join the club.

dave made it to the big 3-0 last wednesday! ha ha ! i'm not the only one now!!! shane and i headed to fort greene for the celebration.

we all met for dinner at the smoke joint, a small and casual but very yummy bbq joint.

we had to wait a while to get the food. and since you just order at the counter and one person basically makes all of the food, we all got our food separately.


dave got his first. i guess this was his impression a pirate eating bbq!

in case you were wondering, the smoke joint is vegetarian friendly! i was actually curious as to why we were going there as dave is a vegetarian! he orders the crispy catfish and devours the fries.


i got the hacked chicken sandwich! ooohhh! i loved it! there was so much meat! and the sauce dripped all over your hands! lovely! the fries were amazing! just spicy enough!


shane also ordered the joint rubbed corn on the cob. i was unexpectedly full and coudn't really try it. but it looked good!


britt and gabe join the festivities.


james and yasmine are normally very smiley, happy people! they conversation must have been riviting!


adam strikes a pose.



on to some irish pub across the street that i can't remember the name of. i had the great idea to pick up some twinkies from the newsstand next door to the restaurant and bring them to the bar and then surprise dave with a "cake"! when we got the the irish bar, the waitress said that we couldn't eat outside food. whateves. so britt and i ordered dave a slice of chocolate mousse cake. you gotta have cake on your birthday!


surprise!

i was craving somethings sweet myself, so i tried to discretely pull a package of twinkies out of the bag that i had shoved under my seat. in my effort to be discreet, i created an embarrassing scene .... i slid off my chair and pushed the table down and fell to my hands! all for the love of dessert!


shhhh ... don't tell the waitress!
*note, these aren't real twinkies! the news stand only had lady linda's. sounds fancy.

since it was a school night, we had to head on home.


britt and i on the train, having a conversation about people we don't like anymore that just a little too loud. oops!


nap time on the metro-north.

spring fever.

friends, i know i have been a bad blogger lately. actually, i have not been a blogger at all! my last post was nearly a month ago! (but you all have been bad readers too! no one hooked me up with any girlscout cookies!!! wtf?!?!)
well, a lot has been going on in the past month. most importantly, spring is in the air. and when i have not been working, or sleeping due to crazy hours at work, i had been trying to soak in a little bit of nice weather that has come and gone the past few weeks.
it started with daylight savings time. i love winter and snowy days. i didn't think i would get all that excited for daylight savings time this year! but for some reason, that sunshine that was still there when i would leave work, or rising on my way to work in the early mornings made such a difference! it really does revitalize you and make you want to be a little more productive when you get home or at least leave your job! i did hate loosing an hour of sleep though, considering sleeping is my favorite past time. i look forward to the days getting even longer and after work activities beginning!

also earlier this month, we got our first really warm days! they were nice warm and breezy days and you could feel the spring in the air! it was so exhilarating!! i absolutely love sleeping with my window open on those spring nights and a light breezes blows over you. it feels wonderful and refreshing!

spring is all about rebirth and new beginnings. i think this is when my resolutions really are created, rather than at the new year. it seems to make more sense to make a fresh start when world around us is blooming and also making a fresh start. but i won't talk about resolutions now.
there is one thing i needed to kick off my spring: new scents!
i needed a candle that smelled fresh and new!

and i found it at anthropologie. a lovely lilac scent. voluspa candles are so fragrant and long lasting. and it is even in this beautiful magenta and gold tin!

the other thing i had been on the hunt for was a new fragrance for me. i also wanted something light and fresh. i had been searching and searching. every time i would go and smell something, there was no connection. fragrances are so personal and you have to love what you wear. i kind of compare looking for a fragrance to looking for a boyfriend (or girlfriends, i suppose!) you never find one when you are looking - you will find the perfect one when you least expect it!
that is how i discovered my new favorite scent!

kai. mmmmm.... it is a light and sexy gardenia scent. i can't get enough of it! apparently it is pretty "sought after" and i just stumbled upon it while strolling through the W Hotel Store!

so continuing with the newness theme, i decided to try something new in the kitchen. i am not much of a cook at all, so anything is quite a deal for me! i picked up this amazing cookbook about eggs at anthropologie. yep, eggs! it is beautiful! i love all of the photos. i was inspired to cook up some breakfast!

and so i made my first attempt. poached eggs. i always wondered how eggs benedict were made. and the pictures made it look so fun. the white blogs, floating around in the water. so here is how mine turned out ...

two pretty little eggs.

oops, the yoke of my first egg broke and made a mess!
the second was unharmed.

