I can't shut up about the xmas tree farm

Now that we live in the country (Arkansas) we're doing some down-home-y things. We thought it would be cute and novel to go to the Christmas Tree Farm and boy, was it terrific!

We drove to the outskirts of town (we had no idea where we were or where it is- you would have to GPS this for yourself) We drove past some of those yards with rusty cars on blocks in the front yard and arrived at this fabulous place - Motley's Christmas Tree Farm.

We went on a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning. They have gardens of different kinds of trees and trees in pots that you can re-plant. The awesome kick in the pants was the petting zoo! They have a jazzy little petting zoo.




We were overwhelmed with our choices and walked around for quite a while to choose the right one for ourselves. Then we decided on a bushy, tall, skinny, wild one and Matt sawed him down.





They had tractors with hay-ride-ready trailers attached to carry us and our tree to the entrance.


Matt looks so funny to me with his huge beard these days. I forget the beard is there and it's like he's in disguise and he's like Why are you laughing!?
I was also impressed with how fast he sawed down the tree with that little saw.


They put him in a tree shaker and wiped needles off of him with a toilet bowl brush :)


They wrapped it in ropes and loaded it into the back of Matt's truck. This tree was also less than $30 which we thought was an amazing deal compared to buying 3' tall trees in NYC for more than that.

We left before the pig races started, but I heard they wear sweaters sometimes.


Then we got home and remembered that it had to fit into the elevator.

First Little Rock Bike Date

It's been a long time since we put on nice outfits and rode bicycles to an event.


Sunday we got ready to bike a very short distance from our apartment downtown to the Bernice Garden for an Arkansas Local Food Network dinner. Which was delicious, by the way.






Matt has a bushy beard this season.


Matt's commuter bike has a busted tube and I've got to go get a spare for him. He rode his new road bike. We were eating outside and I figured our bikes would be in our sight and the threat of having bikes stolen has diminished greatly here in this car-dependent place.

For example: I'm zero percent worried my saddle will be stolen here in Arkansas. I think it's more likely that the entire bike would be stolen, and I don't feel much of a threat about that either. (I'm talking about my Linus, not my new Trek.)

Yes, my single-speed now feels like I'm riding a molases whale compared to my new road bike. 
But I still love her cargo capacity. 

She doesn't have a name

I got a road bike. A fast and furious carbon bike. I rode it about 40 miles in the first 24 hours.

Yes, I rode in this outfit! I didn't even mean to go that far, just a jot around the neighborhood, but before I knew it, I was five miles out of town. Things happen fast on this bike.

Matt's pretty embarrassed for me using the flat pedals, but I think I need to adjust to all these other changes and upgrade the pedals (to clips or dual-clip) in a few weeks.

We did about 16 or so miles on the Arkansas River Trail today. We went from the bridge at the Clinton Library west to the Big Dam Bridge and back through North Little Rock.


The weirdest thing to me, about riding in these conditions is how many miles you can go without stopping at a stop light. I'm used to stop and go NYC traffic. This is free riding for miles, uninterrupted.

It's extremely peaceful and pretty desolate for miles.




This bike is an insanely fast, fancy, and lightweight machine. It's not for living my life; it's for sport and recreation. I even ordered a bike jersey.

I'm going to write a post on the selection process, but I'm too pooped from all the excitement. 

Weekend Like Woah

This weekend was like woah.

Friday - Major day with Matt of SoHo shopping. Street food.

Friday evening - Met Malaika for strange bar food and then the wonderful John Waters giving his talk at City Winery. I've seen him speak like this a few times now, so there wasn't much new material in there but I still love him.

Saturday, we went to Mermaid Parade stuff and saw the Brooklyn Peaches synchronized swimmers!

 Last year I walked in the parade with Planned Parenthood.
Watching from a rooftop patio is luxurious.

One thing that makes me sad about moving to Arkansas is that it's not a place where gay people can get married, but hopefully that evolves soon. And we're going to miss our friends!

This evening I took a major nap. 

Celeb Sighting: SJP

Last night we went to this show, and we had a celebrity sighting worth writing home about.

It's funny that I worked for the lady who dressed the SATC ladies the during time they were working on the SATC movies, but I never saw any of the four main characters up close - I saw some in the street filming but that's it, I think. I saw the clothes up close. Some of the clothes accessories may appear in my nightmares indefinitely.

Last night this changed. We saw her come into the theatre, smiling, looking for her friends.
She sat down right in front of me. She is beyond tiny. The Sex and the City fan in me said "Wow, I can leave NYC now." 
I remember back in 2001 & 2002 in my college apartment, we were one of the few homes that had HBO. People were pretty much sworn to silence to have the privilege of coming over to watch on Sunday night when a new episode premiered. This was before DVR's and everything you saw on TV being online the next day.

