Tonight, after soccer, I'm off to the land of hockey, strip clubs, poutine, bagels, and smoked meat. A.K.A. Montreal. Can't wait.

My muscles are all achey. Why? Cause soccer started again Friday night and I also went running both mornings this weekend due to the insanely warm weather. Soccer was quite eventful. First of all, we won. Second, I stubbed my toe and cracked my nail in half.



Finally, I made my first-ever call to 911. You see, I was subbed out and standing on the sideline when I heard car tires squeel and a crunch of plastic. I turned toward the street and saw a Jeep jammed up the curb. Right after I turned, the Jeep slowly toppled over on its side. I just stared for a good minute with my hands on my face like Macauley Caullkin in Home Alone. Then I got out my cell phone and stared at that. "Is this a time when you're supposed to call 911?" I thought. Unsure, I asked Dana. She thought it wasn't a bad idea, so I did it. I told the woman there was a car accident between 23rd and 24th Streets on the West Side Highway. She told me there was no West Side Highway down that far. I looked at a street sign. Sure enough, it was 12th Avenue. Before we knew it, half the firetrucks in Manhattan were screaming down the block. The man in the Jeep was okay, but, according to Stacy and Brian who ran around to help, he was quite intoxicated. We played on through and were victorious once again.

Saturday morning we (sadly) took the tree to Mulch Fest- a very cool citywide program where they'll turn your old Christmas tree into mulch.



I took advantage of the 70 degree January weather to run all my favorite neighborhood errands (Sahadi's and Caputo's) and then went for some ribs with Heather and Keil at PJ O'Hanley's. When it's warm out they put a smoker out on the patio and make the most ridiculously huge ribs.



Then it was off to Manhattan to go see New York City Ballet's Sleeping Beauty. It was decent, but ABT is just so much better.



Sunday was a fairly lazy no pants affair (yoga pants don't count) until it was time to go to Erica's for a little Sunday night supper club action. Yum!

Last night I watch that thing they called the BCS Championship at my sister's place. What the heck happened with college football this year?

I'd like to sign off by pointing out that I talked about football, ribs and ballet in the same post. I'm such a Renaissance woman.

AAAaaaaand we're back.

There's no place like home for the holidays...



What I Did On My Christmas Vacation:

- Went to a Holiday concert at Magic Stick by myself. Saw Thunderbirds Are Now, Blanche, The Hard Lessons, The Decks, and The Muldoons and other Detroit indie bands. The Muldoons are a great band made up of a dad, and his 9 and 13 year old kids. Jack White produced their album. Also learned that the hipster beer in Detroit is Miller High Life, not PBR.

- Went to Target approximately 14 times.

- Ate Buddy's Pizza.

- Saw For Your Consideration

- Went to Haley's sister's baby shower...an hour and a half late.

- Dinner and The Bou with the WB girls

- Saw Spamalot at the Fisher Theater

- Went to the new Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and the Detroit Insitute of Arts

- Slept. A lot.

I came back only to ditch town again and visit Tiffany in Providence for New Year's Eve. I had never been there before, but as it turns out, I like it a lot! It was super pretty, quaint, New Englandy and the people were really nice.

New Year's Eve day we went to lunch, checked out the RISD Museum, walked around a bit, went to a nice dinner and then it was back to Tiff and Huy's apartment for a few cocktails...



...and then it was off to The Dirt Palace, a feminist artist collective, for a party. Yeah, it was a semi-bizarre place, but in a good way. Tiffany and her friend Moira ended up directing an impromptu play about Helen Keller. Yeah, I dunno. It didn't photograph well:



Then we danced our way into 2K7, baby.





The next day, we got up and went to a tradional Rhode Island eatery: the Olneyville New York System. A New York System hot dog is kind of like Detroit's Coney Island hot dog...apparently both were also "invented" by Greek immigrants. Opa! Anywho, a New York System is a hot dog with spiced ground beef, chopped raw onions, mustard and celery salt. These are usually consumed with Coffee Milk- like chocolate milk, except made with coffee flavored syrup. Tasty!

After gorging ourselves, we did a little mall walking and ended up taking in a showing of Rocky Balboa. Hilarious. Definitely the most entertaining movie I've seen in a while. I giggled through the entire first hour.

You would think that after eating the lard-dogs in the morning we might want to eat something healthy for dinner. But no. We went to a bar to watch the Rose Bowl (which I don't want to talk about) and ended up getting nachos and onion rings.



