Baby Born With Three Legs

This baby was born with three legs - which is misleading. The third leg is part of a conjoined twin that didn't fully develop. Surgeons helped her today and she should lead a normal life.

The Six Legged Puppy

Hump Day

I can't say this week is going by slowly. It's flying by. Work is as usual all consuming. At some point today, I have to take some time to name a product line and the products in the line. I hope I can pull this off.

Every skill you've learned and every job you've had leads up to the projects you do at the job you're at now. This has never been truer than the job I'm in now. Even my experience at the super market is coming in handy because a few of our clients sell food products.

Life is good.

gym

Again, as sorry as I am to miss trivia tonight, I have to go to the gym. I haven't been for two days. Sunday was entirely devoted to getting ready for my parents visit, yesterday was entirely to devoted to work and dinner with my friend and her daughter.

So. I have to go tonight, or I won't make my goal of going to the gym 5 times a week.

I will be hosting next week with I'm not really sure who yet. My original co-host has a work emergency so I'll be hosting with his replacement who is yet to be announced.

Happy Summer Solstice

12 hours day light, 12 hours darkness.

The days will shorter from here on in but also hotter.

Korean BBQ

A friend took me to dinner tonight to a great Korean restaurant for Korean BBQ. It's been quite a while since I've had so it was great. The restaurant was called

Kang Suh

Here is what dinner looked like. There was so much food and it was all good.










Then on the ride home I caught a couple of blurry pictures of the sunset from the subway.

Spring Cleaning

We spend Saturday night and Sunday morning spring cleaning. The excuse to clean was having my parent's over the house for Father's Day. For dinner, I roasted a chicken stuffed with goodies. I made a ratatouille with the season's freshest vegetables and yellow rice. Mom brought home made fruit salad laced with Mirabelle. Yummy.

The 'rents left about 9:30 and we just finished watching the White Sox/Dodgers game which was enjoyable. This season I've been developing a taste for baseball. It could be because my fiance is very enthusiastic about the sport and it's fun to share that with him.

Another fun thing we did this weekend - we have roadrunner. We have a cable modem. We have joined the 21st century. It's really great. Not only do we get to be on the phone and online at the same time but our connection is SOOO MUCH faster. But now that we have this amazing new connection, I feel this tremendous responsibility to do something interesting on the internet, something interesting on this blog.

Lesson learned this weekend - cable modem good.

Happy Father's Day

To all the dads who live in the shadows of mothers everywhere, I wish you a Happy Father's Day.

To my own dad, Happy Father's Day.

Meme-iograph

Sarah challenged me to copy her little photographical biography so I accept.

The place I grew up:


The place I live now:

Astoria

My first name is:

Valerie Click here

My last name is:



My grandmother's names are

Bertha

and


Mary

My favorite food:

Sushi


My favorite drink:

Water


My favorite song:

I Will Survive

and my favorite Beatle:

Paul

My favorite shoes:

the above Chinese slippers in orange

Creepy

I'm sure by now you've heard of this Dean Schwartzmiller character.

Investigators say he's been keeping a journal of the children he molested over the years. A smart neighbor became suspicious of him when he gave her young sons treats and it's a good thing too. Turns out he never registers anywhere as a sex offender as required by Megan's Law. So he's been moving from state to state for years molesting children along the way.

It's just so darn disturbing.

Hit Me One More Time

Okay. New reality show - summer programming. Hit Me One More Time.

Highlights of the show tonight.

• Wang Chung performing It's Getting Hot in Here by Nelly
• The lead singer of Cameo wearing a shiny black latex outfit with a screaming red cod piece.

Sacrificial Lambs

A terrible news story from London finds that young African boys are being trafficked through London churches for the purposes of human sacrifice.

At what point are things going to improve in Africa? Perhaps Geldof is right. It is going to take a worldwide effort to help the people of this region. I was listening to something last night on the radio about Sierra Leone and chidren soldiers and amputations and blood diamonds. 1 out of 4 people is reported to have A.I.D.S. People are starving over at least one quarter of the continent.

Gosh. It makes me sad.

Nature Turned On Her Air Conditioner

and we are all grateful to her for doing so. The weather is so much nicer than it was two days ago. I'm feeling better already - cleaner.

Getting Over the Hump

Wednesday is like 3:00 in the afternoon. Once you get to through that hour rest of the day goes by fairly quickly. Once Wednesday is over, the rest of the work week flies by.

