Anouchka Talks

By a show of hands, who here remembers playing with the other kids in their neighborhood?  Did you ever have a lemonade stand that the mailman (or, mail woman , as it was in my childhood) frequented?  Did you ever collect your neighbor's newspaper or watch their dog while they were out of town?  Did you ride your bike to your friend's house a couple blocks away?  Did you play with the next door neighbor kids for hours on end? If you raised your hands to all of these questions, then you must be an octopus. Now, put your tentacles down and consider this:  Where do you live now?  Are you close with your neighbors?  Do you even know then?  Have they ever asked you to feed the cat while they're visiting relatives?  Have you been over to their house for a margarita or an iced tea on a summer evening? Habibi and I don't know any of our neighbors.  We recognize them and exchange "hellos" in the hallways of our building, but I don'...

Starry Night Vincent Van Gogh ca. 1889 Oil on canvas Museum of Modern Art Starry Night Anouchka ca. 2012 Crayon on back of apartment lease Fridge

It is with grievous seriosity that I write this post:  Banjo is in trouble. Both of you may recall that, earlier this summer, Habibi and I welcomed a new tenant (see "Subletting" and "Refreshingly Maniacal").  Banjo -our resident baby praying mantis- turns out to not  be so much of a baby... You see, I was getting concerned about Banjo's well-being come winter, because that is what good moms do.  So, being this worried about our little guy, I did some research on praying mantiseseseseses.  (Correction:  Habibi did research and I am now taking credit for it.)  What I (he) found is this:  a praying mantis typically lives for about a year.  At the end of its life span, the critter will mate and die.  So what does this mean for us? Banjo is at the end of his lifespan... NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Since I last wrote about Banjo, he has grown quite a lot.  He has nearly doubled in size and has sprouted a pair of brownish win...

Ever since high school, I have had my childhood phone number programmed in my phone as "The Asylum," a fitting title for the veritable nuts that inhabit(ed) the place.  Between the eccentricities of the olds, my sister, myself, and our temporary brother (an exchange student from Germany), it's a wonder the place isn't a full blown loony bin. Angel ("Gelly"), our resident musician Growing up, even the household pets qualified as neurotic.  Menempsha suffered from universal hatred (of everyone but my mom), characterized by her incessant pissing on the floor; Fireball chewed electric cords because he was addicted to the shock; Angel went on frequent "basement safaris" to express herself musically through twirtling ( bbbrrrrrrOOOOOOOWWWWWW, bbrrrrr, brrrrrr, brrrrrrrOOOOOWWWW!!! ); Lacey thought the couch was a giant tissue on which to blow her nose. No one is normal. Though I no longer live "at home" and all of the aforementioned...

Allow me a moment to brag... This was a running record weekend for yours truly!   On Friday, my long run increased to my new distance record:  11 miles.   Saturday, I participated in a local 5K and set a new speed record for that distance:  approximately a 7-minute mile. For those of you who are distance runners or sprinters, this will seem like nothing to you.  However, I feel like I deserve a party.  With cake. And ice cream.

Ever since I have lived on my own, I've managed a small herb farm. OK, I said small .  I just didn't say how small.   When cooking up your favorite (or least favorite, I suppose) recipes, nothing beats the addition of fresh herbs.  Think about it:  would you rather use mass produced, pumped-full-of-steroids tomatoes, or juicy, packed-full-of-flavor tomatoes, lovingly grown and tended?  What tastes better?  Walmart cucumbers or farmer's market cucumbers?   Exactly. It's no different with herbs.  In past years, I have grown basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, cilantro, parsley, chives, and sage.  Luckily, a lack of garden space is no excuse not to grow your own herbs, because you can cultivate them all in pots on your very own balcony. Last year, I overwhelmed myself at harvest time and had herbs coming out my ears.  Dehydrating was simply taking too long to complete before the frost (co...

