Thanksgiving Again

Oh, and by the way, the pumpkin pie thing didn't really work out well because one cannot just buy a plain old pie crust. They have graham cracker crust and chocolate crust, but no regular pie crust. So, I bought one of the pumpkin pies they had (it turned out to be very good) and then bought the graham cracker crust and made key lime pie because I am fancy. It also tasted delicious and I shall make it again!

The dinner was very good and Dylan deserves wonderful things to happen to him for preparing the lamb so well. And Aunt Bonnie makes a mean stuffed celery stick. Mmmm...

Zoo Times

I revisited the Brooklyn Texas BBQ the other day, and the bathroom walls were so gross. They were too cheap to have real wood, so they painted the drywall with this paint to give the appearance of wood.



Except the paint they used looked like blood, so the bathroom ended up with this creepy murder scene feel.


Now I'm at the library and someone near me reeks of patchouli. Bleck. However, I have uninterrupted, wonderful internet so that's a plus. Pictures from the DC zoo!

THE BLACK SQUIRREL! He follows me everywhere in DC...







Cuteness!

















This picture made me laugh out loud in front of children.








Elephant turd! Covered in shellac! Five years old! She let me hold it!







Oh man, I wish hedgehogs were pets. However, I have heard that they have this kind of lice that they can't get rid of and it can spread. Ew.

















































































































Oh man, the snakes were swooning over this woman. She had to keep pushing them away from her arms.




























































He sees ya... he doesn't like ya...




































The tiniest frog in the world!








A closer-up.


















Over to the invertebrate house.

































































The spider (the one in the unenclosed living space) was devouring this cricket, who was still alive.





They got new jellyfish!

Thanksgiving Pie Preparation

I went to an interesting study today at the SUNY Optometrics Center on 45th. I had to wear this dorky scuba mask that made things all fun and 3D-like. This hollow cube was projected onto a screen and I was instructed to push a button when it switched direction while rotating on an axis. I sat and watched this cube for like, ten minutes straight without it switching. It was like a boring screen saver. The research coordinator came back and was like, how's it going? I told her that I was still waiting for the cube to turn and she was all, "bwaah? It just turned! Now it turned again!" I had no idea what she was talking about. It looked exactly the same to me. So, yeah. I have vector spatial issues. Great.

Then came the, uh, Veronica's Secret focus group where we were allowed to fondle the Winter 2008 line and complain about how expensive everything was. Before we did anything we had to sign all of these nondisclosure and secrecy forms, hence the pseudonym. There were the weirdest refreshments; water and Coke and tea were offered, but then there were these tiny plates and bowls of Chex Mix and peanut M+Ms with spoons in them so we could awkwardly ladle out several pieces of mix or Ms at a time onto the plate. Everyone was really nice, it only took two hours, and I got a $100 gift card. Well worth it! Plus I ate an entire plate of peanut M+Ms. The Veronica's Secret main office is super swank.

I may be overreaching here, but I am excitedly confident about making this pumpkin pie. I still have to get the crusts and some of the spices involved, and arrange for a dish. I suppose if all else fails I could just go out and buy a pumpkin pie, but that will be a last ditch failure option.

More Healthy Volunteer Stuff

A few days ago I had to find my way over to 66th and York for a research study at Rockefeller University. More specifically, this study was measuring my ability to smell certain pheromones.

It took forever to get there, first of all. I had to smell a small amount of liquid in two containers and choose which I thought smelled more strongly. I would put the label of that container under a scanner and the computer would tell me which set of containers to open next. I was super nervous because I could barely smell anything at all for most of them, and if you didn't pick a certain number of the 'right' containers you couldn't participate in the study. Luckily, I just barely met the criteria and will be coming back monthly. Yay, tax-free income...

I have found out the hard way that I cannot have caffeine at least six hours before going to bed. Great. It's 4:15 AM. At least I have semi-regular internet. And a headache. And I'm kind of hungry, but nothing looks tasty. I found out that I can't buy like, regular people food because I'll just finish it off in a day. So... there's pasta, oatmeal, those Laughing Cow cheese wedges in the cute wheel container, a tofu hunk, cream cheese, and frozen Asian stir fry vegetables in the kitchen. And powdered Jello. And a ton of cereal which I have not even touched in weeks since I gave up buying milk or yogurt.

But oh! I bought some strawberry jam at Trader Joe's on a whim and it is fantastic. I mix a spoonful of that into my oatmeal each morning and it makes me happy.

I've started anew on the 'Texas' Barbecue restaurants. There's a ton in Manhattan and I have recently finished mystery shopping them all, mwa ha ha. I just did the one in Brooklyn again tonight. There were significant improvements in all areas of the dining experience. I got the old standby, the pulled pork sandwich.

Gah, now I'm just rambling about food again.

Ummmm.... oh, here are some pictures from my most recent insomniac episode, where I accompanied Daniel to the subway station on 96th at 5:15 in the morning. Without anything better to do at that hour, I made my way to Central Park and took a few pictures of flowers and stuff. That is my modus operandi, indeed. Flowers are easy.