I certainly did miss going trivia to last night but I'm glad I was able to work out. I'm trying to lost two pounds this week and I think I'm well on my way. We'll see.

They gym was very, very crowded. Mon, Tues and Wed are the crowded nights. Thursday through Sunday has less of a crowd. I tried to listen to Dark Side of the Moon on the treadmill's CD player but it wouldn't play. I guess the CD is just too old. I listened to the piped in club music and watched the accompanying videos on the monitor instead. I've been catching up with the popular music scene. Justin Timberlake seems to dominate the gym's station - Justin, Britney and Kylie. Does anyone else find Justin Timberlake disturbing? I think he's having some sort of identity crisis because he sings and dances like Michael Jackson which is silly because he is talented enough not to have to do a weak impersonation of MJ. Of course he could be doing it as a tribute but he should probably save that for the Kennedy Center.

Buggin' Out

Alaska is experiencing a plague of bugs. Yuck.

Hot, Hazy and Humid

When you look at the skyline from the elevated tracks of the N train in Queens, you can see a dirty layer of shmutz hovering over the city. That's what happens when the weather has been hot, hazy and humid for several days in a row. I look out at that layer of schmutz with dread on my morning commute because I know that the grimy, moist hot air will soon be settling on my skin - that I have been trying to take really good care of because of the proximity to my 40th birthday. Granted it's still a few years off but I can already see the careworn lines around my eyes when I laugh. My hands still look young but the eyes - the eyes have it. My age is starting to show and I wear my age with pride but it is showing none the less.

I'm eating my Yo Baby yogurt, a little snack before the gym - a little calcium and protein to help me along the way. I can't decide which T-shirt to wear so I'm typing this in my bra.

Are you bored yet? Me too and how nice it is to be bored for a few minutes. Things are so crazy at work now - it's great. I'm so busy all day but I remember to take breaks so the work load remains manageable.

I just got RUNNING WITH SCISSORS in the mail. I've been looking forward to reading this book for some time now. I just finished King of the World by David Remnick which is not about Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Titanic - thank you very much. It's a fantastic look at Muhammad Ali and the era that made him. The author also looks at the world of boxing and where it fits into American history. EXCELLENT. I can't recommend the book highly enough.

By the way, I went with my Green Party T-shirt.

Not Attending Trivia Tonight

If you've come here looking to see if I'm going to Tuesday Night Trivia, I am NOT going. I am two days behind at the gym and I've got a wedding dress to look good in in October, but I'll see you there next week.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Michael Jackson was found not guily by a jury of his peers today. I wonder if he is going to leave the country now as promised several weeks ago.

In a move that surprises no one and interests fewer people than no one, Katie Holmes is converting to Scientology.

Pink Floyd is reuniting for Live8, Sir Bob Geldof's fundraising party in Hyde Park July 2. The fund raiser will bring awareness to growing problems to Africa. If Geldof didn't organize these events I would never have known there were problems in Africa.

Monday Morning

Monday here. I don't thingk I can take it anymore. I am under so much pressure to make sure everyone is happy but no matter how hard I try, things still go wrong on Monday. I have to try to get alarm clocks working, trains running well, find matching outfits for people in the dark, and guarantee the weather is to everyone's liking. If the weather is too nice people will get upset with me because they'll wish I had provided that weather on the weekend. If its not nice enough people will assume there is some curse on Monday put on people as part of a conspiracy to make their lives miserable.

Well. I've had it. I'm tired of being Monday and tired everybody's piss poor attitude about me.

So #$*%*^ you and the horse you rode in on.

S-A-TUR-DAY Night!!

Thank you Phil for inviting Jon and me to your housewarming party. I was really impressed with your apartment and wish you the best of living in your new neighborhood.
===================
Lazy Saturday spread to midtown Manhattan, yesterday. I recruited Sarah to hang about doing nothing with me and we ended up doing nothing at her apartment instead. We did nothing by way of synching up Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz but only made it up to the Tin Man which is okay because that's about where the coincidences run out. I met Sarah's landlord and his lovely wife.

Around 5 we headed over to the Film Center Cafe. Here is a picture I took of the cafe using available light. You may notice how dark and depressing it is, that you can't see anything. It's the most depressing place I've ever eaten although the food was quite good, I could barely see anything. And this coming from someone who likes dark, seedy places. This is shot looking into the kitchen which is thankfully well lit. I commented to Sarah that the Film Center Cafe is the perfect gathering place for depressive artist types - well, because of its darkness.