Ameican Gothic Grant Wood ca. 1930 Oil paint, Peaverboard Art Institute of Chicago Building American Gothic Anouchka ca. 2012 Crayons, Utility bill Being mailed to the utility company

Well, there's no escaping it.  The first generation of Facebookers is procreating and it's all the rage to post pictures of your baby.  Let's face facts:  If you haven't posted 9,000 pictures of your child on each of your social media accounts, you are a terrible parent. However, this baby takeover has not come without backlash:  Childless patrons of Facebook, Twitter and the like have spoken out about how annoying it is to see their news feeds bogged down with images of Riheleiygh or Stevfphahn (or whatever weird spelling their friends have adopted for their children's otherwise normal names).  I just heard on the radio last week that there are downloadable computer programs out there that will substitute pictures of dogs and cats whenever a picture of your friend's baby pops up.  Kind of nasty...but hilarious. Toddlers (and every move they make) are now dominating social media networks.  And why wouldn't they?  It's what people are talking...

Over the past couple of years, Habibi and I have developed a friendship with two of the most genuine, hospitable people on the planet:  our friends Muna and Kiran from Nepal. We first met about two years ago at local event raising funds and awareness for an anti-trafficking organization on the India-Nepal border .  Muna's brother-in-law, Nirmal, was a resident at the medical center where my dad works; Nirmal and his wife (Anita, Muna's sister) attended the event.  Muna and Kiran accompanied them, and had just arrived in the states shortly before.  We exchanged email addresses and, before long, we were invited to a spectacular, homemade Nepalese dinner at their home. Since then, the four of us have become fast friends.  We have spent holidays together, visited each other's places of worship, shared meals together, and enjoyed each other's family and friends.  They even love Betty and are amazed by how soft and tame she is.  (If only they kne...

Summer is here (not that I just realized that) and with it comes an array of exciting movies.  Habibi and I kicked off the season by celebrating my birthday with the Avengers .   Since saving the world from Loki and his devilish plans, we have helped Abraham Lincoln slay vampires, stopped a giant lizard alongside Spiderman and defeated Bane with the help of Gotham's finest caped crusader.  (Seeing a theme, anyone?  Yes, I have the same taste as an 11-year-old boy.)  A couple weeks ago, Momwise (my mom), B (my sister) and I twisted fate in the Scottish highlands alongside Merida in the latest treat from Disney Pixar. I love summer flicks.  After seeing all the previews preceding each of the above movies, I'm excited for fall movies to begin as well.  Hollywood is definitely not hurting this year!  Being suckers for a good trailer, Habibi and I have been staying extra busy conducting our research using the likes of Flixster and IMDb. ...

Happy Date Night, one and all!  The weekend is upon us and it's time to get a little R&R with your honey bunny - even if your honey bunny is a pillow.  Or a cat.  Or a box of Oreos. Normally, Habibi and I reserve Tuesday nights for our weekly "Date Night," a time that is exclusively ours that we do not sacrifice even for family and friends.  Since each of us leads a separately busy schedule, Tuesdays are the evenings that have become sacred to us.  Even if the night is spent lazing about on the couch, we celebrate it unapologetically. However, every once in awhile, we will reschedule Date Night for a different evening in the same week.  (Nothing trumps Date Night, unless we both have another free night during the week when we can conveniently slip it in.)  This week, such an event came up and we moved our Tuesday to Friday. A night so special, even Betty will want to dress up! With the renewed energy that comes with anticipation of the ...

Cross country skiing (a.k.a. falling on your ass) in the Alps, across the French-Swiss border (It has been so hot out, I needed a picture to cool me off!)

First and foremost (this about sums up the following in 3 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_BgmjlQyfw In order to convince you that I am not simply a buffoon with a blog who sometimes uses it to disrespect art by plagiarizing -nay, brutalizing - works of past masters...  Well, maybe I am that person, but just a little bit.  Anyway, I do love art and have a great respect for it - even for the pieces that don't particularly appeal to me (*ahem*contemporaryart*ahem*). In any case, below, you will find my VERY INCOMPLETE, OVERLY SIMPLIFIED  outline of art history.  It has been divided into two parts:   Part 1 - Chronology and  Part 2 - Occidental Art History in a Nutshell .  I started with the movements/periods that I personally find the most interesting, but then I got lazy and quit.  I promised myself that I would come back to it, but never have.  Who knows?  I might some time, but for now, I'm content with it as is. ...