Put on the Glasses

Does Pastor Melissa Scott ever make a point?! www.pastormelissascott.com I swear, I have watched her for much longer than one should, and I have never figured out what she is getting at! I don't think she knows how to end a sentence. Oh, the joys of late night television.

There is a strange man in my neighborhood. The first time I saw him, I was walking to the subway. I stopped at an intersection, waiting for the light to change. A man, about 15 feet away from me leaning on a parked car, looked at me and started laughing. It wasn't a chuckle or a snicker, it was a full-on, whole-hearted laugh. It was quite off-putting. I didn't know what to think. I looked normal. I didn't make any strange faces or say anything out loud. It bothered me for a day and I kind of forgot about it. Weeks later I saw him again and the same thing happened. He was again leaning on a car but this time it was at a different intersection. Again, he laughed at me. I didn't know what to think. More weeks passed and Brian tells me a story about how he was walking to the subway and a guy leaning on a car by an intersection laughed at him for no reason. I couldn't believe it. I described the guy I remembered and Brian agreed that was what he looked like...

This is a view of "The Lake" in Central Park. Yes, they actually call it The Lake. I think they kind of phoned it in on that name but it is very pretty. There were a lot of row boats and we saw a few incidents of boaters accidentally running into one another. It was amusing .

This is Belvedere Castle in Central Park. Honestly, I had no idea that this was in Central Park. I rarely go to the park and wander around due to my fear of getting lost and the distance from my home. Getting to this part of the park takes almost an hour to get to from my apartment. Here is Brian near the entrance up to the tower. Here is Brian again, up on the roof. Yes, we did make the requisite Borat joke: "King in the castle. King in the castle." This is the view from the castle of turtle pond and the park. It was a beautiful day.

I thought that I would explain my Google Shared Reader. Over on the right side of the screen you can see a list of articles under the title "Alicia's shared items in Google Reader." I use Google Reader to read blogs. The reader allows me to receive information from numerous blogs in one location. One of the special features of Google Reader is my ability to share articles that I like. The list of articles to the right includes the most recent articles that I have found interesting. It changes as often as I find interesting posts. So, if you haven't checked my site in awhile and are interested, I have posted a link under "Linkage" to the site where all of my shared items are located. I think it is fun to be able to share the things I find fascinating or funny. Enjoy!

There was a dead rat in Brian's garden today. Brian disposed of it before I saw it. He didn't tell me about the rat until it was thrown deep into the nether-regions of the construction site, where I could not possibly see it. We believe the cat (see previous post) has taken a liking to us and left us a gift in the middle of the night. Ewwww. We already yelled at the cat when we saw him. Thank you, Brian, for not showing me the rotting, dead rat. Thank you.

Since I took a lot of photos when Brian and I went to Central Park last week, I plan on turning my photos into several posts. These are the turtles Brian and I saw in Turtle Pond. I thought they were adorable. This little guy was swimming around.

Brian and I saw Hamlet at the Delacorte Theater on Thursday. I have wanted to go to Shakespeare in the park for a long time and now I finally had the chance with a day off from bar review. It was worth the long wait in line. Definitely a great production in my book. It was a modern version of Hamlet, but with original dialogue and a surprise ending. The only negative point for me were the very narrow seats in the theater. They were smaller than airline seats. However, I will let it go because I didn't pay to go the play. The tickets were free. Sam Waterston played Polonius along with a cast of other recognizable faces. I am not going to start listing names because I will have to give long explanations such as "Do you remember the man who played Jim Garrison's assistant in JFK , no not the guy in Slither , but the other guy? Yeah, he was the dead king." See what I mean? Hamlet is playing until June 29 and worth the trip to the park.

In a stunning turn of events, Alicia, an avid fan of walking, rode a bus from Central Park to Union Square today. "I didn't think she would agree to it," her fiance, Brian, said, "but she got on the bus." It was a long ride but in the end Alicia was cheery about her first bus ride without the assistance of a native New Yorker. "It was better than the L train," she said.

This morning Brian and I ventured forth in the early hours to stand in another line. This time it was for tickets to Shakespeare in the Park. They are showing Hamlet right now and I love that play. They hand out a limited number of free tickets at 1:00 pm at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Unlike yesterday at IKEA, today we arrived at 9:30 am like pros: we had lawn chairs and homework to keep us comfortable for the wait. This is a picture of Brian while we waited for tickets. Here is the line (that we could see) waiting behind us. Brian walked to the end of it and said that it was quite long. This is that line in front of us that was visible. This is the Delacorte Theater, where the play is staged at 8:30 pm. The statue in front is Romeo and Juliet. I will let you know how the show was when I see it. I am very excited to see Sam Waterston playing Polonius. Brian and I have argued many times over the merits of Hamlet. It is by far my favorite Shakespeare play, only ...

It's a Woot -off! If you have never been to Woot.com before, they usually sell one gadget a day at a great price. When it is a "Woot-off" they put up an item in limited quantity and you have to buy it quickly before it sells out. When it does sell out, then they put up something new. They do this until something doesn't sell out for 12 hours. Therefore, the Woot-off could go on for any amount of time. Usually it lasts a couple of days. Brian is waiting with baited breath for a "bag of crap" to go on sale. Brian and I cannot resist a mystery grab bag. Last time a Wott-off happened, Brian waited for several hours but, alas, we were at the grocery store when the bag of crap went on sale. Poor guy. We shall see if he fares better this time around.

