Red Sox vs. Yankees

Most people know I'm not much of a baseball fan, but I do love spectacle. I think that if I had tickets to a few games I could easily be swayed into being a true fan. But being in Boston, the love the of Red Sox is definitely infectious, and I can't resist getting caught up in it. If only they didn't play so so many games...

Matt was lucky enough to get us tickets to the Red Sox vs. Yankees game on April 12. The Yankees are Boston's biggest rival and literally hated by many in New England. It's common to see "Yankees Suck" tee-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. Needless to say we were very very lucky to get tickets to this game (they sell out as soon as they are released and are re-sold for huge sums of $$). The seats were also fabulous! We were in a season ticket holder's area so the fans were tame, the view was great (not far back between home and first) and we were just under the balcony so when the rain started we were able to stay dry.

My favorite player Mike Lowell was injured for this game, sadly, but we saw lots of Manny, Big Papi, Veritek (and A-Rod, Jeter, and others on the Yankees side of things). So, here are some of my favorite pictures:

Cracker Jacks and baseball!

The Red Sox's official mascot is the "Green Monster" but they also have Red Sox that dance around — I found this very funny!

Foam fingers for sale! These were semi-lame because they were so small and you can't stick your hand inside, and you hold a stick — not true foam finger style.

Here you can see Big Papi (David Ortiz) at bat and Manny Ramirez waiting. Manny's helmet doesn't look so dirty in person (too far away) and he did give us a home run.

Here you see A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) at bat — my favorite Yankee. Veritek is catching, look at how he wears foam to prop up his legs (between calf and thigh) who knew?! (You can click on the picture to make it bigger). He looked like some sort of Transformer.

To the ire of many baseball fans, I'm sure, my favorite part of the game? Watching the guys (no women, I don't think) sweep the field during commercials, it is hysterical. These uniformed guys come out and run around dragging giant rakes and sweep off the bases.

There was a rain delay during the game, it lasted a long long time and we ended up going home and watching the end of the game from there. The field sweepers also had this amazing choreographed process for covering the field. They had a director who told them when to run pulling this GIANT tarp. It was beautiful to watch. They had it down to a science, they even had a giant metal roller to roll out the air bubbles.

We took the artworld by storm...Part 2

Well, it's been a while since our trip to New York...

So instead of re-hashing out whole second, also very long day, I will recap it here in my not so brief style.

It started with a quick breakfast, and subway ride to the Met where I saw the Courbet show very quickly, it was great. I miss going to the Met (I used to go every semester in college) and I hope to go again soon, but with gas prices being so high we might not make it to New York again until the fall.

Then I met up with my co-worker Darci and her husband and we went to the Guggenheim to see the Cai Guo-Ciang exhibition. The show was amazing, wonderful. I had seen parts of it at Mass MoCA a few years ago but the cars literally flying through space made a much bigger impression in the rotunda. The show used the museum space in a great way. I would show pictures but they didn't allow any photography, but if you want you can check out the show here. I love the spectacle, the gun powder, the explosions, all great. This artist is doing the opening ceremony for the olympics, on the very auspicious date of 8/8/08 I'm hoping for something fabulous.

After that I headed over to another art fair -- Pulse. My eyes were fully glazed over at this point, but there was some fun stuff. And also a woman getting tattooed with no ink, various slurs all over her body, covering every inch, it was bloody and she was shaking, and it was gross.

Here are some of the things I saw and liked:

a vulture made out of a vinyl record

and (click to see a bigger picture)

A giant crochet octopus! This is about 10 fee tall...

For Spring's sake!

{did you know that if you clicked on most of the pics in the blog they open up nice and big?}

This was an absolutely delicious cupcake I made a while back. Lemon cupcake with lemon buttercream frosting. All vegan, all fabulous. The frosting had an amazing lemon kick that was just from fresh juice and zest. I've never made such great frosting, an electric mixer makes all the difference. (I got the recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World), and I can't wait to make more!

We took the artworld by storm

A few weeks back Matt and I went to New York for a whirlwind art trip. It was mostly work for me, but really lots of fun.

We took lots of photos of the art we saw, instead of putting them all here and boring you to death, if you're interested, you can take a peek here. These are things that we thought were fun, different, and worth remembering. Of course I don't know most the artists names... I do have notes somewhere.

We drove down on Thursday night (March 27) and arrived late at night to Laura and Jay's beautiful new apartment. We are totally jealous, and love the place. And love that they let us crash there all the time.