By the time we were ready to head back to Sarah's apartment, the skies had already opened up and were dumping buckets of water onto midtown. Here is a picture of Sarah while we wait by the front door of the cafe waiting for the rain to slow down just a little. We were both wearing open shoes and I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of getting my feet both wet and dirty.


After drying off, we met up with our friends and drove out to Bay Ridge for the above mentioned housewarming party. In the car we had a three way camera shoot out. Here is Caren shooting at me shooting at her and then Sarah shooting at me shooting at her.




Thank you to "CENSORED" for giving us a ride to the party through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the traffic on the Belt, the crowded streets of Bay Ridge. We appreciate it, believe me.

Once there I rested my camera as other people were busily shooting away. Sometimes you just have to put the camera down otherwise you end up watching your life through the lens. On the way out of Phil's building, Sarah and I both got a shot of this great sign in Phil's lobby warning that the acts of trespassing, smoking, gambling, loitering or playing in the lobby by anyone other than the tenants will result in arrests by the police . . . . as opposed to what the KGB? the Gestapo? the Khmer Rouge?


The trip from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn back to Astoria, Queens took a long time. Here is Sarah with our new friend at the Bay Ridge Avenue station. We walked out of Phil's about 11:30 and didn't get home until a little after 1am. However, as long as that took, we still did pretty well considering we had to change from an R to an N. We are fortunate that we live on the N line. It's at the entirely opposite end of the line from where we picked it up but felt fortunate and thrilled the trains were running with somewhat regularity.

WWII Memorial

I finally have a chance to post some of the pictures from our trip to DC in May.

Here is the WW II Memorial

White House

Here we are in front of the White House.

Headless Horseman

This very cool painting of the The Headless Horseman story is on display at the Renwick Gallery as well.

Renwick Gallery

A painting from the Renwick Gallery.

Isn't she lovely? Abbott Handerson Thayer is quickly becoming a favorite painter of mine.

National Gallery

I was quite fond of these two images both from the National Gallery.

I don't know what it is about still lifes, but I always like them, especially when they are as bold as this one.


This image fooled me. From the distance I thought it was three dimensional but up close you can see it is a flat. Pretty amazing, huh?

National Archives

We went to the National Archives to look at the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. While waiting on line I shot this picture of the corinthian columns that dominate the facade of the National Archives building.



Jon thought I looked cute taking that picture so he asked me to recreate my pose without the camera so he could use it to shoot the picture of me recreating shooting the above picture.

Random Four

Random Thing #1
This morning I went into L.A. Cafe on 23rd and Broadway for some breakfast. Today was a muffin day - a low carb pistachio muffin day to be exact and the L.A. Cafe is the only place that I know of that offers one. But waiting on line I was tempted with this.

Yes. You are reading the sign correctly. These are indeed Rocky Road Cupcakes. In a brilliant act of resistance I passed them by without a second thought until this very moment and I'm really, really thinking about them right now.
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Random Thing #2
Today was one of those days, where you don't do anything or think about anything but your job. I didn't have a single thought of my own beyond what I should have for lunch, how much water should I drink and whether or not I was remembering to go to the bathroom. When I got out of work, I instantly slowed down and meandered to the subway, making a few observations and snapping a few shots. I fell in love with this piece of a NYC phone booth.


--------------------------------------------------
Random Thing #3
I don't know if you believe me when I tell you that the NYC subways are slow. There is nothing worse than having to wait a long time for your train after a hard day of work. So I took a picture of this clock put there as courtesy of the NYC MTA. As well as the time, they broadcast messages like "don't lean on the doors" or "give your seat to old or disabled person" because we don't know how to do these things on our own and I'm not kidding. I don't know how many times I've given my seat up because nobody else would which is fine because that's what you should but. . . come one. Just once, I'd like to see a guy give up his seat for an elderly person or pregnant woman. By the way, I didn't get home until 6:40 pm. I don't live that far away.


--------------------------------------------------
Random Thing #4
By the time I got out of the train and worked my way through the rush hour crowd and made my way out of the station and down the stairs and on to the street, I was ready to go home especially since the promise of the AC in our bedroom lay ahead of me. Jon put the AC in this morning. Thank goodness. I chose to walk past the Greek Orthodox church. In that direction there are less people and I get to look at the church's pretty garden. Here is one of their roses. I always stop and look at them because one should always take the time to pay attention to roses especially when they are big and happy like this one.

Cheaters!!!

The Onion features a report this week on performance enhancing hugs at the Special Olympics this year. I knew those people were cheating.