Nicole sent me the link to a blog post titled " Best. Review. of Worst. Book. Ever. " The post discusses the greatest book review ever written about a really bad novel. The book is called The Shadow God and it is by Aaron Rayburn. Go here for the original review on Amazon. I definitely agree that it is the funniest review I have read in a long time. Enjoy. P.S. Thank you, Mr. Moore, for taking one for the team.

Here are some views of New York from the Empire State Building. Brian took the photos and I think they are fun. I like this one in particular, since it shows the strange puzzle piece look of the roofs of buildings and our neighborhood is off in the distance, across the river. That is the Williamsburg Bridge. Here is a view of the Flat Iron Building, the first skyscraper. More Views. Here is the Statute of Liberty in the distance.

Brian and I headed down to Red Hook, Brooklyn early this morning for the grand opening of the new IKEA store. We love IKEA and we had a great time this morning. This is a picture of the flags in front of the store with the big monitor showing the stage (I'm too short to get a good shot of the stage through the crowd). They had live music, speeches, a ceremonial sawing of a log (instead of ribbon cutting; crazy Swedes) and tons of free stuff. While Brian and I didn't get a free sofa or chair like those who camped out, we did get water bottles, pens, soft serve ice cream and a measuring tape. They also has one of those mallet games where you try to hit the bell. It took Brian three tries (see left) but he eventually won a little toy. Here he is with his prize (it's on his shoulder). They also had clowns, as seen here doing face painting. Also, all of the free stuff was given out by women dressed in Swedish clothes, as you can see in the pict...

I have changed my M.O. and have started ordering from different places than I used to in the neighborhood. One place is a new French restaurant that opened up a few months ago called Le Barricou . I have to admit, I have never actually eaten inside the restaurant, but the take-out is incredible. Not only do they deliver quickly but the food is phenomenal for delivery food. I always get the chicken sandwich and I switch appetizers. Here's their website : http://www.lebarricouny.com/ Another place that Brian and I have started going is Hana Foods. Now, I have always used this place for random organic grocery shopping. However, recently I worked up the courage to get a sandwich from their deli counter. Wow. I would not normally get a $9 deli sandwich but this was worth every penny. My favorite sandwich is called "The Douche Bag" and the name does not do it justice (chicken breast, avacado, cheese, some sort of spiced mayo, I can't explain its perfection). Thei...

Here is Brian sitting in the newly cleaned backyard area. He is so industrious this summer. It is so nice out there now that he even bought a grill and we had kebabs the other night. Here is the garden that Brian has created in the backyard. He planted Xenias which seem to have survived the down pour of rain this past weekend. The garden was actually a little pond for a while. This is the cat that comes and goes from the backyard. It won't go near Brian but, of course, it will try to go near me every chance it gets. I think cats have some sort of sixth sense for allergies.

Brian and I wait anxiously for New York Magazine every week. This is due to one regular column: the approval matrix. Every week, New York Magazine has a chart that shows what great and despicable things have appeared/happened in the last week. It is always amusing. You can find this week's here: http://nymag.com/arts/all/approvalmatrix/47813/

I have returned to Blogger after a two year stint over on Googlepages. I originally switched over the Googlepages because I thought that I would have more control over the webpage. Instead, I ended up wasting a bunch of my time making my site do what this site does automatically. So, I have returned with a new, spiffy site, courtesy of Brian. Hopefully I will post more often (ha ha) with this new site. I can now put pictures up with a click of a button from my Picasa Photo Organizer, MS Word 2007 or my email! In theory, this simplicity will bring you more Alicia. Have a good night. I should stop procrastinating and get back to studying the fabulous law of Contracts.

Here I am before graduation. Note the odd hat. Totally different from college. Also, I got to wear a funky colored hood. I guess when you shell out the big bucks for tuition, you get to wear fancier stuff. Here I am with Jay, trying to get the hat to sit on my head. I kept thinking that we all looked like Renaissance clergy in those hats. This is a wide shot of the Avery Fisher Hall, where the ceremony took place. There I am just before walking across the stage! Now I am a Juris Doctor. Also, after I pass the bar (cross my fingers) I get to add "esquire" to the end of my name. I will be just like Bill in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure . Awesome.

Anyone who knows me is fully aware of my love of horror films. When attempting to come up with a title for this blog of random things, I wanted to pick a title that would adequately represent me. I tried poems, books, classic quotations, my motto... nothing fit. Then I remembered this classic one-liner from the horror movie They Live . It always makes me giggle when I think of the amazingly long fight scene in the movie where one character attempts to make another character put on a pair of sunglasses. Throughout the fight he keeps yelling "Put on the glasses!" It was even parodied in South Park's famous "Cripple Fight" episode. Another great line from the They Live : "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum." If you need a better reason, my last name means "glass cutter" in German. So, it has some other connection beyond sheer silliness. If you want to see the fight scene, here it is (note: ...

Brian and I have become utterly obsessed with the HBO show Flight of the Conchords. It is hilarious: two folk parody musicians play fictionalized versions of themselves as a band trying to make it big in New York. Not only are the songs hilarious, but Brian and I had a lot of fun going nuts every time that we recognized where they were filming the show. A lot of the episodes feature scenes shot in our neighborhood. It is always fun to see your home on TV. Here is my favorite song from Season 1 of the show: We love this show. Here is another great song from the show: You should check it out if you haven't seen it yet. I got it from Netflix. Now I will buy it because it amused me that much. There is only one other show that I got from Netflix and then subsequently purchased: Arrested Development. Enough said.