On Friday Matt and I braved the subway on our own (which we now know is really very easy) and went to the Scope Art Fair which was near Lincoln Center. Art fairs are really just trade shows for art, in these instances contemporary art. They are made up of commercial galleries who are trying to sell as much art as possible So, the experience is interesting if for no other reason than the bottom line is the sales, not the art viewing. What makes it fun is that you get to see things you never would otherwise. There are many international galleries, and lots of the artists are "famous," the objects themselves are more than likely going to in end up in private collections, and not be seen by the public again. There are lots of neat things, but lots of bad art too.

After Scope we headed had some lunch at a great New York standby, the random deli/convenience store with a salad bar. This salad bar included marinated avocado halves and stuffed tofu (veggies and scallions and a sesame sauce). Delicious! With drink and chips for $7.00, awesome. Then we took a cab, another great New York standby, to the Armory show.

Look at me look at art! Those are vinyl "paintings" by Julian Opie, an artist I like even though they are very slick and cold...

At the Armory we met Lisa and Darci my co-workers and looked at the next round of art. The Armory is different from Scope and the other fairs in that it is more prestigious, and "blue chip" this is where the big bucks are. It is exhausting, overwhelming, and much more stale than the other fairs. There are over 150 galleries that show at the Armory, the other fairs generally have between 50 and 100.

This weed is really made out of painted bronze, there was a whole series of these, they are beautiful!

After the Armory we all headed to Lisa's swanky hotel, had some chickpea fries, spring rolls, and exotic drinks and then headed to the Whitney Biennial. The Biennial is a survey of American art (American is loosely interpreted) from the last 2 years. For those of you keeping track, we had been looking at art from 10am, it was now about 6pm. Needless to say, I don't remember much about the Biennial. I did get the catalog.There was a great mythical video about women with long hair (like 16feet long) who milk it to make cheese to sell. Sounds creepy, but it wasn't and I liked it.

From here we decided to check out the "Dark Fair" I won't say much other than it did not live up to it's potential, was very lame. The highlight was when Lisa stole a flashlight that was for sale to look at the horrible art (I did say it was the Dark Fair).

It was now about 10pm. That makes 12 hours of looking at art. Luckily, we were near Wild Ginger, a wonderful vegan Asian restaurant in SoHo, we ate and were merry. They have an amazing peanut butter bomb. Amazing. But no desserts were had that night, we were all too tired.

Stay tuned for part 2...

Mom says it was a sugar moon

And that's why everything was a little haywire on Friday. . . As I was taking the bus home, I looked up and noticed that we weren't on the right route. Apparently the bus driver got lost and forgot to take a turn. Despite all the passengers freaking out, we were able to direct the driver how to get back on track and I made it home (I think it was faster the new way). Who ever heard of a bus driver getting lost?!

While confused and surrounded by angry people on the bus Matt called to say that the car had lost what he correctly believed to be the alternator belt, that he was on the highway, and he hoped to make it home without the battery dying. He did.

But, we were now sans-vehicle and we were supposed to be on our way to Maine in a few hours. Luckily, we live below some great friends (hurray for Ben and Jessie!) who were also headed to Vacationland and were at the gas station on their way out of town. They changed their plans a bit and took us with them. We fed and watered the cats, threw some things in a bag and we were off.

We bough a New Hampshire State Lotto ticket at a pit stop but didn't win anything. . .

On Saturday Matt and I finally got to try the new "vegetarian bistro" Green Elephant on Congress Street in Portland.


The inside is indeed green. The atmosphere was really nice, I loved the chandeliers you can see on the right. The place is super hip, and the food is great.


I'm not a fan of this photo of me at all, but Matt likes the giant fork and spoon.

We got to the restaurant right when they opened at noon and we were the first to sit down and order. It's a bit pricey, but worth it for the good food. Matt and I both got soup, hot and sour for him, miso with green tea noodles for me. Mine had a different kind of fake meat in it but was delicious. It was nice to have miso soup as a meal.


The portions were adequate, not huge (especially not at $9.00 a bowl). Not as hearty as Wagamama but just as delicious. I can't wait to go back. By the time we left the place was packed and people were waiting to be seated. It's great to see an all veggie place (and almost all vegan, the desserts look amazing) so popular on a Saturday afternoon in Portland!

And on a final note:

Happy Easter!

This is our orchid. We got it a long long time ago, it had a lone blossom that died. We've been tending it for at least a year and it has rewarded us with a beautiful blossom, and several buds to go. It's such a treat!

Mary Says. . .

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

Mary sat on the green blanket in the sun just for the occasion.


She of course couldn't sit still for long since there is always invisible mouse running on the bed.



And I can't leave miss Lexi out—here she is playing in the sheets, one of her favorite things to do.



They are just pretty, pretty, princesses!

Look what I made!

These are definitely not as good as they look. . . My first attempt at whoopie pies (vegan whoopie pies at that) made just for the super bowl.

Maybe this is why the Patriots lost.