voila! i made a little sandwich!
doesn't look all that appetizing but it was actually pretty good!

and to conclude the springy freshness theme - and also, it has been a while since you have had a little mills in your life - someone needed a bath! sure, she hates it, but she was beginning to live up to her new occasional nickname, TakeOut. sometimes when you smell millie really close, she has a slight odor of old mexican or chinese takeout food! yuck! time for a bath, mills!

my little mummy!
she is all wrapped up in her towel after the horrid bath.
she actually sat like that for quite a while! no more takeout!!

calling all girl scouts!!!

so word has it on the streets that it's girl scout cookie season. i loooove girl scout cookies, and i seem to miss the cookie season every year! i can't let another year go by!! i crave the chocolaty-coconut chewiness of the somoa. i dream about the licking the top layer of peanut butter off the top of the tagalong. i need the freshness and simplicity of the thin mint! plus, i hear that there are a lot of new cookies that i would be delighted to try!

PLEASE!!! help a girl out! if you or anyone you know sells girl scout cookies - send 'em my way! it will be worth it! i may help her get that additional patch, a bike, do they maybe win ipods now??? if so, what color do you want - cuz it's yours!!!!

post you info in the comments and i will buy.

don't look at me that way.

... it was an honest mistake!

you know the nights when you go out and the next morning you swear you will never drink again? let's just say that after friday night, I am now a sober woman (well, at least for a week!).

it was supposed to be a fun night out. dinner with kelly and then meeting the groovies later for drinks. i don't know where it went wrong, but I went crazier than lindsay just out of rehab!

kelly and i finally got together and caught up over good moroccan food at babouche on prince street in soho. we munched on yummy salads of veggies, beets, potatoes, and eggplants and, hummus, of course! the service was excellent! we had about 6 different people waiting on us! A+!


the bill came in a little slipper. 1/2 cute. 1/2 strange.

but we had to quickly rush off to see kelly's friends fashion show a few blocks away. unfortunately we were late and missed it! (sorry, kelly!) we did stay for drinks at the after party.



then, off to meet the rest of the gang who was waiting at rififi for their friday night party, trash.


nick and andrew were there to greet me! nick, keepin' it real, sporting man suspenders.


shane was already taking photos in my absence! the paparazzi are growing!!! beware!


lisa welcomes me to the party.


the gals.


andrew thought the drinks we too small. so he put all of his cups together to make a big gulp!

then kelly grabbed my camera and here is (a portion of) the montage that she created of shane and i.









ok! enough!! hahahah!

then! all of a sudden i had a great idea - and i was determined to carry it out ...

we needed cupcakes!!!!!

yep, so i grabbed lisa and went on a hunt!

but first, i had to freshen up. in the middle of the street.




these are some guys that lisa became friends with in the first bakery. they invited us to some party. i wasn't interested. i only had cupcakes on the mind!!! NEXT!!!


this is lisa picking out the cupcakes at the second bakery we went to. as you can tell from the photo, this one is definitely a little sketchy! why i thought it would be a better place to get cupcakes, i can't explain that.

one more stop before we return to the bar. the bodega around the corner. i decided to get a sparks! i hid that bad boy in my purse and waltzed back into rififi! (i also offered the big ol' bouncer a cupcake for good measure! he didn't want it!)

turns out the cupcakes were a good idea after all! a hit!








but this wasn't a good idea at all. i think this can was the downfall of my evening.


cupcakes everywhere!


oh, sarah! what a mess!

this is where my memory starts to fail me.
i remember wanting to dance. i heard them playing the sounds. i dunno.


you can never take back a first impression, and i sure didn't make a good one here! i met shane's old friend sylvia. she has to think i'm a maniac! but as lisa said. "we all deserve a night to be spectacular." and friday was my night to shine!


dancing amongst the masses.

i think then shane dragged me off to a cab. i pleaded to stay, but everyone knew what was best for little miss sunshine! bed!

i woke the next morning, swearing i would never drink again.

maybe i just need more practice?

chocolate memories.

having grown up in chicago, there are many places that i have special memories about and miss. one of those places that i will never get to experience again is Marshall Fields, the elegant and magical department store that covered an entire city block on state street. (of course there were many branches of the store all over the city and the suburbs, but the state street store is the landmark!)

i remember my mom calling me out sick from school in junior high to go christmas shopping there. the store was sooo huge! it was amazing just wandering around! we would have lunch in the beautiful Walnut Room - i can still smell the soup wafting through the air ...
my mom would always get two of the yearly christmas mugs. everything about fields felt glamorous! they even wrapped your gifts in beautiful boxes (you would keep these sturdy boxes forever!) and when we would leave, we would walk around the whole store and look at the beautiful windows. it was magical!

