Chocolixir

Godiva Chocolatiers have come up with a summer product to try and rival Stabuck's claim over Frappuccinos and other summer frozen drinks: Chocolixir. In three tasty flavors (Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate Caramel, Raspberry White Chocolate), it's meant to give the chocoholics a chilly cocoa fix for the summer. Jen and I had a chocolate break from work Tuesday to give the frosty beverage a go. We initially spent 5 minutes trying to find the Chocolixir Van giving out free samples on Park Avenue. The closest we came was Jen spotting a parked white truck and running towards it with me strolling behind and catching up to the corner. "Jen," I said, squinting to make out the letters off the side of the angled truck,"that's a FedEx Truck." We walked to Godiva on Lex and 50th and had to cough up $5 each for a cup. It was mighty delicious though they have some issues minor issues. I got all excited thinking there was an enormous spherical piece of chocolate at the bottom. After closer inspection, I realized it was an unchopped piece of ice. Think about fixing the chopper on the blender, Godiva.

Reading: Dark Water by Koji Suzuki
On DVD: Spanglish with Adam Sandler, Paz Vega, Téa Leoni, Cloris Leachman and National Treasure with Nicholas Cage, Sean Bean, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight

for annoying Randy

I got a mani-pedi today... like it's my job.

I'm a technology anomaly

Study: IT has too few women, minorities

Women and some racial minorities are "significantly under-represented" in the technology industry. The one exception: Asians. Asians are OVER-represented. It's cuz we "love crunching numbers." We can code ourselves out of nuclear war. And why are there less women and minorities? Because the number of administrative positions in the technology industry is shrinking. Do they mean answering phones? Because I don't answer phones. I barely speak to humans unless it is through the means of e-mail, instant messenger, or an iChat.

JPMorgan/Chase Verbally Challenged

Wednesday night, my company ran in the JPMorgan/Chase Corporate Challenge (Day 1) in Central Park. We were pumped, I say, PUMPED! We had a crew of walkers and runners and in-betweeners (like me). We set out at 6pm to the Park in our new snazzy and misspelled shirts. We're supposed to be the "Hedgehogs" but the printers spelled it "Hedeghogs" instead. We were trying to come up with definitions and responses to what turned out to be no one noticing the spelling (that's the financial industry for ya). I thought up "one who instructs the hedonistic manner." That was quickly vetoed. We opted for "You work in the finance industry and you don't know what a hedeghog is? Tsk-tsk!"

We weren't in the elite running crowd (8 minute mile or less) so we started with the non-elite (also known as the walkers) and tried to get ourselves up to the front of the pack. After some uninspired emcee work, we were off very slowly. I mean slower than a giant tortoise, and I've seen those animals book it in person. There should have been some running rules of the road like "walkers must walk on either side of the main running road, not down the middle" and "no beans before a run." Note: nothing gets you motivated to run faster than slowing to walk and breathing in the human aroma around you on a crowded, humid, and moist New York evening. After a poor 16:30 first mile (due to the bottle-necking at the starting line--I claim a 12 minute mile) I ran a 10 minute second mile at which point I took myself to the side and walked/jogged/ran until we hit the third mile. I picked up the pace when the finish line was in sight, like a well-trained track runner, and sprinted over the finish at 43:07. Not bad for a slow start due to people traffic and rainy/slick conditions. We got protein bars courtesy of Snickers, bananas, Propel water-like beverages, yogurt drinks, and bottles of water. And there were even size small shirts for the chicks! I hate getting those extra-larges for these events--do they really think we're that super-sized? Hey, some of us are actually fit! Not me so much since I haven't run more than 2 miles in the past year. It was good for me though and I felt great afterwards. Today, not so good. Achey hamstrings and even my arms are a bit wobbly.

Batman Begins

Yesterday, I went to Manhattan's Lincoln IMAX Theatre to see Batman Begins. All 3 stories of it. I'm positive I sat with my mouth gaping most of the time as Christian Bale (everyone's favorite American Psycho) flew across the edifice-sized screen with explosions and fight scenes still emblazoned on my brain. Fifth row from the front means I missed some of the details in the close up fight scenes. I've got to go see it in a plebeian theatre so I can catch what I missed--and gawk at the film. Cillian Murphy--as Scarecrow--totally awesome. He has that long, thin build that makes him perfect for villainous roles, I suppose. But catch him in his turn as the hero in 28 Days Later--no, not the Sandra Bullock film about substance abuse, the fresh UK film about the RAGE virus that decimates the entire island population much like what I'm told avian flu will do in the very near future to all of the world. Thanks, China!

