OH IRENE, YOU OLD TEASE

i watched irene come rolling in from the south via twitter and i was getting pretty antsy. since i knew we were safe i was sort of hoping for a little stormy show. maybe some loud rain to fall asleep to. instead, we got some quiet rain overnight, a few leaves on the sidewalk in the morning, and a new pond in central park in an area where there used to be just grass.

we stayed inside and played it safe and watched mad men online with the rest of new york (the server was so overloaded we only got every third frame and so it was like watching all of sterling cooper doing  the robot), and then we got bored and decided to venture out for a careful walk, to see who all was brave enough to be open. (our neighborhood chinese place made a KILLING, they were open both days, and packed every time we walked past).

{lansky's is in our hood, and it's totally name dropped in the first season of mad men. i now want to go to every restaurant named in the show that is still open, wearing pin curls and lipstick, and also candy cigarettes are involved somehow.}

did i mention we watched wayyy too much mad men over the weekend?

i'm thinking of bringing back the pin curls, betty draper style.

(after just three hours in them today, my hair fell completely flat, soooooo.)

CALM BEFORE THE STORM

oh, irene. the sun never quite made it out of bed this morning, we could tell she was coming. so we wandered around the neighborhood for a bit before the rain started to fall, my holbslicker and the huckumbrella and i. we could feel the electricity bouncing between the gray misty clouds and the coming storm on our arms all afternoon. we popped into a few bodegas to see what all was left on the shelves, and searched out open restaurant for a quick lunch before we headed inside to wait out the storm.

we found a thai place. it wasn't terribly fantastic.

but don't you worry. huck is ready for lady irene. 

he says, "bring it, sister!"

we're lucky to live in a safe zone. we've been emailing friends to make sure we're all prepared. we have plenty of water and batteries and sugary snacks. we feel ready to wait this one out. there's mad men on the netflix, i have some needlepoint to attend to, and there is a squishy baby who is just learning to crawl around the house. what more could we need?

i'm feeling pretty good about it. thanks everyone for your concern.
i'll be sure to keep you updated.

stay dry, east coasters.
see you on the flip side!

this week, on the babbles:

at baby's first year we're talking about lead poisoning, the best small cribs,

my favorite classic disney movies for little boys, huck's favorite toys,

and explanations for some of your baby's weird habits.  

at the new home ec,

homes of the movies: you've got mail (oh yes oh yes oh yes!),

how to prepare your home for a hurricane,

a round up of wood paneling inspiration, 

and how to minimize lead poisoning in older homes.

ON DOING THINGS THAT SCARE ME

this week has challenged me a bit. i think it's cyclical; feeling on top of the world one minute and then suddenly realizing that what you are standing on isn't solid at all, but actually a small pile of mud, and then down you go, slipping until you're flat on your bum and feeling pretty silly.

it's the moment that you first notice the mud that's the killer. if we never noticed the mud, would we ever really be in the mud? (deep thoughts.)

on sunday the world is probably going to end. well, maybe not. our teeny apartment isn't in an evacuation zone, but our new one is. we don't move in until october and i am worried about my new fridge. oh dear, my poor fridge! i imagine it there in my cute new kitchen, bravely withstanding feet upon feet of standing hurricane water, and i wish it good courage.

good courage, awesome fridge!

i texted my mother to tell her we were compiling a 72-hour kit, and also, most likely dying soon.

she texted back,

"i can see you now, hauling 72 hours worth of diet pepsi through the city."

THINGS, WITH A SIDE OF NATURAL DISASTERS

via

first of all, is i'm obsessed with this sweater.

secondly, yesterday afternoon i survived an earthquake. i feel an exclamation point might belong there maybe. exclamation point! at first i thought i was just dizzy, and then i realized i was actually bouncing. 

being on the ninth floor of a skinny old apartment building during a mild earthquake feels like what i imagine sitting on top of a stick of string cheese might feel like. which is to say, wobbly. 

thirdly, we recently had an anniversary. happy anniversary to us! we went into brooklyn for sushi and the bridge, and then dunkin donuts because it was right there on the corner and looked SO GOOD. oh look i have photos for this part!

happy anniversary, baby.
(insert joke here about earth shaking things, i'm too tired to come up with one.)

MOSTLY NOTHING, AND LINKS

the other day i tried on a pair of hot pink skinny jeans. they were, like, hot pink. with zippers on the ankle. i don't know much about this whole ankle zipper thing, except whoever invented them must not sit cross-legged ever. 

i realized as i tried them on that, should i bring them home with me, they would be my second item of hot pink clothing meant to be worn on my bottom half. and as i realized this i wondered to myself what all that would say about me as a person, a person owning two bottom halves made of hot pink, and hopefully it means something flattering, but i wouldn't get my hopes up.

i bought them and then brought them home with me in my strollah, with my bebeh, and my three twelve-packs of diet pepsi sticking haphazardly out of the undercarriage storage.

the holbsamundo used to have zippers on his shoes, he informs me as i type this incredibly poetic bit of literature. he is waxing nostalgic about these shoes now, and about "putting quarters in them" for the purpose of "making phone calls" after school.

furthermore, there are no fewer than thirty-six cheerios strewn about the floor at this moment, currently. i look at them, all sad and abandoned, some of them ground up into magical cheerio dust, and this is how i know i have become an adult. 

this week, on baby's first year:

lead tests and huck standard time,

funny teething symptoms,

8 things i'd do differently next time, 

and high chairs and sore backs 

and, on the new home-ec:

more about lead-based housekeeping 

(can you tell what's on my mind these days?)

color palette DIY, 

architecture in film (you've got mail coming up first!)

teeny tiny crafts, printing your instagrams (exciting!)

and making friendship bracelets

whew!