very simple

one of my essentials for sleeping with the ridiculous cold that I’ve acquired.

I’ve run out of random things on my desk, so I’ve moved on to my overwhelming collection of refrigerator magnets.  This one was picked up during one of my many work-related trips to London – after a week and a half of all-nighters, we finished our deal, got about 12 hours of sleep, and then had almost an entire day to waste in London before our late-in-the-day flight back to NY.  We hit all of the big spots – we actually ended up watching a huge procession at Buckingham Palace in honor of a state visit by the Chinese government, but no one had a camera.  So I bought this magnet at Harrod’s to commemorate the trip.

my kitchen is so tiny that any time I find a kitchen tool that is magnetic, I snap it up so I can stick it on my fridge instead of on the counter.

I can’t get through a NY winter without this stuff.

I know I’m several days behind on the 365 project, but rest assured, pictures have been taken.  The problem is that a lot of pictures have been taken, and all 300 or so that I took over my whirlwind weekend that involved thanksgiving in massachusetts and a wedding in texas have been downloaded to my computer.  I just don’t have the energy quite yet to start going through them.  Maybe tomorrow.

I haven’t done a non-photo related post in some time, but I just finished my latest book while sitting in the cafe at barnes and noble, and was reflecting on how nutso this week is going to be.

First, the travel. As always for thanksgiving, I’m heading to the berkshires to hang with family. Except, instead of staying through Sunday as I would normally do, I’m flying to Houston on Friday, because one of my oldest friends is getting (re)married down there on saturday. And then i’m flying back to NY on Sunday. Of thanksgiving weekend. I’m thinking it’s a good thing I don’t have a job I’ll need to actually get to on Monday.

Actually, that’s about it for my nutso week, now that I think about it. Although apparently my brother is sick with something that may be the flu (swine or otherwise) and is only finally going to the doctor because my dad convinced my brother’s girlfriend to drag him there. Or an emergency room. I’ll have to call him later to check on him. I’m not going within 100 feet of him though, because I’m pretty sure that swine flu makes a pretty crappy wedding present.

I’ll return to photoblogging later with a post about the book I just finished, but I left the jacket at home so I can’t photograph it yet.

Forget all of the expensive espresso machines that they try to push on you. This is the way italians make espresso at home. Of course, it took me ages to actually figure out how it worked when I lived over in italy, having been lulled into laziness by the nespresso capsule system we had in the office…

Plus, it uses half the espresso grounds than my “real” espresso machine to make a single cup.

my loose change used to end up in random piles around my apartment. then I wised up. The last time I took this (and a bit more overflow) to the bank to exchange it for real money, I ended up with over $100.

I used to go through at least a case of sparkling water/seltzer a week, because it’s pretty much the only thing I drink. Then I wised up and bought one of these to make my own. I’ve already saved a ridiculous amount of money.

if you ever see me wandering around nyc, chances are, I have these on my head. they serve both to deter people from asking me questions (although it doesn’t always work) and to let me listen to the massive backlog of podcasts I’ve got stored on my iphone.