Batman Begins starring Christian Bale as the Dark Knight, Michael Caine as Alfred, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Linus Roache, Ken Watanabe, and Gary Oldman as Sgt. Gordon

Tosca! In Central Park

Last Monday, my fellow opera/picnic/park fans came out to the Great Lawn in Central Park to listen to the Metropolitan Opera's free concert performance of Puccini's Tosca. Nik has an entry on his blog of our outing including the NYT photo of the robust looking singers. I gotta say, as a theatre person, I find it entirely too challenging to suspend my connection with reality and believe the casting these opera companies make. A couple years ago, I caught the MET's production of Madama Butterfly (Puccini) and the little butterfly wasn't little at all. "Little" is a nice way of saying "small enough to fill the Grand Canyon." Plus (no pun intended), she must have been 40! This year's City Opera production cast a young Korean opera singer who I could buy as Madama Butterfly.

Nik scored a sweet spot for us to set out a lovely little picnic with paté, rosemary-olive bread, wheat baguette, pasta salad, salami and cheese platter, Brie, several bottles of wine and an appearance by creamy peanut butter. I brought my latest InStyle which had a nifty little Hanes Cotton Underwear interactive advert which allowed Nik to dress his underwear model in his preferred color/print of said undies. "This is the greatest thing ever!" he declared. Nik works at the Hall of Science, did I mention that?

When Nik was finished toying with the advert (passing it on the Steve), Tosca erupted at the head of the Great Lawn as twilight hit. Nik decided that we needed to document our first cultured foray into the park with photos. He came up with some lovely artsy pictures--my favorite being this one of my girl, Cyndi, reading Nik's book.

He did some random candids as well including Cyndi and I posing for my camera (results coming soon).

In August, The New York Grand Opera Company's production of Puccini's Turandot comes to the Naumberg Bandshell in Central Park.

PUTA

PETA employees charged with animal cruelty

Can we say ironic? At least we know the KFC chickens end up on your plate.

Weddings and Iguanas and Anime, oh my!

After an adventurous and fun camping trip to Clarence Fahnestock State Park last weekend (with spider and mosquito bites all around), this weekend's trip to the Belmont Stakes was classy and hat filled (pictures to follow). Afleet Alex beat the field by 2 lengths and was followed by the morning's 50-1 underdog Nolan's Cat. Giacomo, unfortunately, did not make the top 4 even! Argh. My smartly dressed companions sported the best in race-wear including fedora's and purple hats and swank sportscoats. I love the ponies! Still on my lifetime to do list: the Triple Crown all in one year.

Speaking of "to do" lists, the LACMA is the starting point of the new King Tut exhibit going on tour in the US. I am deciding between the four US cities that will feature the exhibit over the next 27 months including Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, and Philadelphia. It will feature never-seen-before items from his tomb (not his golden mask).

There was a fire in my neighboring building--the apartment that shares my bedroom wall caught fire at 2am. Thank heavens there is a fire house across the street. Today, my apartment smells of burnt marshmallows. And not the crisp kind you want to eat, the kind you've pretty much burned into a piece of coal for barbeque-ing. Aurora was not pleased. Not pleased at all.
Catching up on photographs:

Some of the best bridesmaid's dresses you could wish for courtesy of Nordstroms for the skirts and Overstock.com for the tops. Susan's got some great taste. You'll also notice my hair is ridiculously long and with lovely curls and a giant orchid sprouting from my ear. Remember that putting seeds in your ear is not good.

After I donated my hair, I took this photo for Jano so he could see just how short I got it cut. It was just a week before my trip to the Galapagos Islands. It's gotten much longer than that and I need to work in a haircut soon.

Me in the Galapagos Islands on... Fernandina I think. I'm sitting mere inches from these giant marine iguanas. I love iguanas. I always wanted one as a kid and thought seriously when I was younger about becoming a herpetologist. Yah reptiles!

Aimee and I climb to the top of Bartolome Island with the famed Pinnacle Rock in our background. We had a spectacular hike and realized we really were the youngest travelers there. Everyone else was much older and some could barely make the walk up (why traveling when you are younger is a great idea). We thank the luck gods that our group was pretty dexterous. By the way, that blinding glare is a reflection off all the whiteys who still couldn't tan. You can't really tell, but Aimee and I have the exact same sneakers. When I met her at the Miami International Airport, we had the same top, jeans, and shoes on. It wasn't planned at all and leads me to believe we share some synapses or something.

Movies: Hotel Rwanda with Don Cheadle; Friday Night Lights with Billy Bob Thorton and Lucas Black; Crash with Don Cheadle, Ludacris, Thandie Newton, Matt Dillon, Michael Pena
Dont Miss: Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata: Masters of Animation at the MoMA with Miyazaki's latest US film release Howl's Moving Castle

Strongbad works in customer service

I went online to TrueCredit.com to get my credit report as I check it every few months and in typical fashion, they charged me for something I did not order: debt analysis report. So I called their customer service department and a guy who calls himself "Max" is my representative. However, as he continues to speak to me, I realize this guy is actually Strongbad! I did everything to keep from singing Trogdor, the Burninator! and only managed a slight giggle when he was verifying my personal information. "Thankyouverymuch," he says in his garbled way when I bid him farewell. You now know that Strongbad has a day job to pay for his Internet connection.

Homestar Runner: it never gets old