But What Will We Feed Our Dogs?

Landslide U.S. House of Representatives Vote to End Horse Slaughter
6/9/2005 3:35:00 PM

WASHINGTON, June 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- For the second time in just three weeks, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of stopping horse slaughter in the United States. Yesterday's 269-158 landslide vote bars federal funds from being used to facilitate all horse slaughter. A previous amendment only prevented wild horses from going to slaughter.

"The facts and truth about the immense cruelty inflicted on America's horses won out last night, despite strong last-minute efforts by pro-horse slaughter organizations such as the American Veterinary Medical Association and American Quarter Horse Association to mislead Members of Congress," said actress Bo Derek, spokesperson for the National Horse Protection Coalition, of which the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL) and Doris Day Animal League are founding members.

Because yesterday's amendment is attached to an annual spending bill, it will only stop horse slaughter for one year. The U.S. Senate must also approve the measure, which will be the next focus for the coalition. The vote demonstrates strong public and congressional support for a permanent ban -- which must be achieved through passage of H.R. 503, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. U.S. Representative John Sweeney (R- NY), who sponsored yesterday's amendment, is also the sponsor of the Act. He is joined on both measures by his colleagues, U.S. Representatives John Spratt (D-SC), Ed Whitfield (R-KY) and Nick Rahall (D-WV).

"The vote on an amendment by Congressmen Sweeney, Spratt, Rahall and Whitfield is a huge victory on behalf of our campaign to end horse slaughter. These tremendous legislators, their incredible staff and all of those who voted in favor of ending horse slaughter showed us what good can come from the halls of Congress," said Chris Heyde, SAPL policy analyst.
"We always believed that if we could just bring this issue before the full Congress, we would prevail. The facts, and the American public, support an end to horse slaughter. Congress listened, and we are one step closer to making horse slaughter a thing of the past in this country. But Americans must continue to push Congress for a permanent ban," said Liz Ross, director of special projects for the Doris Day Animal League.
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Too Hot Too Soon

It's too soon to put in the air conditioner or is it?

I woke up around 4 sweating so maybe it is. But if the weather goes back to normal, we'll have closed off the only window in our bedroom, cutting off any nice and natural spring breezes.

But I can't go through another night like last night. That was ridiculous. My throat is soar. Ow.

My Trainer and Me

Tonight when I got to the gym, my former trainer pulled me into his office and started talking to me about his personal life. It is nice to know that I've made a new friend. He told me at the end of the rap session that he thinks of me as an "older" sister. I told him lots of guys think of me as a sister and it's true. They do. There's just something very sisterly about me.

Going to the gym has now become a habit. There's no wanting to go or not wanting to go there's just going because that's what I do now in my free time. With that mind, I didn't feel much like going to the gym tonight. I wasn't expecting much from my workout. That's when you know you are going to have a great workout and guess what? I had a great workout. I did whatever you do on the elliptical machine for three miles and my heart rate was nice and high meaning I was both working my heart and burning fat. Wahoo!! When I looked at the monitors of the people to either side of me I thought it an incredible coincidence that their heart rates matched mine. Turns out the monitor I was wearing across my chest was reading out on the machines to either side of me. The guy to the left of me kept adjusting his workout because he couldn't understand why his heartrate was so high. I didn't say anything. He could afford to calm down. He was way too thin anyway.

Some Other Trivia Pictures

Sarah


Sam


Caren talking to trivia regular and occassional trivia host Jonathan Bloomfeld.


Jonathan B. with Kory and Phil

Third Anniversary of Tuesday Trivia

Last night was the 3rd Anniversary of Tuesday Night Trivia.


Caren and Brad hosted and they did a terrific job.

There was a huge crowd.



As you can see there were at least 1,000 people there.

I can't really write about it now. I'm so busy. I have to run out of here.

But I'll try to post more about it during the day.

