this post is about how i'm like jeannie and jay-z

have YOU taken the buzzfeed love actually quiz??? i got: this character jeannie, which basically just translates to if i were a character in love actually, i would not be in love actually, because i have seen this movie about 18 times and it took me more than a pause to remember who this is and she's the american in the bar in wisconsin. so i guess this quiz is just really accurate. however i can count on one hand the number of times i have not worn pajamas i love pajamas

but what this quiz doesn't know is if i were a character in watch the throne i'd be jay-z who also got swept up in the list-making spirit this week and ranked his own albums from best to worst! cool jay.

happy friiiiidayyyyyy

this post includes 10 best of 2013 lists and a plug for my own instagram

i can't do anything at work when there are best of liissssstssss coming out left and right screaming at me calling my name AHHHHHhhhhhh!!!!

breaking a 7 week silence over here On The Blog (lol), hoping you welcome me with open arms anyway, here are 10 personal and arbitrary best of 2013 lists that i thought of this morning:

1. top 1 best taco tuesday deal in brooklyn i partook of in 2013
--oh wait that's just bar no. 7 when they finally open every tuesday because they are closed on mondays

2. top 4 best runs i had this year, limited to the handful of runs that didn't make me feel like my hip, ankle, knee, or shins were splintering with each step i took
--Cathartic Run That Ruined My Shoes and Left Knee, Possibly Forever: 11 miles in prospect park in the rain
--Queens Time-Kill Run: that weird 6m in corona park between dropping bennett at and retrieving mother from laguardia
--Michigan Roadkill Run: there i was just leaping adeptly over squirrels and deer at every curve!
--Intimidating Group Run: this was with Marshall, Bennett, Walker, and Bennett's sister, a run i was particularly anxious about because everyone listed is significantly more athletic or taller than i am yet i held up surprisingly well in that i didn't just walk behind everyone crying like i did all the way through three seasons of Forsythe Middle School Cross Country

3. top 10 cutest boys i kissed this year
--oH wAiT.

4. top 10 books that i read this year, i'm trying to read 52 this year i'm at 45 can anyone recommend 7 really short books so that i can close this shit UP?! then i'll actually do another Serious post about this

5. top 3 stupidest items purchased during trips to crest hardware to stare at the boy i have a crush on
--multi-colored christmas lights that i thought were white - couldn't see straight from stars in my eyes hiiiiii
--yellow spray paint selected by emily and myself after a very sweaty 20 minutes of consultation with aforementioned crest employee. Yet To Be Used. took a full week and a return trip to the store to figure out how to get the cap off.
--10lb. pot + plant totaling $60 in expenditures that is currently dying a dry death in front of radiator in living room

6. top 5 texts that i probably should not have sent
........luckily i've since deleted most of these so i can't even remember 5!!!!! although "fuck off forever" stands out as shall we say a bit rash for a thursday morning

7. top 2 favorite roommates
***s/o to heather and emily!***

8. top 8 favorite of my own instagrams
PSYCH
the name's franndroid follow me nowwwww pick your own!!

9. top 3 weirdest movies i saw alone this year
--captain phillips: weird because it's about somali pirates and i was the only one in the whole theater:)
--side effects: weird because i think i'm the only person who saw this movie and therefore have no one to talk to about the extremely not believable scene where catherine zeta jones talks dirty to rooney mara
--don jon: weird because again i think i'm the only one who saw this and therefore have no one to explain to me why julianne moore was in this movie about joseph gordon levitt doing a really good impression of a recent fordham grad

that reminds me of a good topic for the tenth list

10. top 2 stupidest things i did this year when renewing my bam movie membership
--renewed my bam membership as the one for couples instead of the one for singles?!?!?! or wait maybe there is a reason i did this and soon it'll all become clear?!?!?!
--renewed my bam membership as the one for couples instead of getting the one that is basically the same donation amount but is for one person to enjoy the combined benefits of the Cinema Club or Film Friends or whatever with the regular programming thusly allowing you to get tickets early for eat drink n be literary which i can't do right now i don't think (?) and jeffrey eugenides sold out and i rly liked his recent story in the new yorker WAHHH. plus it's called double bam

have you guys begun compiling your own top 10 lists??? heather?

