Yoga X 2

I go to a yoga class at my gym twice a week. It's called gentle yoga, and it's the only yoga they have during the week.When my membership expires at the end of April, I'm joining a yoga studio instead.

I have a free one-week membership to a place nearby. They offer classes at different levels all day long, 7 days a week. I tried one of their classes yesterday, a level 1-2. The pace was a little too fast for me, but I got an excellent workout. Next time I'll bring my towel.

Today, I have too many other things scheduled to be able to get to another class, but I'll try something different tomorrow and again on Friday. The price is quite reasonable, even per class. But for a modest fee you can sign up for unlimited classes, which will end up costing me about $5 if I go 3-4 times a week.

Now I have to untangle myself from my gym membership, which involves a phone call, a signed statement saying I no longer want to be a member and who knows whatever other annoying requirements. Breathe.

Feeling Bookish

I worked in a library for many years. I love being surrounded by books, and I compulsively check out piles that I can't read in time for the due date. I also buy books which is a dumb thing to do but I'm a sucker for bookstores. I usually read two books at once which saves no time but gives me some variety.

Three books I checked out of the J-ville Library are due tomorrow. I'm happy to say I finished two of them. One was The Cat's Table by Michael Ondatje, a Sri Lankan writer who is best known for the the movie The English Patient. My favorite book by him though is Anil's Ghost, which takes place in Sri Lanka and is about the bloody civil war between the Tamils and the Sinhalese. The book was haunting and most likely won't be made into a movie. The Cat's Table is well-written, but not too compelling, which is why it took me weeks to slog through. That and the fact I was reading other, better books at the time.

I just finished Russell Bank's Lost Memory of Skin. I love this author and try to read everything by him. My first book was Rule of the Bone, about a young boy living in upstate New York who makes his way to Jamaica. It has something to do with pedophilia, too. Cloudsplitter, is a book about John Brown's family and the violence he wrought in his anti-slavery campaign. The Darling takes place in Liberia and the United States, features The Weathermen and Liberian President Charles Taylor. Turns out Taylor learned all he knew about violence and terrorism at the hands of the Weathermen. Then I read The Sweet Hereafter, which was made into a movie I never saw. As intense as this book was to read, I felt that I was being pummeled by everyday life, not something strange and willfully violent. The Reserve is one of his books that's the most tame, a love story with a bit of mystery, but nothing too morally complicated.

Back to Bank's newest book, about a 22-year old male, the Kid, who's serving his term for soliciting sex online with a 14-year old. There's no violence in this book, but there's plenty of sexual description. Child pornography and Sociology are the main themes, how our society encourages porn by making it a hot commodity, and then blames the victims. Some victims are of course blamable, but if you believe this book, no one will ever escape their criminality, even when their sentence is served, unless they live somewhere without an internet connection. You can tell Banks sympathizes with the main character because the convict loves animals, taking care of Iggy the iguana, Rosie the dog and Einstein the clipped-wing parrot. This makes Kid more human than many of the humans in the book.

I know you hate when I do this, but don't read this book unless you like grit, sex and sociological theory. It's the kind of book that a Conservative Republican would hate.

Now I travel back in time (70 B.E.) to Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers. I know I'm going to love this book.

Saturday in Manhattan

We did a little shopping, including a stop at a thrift shop where I'd seen a a chair that might be worth buying. When the guy took it out of the window, I saw the fabric was torn on the seat and fraying badly, so we nixed that idea. We walked up to 86th Street and indulged in consumerism, which included a coat and belt for Marty, an indoor/outdoor thermometer for me, some envelopes, and an antenna for our tuner. We dropped everything off at the apartment and set off for AAA to buy movie-ticket discount coupons.

We took the 79th Street bus to Broadway and walked down to 62nd Street. Then we walked back uptown to the theater at 83rd Street, arriving just in time for Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close. I'd read the book years ago and knew this was going to be a gusher flick (not blood), but wanted to see how it stood up to the book. I'm a real snob when it comes to book-to-film conversion but I have to say, this was a good one. The book is so visual anyway that what's left out of the film hardly matters. Although the film is disturbing, it's also funny, has an element of suspense, and some great acting performances. Fort Greene is a setting briefly, and I always like to see the Old Hood to try to guess the street they're filming. The exterior of our house was once on The Cosby Show, but alas, Mariel and me walking back and forth in front of it fell on the cutting room floor.

After the movie, we met our brother-in-law, nephew and great nephews for dinner. They'd been at the Planetarium most of the day, and we had a chance to see them before they headed back to Newtown, PA. I had researched kid-friendly restaurants in the area and we ended up at Popovers Cafe, where they feature popovers. The boys, 8 and 6 were unimpressed by them and only wanted to play with the Lego pens we'd given them. It was decided that there were too many pieces to lose, so they'd have to wait until they got home to open them. This worked out as well as showing your dog a huge meaty bone and telling him he had to wait until later to get it.

