9flights

Summer Greys

A little birthday wish list, perhaps?

Glad Feet

I always find feet photos on blogs to be rather gratuitous and personal.  I mean, one person's idea of nice toes is not anothers.  And oh, the horror of chipped nail polish! 

But here they are, my feet.  Look past them for a moment to the shoes.  In a whirlwind visit to the city yesterday, I met with several women with names from Beatles songs in an undisclosed bank headquarters location in TriBeCa.  Afterwards I grabbed a cab for the first time in several years and headed to another undisclosed top secret East Village location to meet Mr. 9flights.  What is it with these companies and their undisclosed, top secret locations?  I kid you not, this is what they call them.  Anyway, after that I started walking, intending to find a good lunch spot in a window where I could watch the people walk by.  But then my 4 year old high heel sandals started giving me blisters in the oddest spot, so I ducked in to David's Shoes near Union Square to check out their sale shelf.  When I took off my sandals I discovered the insoles had started to shred beneath my feet. 

Wow, what a boring shoe story?  Why am I telling you this?  Oh, well, it's all a gross justification for buying new shoes, of course.  I really shouldn't be buying new shoes because I haven't actually gotten paid for any work yet, but really, my shoes were falling apart as I walked! 

So I found these gladiators marked down to $25.  They're awfully cute, somewhat different (and vastly different from what I can find out here in the strip malls), and don't rub me wrong anywhere, so a win/win in my book!  Not sure Mr. 9flights sees it that way, but I do get a little crazy  with the shoes when I'm in the city.  The shoe stories I could bore you with!

But they're so cute!

American Drikkeflaske

Well, I saved myself a trip to Sweden to buy the real drikkeflaske, and probably several hundred kroner as well. I found this black and white beauty at Target for $1.99. I heart Target so much.

Gorilla Coffee, Brooklyn NY

I will admit, most days out here in the country I drink Folgers, bought in bulk or on sale and with a coupon.  $7 for 4 lbs of coffee gets me by on weekdays when it's just me the wee ones for what can sometimes be a mind numbing 14 hours of diaper changes, dirty hands and squashed peas underfoot.

On weekends, though, we try to be civilized.  Mr. 9flights and I are trying to teach the wees that they should entertain themselves until Momma and Daddy are done with their Breakfast, which includes coffee and a turn through the papers.  In hopes that they catch on soon, we've ordered up the NY Times Weekender and several pounds of our favorite coffee from Gorilla Coffee in Brooklyn. 

When the package arrives from Gorilla (and it arrives quickly!) the aroma upon opening the box sends me back to a time when I used to walk down to 5th Ave with my laptop and sit for hours crammed at the end of a laminated table top with dozens of other freelancers and their laptops.  I'd sip my coffee and attempt to work beneath vintage school maps of the world with the alarm of the big red roaster that used to sit in the back of the store.  Due to their success soon after opening, they moved that roaster off site and made way for more laminated tables.  You'll still be lucky to get a spot.  Before we moved they began selling the coffee at local Park Slope eateries and the patisserie on Vanderbilt near our apartment.  But we'd still prefer to walk down to 5th Ave and stand in the line that sometimes snakes around the corner on weekend mornings.

Today's package came with a bonus.  I ordered 3 pounds and they arrived in the Gorilla gift box.  What a great logo they have.  I'm hanging that box on my kitchen wall.  Plus it was wrapped in a coffee sack and some little green beans came tumbling out when I unrolled the whole thing. 

Now, what to do with this coffee sack?  A project, just waiting to happen!

Go away now and order yourself a gift box of Gorilla!

Bought it for the bottle, Love it for the flavor

via www.flickr.com

Enter the Root:1 Carmenere, 2007. The bottle design drew me in. A compelling story wrapped around a vine, a saucy little tab on the neck, like a scarf blowing in the wind. I could have chosen the Cabernet Sauvignon but had never heard of Carmenere and love a new find.

From the Colchagua Valley in Chili, the Carmenere has "rich flavors of plum, blackberry and spice." It made our homemade meal of Pork Loin, Bleu Cheese Mashed Potato and Green Beans quite special (although Matthew's good cooking is special in itself). I found it a smooth, full bodied fruity flavor with a spicy little kick of after notes. Much more refined than my beloved Sangiovese varietal.

No word on how this winery has weathered the earthquake, but I am prepared to support them fully by buying more Root:1 wine.

Swizzellized

 

"One needs to drink a fruity rum drink in early March, just to remember what the sun tastes like," I said. After that we drank a bottle of Malbec. Tonight was dinner on a concrete bar in a swanky little piece of my rural village. I wore jewelry and perfume and coordinating purse, shoes and jacket (all grey, of course). There was salsa music to move my shoulders to, and great conversation with my husband. And rum!