Kevin's parents came down for a brief Labor Day visit and we decided that a fun (and close) trip would be to visit the Cloisters. We took the bus to Fort Tryon Park and scaled the hillside to get up to the Cloisters. The building itself is this awesome little castle. (I told Kevin that someday we must live in a castle with multiple gardens and internally courtyards.) There various works of art to peruse, but not such much that it feels overwhelming. And if you do start to feel overwhelmed, you can relax in the beautiful garden. Here are some highlights...

Things I had forgotten over the summer:

• how tiring it is to wake up at 6am everyday.


• how much work goes into teaching.


• how hard it is to remember students' names.


• how rewarding it is to see your students beaming at you, hanging on every word of your story.


• how frustrating it is when they listlessly stare at the wall behind your head.


• how much my office makes me sneezy.


• how much I despise the woman down the hall with the booming voice that has no level over than booming or more booming.


• how exhilarating it is to speak in front of a crowd


• how much heels make my feet hurt.

• reading academic articles can actually inspire awesome research ideas.


• writing can be fun as well as intellectual.


• that tiny thrill of writing and writing and writing in single space and then highlighting it all and making it double space to see how much you "truly" wrote.


• research can be just as exciting as teaching.

Over the month of August, I breezed through three fiction books. (That, the heat, and Ravelry are why you didn't see a lot of knitting in August.)



All three books were written by the same author: James Hynes.





I received "Publish and Perish" from the PaperBackSwap quite a while ago. When I first joined the swap, I got a bunch of books at once and just had them stacked by the bed. I had requested "Publish and Perish" because I loved Russo's "Straight Man" so much that I wanted to read other stories about professors. (Yes, I'm a dork!). "Publish and Perish" is three short stories about three academics each struggling for tenure or promotion. Each is a sci-fi, mystery, murder, just plain weird tale that is funny and horrifying and captivating. After finishing the first story, I immediately ordered two more of Hynes' books. One of the coolest things about the three short-stories is that while each was distinct, there were ties and connections between the main characters of each story.





Next I read "Kings of Infinite Space." This book picks up on the story of the first character from "Publish and Perish" as he tailspins out of academia into a dead-end desk job. Again there is the same kind of weird, magical, mystical, truly bizarre and f-ed up twist that makes the novel interesting. And again there are cool connections back to the other characters in the other short stories of "Publish and Perish."





In about two days of intense reading before the semester started, I finished "The Lecturer's Tale." This book is not about any of the main characters from "Publish and Perish," but does again tie back to individuals mentioned in that book. "The Lecturer's Tale" is about a failing english professor who loses a finger, which when reattached has magical powers. As the book goes on, things get weirder and creepier, but is a fascinating story.



If you are interested in reading about professor's struggles and lives, I can't recommend these books enough. Do be warned that there is weird, strange, out of this world stuff that happens in these stories. Most of them can best be described as f'ed up, but in a good way!



Next up, I just started Russo's newest book "That Old Cape Magic."

I can't stop the challah. It is just so freaking delicious. Even if you don't consider yourself much of a baker, buy Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day and some yeast, mix up their recipe and plop it in your fridge. Then challah it up!!



I got inspired to make some challah muffins... cupcakes... well, I don't know what to call them, but they are little challahs baked in a muffin pan. The new issue of Bon Appetit** arrived the other day and flipping through I saw an article on brioche (brioche is next on the list to try baking). The author made little brioches without the special brioche cups by making it into balls and placing three balls per muffin slot. I thought, why not try that with the challah dough in the fridge.




Oh yeah!!!



And what made these extra special was that each little ball has a secret pocket of cinnamon sugar on the inside! I divided the dough into 12 roughly equal pieces and then divide each of those into 3 pieces. I flattened each piece into a disc and cupped it in my hand and filled it with cinnamon sugar. I carefully gathered the ends into a ball shape locking the cinnamon sugar inside the ball. Three balls into a buttered muffin hole and viola! I had had visions of the cinnamon sugar filling out the risen and baked ball more thoroughly. Instead it was a tasty little surprise in a bite or two. Next time I'll have to try to spread the cinnamon sugar a little more throughout the muffin-cupcake challah.

**Have I mentioned that Bon Appetit is my new favorite magazine. I love just flipping through and looking at pictures of food.

For Kevin's birthday, I secretly ordered some Mets tix (yes, unfortunate that they currently have no team and suck beyond all belief), but back in May there was no reason not to be hopeful. Since this was a birthday gift, I had saved my pennies and purchased the best possible seats I could afford (and smartly, picked a value game which are the cheapest of all).



I ended up with tix for last Wednesday. We were in the Sterling Delta Club section 11 row 17. That was 17 rows from the field!! Just to the right of homeplate. (If you go here, click the center box on the little version to zoom in, place your cursor in the orange box above the 11 and click, you'll see what our view was like.) It was the best seat either of us has ever had at a Mets game. And those seats... those seats are fully padded and cushioned!! And!! AND!! There was wait service!!!! Someone would come over and take our order and then bring us our food and beer!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were living the good life for about 4 hours.



We got to see Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling up close doing their pre-game reports. Kevin Burkhardt walked by us 4 times and finally on the last time, we got up the nerve to say hi. Well, Kevin yelled "hey Kevin" and I just smiled and waved like a silly fan girl.



The game itself wasn't much to speak of since they lost. But it was really fun to sit so close and pretend that we were the type of people who normally watch the game in luxury. Of course now, we have the hard decision of in the future do we go to many games in the nose-bleeds or do we just go to one game in the nice seats?



And yes, I'm still kicking myself for forgetting to bring my camera!!!!!

it's a scarf.







