Party In The U.S.A. TGIF!

While we were all sitting on our asses on Sunday eating Chipotle and watching the NYC Marathon on the dvr (Ok, maybe that was just me), Meb Keflezighi was tearing. it. up.

The first American to win the New York City Marathon in... oh who cares, he won! Woo hoo!

2:09:15 - and look at the bling he got for it. Who knew Flavor Flav handed out the medals.

Congrats, Meb. You da man.

TGIF!!

Journo-brawls Are Funny

Did you guys hear the one about the 68-year-old Washington Post Style editor letting one off on a staff writer, like straight-up punching him "right in his grill, like BLAM!"

Hahahaha! *wipes tears from eyes. But seriously folks... the Style desk? The Style desk. Really? So what you're saying is that your feature writin' ass just got dropped by the feature writin' editor, who's nearly 70... and a former Marine. *tears again. You can't write this shiggity.

I always did prefer my newsrooms Hemmingway-esque, even though none of them were. (Though my first editor did go to detox after my third week. It was unrelated to me though. Probably.)

Anyway, happy retirement Henry Allen. No one will mistake you for going gently into that good night.

Oh yeah: Violence is wrong. I'm against it.

A Certain Slant of Light

At exactly 6:16 p.m. on Monday, October 12, this angled ray of the setting sun filtered through the buildings of Clifton, into the Boss Man's conference room, through the very upper glass of the partition, past the potted tree, the printers and two more offices before it finally came to land in the row of empty desks just feet from where I sit.

A celestial occurrence this near to me is so rare that when I saw it, it stopped me in my tracks. (Not unlike a kitten getting stopped in a sunbeam.) So I did what I do, I took photos.

It was my very own office light sabre, for about seven minutes.

All this reminded me of course of the Emily Dickinson poem, "There's a certain slant of light."

You Must Be My Lucky Star

I'm just back from a walk around the mean streets of Hyde Park where I noticed there are nearly as many fun sized candy wrappers on the ground as there are leaves.

Is it bad that I nearly picked up and ate an unopened fun sized pack of discarded Whoppers? I didn't think so either. The only thing that stopped me was that I stepped on it and squished them before I realized it wasn't empty. Sad.

Hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween! I dressed up as Madonna a-la Lucky Star, but really, in my head I am Madonna, so I'm not sure how much of a stretch it was for me.

My dance moves were super amazing too. I might have practiced in the living room before I left. Ok yeah, that did happen. Not that I didn't already know the moves, I just thought some polish was in order since I had the fingerless lace gloves on and everything.

Starlight, star bright. Yeah.

Because Nothing Says Happy Halloween Like Smokin' Smarties

When I was a kid parents worried about some crazy sliding a razor blade into our popcorn balls. Now they have to worry about kids "smokin' Smarties." I don't know, y'all, I'm no parent, but this looks kinda awesome to me.

I feel peer pressure to start doing it.

"You can let it roll out, or you can blow it out." Word.

Happy Halloween my little Pumpkins!

P.S. My Halloween costume this year is even more amazing than it was last year, and I didn't even think that was possible. God I can't wait for tomorrow!

Reminiscing

Please enjoy this random photo of Jen and Pat, taken before Detroit stole them away from me.

When Jen and Patrick got engaged, I surprised Jen in Chicago so I could be there to celebrate. Because what's getting engaged if you have no one to clink glasses with and show off your ring to, right?

We ended up at a restaurant that night called Avec. It was probably Jen's idea because she knows cool stuff like that.

This weekend I was reading this article in Men's Health about Sam Kass, the White House chef who also tends the First Family's vegetable garden.

It turns out Kass was a cook at Avec. So that's pretty much like eating what the Obamas eat, right? Honestly, I don't remember much about the food at Avec, or even what I had, but I remember enjoying it and all of us passing our plates around.

The article also happens to be written by New York Times columnist, Mark Bittman, who I fell in love with a few years ago after reading his terrific cookbook, How To Cook Everything. (Note: I said 'read' the cookbook.)

Anyway, I probably wouldn't have remembered we went to Avec except we took this video I named 'Hot Avec Action,' because that's what Patrick says after violating the side of Jen's face. Eww.

Kinda fun all the great memories this little story on the White House kitchen brought back to me. To good food and friends... and speaking of good food, my dude plans to comfort-food the winter blues away. Dear Diary, Jackpot!

Already?!