New Rochelle Noms

I discovered a new favorite meal while I was in New Ro. My parents sold the Big Yellow House last fall, and have been living in a surprisingly nice (for downtown New Rochelle) apartment near the station.

My first morning in, my mom suggested that I head around the block to the Starlite Diner. My dad is a regular customer (probably more regular than his doctor would like...), and it was the perfect re-entry into NewYawk.

On the front door, there is a sign that says "Breakfast Special: Bacon, Egg & Cheese on a Roll with Coffee: $3.50". Mmmmm. It doesn't actually come with a coffee, it comes with a caaawfeeee. The bacon is super-crispy and entirely un-English, the cheese is solidly American (and gloriously melty), and the roll is one of the quintessentially New York squooshy ones.

Here's a picture my dad took, last week, of Michael, the dispenser of bacon-egg-and-cheese-on-a-roll-with-a-cawfee.

I think it's probably good that I don't live in New Ro any more - the temptation to go every morning would be more than I could resist.

Notes from the garden

I'm not sure what happened with my seeds this year. I meant to plant 2 courgette plants and 2 sunflowers, and somehow ended up with 4 sunflowers and no courgettes. So here is one of the happy sunflowers, living in my vegetable patch. There's a bee on it (we have a very bee-friendly garden), which is good. Not as good as if there were courgettes on it, though.

The rest of the veggies are coming along - we have a ton of tomato plants that are all full of green tomatoes. A little hot weather and they'll be ready. YUM. And yes, those are more sunflowers.

To continue the flower theme, this is my new favorite necklace. I bought it with Andrea at Surya Satya [ed: I got the Yoga words mixed up and the websites look deceptively similar!] down near Christopher Street. It hits at just the right place on my neck and is really pretty.

Between flights, train trips, afternoons by the pool, and the plague that I seem to have picked up on the way home, I've been doing lots of reading.

I'd been recommended Eragon, and it was perfectly absorbing airplane reading. A little Harry Potter, a little LoTR, and some dragons. Surprisingly well-written, especially since the author was in high school at the time. I have it on good authority that the movie is terrible - don't bother with it.

For my book group, I read Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. It took me a little while to get into it, but I loved it. It cracked me up - it's full of really dry and British humor, and the ending was really clever.

I also read the second Matthew Shardlake novel, by C.J. Sansom. Dark Fire takes place in Tudor London and is a somewhat forgettable but entertaining whodunnit.

I'm about half way through Stephene Meyer's The Host. Yes, she's the one who wrote Twilight. I reserved it at the library back when I finished Breaking Dawn, and it finally came in last weekend. So far, so good (but no sparkly vampires...)

Back from NY

Holy moly - it's been a month since I posted. I was in NY for two weeks of it, which is my excuse. Sort of.

I finally managed to connect with the bell ringers at Trinity Church on Wall St in NYC. This picture is of the never-before-seen-by-Kate combination of a bell tower with working bells and an American flag. The bells were amazing, the people were SUPER nice and great ringers, and if/when we move back to the US, I will be putting in more appearances at their tower. Awesome.

I basically spent the two weeks going from meal to meal, and person to person. I missed a few (you know who you are and I apologize), but in the end I ran out of time. I also fit a few days up in RI with my parents, which was really nice. Dels and fried clams and the bike path and the Bristol 4th of July parade. Here I am with my Dad (the fried clams are just off camera).

The award for "most distance travelled," which usually belongs to me, was awarded to my college roommate, Liz. She flew in (not just to see me) from New Zealand. We spent a very fun New York City day together, waving at tourists on open-top buses and pretending to be models in Soho. Wait, normal people don't do that?

And we were both Pinkberry virgins. Not anymore!

Below, the TRUE reason for the trip (yes, Mom and Dad, I love you a lot, but she wins on cuteness): my (other) friend Liz's new baby girl. Her name is Gabi and she's awesome. It was all I could do not to baby-nap her and take her home with me. Liz would have noticed, I think. Isn't the cuteness just overwhelming? Liz took this picture on my last day in the US - I got to feed, burp, stroll(er?), cuddle, and generally hang out with Gabi. And Liz, of course. Well, not the feeding or burping.