No one was thrilled by the food, but Marty and I had gorged on popcorn at the theater, and the boys were exhausted. I had a Waldorf Salad which didn't have avocado, bacon or hard-boiled egg. It was still good, but I only managed to eat half. I'll eat it later.

We bused back to our apartment, got organized and watched The Tree of Life. I've been wanting to see this film for some time but didn't want to subject anyone to it. Marty was willing to give it a shot, and only napped 5 minutes. Brad Pitt and Sean Penn starred in it, and it was visually luxurious. It was also highly symbolic, which eventually got tiresome, but that was mainly because the film was long. It has an Academy Award nomination, which I find hard to believe, and hasn't made viewers rush out to see it.

Today we're going for brunch to a Cuban restaurant downtown on the Bowery. I'll let you know if it's any good. Then I'm making Bipimbap for dinner. It's a Korean recipe I got out of the West Warwick Public Library Cookbook. Thanks, Sue!

Elegance on the East Side

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. You couldn't see the sidewalks because the rose bouquets were flowing out to the curb. I buy my own flowers, and I already had an eclectic mix of roses, tulips and daffodils. We don't exchange cards, nor go out to dinner. Here's what we did last night.

I decided to make my husband's favorite dish in the world, osso buco. He orders it in restaurants when it's on the menu. I've never cooked it before.

This veal shank with marrow bone in the middle varies widely in price in my neighborhood, from $7.99 to $15,99 per lb. Since the meat is stewed, why pay more? I was a little more than proud of myself when except for the meat and fresh parsley, I had the rest of the gazillion ingredients.

Since I didn't get home from the supermarket (Fairway, if you want to know) until after 3:30, I was a little stressed about time management. Like a madwoman, I quickly gathered all the ingredients and set to work, chopping, sauteing, deglazing, et cetera. You have to cook this baby for a long time, so I was free to do other things, like make side dishes. I prepped the garlic mashed potatoes and the zucchini with carrots, and then passed out until my husband came home around 7:30.

I actually lit candles, which threatened to topple each time we both cut into our succulent veal.
We opened a bottle of Barolo (Villadoria Serralunga d'Alba 2007). Chez Patricia was a great success. The best part was that my husband did the dishes at some point, after snoozing in his chair.

In case you want to try this at home (it's time-consuming, not difficult), you can find it in The Gourmet Cookbook. You'll find simpler versions on-line. Bon appetit!

Flying the Flag

Our friends Karen & Jim gave us a Bouvier de Flandres flag almost 23 years ago on Marty's birthday. For most of that time, the flag was hung inside. When we moved to Rhode Island, we hung it on a tree lining our driveway. Did I ever tell you we had about 30 oak trees on our property? That meant squirrels, lots of hungry hungry squirrels.

We began noticing that the flag looked a little funny. Marty went up on a ladder and discovered the flag was slowly being eaten alive by Rocky J. Squirrel and his voracious family. We took it down and tried to order a new one, but the company had gone out of business. We folded it up and put it away. When I was packing up to move, I found the shredded flag in a box and packed it to go.

My friend Doug has a friend in the flag business. I sent her the flag bits and a scan of the artwork. I decided I wanted to update the flag with new colors, red and yellow, to match those of the Belgian flag.

It's beautiful, and turned our attention away from the pile of environmental disaster wrapped to go to a special dump for very bad things.

Seeming non-sequitor but not: I had a coffee disaster this morning. My very expensive Saeco machine brewed me a cup of water. I did some trouble shooting but could not fix it. Then I realized I had some ice coffee in the fridge and drank that. I wasn't as soothing as a hot cup o' Joe but it sufficed. You may be wondering why I didn't want to step out of my apartment where there are 4 or 5 coffee shops serving what I need. That would mean getting dressed. To make sure this never happens again, I went out and bought a Melitta holder and filters. I made myself a strong cup of coffee a little while ago,

You see, the flag makes me very happy, and so does coffee.

Boom in the Woods

My phone rings. It's my next-door neighbor calling to tell me there are 2 oil delivery trucks and an excavator in my yard in the country. I'm in my apartment in New York. I call the oil company to find that they're desperately trying to reach me. No, they haven't struck oil. My oil tank exploded as they were adding fuel.

Ironically, I had been thinking about what it would be like to lose your home to fire. I think I saw a news item earlier in the day about people who've lost everything to a fire.

No, my house wasn't on fire. I can't even imagine the pain of that. The tank, old and rusty, had broken apart and filled my yard with oil. They were already applying absorbent pink material on the affected area. Then they would dig up a layer of soil with the backhoe and contain the waste in a safe manner. All I could think of was my poor little brook would be renamed Love Canal.

I spoke with my insurance agent, and instructed the oil man to install a temporary tank until we could get a new one. We're meeting with the adjuster Saturday afternoon to see where we stand and how much it's going to cost. In the meantime, because the Department of Environmental Concern had to informed, the waste has to removed immediately, which should have happened today.

It should be an interesting weekend.