I couldn't wait until Rhinebeck, so I broke down and purchased 8 skeins of Knit Picks Palette: two each of black, silver, currant, and huckleberry heather. I'm designing my own scarf to blend the colors (held two together) from one into the next. You can see in the picture that I've down 2 black, 1 black and 1 currant, and am just starting the 1 currant and 1 huckleberry heather. I'm doing a ribbed seed stitch. I know I've long ago professed my hatred of seed stitch, but I really want a flat scarf that didn't just scrunch because of ribbing.



It was good to start the scarf on a day when the temps hit 80. It reminded me of how little I need a scarf right now. Maybe by the time I finish it might be cool enough to consider wearing it.

Well, there goes my daily time waster. Which may (or may not) turn into more pointless blogging. But the good thing about a time waster is that it involves very little thought. I'd like to think that I put at least some thought into blogging, that is when I actually sit down and do it. How am I going to waste time this week? How?!?!



What am I talking about, you ask. My Rav friends have probably noticed already. The powers that be at Ravelry are apparently shutting down the board "Remnants" until Saturday. And I fear that the "new and improved" Remnants will not have the same level of snark, pissiness, whininess, ranting, boo-hooing, and utter stupidity that I have come to know and love. I'll fully admit that I'm a phantom disagreer. I enjoy disagreeing with people for no reason other than the fact that the button is there and I giggle at the thought of someone becoming worked up over the fact that I disagreed with their statement that their cat likes yarn. Dudes, it is the internet... don't take it so seriously.



So a week without lurking in pointless threads. What's a girl to do? Heck, what's the point of Ravelry without Remnants.










;)

Since Kevin had the day off on Monday for the Jewish holidays and I don't teach on Mondays, we decided to have an Italian day. Ok, less decided and that's more how it ended up.



We started out the day by heading out to Arthur Avenue, which is the Bronx' Little Italy. We had been to Arthur Avenue twice before in the evening and didn't have time to peruse the shops. And by shops, I mean food shops... meat, cheese, breads... you name it! We started in the Arthur Avenue market and picked up some fruits, eyed the various meats, and decided not to purchase any hand rolled cigars. We ventured into a pork shop with tons of meats drying and curing while hanging above your head. The ceiling was packed with meats. We left with some extra hot sopressata and prosciutto. Then we visited a cheese shop and purchased some fresh made mozzarella and pecorino romano. Finally we hit up the bread store and got some semolina bread and a panella bread.



Of course we were starving by the time we got home, so we created a lunch spread (ok, feast). We chowed down on the prosciutto and cheeses and tried the panella. There were also grapes and almonds and a pickle involved.



For dinner, we made penne with vodka sauce (ok, from a jar from Wegman's) and added basil from the garden and some of the fresh mozzarella. We also had the semolina bread. Then we spent the rest of the evening laying on the couch with stuffed bellies watching the Mets lose.



Yay for days off!!

(Do you even need excuses anymore for un-knitting blogging? I've not been productive and what is finished can't be photographed well in this gloomy weather.)



The Fall TV season is a mixed blessing in the Dr. Girlfriend household. On the sad side, it means the end of the baseball season. No more daily Mets games to boggle the mind and wrench the heart. This especially torturous season may be one of the few times that it isn't so sad to not have the Mets on nearly every night of the week. On the happy side, it is the return of favorite shows and the start of new potential faves. Here's a round-up of my review of what we're watching now that it is two weeks into the new Fall season.



There are two main nights for TV: Thursday and Sunday.



Thursday Night: The Office, Community, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

• The Office. The Office has returned with two lackluster episodes so far this season. The season premiere which featured the announcement that Jim and Pam are having a baby, and last week's episode which featured Jim's promotion to co-manager with Michael. My opinion is that the writer's have forgotten that the show is called "The Office" and are instead writing for the "Michael, Jim and Pam Show." Honestly, I hate that they got Jim and Pam together; I hated last season's storyline in which Michael started his own paper company; I hate that Pam is a sales person. The show just isn't the same. I liked when The Office was more like Seinfeld. A few minor overarching plot points, but mostly each episode could stand independently on its own. The Office is now more soap opera-like such that if you miss an episode, you miss important plot points. That's really not what I am desiring from this show. I'll keep watching because it still has little gems... such as last week's Dwight and Toby team-up to catch Darryl lying about his injury.


• Community. Joel McHale and Chevy Chase. Need I say more? I will anyway. This is a new show by the producers of Arrested Development (whether or not that actually means much to the quality of the show remains to be foreseen). Joel McHale is hysterical on the Soup. Chevy Chase... well, how can you not love the guy who uttered the line "He's not going to pork her, Rus." McHale's character never actually completed college and is forced out of his lawyer job and back to college... community college. Very typical storyline... he meets a girl he likes, creates fake study group to get close to girl, girl invites other students to study group, the core group of characters is introduced. The show is still finding its legs and gets some laughs as it attempts to develop its characters. Last week featured a priceless montage of an epic Spanish conversation acted out by McHale and Chase; I was also quite fond of the professors mid-class freak-out about the fact that students can't understand that even though he's an Asian American he loves teaching Spanish. I'm looking forward to seeing how this show grows despite the inaccuracies it presents about community colleges.


• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Easily the best show on television. The new season picked up and made you feel as if it hadn't been a year since the last episode of the previous season. It is typically advisable to not eat or drink while watching It's Always Sunny... unless of course you like choking because you laughed so hard. After last week's episode in which the gang attempts a road trip out of Philly and ends up right back at the bar, my abs were sore from the constant non-stop laughing. This is one of the few shows that we don't delete from the DVR. If any show has taken up the torch left by Seinfeld for a group of dislikable and terrible human beings that you can't help but love, It's Always Sunny is it. And it stars Danny DeVito... why are you not watching it?!