...
heather?

love fran

this post is about lite rock

hi everybody!

seems like there was a high likelihood for about a week there that no one would ever touch this blog again. but this morning i've had a ton of coffee and i don't want to go running and i feel like (semi-)publicly embarrassing myself, so here we are.

these two songs sound kinda the same and their titles are only one character off from each other! and i like them both:

 

fleetwood mac - honey hi

haim - honey & i 

challenges for me today include, getting used to the fact that the mac on which i will be working at my new job scrolls IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION as my mac laptop at home. everytime i go to scroll, my hand hovers, slightly twitching, above the "trackpad" for about 3 seconds as my brain desperately tries to figure out where i am and send the correct brain thoughts to my dumb little fingers.

love,

fran

this post is a season send-off for my main men

my yankee, brett gardner

I am in a period of mourning.  Sunday was the last day of the Yankees season. Thursday was the last home game.  I had what felt like many solitary nights and weekends this past spring and summer, and I will tell you, from much firsthand experience, that the YES announcers make spectacular company.

Baseball is my favorite background sound, for cooking, for eating, for doing crunches (**I do crunches!**), for driving.  From April to September, one is forgiven the need to have plans.  Essentially every night, no matter who you’re not seeing, who you wish you were seeing, or who you're trying not to see, you have companionship for 9 innings. 

There is something about the deliberate, measured structure of baseball, the way the strikes and the outs come in threes, the way each pitch, each inning, and each game amounts to a greater sum, that makes the sport downright therapeutic.  It is boring, even.  Like this blog.  A nerd's game, much of the time more about numbers and organization than actual physical fitness or athletic prowess.

On Thursday, Bennett and I said good-bye.  We took the crowded 4 train into the Bronx. We piled out with everyone else, and without everyone else stopped at the grocery store for peanuts and gummy bears. We scalped two seats for twenty bucks on 161st.  We bought Budweiser in the stands and littered peanut shells on the people in front of us and exchanged glances with the Dad sitting near us as we spiked our coke.  I ordered a hot dog and watched as it was amiably passed through 8 pairs of hands before reaching my mouth. We limply did the YMCA before the seventh inning and were solemnly quiet for God Bless America and yelled "YANKEES" in place of "home team" during Take Me Out to the Ball Game. We were on our feet for the entirety of the 8th inning and watched while Mariano Rivera threw his last four outs ever and sobbed into Andy Pettite's shoulder. It's like no one told Frank Sinatra that we lost 0-4; we were sung insouciantly out of the stadium. 

The end of baseball means it's really the end of summer. There are already no fresh stats to compulsively check on the MLB At Bat app, from bed first thing in the morning, or the bar late at night, or my office during the 2:00 lull.  Long drives up and down I-95 will feel longer without the company of John and Susan on AM 880, mindlessly interrupting each other with updates on the Jeterian swing and Suzuki's milestones. On Sunday, there won't be a beer cracked at 1:05pm, just because the baseball game is starting (well, ok, there might be, but not because the baseball game is starting, so it won't taste as good).  Six months without the chance to make a last minute decision after work to take the green 4 train up to the greenest borough and lazily spend three hours with 40,000 other New Yorkers, in suits and pinstripes and even, brazenly, A-Rod jerseys.

If you are not a baseball fan, but if you like warm feelings and good writing, this old essay from the Sunday Review written by Colum McCann might get your mind changed in time for next year. He talks a lot about why baseball is an immigrant's game, which doesn't apply to me at all, but he also does a way better job than I just did at explaining what it does for the soul.

until april (and hopefully before, but jeez, having a blog is a lot of work),

fran

this post is what's for dinner

I am not a cook. I am an unskilled food consumer who dreams of bigger, better meals. The last three years have seen a LOT of quinoa, beans, and the rogue green vegetable. But I do love the process of cooking, and I especially love the feeling that I'm doing something right. And dinner feels...right. Like if I'm able to get it together to make a meal with multiple food groups, chances are I can get it together to do other things too.

SO. A few days ago I made a roast chicken, roasted rosemary potatoes, and acorn squash. A fall meal for what was a convincingly fall-like evening. 

Because I am a totally inexperienced cook, I have very little to offer in terms of modifications. But I might be useful in pointing towards foods that offer some dietary reward and are sufficiently simple to prepare. Rosemary potatoes are like the most intuitive thing you can put in an oven. And acorn squash basically requires that you are able to cut it in half, (which was, admittedly, kind of difficult. For me.) The roast chicken was a little more intimidating due to the fact that it was an animal carcass. But I took the necessary seconds to confirm that this one was "without giblets" in the store, which definitely saved me panicky moments in the kitchen. 

The recipe I used was lifted directly from Mark Bittman's book 'How To Cook Everything.' It was exceptionally simple, and resulted in a totally satisfying roast chicken. 

