Kate's very long weekend
Thurs, I met my closest friend in the sorority - who I actually met through MTG - for lunch in Brooklyn. I had forgotten just how much she can talk, but she's also an MIT mother of 4. I got to hear all about her four labors and homeschooling and her rant about breastfeeding. Yaay!
I spent Friday with Buzz Lightyear. Alice's Tea Cup's menu is a little different and I had a huge craving for their salad dressing, so I didn't have a single scone. Then we went to the AMNH to see 3 current exhibitions: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs, Power of Poison, and Picturing Science. All 3 were excellent and I highly recommend them. However, I'd also note that the first two were excellent because they found many approaches to presenting a small amount of information. Pterosaurs combined mechanics of flight with fossils and included a flight simulator (my companion is shockingly better at fishing from the air than I), movies, and puzzles. The first movie explained that 90% of fossils are from 5 sites worldwide, which tells me we don't actually know much about pterosaurs, we have strong theories about the kinds of pterosaurs who lived in places where their bones were preserved. Similarly, the Poison exhibit really told about a few different kinds of poison, including ones from the manchineel tree, arsenic, and mercury. There were live animals, a play, an iPad app (and low-tech versions in the museum), and movies to show mythical, literary, and historic examples.
I spent most of Saturday finishing the unpacking of my large bookcase, which is now a room divider. The hard part was that it was not made for that purpose, so the shelves aren't deep enough to put books on both sides, so it ended up being an enormous puzzle. I created a logic grid, but ended up using trial and error to fill it. I also found a number of duplicates on our shelves, which we are getting rid of.
Saturday night was a bachelorette party for one of the girls from my old work. We got our makeup done at Rouge New York. On the one hand, the way she used color and contouring looked amazing, the best professional makeup I've ever had, and this is my third time in a year. On the other hand, it had no staying power. ah well. The guest of honor liked her makeup so much, she's hiring her MUA to do her wedding makeup. Then we went to Brandy Library, which doesn't really have mocktails. However, they brought us 3 baskets of gougere and the girls from work let me eat far more than my share. They did a "library tasting", which included a cognac, an Armagnac, tequila, rum, and 2 bourbons, and the other mother in the group let me try hers. I liked the cognac, didn't love Armagnac, and then my body told me to stop drinking, so I did. Dinner was at Macao, which turned out to be AMAZING, but I ordered badly. I don't like mushrooms or truffles but I loved their croquettes. I'm not sure why I ordered the whole fish with coriander green beans: it was full of bones and the coriander was so strong. I finished off someone else's prik prik chicken. The brulee egg tart makes my top 10 list of greatest desserts ever. Considering ile flottante is also on the list, I suspect I have a thing for custards. Anyhow, we were supposed to go dancing, but went to the downstairs bar that has dancing bc it was easy, and then everyone (not just me) was ready to go home by 1, in part bc the GOH tore a ligament running a week ago. I got major points for showing up in a red lace dress and dancing in heels; I'll miss being excused from drinking when the baby's out. Also, it was really, really nice to catch up, esp. with the other mother in the group.
I had a really nice cabbie from Nepal and when I got home, my beloved was playing with spaceships, so we got to chatter and snuggle on the way to bed. He also cleaned the bathroom while I was out misbehaving, so he's basically the best husband evuh. Despite my sleep mask, I couldn't stay abed past 7, so I went to Ct to see Edge of Tomorrow with my brother and his wife. It was amazingly good, the same way that Salman Rushdie's books are good: strictly speaking it was sci-fi, but it was so well-constructed it shouldn't be considered genre. I spent the next 24 hours hanging out with family, mostly hanging out with my very pregnant sister-in-law and my niece, who apparently does know the word no, it's just that her parents have her so well-trained, she rarely uses it in public.
Then my mother and I headed back into the city for my obstetrician visit. We waited 3x as long as the visit lasted, but I can confirm my son has a large head, 2 femurs, and an elbow, bc he was waving his arm around. The doctor was more specific about my fibroids (same size as the baby, but not a concern bc it's at the top of the uterus so it shouldn't smoosh the baby or cause problems on his way out); prenatal vitamins (folic acid doesn't matter any more, try to get some iron, eat real food); and exercise ("don't overdo it"). My mother commented he's very relaxed. Then we went to Brooklyn Diner for a fancy Reuben, chicken pot pie, and an alcoholic milkshake before my dear husband picked me up and took me home.
