The Cloister Museum

 What do you do when you collect religious art and you live in Manhattan and have no where to put it?

 You send it along with your Espelier fruit trees to the tippy top of the island and let everyone else admire it! I took my parents and Ryan to The Cloisters. It didn't hurt that Ryan and 3 guests got in for free as a perk of his 60 hour work week.*

 Did you know that there is a portion of the city that isn't covered with buildings? And unlike Central Park, there are no carts selling waffles, no Frisbee golf matches and as of yet, no Wall St. protesters?

 There are Saint's skulls in those busts. They were for parades.

 I can't remember what this was, but it was shiny and special.

 AND THIS! I didn't even know that it called the Cloisters home until we got here. What little girl didn't have this poster? Turns out it was part of a series of tapestries that someone commissioned.

 They hunted unicorns.

 And captured them

 And stashed the horn. I highly recommend The Cloisters. It has bizarre hours, though, so plan accordingly. Also, I would take the A train to 190th St and walk the rest of the way on a nice day, and catch the M4 on a rainy day.

* He works 60 hours by choice because of his dedication. Not because they make him.

My parents came to visit

They loved and thought the Highline was too cool for school. I can't wait for them to come back. We also went to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and the Cloister Museum. Ryan showed them his office and we ate a lot of great food.

Spaghetti with Broccoli Sauce 6 Points Plus

 Spaghetti with Broccoli Sauce

I know what you're thinking. "That's gross."

And you're wrong. Unless you're George H.W. Then you're right.

Other than the fact that Ryan was really disappointed when he came home, saw the glop of green sauce and realized it wasn't guacamole, we really liked it. We changed the servings from 6 to 4, which made it 9 points plus. Next time, I'll add some protein, like cut up chicken, or maybe even just serve it over a baked chicken breast. If you like broccoli, this sauce is for you!

The Zodiac by Ai Weiwei

 This is one of many reasons that I am so lucky to live in NYC. I get to see stuff like this.

 You can read about the artist of this piece, Ai Weiwei and his amazing story here. I'd heard of him before, but didn't realize that this was his art, and what he was going through at the time until I went home and googled the subject.

 I love that these two were right next to each other. I was born in the year of the dog. Ryan is a cock. He likes saying it that way, too.

This was the coolest one. I loved all the detail. They say people born in the year of the dragon are smart.

Well, now I know better

I should have figured that since there are about 10x as many people in Brooklyn than there are in Cincinnati, I should have bought 10x as much candy. I got cleaned out in 35 minutes. Ryan isn't home from work yet, so I had to sit on the stoop myself. I lit some cute, halloween candles and met some neighbors, including Patti Smith's drummer's wife. Awesome.

Brownie Cupcake Bites 2 Points Plus

Here we are in our 2nd installment in testing out Weight Watchers Points Plus recipes from the weekly meetings! This was the recipe for this past week, October 23rd - 29th, 2011.

 The original recipe for36 mini cupcakes was changed by me to make 12 larger cupcakes. This affected the points plus value. Yes,

 Yes, this muffin tin is really well-loved. Probably older than me.

 The end resulting cupcake didn't need a proportionately larger amount of cool whip for the frosting, so that brought the points plus down a little.

 They were super dense and fudgey. We used Duncan Hines brand brownie mix.

They were scarey good!

I made the following modifications, which affected the points plus value:
- I used a 19.2 ounce box of brownie mix instead of 21.
- I decreased the amount of icing by about 1/3. Anymore wouldn't have fit on top of each cupcake.
- I baked them about 5 minutes longer than the original directions. Just because of their size.

Mine ended up as 6 points plus with the things I changed in e-tools.

I highly recommend them! I'll keep making them all year

Things that are fun in Brooklyn

 Ryan had grown a pretty hefty beard since moving here, and he shaved it off the other day. He left this funny little side soul patch for a minute so that I could take a picture.

 Huey tries to sleep in the funniest places. Here he is in a napkin holder. His favorite is the little book-sized boxes that amazon sends!

 I had a friend growing up named Kasia, so I took this for her. I think it's pretty popular Polish name. There is also a Kasia brand butter.

 This is how parking lots work! Build everything up, since you can't build out!

Hope you enjoyed these pictures of what I've found fun! Do you take pictures of all the random stuff you see?