For The Most Basic Roast Chicken Ever, you'll need:

1 whole chicken, 3 to 4 pounds, trimmed of excess fat
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
a few sprigs of tarragon, rosemary or thyme (optional) (*I used rosemary*)
5 or 6 gloves of garlic, peeled
chopped fresh herbs for garnish

-Heat oven to 450 F. About five minutes after turning on the oven, put in a cast iron skillet or other heavy oven proof pan on a rack set low in the oven. Rub the chicken with the olive oil, salt, pepper, and put on the herb sprigs if you're using them.

-When the oven and pan are both hot, carefully place the chicken into the pan breast side up, (it sputters a bit because of the heat,) and scatter the garlic around the bird in the pan. Roast for 40-50 minutes or until an instant read thermometer inserted into the meaty part of the thigh reads 155-165 F.

*If you're afraid to cook meat, like I am, I really recommend getting one of these thermometers. They're like 5 dollars, and substantially alleviate anxiety about undercooking.*

-Tip the pan to let juices flow out of the bird. If they're red, cook for another 5 minutes. Transfer the bird to a platter and let it rest. Pour the pan juices into a clear measuring cup and spoon off some of the fat. Garnish the bird and serve with the pan juices.

For the potatoes: 

I used baby red potatoes. Cut into quarters and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary to your taste preference. I cooked them at 450 alongside the chicken and they were crispy in about 40 minutes.

For the acorn squash: 

Half it lengthwise, spoon out the seeds, and put 1/2ish tbsp butter and as much brown sugar as you want into each half. (I did about 1 tsp.) Roast them like little bowls...squashy parts facing up. 450 was a fine temperature for these as well. They were ready in about an hour.




And then, wow! Thanksgiving for one in September. Weird. But nice. This meal prep experience pairs well with a Lucinda Williams album and 1-3 beers.

(thank you dear chicken for nourishing my body, even though you didn't have any say in the matter.)

-heather

this post reveals some basic things about my heart

There are a few things that I can find out about someone that help me skip straight to loving them. One of them is an appreciation of Joni Mitchell. Another is a disdain for the hierarchy of the entertainment industry. If a person alludes to either of these things in the first moments of our interaction I am immediately trusting, loving, smitten.

Joni Mitchell is, to me, the answer to the question most of the time. My mom listened to her when I was little. I wrote an essay altogether lacking in objectivity about the album 'Blue' in college. In the long term I am honestly aiming for a life along the lines of 'Ladies of the Canyon.' I appreciate and enjoy all kinds of music, but I do think that deep down, my truest, bluest self just wants to listen to folk music all of the time. 

A few songs in that mode that I've been playing a lot as we move into fall:

                                       

These women! I could walk and walk and listen forever. 

-heather

this post is the table where you drop your keys

I remember when I encountered my first lifestyle blog. It was sometime in 2011, so I think I was pretty late to the phenomena.  It was a simultaneously crushing and enthralling moment when I realized that trolling through blogs satisfied the same compulsion as scrolling through facebook, but with subjects who were busier and more talented than my own facebook friends. 

In my defense, because I am totally defensive about my lifestyle-blog-reading-habit, I read a lot of things. Different things, varied things.  I try to keep myself somewhat up on the broadest of news pieces and pretty up on music that everyone else is listening to and detrimentally up on coats I want to buy.  But when it comes to blogs, I am BASIC.  I prefer extremely dull blogs, those that tell me exactly how to make ginger snaps, and lift the recipe directly from Mark Bittman.  Or those that go into grave and serious detail about their favorite non-chain running shoe boutique in a town where I do not live.

I realized I wanted my own space to talk about shin splints. My very own boring blog.  Focused on activities that everyone else is doing, probably better, definitely first.  But nonetheless, a way to track and admire my own vague and small accomplishments, and celebrate those of others!  Most importantly, with Heather.  I didn’t really want it to be my own.

Last night I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread, with Emily’s help.  I almost didn’t make this bread, because Emily and I almost went to see Prisoners at Williamsburg Cinemas, but then we decided we wanted to go to bed before 11, preferably nauseous from 1000 calories of pumpkin loaf.

During the baking of this bread, I also removed my old nail polish.  I left the top off of the nail polish remover bottle for upwards of 45 minutes next to the cooling loaves.  I was tempting Emily, fate, and myself to spill the nail polish remover on the loaves and completely ruin the night.

The recipe for this bread can be found here.  It was recommended by my mother, who should probably start her own blog, because she’s really great at lifestyle.  

this bit is for Raymond and Paula, proprietors of said railroad

-fran