Live from New York

Not really live. But this past weekend, I was down there hanging out. A few pics...

An art installation in Madison Square Park. There were tree houses in the trees in the park. That's the Flatiron Building in the background.


The next season of the reality show Top Chef is coming up in a few weeks and we got to see a cooking demo from a past season's contestants. And we got to pose with them...
Also at the demo, they had an exercise bike rigged to make a food blender blend. Me making a fruit smoothee.

Fall

So many pumpkins. Stacked up at Government Center for a fundraiser.

Getting ready for fall, Halloween, the (temporary) end of daylight savings, the World Series, the election, et cetera.

Garlic!

I'm blown away by the choices of garlic at the supermarket...

"Jumbo Garlic"

"Elephant Garlic"

"Super Colossal Garlic"

That's great, but can I get some Absurdly Massive Mega Garlic that's the size of a grapefruit?  That'd be swell. 

The Celtics trophy comes to work

The Celtic's Championship trophy came to my office. The real trophy. It's solid gold. With fairy dust sprinkled on the top. I know you're probably thinking, "What?? Are you kidding me???? The Celtic's trophy?? HUH????"

That was exactly my reaction:


I'm really not sure how we worked that one out... Definitely very cool.

My sis

An article that pertains to what my sister is up to...

She's off in the wilds of Kenya studying common pool resources and how they are allocated. An article on the Freakonomics blog talks about addressing the water needs of the developing world and how throwing money at developing water resources isn't enough. An excerpt:

"Effective water management requires good institutions — i.e., a framework for the formation and enforcement of local rules and norms that will deliver safe and sustainable local supplies. After all, how useful is a well without a means of allocating its water or maintaining its flow? How safe are pipes when they carry water of unknown quality? How sustainable is supply from an overdrafted aquifer?"

She faces the challenge of how and what to measure when gauging the state of the system. Apologies I can't phrase it as well as she could. The full text of the article can be found here.

Chicken and Barackoli

We heard through the grapevine about a group of twenty-somethings having dinners to raise a bit of money for Obama. The idea started with a group of friends who invited a few people over for dinner and made two requests of their guests.

1. Donate some money to the Obama campaign
2. Host a dinner of their own

That first dinner has spawned many other dinners directly, and many more through word-of-mouth, such as our own. It's definitely not big money, but it does speak to the power of many people contributing. Check out the website here and check out the page for our dinner right here.
(from peta.org)

When life gives you challah...

Make French toast.

I received a loaf of challah Wednesday by airmail (Thanks J and D!).  It was literally bread from the heavens.  And in my excitement Wednesday night I decided to get up fifteen minutes earlier than I normally would on Thursday and make a very quick batch of French toast.  This was a very good life decision and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes themselves.  A vast improvement over my normal bowl of cereal.  French toast took a little bit more effort, but was a GREAT way to begin Thursday.  (At work, I’d call that a very strong ROI.)

**Addendum**

Coincidentally, global anthropologist/thinker/user experience designer Jan Chipchase wrote today about breakfast on the go and how it's destroying our moral fiber.  Well, not entirely.  But I'll take his writing to mean that my morning endeavor with French toast is going to save society.