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Recently joined Facebook, since friends of mine are on it and, well, it is the wave of the future, isn’t it?

Friday night: Dinner at Django‘s, for the last chance at the Restaurant Week prixe fixe. Lovely ambiance. The three of us shared the scallop appetizer (seared diver scallops and Cauliflower Puree Orange & Coriander Vinaigrette – very nice). On the Prixe Fixe menu, I had the gazpacho for the appetizer (yum); the pork tenderloin, which had a gorganzola puree – umm, tasty enough, did better with pepper; and dessert was a lovely chocolate financier.

Sunday: siblings and I watched the movie Ratatouille at the AMC at Times Square. Visually amazing movie. An homage to cooking and the world of foodies. An homage to Paris. But, still – the idea of rats… I mean, yeah, you got to admire Remy the Rat’s desire to be a chef and rat. But… rats… only in a cartoon movie can rats be – well – cute.

Also on Sunday: There’s something to be said about taking the Staten Island ferry just for the hell of it. And, the same to be said about walking across the Brooklyn Bridge (the latter being good for the views and the exercise).

Actually, we meant to go to Governor’s Island, but the ferry service wasn’t doing its last run of the day, allegedly because they already had too many people on the island. Bummer. NYC and the federal governments ought to have better planning concerning Governor’s Island. Otherwise, I thought our last minute doing Staten Island and taking the bridge back to Brooklyn weren’t bad alternatives, since Sunday had such great weather.

Labor Day Monday: We tried out the new bbq grill at home; quite cool, even if we still have to learn how to use this thing better.

And, yes, yet another online quiz:

Which Peanuts Character Are You?
	You are Charlie Brown. You are always optimistic and persistent, and everyone appreciates your simple sweetness. Sometimes, however, your anxieties get the best of you, and life’s mysteries can confuse you.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Last Wednesday: Quintessence, Vegan and raw food. Very… interesting. Not something I’d do regularly, but it was different. Eye-catching, even. Kind of tasty and filling.

Venieros Italian Bakery in the East Village – great stuff!

Summer reading continued: Re-reading (or at least doing a better job of reading than I did of it the last time) Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Origins” (the book supplement to the Nova mini-series, which is currently airing on the local PBS station).

Immediate past summer reading included some chick lit:

How Nancy Drew Saved My Life, by Lauren Baratz-Logsted. Interesting read – very snappy tone from the narrator, Charlotte, who goes off to Iceland to be a nanny for the American ambassador, a seemingly sweet and dubious single dad. The mystery was odd, leaving me with a singularly bittersweet taste in the mouth, and the same to be said about the romance. Yes, it seems that Charlotte decided to grow up, but at what cost? The ending just left me feeling weird and wanting to shake her.

My Favorite Witch, by Annette Blair – a fun sexy read, if not a tad bit predictable ending (so very much foreseeable). Happy ending. A bit of tv’s “Bewitched” and tv’s “Charmed” plus a little of the movie “The Cutting Edge” (for the old-fashioned romance and hockey elements). The magical spells don’t seem terribly brilliant (Harry Potter almost does that better; this might as well be New Age-y Positive Thinking for all I cared), but the charm is there.

Some on-line reading:

Time’s Lisa Takeuchi Cullen on Blogging tips, on her blog on Worklife. Generally, I’ve come to enjoy this whole blog set up that Time has – gives insight into their reporters’ work and thinking and on the topics they cover. Cullen’s interesting for putting in the different perspectives – as an APA and a working mom; even her post on being Catholic (which later became an interesting Time article) were thoughtful stuff.

Asians in the News: Indian Jews, the Washington Post’s fascinating look at a decreasing community in India.

Yet another Internet quiz: rather amusing outcome, in that I am a snake on the Chinese horoscope scheme of things.

You’re a Boa Constrictor!
You’re that person who is always offering massages to people and you spend a lot of time training yourself to get better at giving them. Sometimes, however, you make people just a little nervous with how close you’re getting to their neck. But you can usually knead them right back into a false sense of security, er, I mean into feeling comfortable. Your mouth seems to be capable of opening wider than anyone else’s. You’ve sometimes wondered what it would be like to be made out of feathers.
Take the Animal Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

Friday as the day where I didn’t go to work. What did I do instead? Among other things:

NYC Transit Museum – saw the collages exhibit: “Paper Passages” by Chris Pelletiere. Loved it! Vibrant demonstration of the vibrant life in the subway. Pelletiere’s inspiration from his childhood in Brooklyn and enthusiasm for the medium is quite inspiring. Definitely worth seeing – at the museum’s Brooklyn Heights branch until 9/3/07.

Brooklyn Historical Society – really cool. The building is a landmark; the collection was vibrant – a look at life in Brooklyn, since the pre-colonial days.

It rained off and on all afternoon, and I couldn’t get myself to line up with the tourists (most of them were obviously tourists) to go for Free Friday at MOMA. Instead, I went to the
International Center of Photography – cool. Made it for the voluntary contribution Friday (5pm to 8pm), and therefore got to see the current exhibits. “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits” was fascinating – some of which were likely rarely seen photos, others were fascinating portrayals of people that mainstream history had forgotten or neglected. The Amelia Earheart exhibit was also interesting, especially in the feeling of how celebrity in photography are sort of a 20th century invention – at least, in that fan sense of things. Both exhibits especially made me wonder – who’s in control – the photographer or the subject? Who wants to present what we the viewers see, and exactly what are we seeing? Earheart, the adventuress/aviatrix who somehow remained feminine (and yet gave off the whiff of adrogyny?); the African Americans who strove for equal rights and dignity – yet dealt with so much struggle.

Saturday:

APA alumni annual picnic. This year, it was up at Alma Mater’s campus. Regards to FC and P for doing such a great job with food. Kind of missed the smell of fresh bbq though. Maybe that’s just me. But, can’t neglect seeing the good work of the campus people for cleaning up after us. The annual tug of war: FC’s school beat mine; then again, the losers of each round of tugging later complained that the slope of the grand gave advantage to the winner. Umm, yeah, Alma Mater’s on a hill. What do you expect? Well, perhaps if the tugging had proceeded at another angle (perpendicular to the slop, rather than on it), the results could have been different. Who’s to say? At least we had perfect weather!

Brother insisted on making a late night excursion to see “The Bourne Ultimatum” at Sheepshead Bay UA. Turned out to be an excellent idea. Major thumbs up – awesome movie! Paul Greengrass, director, has quite an eye and made for some dizzy scenes. Plus, one wonders if he really had the mindboggling plots in mind, or that it just lucked out for him. Matt Damon – well, he’s The Man as Bourne. Not a perfect man, but a man in mourning, in determination, and in search of redemption. This rounds out a fantastic trilogy – and was probably the best of the sequels of this summer. (ok, conceding that of the many third sequels of this summer (plus Die Hard as a fourth movie of a series), I’ve only seen three – Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek and Bourne, perhaps I shouldn’t be so sure of determining Bourne Ultimatum as the best – for all I care, Spider-man 3 was the best of the trilogy movies – still, I really liked the Bourne one).

Take the Scooby test – is the crime presented real, or one ripped from a Scooby Doo episode. I did pretty well, if only because I remembered one or two episodes and recognized at least one of the crimes as a real one that I remembered reading from way back.