Yuck Part II or Stowaway Horror Story

NEW YORK (AP) - A body part apparently fell from the wheel well of a plane coming in for a landing on Tuesday at John F. Kennedy Airport and landed in a suburban backyard, authorities said. More remains were found on a South African Airways flight after it landed at Kennedy, said Tony Ciavolella, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said a Customs agent meeting the plane, Flight 203, after its landing at Kennedy's terminal three discovered a leg hanging from the left wheel well section. Police suspect the remains were that of a male stowaway, Ciavolella said. He would not confirm that the incidents at the airport and Long Island were related, saying, "It's still under investigation." Messages left with South African Airways were not immediately returned. Police in Nassau County received a call at 10:51 a.m. about a body part found in the backyard of a house in Floral Park. It apparently had hit the roof of a garage and bounced to the ground, said Officer Thomas Blanchard. Peters said the skies over Floral Park, about 5½ miles from the airport, would be about the point where a pilot would routinely start lowering a plane's landing gear in preparation for arrival. The South African Airways flight had originated in Johannesburg, but made one stop in Dakar, Senegal. AP-ES-06-07-05 1500EDT �

Yuck

in what can only be described as madness Chinese citizens are having themselves surgically stretched. height is believed to gain advantages in work and romance, spurning on a trend in surgical procedures and home bought stretching machines.

Another Photographer

Jon and I met with another wedding photographer last night.

All I can say about this guy is WOW!!

Here is his website. Be sure to check out his art photography as well.

Ion Zupcu.

He prints your proofs in his dark room and his prints are spectacular. The website doesn't do them justice. The whites are creamy and rich and the details are so there. He showed is three samples of wedding albums and, and, and . . .I could go on and on.

I liked this guy.

Monday

Eyes open. Check.
Clothes on. Check.
Face clean. Check.
Bag packed. Check.
Ready to go. Check?

I am not ready for Monday. Can we have lazy Sunday back?

Hottest Day of the Year So Far

Today was the hottest day of the year so far. According to the hour by hour prediction on www.weather.com it's only going to go down to 70 degrees tonight which might mean an uncomfortable night. Just a couple of days ago it was nice and cool and rainy and now it's hot, sticky and gross. Today was not a good day to bake anything, so I did not use my new Artisan mixer. Rats. But I am cooking and defrosting my freezer which resembles Siberia on a bad day. What am I cooking? Why chicken, of course with Vidalia onions, plum tomatoes and currents.

Today has been a relatively lazy Sunday with the exception of that hour at the gym. I used the sauna and the shower and I indeed dared to go naked in the locker room although I don't yet feel comfortable slathering lotion all over. I was only bare for a second. It wasn't so bad. The gym provides a shampoo and condition that smells fruity so now my hair smells like fruit.

60 minutes is playing a news story about bears in people's backyards. Yawn.

The Artisan

I present to you the KitchenAid Artisan Mixer. It has long been my dream to own a KitchenAid standing mixer and now I do. Thank you to my lovely aunt for the wonderful present. I am not surewhat to prepare first. Maybe I'll bake some whole wheat bread. Any suggestions?

Friday At Last!!

This has been a busy four day week. Yesterday I had to run an errand from my office to LI City. Not a big deal, right? I got from my office to my final destination in about 20 minutes. Very easy. On the way back it took twice as long. Gosh darn NYC MTA!!!!!

MTA closed the 5 stations leading to Queens Plaza on the 7 line. I needed to take the 5th one. Because the station was closed I had to go further into Queens, get into a train running express to Queens Plaza and transfer to the N. So I had to wait for the N. I did. It took a while. Then, when I got to 34th Street . . . you guessed it!!! I had to transfer for a local so I could get my stop at 23rd Street. I had to wait there too.

It sucked!!!

Happy June!!

Today is Wednesday, June 1, 2005 - 20 more days until the summer solstice. Already, the mercury is rising and the air is becoming saturated with moisture. I was at the dreaded 34th St. N subway platform last night. It's starting to get warm down there. The smell of pee and humanity and impatience is becoming more and more prevalent as I find myself passing through that station more and more on a daily basis. How do I always end up there?

These mild springs are deceiving. They lull is into a false sense that our summer will be mild as well. But what really happens is that as the summer solstice occurs we instantly have 90 degree weather with 93% humidity and hardly any relief at all.
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I went to Tuesday Trivia for the first time in ages last night. I played with Caren, Punka, Barry, Jill, Mike, Nick, Kory and Kory's friend whose name I can't ever remember. The five rounds consisted of one on Bruce Willis (who knew you could make a round out of him?), current events, a top 10 list on best selling movie soundtracks with The Bodyguard at the top of the list (surprise to me. Another surprise - West Side Story was nowhere to be found). After these first three rounds we were in a dismal 8th place. The visual round consisted of group shots of people from 80's television shows. The audio round were 10 songs by Burt Bacharach recorded by popular artists. Our team had enough strength in these two rounds that we were able to pull ourselves up to second place. Wahoo. Now that American Idol and the Amazing Race are finished, I'll be going to trivia regularly.