I spent Friday with Buzz Lightyear. Alice's Tea Cup's menu is a little different and I had a huge craving for their salad dressing, so I didn't have a single scone. Then we went to the AMNH to see 3 current exhibitions: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs, Power of Poison, and Picturing Science. All 3 were excellent and I highly recommend them. However, I'd also note that the first two were excellent because they found many approaches to presenting a small amount of information. Pterosaurs combined mechanics of flight with fossils and included a flight simulator (my companion is shockingly better at fishing from the air than I), movies, and puzzles. The first movie explained that 90% of fossils are from 5 sites worldwide, which tells me we don't actually know much about pterosaurs, we have strong theories about the kinds of pterosaurs who lived in places where their bones were preserved. Similarly, the Poison exhibit really told about a few different kinds of poison, including ones from the manchineel tree, arsenic, and mercury. There were live animals, a play, an iPad app (and low-tech versions in the museum), and movies to show mythical, literary, and historic examples.
I spent most of Saturday finishing the unpacking of my large bookcase, which is now a room divider. The hard part was that it was not made for that purpose, so the shelves aren't deep enough to put books on both sides, so it ended up being an enormous puzzle. I created a logic grid, but ended up using trial and error to fill it. I also found a number of duplicates on our shelves, which we are getting rid of.
Saturday night was a bachelorette party for one of the girls from my old work. We got our makeup done at Rouge New York. On the one hand, the way she used color and contouring looked amazing, the best professional makeup I've ever had, and this is my third time in a year. On the other hand, it had no staying power. ah well. The guest of honor liked her makeup so much, she's hiring her MUA to do her wedding makeup. Then we went to Brandy Library, which doesn't really have mocktails. However, they brought us 3 baskets of gougere and the girls from work let me eat far more than my share. They did a "library tasting", which included a cognac, an Armagnac, tequila, rum, and 2 bourbons, and the other mother in the group let me try hers. I liked the cognac, didn't love Armagnac, and then my body told me to stop drinking, so I did. Dinner was at Macao, which turned out to be AMAZING, but I ordered badly. I don't like mushrooms or truffles but I loved their croquettes. I'm not sure why I ordered the whole fish with coriander green beans: it was full of bones and the coriander was so strong. I finished off someone else's prik prik chicken. The brulee egg tart makes my top 10 list of greatest desserts ever. Considering ile flottante is also on the list, I suspect I have a thing for custards. Anyhow, we were supposed to go dancing, but went to the downstairs bar that has dancing bc it was easy, and then everyone (not just me) was ready to go home by 1, in part bc the GOH tore a ligament running a week ago. I got major points for showing up in a red lace dress and dancing in heels; I'll miss being excused from drinking when the baby's out. Also, it was really, really nice to catch up, esp. with the other mother in the group.
I had a really nice cabbie from Nepal and when I got home, my beloved was playing with spaceships, so we got to chatter and snuggle on the way to bed. He also cleaned the bathroom while I was out misbehaving, so he's basically the best husband evuh. Despite my sleep mask, I couldn't stay abed past 7, so I went to Ct to see Edge of Tomorrow with my brother and his wife. It was amazingly good, the same way that Salman Rushdie's books are good: strictly speaking it was sci-fi, but it was so well-constructed it shouldn't be considered genre. I spent the next 24 hours hanging out with family, mostly hanging out with my very pregnant sister-in-law and my niece, who apparently does know the word no, it's just that her parents have her so well-trained, she rarely uses it in public.
Then my mother and I headed back into the city for my obstetrician visit. We waited 3x as long as the visit lasted, but I can confirm my son has a large head, 2 femurs, and an elbow, bc he was waving his arm around. The doctor was more specific about my fibroids (same size as the baby, but not a concern bc it's at the top of the uterus so it shouldn't smoosh the baby or cause problems on his way out); prenatal vitamins (folic acid doesn't matter any more, try to get some iron, eat real food); and exercise ("don't overdo it"). My mother commented he's very relaxed. Then we went to Brooklyn Diner for a fancy Reuben, chicken pot pie, and an alcoholic milkshake before my dear husband picked me up and took me home.