another memory of fields is their house chocolate, Frango. mmmmm...... little bites of chocolate-minty lovleyness! Frango's used to be made in Chicago (on the 13th floor the marshal field's state street store). it was a sad day when it was announced that Frango would relocate their kitchens. the demand was just too high to accomodate the old factory. the new production site would be in Pennsylvania. Mayor daily of chicago was upset and wanted the chocolates made by a local chicago chocolatier.

the final straw and the demise of a wonderful era was when marshal fields was bought out by federated department stores - aka the horrid Macy's. fields is now called "Macy's on State Street". Horrible!!!! makes me sick. (and i'm not the only one who thinks this! look here!

back to what started me on this trip down memory lane.

shane and i were browsing through macy's last night when i saw a familiar site at the cash wrap. stacks of the dark green boxes!

are those frango's, in new york??? i forgot for a moment about the acquisition and the candies seemed out of place. then it all made sense to me.
it was exciting to be able to purchase the candies that i would always bring back from chicago on visits home, but something didn't seem right. it was a little out of place. this elegant candy next to a messy, dirty, uninspiring cash wrap at macy's. it just lost something.

i bought the chocolates anyways!

they didn't taste exactly the same, a little dry, but they were still nice.

marshall field's and frango, you will always be in my heart!

this is the life!

People say, "why did you move all the way out to yonkers? What's out there?!"

Well, let me tell ya. What can be better Than relaxin' on the metro north, drinking a vodka and tonic from the bar car, and listening to a little tesla and slaughter!



Now, this is a commute!

sweet!

oh, martha!

on tuesday, anita, lauren, michael, and i were invited to spend the morning with the queen of the kitchen (and just about everything thing else), Martha Stewart! well, actually, we sat in the audience of her morning tv show.


we arrived bright and early to martha's chelsea studios to wait in line for our tickets. we were then told to leave the studio and come back in a half an hour. we couldn't wait outside. where should we go? the staff suggested dunkin' donuts. so off we went.

we could tell from the conversations around us that there were definitely some regulars here. they knew all about what was going to happen during the show and were buddies (or at least thought they were) with the crew.


we were soon corralled into an open room where we waited once again. the room was decorated with huge photos of martha's many dogs and cats.


well, martha wouldn't have been much of a hostess if she didn't offer something to eat! there were several trays of soft, doughy scones. they were good, just strangely shiny! but after being shuffled to dunkin' donuts, we really weren't all that hungry anymore!

warning!!! the most unexpected thing about the whole experience happened when i went to the bathroom right before we were escorted to our seats ...
the women's bathroom smelled sooooo horrible! i almost couldn't even stay in there, but i really had to pee! i seriously think that martha would have been embarrassed to know that her facilities stunk like someone just took their first morning shit in there! at least give us some potpourri or oust, something!!!

so were finally made it to our seats and we seem to have been stratigicly placed by our clothing and gender. lauren, michael, and i all were wearing shades of reds while anita had on a blue and pinky-red printed sweater. she was next the the blue-tops to her right - it blended nicely. michael had to sit on the end, spread out the males!


anita gets excited for the show!


michael shows his excitement!


pre-show pose. see the coloring??? strategic!

the show itself wasn't the greatest. it's really luck of the draw which show you get to go to when you reserve tickets. this show was mostly about weddings. whatevs. it was actually taped live and the segments went quickly. i thought it was most exciting watching all of the behind the scenes action - how they set up for eatch segment, how they fuss over martha and her hair. this cute and energetic little guy, joey, was the guy who would warm up the crowd and tell us when to applaud and "oooohh" and "mmm" in between segments, he would had out goodies junk from his random prop bag to the most energetic folks in the audience.


lauren was lucky enough to get a bag of biscuit mix!


after the show it was question and answer time with martha. here she is with joey.


ahhh, the smile! she had this perma-smile on for most of the show, even during the breaks as she stood there. i guess she had to look ready at any moment!

we were excited to find out about our free gifts! we were handed our issue of Martha Stewart Weddings along with a a flowery book of Inspirations by Preston Baily as we left the studio. hmmm .... not so great, martha! next time, give us food!!!

unfortunately, i couldn't get my vcr hooked up, but anita taped the show and said that we made it on the air! i can't wait to see! aparently they show back episodes online, but at this point, they aren't up. if you have a tape, i would love to see!!!