Seeing her felt much more casual than it would have ten years ago.


I was wearing this:


And Matt looked like this:


And the show was amazzzzing! 
She clapped enthusiastically throughout - sometimes with her hands held up high over her head.
Had I gotten near her, I would have simply thanked her for supporting Obama how she's doing. Love 4ever. 

Saturday Morning Stuff

Saturday I left early to do an escort volunteer shift at Planned Parenthood. I remembered to use the recently re-opened and renovated East Side Path.

I did a later shift than usual, so it was a different traffic if that makes sense. I was there late enough to see the early-morning protesters pack it up and leave.

It was St. Patrick's Day and I'm superstitious so I had on some green. Matt met me after my shift.


We went to eat breakfast at Peels. It was really good. The biscuit is a whole menu item, but my shrimp & grits weren't huge, so I'm glad I also ordered the biscuit. Matt did the same thing. Order a breakfast + a biscuit.


We checked out some shops. I wanted to go to Madewell and TopShop and in exchange for his patience during that, I agreed to go to REI with him.

Christmas Eve Times

We were Domestic as Heck this Christmas Eve. We quickly picked-out some recipes and got groceries on Friday night since I had zero plans for us this Christmas weekend. It's really nice to not have any plans sometimes as that's not our norm. We also couldn't agree on a restaurant to make a reservation. We forget we can fix food ourselves. 

Getting groceries meant the fridge couldn't hold it all and some beer went out on the terrace. We don't have a fully-normal sized refrigerator in our tiny apartment.

Matt made the first 2 meals of Christmas Eve. He started it off with some steel-cut oats with cherries then for lunch he made grilled cheese with apples. I made a tortilla soup for dinner. I also made my old family recipe Jell-o salad - It's a strawberry/pear/cool-whip/cream cheese/marshmallow dessert.

When we walked Bonnie this afternoon we stopped to get Kahlua to make Soy Milk White Russians. Me and Bonnie waited out on the sidewalk.

We watched Jackass3 and Pecker and now it's time for bed.

Our soy milk white russians were great and I found a recipe online to use equal parts soy milk, kahlua and vodka. We like Tito's handmade vodka. I love how much ad space they buy in BUST magazine.

I used a Martha tortilla soup recipe.

Matt freestyled his oats and grilled cheeses. Though not dairy-free, it happened to be a meat-free day.
Tomorrow is going to be a different story of the wild game variety. 

What's up with this week

Tuesday bike to work - Probably one of my last warm days for this fall.
Gap booties, Forever 21 skirt, Gap top, bern helmet. 

Matt on the way to dinner. Yep- after dinner we were freeezing!

I saw all these NYPD's on bicycles this morning - strange - and later I heard one of my very polite-bike friends got a red light ticket. I'm eager to hear how much or if he fights it-


Tonight I made this for my little niece's Halloween ensemble and my baby modeled it for me.


Back to Monday - I wore this. Sneakers increase my comfort-quality-of-life so much.


I went to see the premiere of Paradise Lost 3 at the New York Film Festival.
Since I'm from Arkansas, I've been hearing about the West Memphis 3 since the beginning. Damien was witch-hunted because of his tastes and the way he dressed and you could feel that kind of judgement in the air in Arkansas at that time - the early 90's.



They did a little question & answer period after the film and that Jason Baldwin is so inspirational, I swear. His future is so bright and he's so grateful for each day. I'm so impressed with him.

I love what a fancy venue this was.



The end!

And we're back!

I'm too busy to say much- I'm building four Halloween costumes this year. Not for me! -They're kids costumes and I will share pics when the holiday is here and the kids are wearing them. I can tell that a lot of people are Googling and finding my past costumes - especially last year's awesome PBK Witch knock-off, so I know I need to post a Halloween Costume round-up and I'll do my best to throw it up. 

We've been back in NYC for about 48 hours and we're BUSY! 

Matt says you have to go fast on cobblestones. Yeah, right.
Usually he's very polite, and rides behind me, but he was fed-up with my ultra-slowness. 

Marimekko umbrellas at Flatiron (they just opened a flagship here.)
 Table cloths too! Very cute. Just passing through.

Riding past The Standard.
These pics are quick snaps as we bike-ride'ed errands this morning - afternoon.

Riding farther up the West Side Greenway than we've ever gone before (to get to TJ Maxx & Michael's craft store to get Halloween costume supplies.)

You're just so darn art-y MePa.
Riding through was a Saturday morning treat. 

It's fall and that means Playstation time is back! PS3 Team - Matt & Bonnie. 

Friday I wore this to work. Gap blouse & booties, CoH jeans. L.A.M.B. bag. I was a mess. 

Major cargo and major salmoning.