did great.  Sat on Harold’s lap while they snipped and buzzed his hair (to a godawful shorn) and remained stoic throughout the entire ordeal.  I’m not thrilled with the actual hair cut, it looks like it’s in an awkward in-between growing out phase.  Harold doesn’t think it looks too bad, though.  I think he’s just relieved to be off hair cutting duty.

All the sleep must have done some good, because I do feel better today.  I just hope that Ollie and Harold have not picked up my cold.  Jenny and Justin are coming up later today, because we got Justin tickets to see WWE Raw! at the Izod Center near our house for his birthday.  Jenny didn’t want to take him, so Harold gets that honor.  Boy, is he thrilled about that.

New episodes of my favorite shows aired last night, and a rare Thursday night when I got to watch them all in the same night!

The Office

Not nearly as good as I’d hoped it would be.  I think getting locked in the office parking lot would have been much funnier if it was caused by Michael rather than Jim.  I mean, no one wants to dislike Jim, right?  The most uncomfortable moment ever in “The Office” history?  Toby stroking Pam’s leg as the other co-workers look on in horror.  And then jumping the fence to flee home.  Oh Toby.  Poor poor Toby.

Ugly Betty

I love Judith Light.  Not just because she was my inspiration to study Marketing in college with her role as Angela Bower on “Who’s the Boss?”  But because she is a total badass in her roles on TV and hasn’t fallen into the Lifetime trap like other 80’s stars.  Claire Meade has the makings of becoming my favorite character on this show. 

Poor Christopher Gorham.  His days are obviously numbered.  There can’t possibly be a single viewer out there who wants Betty and Henry to work out.  I melted last night when Gio gave the “you deserve your fantasy” birthday speech to Betty.  Melted.  Into a big ole puddle. 

And Daniel dropping off Betty’s gift two weeks early, because he knew he’d forget her birthday?  Sooooo sweet.  Almost makes up for his cheesiness in yesterday’s show.  I miss the player.

Grey’s Anatomy

First of all, a message to Eric Dane.  “Grow the facial hair back.  Pronto.”  McSteamy looked a lot less steamy and a lot more loser’ish with the clean shaven face.  I guess him whining to Derek about not being each others’ wingmen didn’t help.  Sheesh, go get laid already.

Lexie and George as new BFFs?  Over it. 

I thought last night’s episode was just way too gory.  I understand on an operating table.  But the intestines spilling out, the scalped head, yuck yuck yuck!

Overall, I’m not too psyched with this show’s return.