I've had half a very good day and half a very frustrating afternoon. This morning we went to a picnic for all the parents at D's daycare, and had a blast. There wasn't really food for adults though, so afterwards we headed over to Park Slope to get D some water shoes and grab a bite to eat. We should have stayed close to home (or headed over to Smith St for Bastille Day where we might have had the additional pleasure of running into Scola and another friend who mentioned she was going to be there), because the restaurant we picked kept us waiting an hour before letting us know that the kitchen had lost our order. There is a limit to how long a 1 year-old can be entertained by a glass of water and a straw, so we had to just give it up and leave. We got D's shoes, headed home, and now I'm eating a homemade grilled cheese sandwich.

The moral is, Brooklynistas? Avoid Flipsters on 7th Ave & 9th St. They suck.

There's a limit to how long I can be entertained by a glass of water and a straw. It's about 15 minutes.

That cake is AWESOME!

We had a very busy morning. We decided to plant tomatoes in the backyard and it wound up being a deeply muddy mess so the kids loved it (and yay tomatoes!), and I got a chance to touch up my roots. And after lunch Isaac crashed like 1000 suns because he got up at 6 am as usual.

that cake is awesome indeed--I sent it to the girl I'm seeing, she loves the muppets.

Two of the tomatoes on my plant are getting red, I'm very excited to get to eat them soon!!

I've got about an hour to kill before I head to the House of Blues. At some point before I leave, I will need to put on some outside pants.

I wanted to go to the Farmer's Market this morning to buy tomatoes. But, I realized that I had no cash. And, there's no ATM around here that wouldn't involve a walk out of the way to the Farmer's Market. I considered driving somewhere to an ATM, but then thought, well, if I'm driving, I might as well go to Whole Foods, since the store next door has potting soil. Which I need. And then, I did nothing. Still on the couch. Have enjoyed a bagel with nova bits (you can buy the scraps at HT for $2-3, so perfect for a bagel) and some nice coffee. I do not see myself leaving the house today.

I managed to jog on my trampoline for 45 minutes. Go me! Now I must shower and go to Trader Joes.

There has been Statue of Liberty

And Ellis Island

And Junior's, where there were massive amounts of brisket on latkes

And the World of M&M where there was a Saturday Night Fever M&M with disco balls suspended above his head

And a cabbie who was nice enough to not run over the clueless tourists standing in the middle of the intersection at 45th and 6th. When I mentioned this to him, he dryly responded, "Eh, it's Sunday."

And a walk from Times Square back to our apartment.

Now, I think a shower. Maybe a nap.

I am determined to make cherry clafouti today . But it took me forever to find a recipe that didn't make something that is simple into a complicated thing. or do something where I was going to have to guess /make translations. Crazy

I am in awe of those of you that are articulate in more than one language. I only make typos in English.

This has its disadvantages. I think I'm still traumatized by the 10 minutes in high school my English teacher and Arabic teacher made me go back and forth between English and Arabic. Ouch, poor brain. But only when I arrived to US for a month I learned that language is a culture not only theoretically, but also in real life.

But hey, did you know that "judge" in Arabic means chicken? (The emphasis is on the "ju", but still). Also, "cake" means cake (thought it is mostly pronounced "ka'ak", with the sort of sound English speakers are not used to pronounce, from the bottom of the throat).

(Using anchor's voice) Next, on Shir's Adventures With Linguistics: The day Shir learned the other meaning of "nail", by saying to a guy he will have to nail her to a wall in order to make her get a tattoo!

Good night guys. See you tomorrow.