Some scenes from the neighborhood

 The other Saturday I woke up really early (9 A.M., I realize that will be a late morning once the baby comes), and so I ventured out to get coffees and a cross word puzzle or something. Not only was there not a single other person on the street, but there were only 3 cars parked on the main drag though our neighborhood. This is NYC, people. This kind of crap never happens. I thought the apocalypses had occurred a few months early and no one told me.

 Ryan posed for this cute photo. Little known fact: Ryan is a black belt!

 Sometimes on Saturdays, they close off the streets in Williamsburg so that you can meander through them. Someone dumped a load of sidewalk chalk in the middle so that people could graffiti. I made this.

 Just read it. It was a joke posted on a fence. I think it was a joke. I hope.

 Those little lines on the towers were the names of everyone that died.

The Devil

in sugar form

Look at Sheryl!

Sheryl is the reason we moved to Greenpoint because she blogs about what an amazing place it is and I'm very lucky that I now get to call her my friend. When I ran into her today, she showed off her medal from yesterday's NYC half-marathon!

NYC has so many treasures to stumble upon

I didn't get a very good look, but it looked amazing! I was too afraid I'd knock something over with my over flowing Trader Joe's bags that I was already in a bad mood about having to schlep home on the subway.

Saturday

 Fur babies & Carbs. Sleeping until 4 P.M. on Saturday and spending money on ourselves. We love adulthood.

Neighborhood Watch Committee

This is something I love about NYC. These are on the front of a house, and no one seems to give a damn. If we were in Cincinnati, everyone would know about "The Eyeball House."

On 5th Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

A fun science experiment and homemade laundry soap

Have I ever posted about homemade laundry soap before? Am I too lazy to go looking for that post? Yeah...

Before we get into that, I was 5 years old the other day.

I saw a fun post on Pinterest and had to try it. IMMEDIATLY.

Firstly, it involved Ivory soap. This got my attention because I love all things Cincinnati. Because Ivory Soap is made there. Right in the same hood as Pringles & the fat substitute Olestra. Rock on, Nati.

I thought I remembered Ivory being sold in at least 3 packs. I also thought you could buy most bar soaps singularly. To be honest, I've been using body wash since about 1995, so I've never bought regular bars of soap in my adult life, and so 10 bars of Ivory it is...Really?...10 bars? Is it just the Brooklyn Target? Whatever, It'll get used eventually.

Cut the bar into cubes and place on a microwave safe plate.

Put it in the microwave. Yeah, I said the microwave.

wuuuhhhh? WOW! Put it on high for about 90 seconds and what that shit blow up! It turns into soap soufflé! And I didn't hurt my microwave! And it smells soapy fresh! And it's still usable!

Gaze at it in wonderment.

 Squeeze

 It's like what you thought Heaven was like as a child.

 To be honest, it feels a little like dried paper pulp.

The weirdest texture ever.

And now you need something to do with it. You could put it in the shower or on the bathroom sink and break little chunks off as you need them. Or something else.

 Dump the soap soufflé into a bucket lined with a trash bag.

 Crumble it into little bits.

 Add a half pound box of baking soda.

 And half of a tub of oxi clean.

 A box of washing soda.

 A box of borax.

 And mix it all together.

 Ta da!

It makes a lot. Use a 1/4 cup for a small load, 1/3 cup for medium load, 1/2 cup for large load.

Normally, you're supposed to use Fels-Naptha or Zote soap here, because of their detergent qualities. I haven't been able to find those here in Brooklyn yet, so I've been buying $3.99 bars of Dr. Bronner's bar soaps. Even though I love the fragrance of them ( a combination of the citrus & almond scented ones is my fave) I have to say that .23 cents for a bar of Ivory ( which I'll have for a while now) is going to win the wallet.

I hope you've enjoyed! If you try this, let me know!

Why watch the parade on TV when you can go watch it!!!

 So many things we didn't think about life in NYC before we moved here. So much goes on! NYC is where it's all at!

 I took this picture for my sister, Monica. She loves Snoopy. We positioned ourselves in Times Square, but we were about a hundred people deep in the crowd away from the actual parade. It was hard to get the 2 boys out of bed and drag them down there, so next year I am going to plan it a little better.

 And took this picture for Charlie's niece, Lillian. We could only see the balloons from our position in the crowd, not the performers, which was a shame. Put go to a different location next year, or try to watch it from someone's apartment.

 Here comes a Paul Frank monkey. Charlie had to explain who and what this was.

 Then we headed down to the Brooklyn Bridge to walk across it. Unfortunately, it was already dark by the time we made it there, and figured out how to get on the darn thing ( a lot more complicated that you would think)

 It was SO CROWDED! It's such a popular tourist attraction. My favorite part was seeing all the cables up close. You really need to see them in person to get a sense of how massive and powerful they are.

 Our first week in NYC, we got ourselves a couple of Brooklyn Bridge tattoos. Another post for another time.

 After a trip to Junior's, which I completely failed to take photos of, we headed to our watering hole, Keg n' Lantern. Arie was there and, and by the looks of these photos, all the food from Thanksgiving settled in my chin.

And Charlie made a pilgrim hat for Godel.

Lobster Joint

 http://lobsterjoint.com/

 There is no shortage of deliciousness in Greenpoint. One of my favorites is Lobster Joint, which is exactly what it sounds like. The salad above was greens, avocado, radishes, about 1/2 a lobster and a peppery lemon dressing. SOOOOO delicious!

And under this massive side salad is a lobster roll, it's just hiding!. This is our new favorite place to take out of town guests! Won't you come visit so that I have an excuse to go back???

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.

Peter Pan Donuts

 I first learned about Peter Pan Donuts from Sheryl, or more recently, Sheryl Yvette. She's a vegan now, though, so she probably isn't eating there too much anymore. She'll get her own post here soon. She's the reason we moved to Greenpoint.

How cute are their green & pink uniforms?

I think Tina Fey summed this place up the best:

"Fact: Peter Pan Donuts on Manhattan Avenue in Greepoint is the tastiest (and cutest) donut shop in all the land. (We'd rank the Donut Plant #2, and, speaking of Greenpoint, Anella chef Joseph Ogrodnek makes a pastry basket that's quite exceptional.) That Peter Pan dominates the donut game is hardly a secret, as demonstrated by the throngs crowding the register on weekend mornings. But now that Peter Pan has just scored a big Tina Fey bump, you might need to wake up even earlier to score one of their amazing whole wheat donuts. The 30 Rock star told Esquire recently:

The best doughnut? That's Peter Pan doughnuts in Brooklyn. It's a Polish bakery. We shot nearby once for 30 Rock. It's a white-cream-filled powdered doughnut. And I really believe, when I first tried it, if I had a penis, I would put it in this doughnut. I finally understand what you guys are thinking about and what motivates you guys.

For the record, those promiscuous little donuts made the first move—it's not like we forced ourselves on them. [Via Greenpointers]" -Gathomist.com