Chinese New Year & Madison Square Garden

Last weekend Calvin and I went to a Knicks game to celebrate his birthday. I also went to a wonderful Chinese New Year's party in Queens with many, many courses of delicious food prepared by one of the hosts.

Maira Kalman on the Inauguration

Maira Kalman on the Inauguration

More Obama Adorableness

Obama talks to Beyonce about Single Ladies.


Obama on Malia and the Jonas Brothers.

Now if he would just put more infrastructure funding in and take more tax cuts out of the stimulus bill.

Interactive Top Chef

Tomorrow night at 9 PM (EST) you can get interactive with Top Chef on Bravo. Neilson will be behind some of the onscreen questions.

Aretha's Hat

Read about the designer here.

Happy New Year

Happy Year of the Ox. It is supposed to be an auspicious one for Roosters, so Anders, Andy, Aiden and I might be in for good news. And Sarah was born in the Year of the Ox, making it especially auspicious for her. Wear red today for good luck. It is also the Year of the Pickle, apparently.

Cute Obama Pictures

Thanks to Tina, here are a few cute pictures of the Obamas getting ready to go to the balls.

A few things that upset me yesterday

I found the discussion Rachel Maddow had with Congressman Peter DeFazio (wasn't that Fonzi's last name) about the problems with Obama's stimulus package disturbing. Spending money on infrastructure seems obvious even to me, someone with very little understanding of economics. Obama's "I Won" line did make me happy, though, as did his ending the "gag rule" on abortion for international groups wanting money . (This clip is kind of long and opens with an ad--sorry).

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Also, I finally saw Slumdog Millionaire last night. It was good, but despite all the hype about it being "uplifting" and "magical," I found it more upsetting and disturbing than anything else. But I was glad to check one of the Oscar movies off my list.

TV Questions

What did people think of the 2-hour Lost?

Does anyone else watch Life on Mars?

Does anyone else watch Big Love? And if so, what did you think?

Will Smith sings in Spanish

Sonja says "GOBAMA"

Sonja, Dak and I watched the whole inauguration. She's ready!

In answer to Kate's questions

Sorry about being so remiss on the posting lately. I have been having a grad school related stress spiral and feeling rather blue. But I am determined to bounce back and get this grad school monkey off my back.

My hand is doing much better although I still have to keep it bandaged up. I left it unbandaged for about 10 minutes yesterday and managed to bump it into something and start it bleeding a little and hurting more. It was a necessary reminder that it is not healed completely and I had better keep protecting it. But all in all it should be fine with minimal to no scarring. Most of the hand looks normal again and the thumb is getting there. It is just the spot below my bottom knuckle that had the 3rd degree burns that is the real problem. Lesson learned, hopefully.

Asta is also doing much better. She has a check-up with the vet on Wednesday, one day into the Obama presidency. I am thinking this is good luck. She can walk, very gingerly, on the leg again and almost all the scars are covered up by her hair. We weren't sure it would all grow back again but except for a few spots on the knee she is back to her usual sleek black self. We went for our first walk yesterday. It was a very short one, just around one block but she did very well and was very happy about it all. We will try again later today. It did tire her out. She sat down in the grass of our yard as soon as we reached home.

The good news is that her convalescence has resulted in a lasting friendship with Weese. Turns out Weese was willing to overlook the whole other species thing in favor of the gender politics. Weese may like Cab all right but she is pretty sure you can't trust men, except for my dad, and Matt, but mostly my Dad. He gives her fresh seafood and lots of love so he is definitely worth the love in her eyes. But now Weese and Asta spend a few hours each day sitting outside on the back porch. I don't have to worry about Weese wandering off becasue Asta herds her back onto the porch as soon as she so much as thinks about exploring further. It works for all of us. Weese gets to sun herself. Asta has a new best friend and I have the cat/dog friendship I always hoped for. I have always been a sucker for those calenders with the pictures of the kittens and puppies hanging out together. I will take some pictures of my own soon but so far it has been difficult. Both Weese and Asta come running up to the camera as soon as I pull it out and the pictures have all turned out blurry and too close.

Flipping Out Marathon

If you are the mood for some reality TV today, you could choose to watch the Flipping Out Marathon on Bravo starting at 2. I've never seen this show, but Neilson will be one of the people behind the interactive components today. You can participate either through texting or online.

I would like to know . . .

1) How is Molly's hand?

2) How is Kym's hand?

3) How is Asta?

Review of "Apocalyptic Pop" in Time Out

I am in a show Kathy curated at the Dorsky Gallery, she did a great job putting it together and wrote a very smart essay in the brochure which you can download in PDF form from the homepage. The show got a nice review in Time Out.

Inauguration Fever

I am so psyched about the inauguration, it is getting embarrassing. I am DVRing the train trip today to DC with the Obamas and Bidens just so I won't miss any of it when I have to go out. Calvin is in DC for the weekend as usual, I asked him to get me an inauguration souvenir of any type.

Biden's wife is going to continue to teach at a community college in DC, turning down offers from other institutions according to the Times. Go Jill! Happy birthday Michelle Obama! (Like I said, I'm out of control).

Skype

I just got back from visiting GrandMary. For anyone who doesn't know, she has been in the hospital, due to a heart valve issue, but seems to be feeling better. The highlight was talking to Sarah and Sonja on Skype. We even enjoyed watching the adorable Sonja vomit--earning her nickname Little Pukola.

Weedsport

Kate came up from NY yesterday- she went to Geneva to visit Grandmary today. I drove her to Weedsport, the midpoint between Geneva and Oswego where she and Sarah have had the Brennan/Culkin family exchange since they were tiny.

Here's a picture of Kate and Trish at the Weedsport Thruway exit.

Boiler is ON!

Yes, there is heat and hot water in the house now. Thank you Flo for everything!

Here are a couple of pictures from the last couple of days.

Beautiful!

Old boiler before it was carted away

Our recliners over the brew pub

Sunrise in Oswego

Flo at Patz

Post Holiday Pics ..... and Frank's Birthday

Sonja & Anders



New Fireboat


Sonja in new outfit from Aunt Barbara


Anders in new firetruck hat from Grandmary



Anders and Dak with birthday car cakes


(Dak wears his hat Unicorn-style)

More Kitty Picks

The kitties have been especially cute and photogenic lately.

Boiler Duty

I am in Oswego with Flo, who has been doing big-time-replace-the-boiler-in-Dad's-house duty. We have had fun, we stayed at a room over the Brew Pub last night after dinner at Patz and watched 10 minutes of the Dark Knight before we fell asleep in our respective recliners. Today we shared a pizza from Pizza Villa with the plumbers. Flo goes back to Denver tomorrow. Here is a scan of the plate off the old (dead) boiler that once heated the house with coal.

Chip Kidd and Bat-Manga

Kate wrote about this project for PWCW- a book about Japanese versions of Batman put together by Chip Kidd, fabulous book designer. Here is an interview in Wired about the project. There's also a video interview, halfway down the page.

I heard him speak about this project in San Diego, it was a highlight of Comic-Con.

Now we're cooking with gas

So one of my resolutions for the year is to cook regularly. I started a little at the end of 2008, so hopefully I will keep up the practice. Last night, I made skirt steak and crispy garlic potatoes from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, to which Sarah gave me a subscription for Christmas. (And let me say, I just love Martha more and more. I've been watching her show over break and it is going on my fake-tivo list when school starts.) I forgot to take a picture of the dinner, but it turned out well, if I do say so myself. Stay tuned for more fascinating reports from my galley kitchen--some are sure to be disasters. What are your resolutions? Or what have you cooked lately?

Rock and Roll Yoga Chant