Yeah, my stomach still isn't very pleased. It doesn't help that I took a 3:15 AM Greyhound back Monday night, went straight to work, and THEN was somehow coaxed out till the wee hours last night with Andy, Erica, and a friend of Andy's who was visiting...

SO, with that, it's off to bed for me!

Okay, I admit it: Today I registered online at Happy Paws Doggie Daycare SO not only can I drop by the windows on Crosby Street on lunch breaks, but NOW I can view their play room webcams as well...

My favorite dog there is this really cute Miniature Australian Shepherd.

I wish I could have a dog so bad.

'Tis the Season for holiday parties...

Friday night was Katie's annual party.



It's always fun to get gussied up when you have an excuse to. I also love any excuse to rock the bright red lipstick...



...which always makes me feel a little saucier...







Saturday was Latke Fest 2006 at Pat and Joe's.



It is traditional to eat fried foods on Hanukkah because of the significance of oil.



Latkes are fried potato pancakes.



I am a Shiksa, but growing up in West Bloomfield pretty much makes me an honorary Jew so I was pretty well versed at the prayer part...



...but Meredith's a good teacher and made packets for everyone with the Hannukah story- which we read aloud- the second time this week we have had a reading around Pat's dining table...





Then we chowed down. Yum! (yeah, that's the soccer trophy on the table)



Followed by a rousing game of driedel...









Because I am a geek and love it so much, I made T-Shirts for the occasion. I was a "Gelt Digger."



AND Finally, tonight I had some folks over for a lasagna dinner so we could show off our Christmas tree.

I made my lasagna with a mix of hot and sweet sausage- tasty. Not so much healthy, but tasty.





I was a good little Holly Homemaker and made gingersnaps from scratch. Also unhealthy and also tasty.



But don't worry, there was salad too.



I am going to sleep well tonight.

Get excited - True Hollywood Story: David Hasselhoff will premiere Saturday at 6 PM on E!

I had the treat of having Haley (aka coat rack) visiting me in NYC this weekend.



We had a great time, and I think she now realizes why I've never been able to leave this town. Saturday, I got another visitor: Emily (of Tennessee Tack Tour fame) came in and we went to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Annie Liebowitz exhibit. It was very crowded but good, and there were a few other really great exhibits going on. Go, people, go! Then we went to see Wanda Jackson at Knitting Factory (my fourth time seeing her) and she was amazing as usual. I was really nervous that Haley and her friend wouldn't like it, but they totally dug her (as all great people do).



We went up to a party up by Columbia and were absolutely exhausted on the way to Brooklyn. This is almost how I looked on my way home:



After a nice time catching up with my Columbia gals this afternoon, Andy and I went out and picked out our Christmas tree. It was a tough choice this year. Last year our tree seemed to scream our name immediately. This year we made the guy show us about 45 trees before we picked a winner, but I think we made the right choise-- it's nice and plump. We got a good start on decorating, but then went off for some Sunday Night Supper Club action at Pat's house. Scotch, cigars, good food, good conversation...a great ending to a great weekend.

For all you ANTM viewers…I know MELROSE!

Melissa Rose went to my high school and was two years behind me. This is funny because I actually watched the entire season without realizing that she was someone I knew- AND especially ironic because when Naima was on the show I was convinced she went to my high school and would, in fact, declare this every minute of every episode…so much, in fact, that any time I’m watching a reality show with my friend Jenn and someone is from Detroit she says (mockingly), “Did she go to your high school, Sam.” Now that someone actually DID go to my high school I totally didn’t even recognize her. Weird, but I got my old yearbook out, and, sure enough, there she was.

This fact was pointed out to me by my dear friend Haley, who is in visiting from Miami for the week. I won super huge host points yesterday by scoring us VIP tickets to The Colbert Report (a show we both love)- during which, we actually got to meet Steven Colbert (one of my heroes). I’ve been to lots of tapings having been a Page, but they never really lose their excitement factor for me. Good times, good times. Steven Colbert also introduced me to the term “meat hammer”- which I plan to use daily in a sentence, because it is hilarious…

I don't know about you, but I get calls on my cell phone from random numbers all the time. Most of the time I don't answer and they don't leave a message, but i'm always a little curious who it was and why they were calling.

WELL, I just found this site where you can look up those numbers and find out who else got called by them too- AND what they were calling about. It then compiles a cool Google map of all the people who have been called by that number AND has a summary of who's making the most calls.

Great idea.

As Queen once said...

We are the champions, my friend!





FC Kitchen Sink became league champions with an amazing victory Friday night. And we got trophies!!! I've not been this excited in a really long time- is that sad?

We took our trophy to the bar and drank out of it like the Stanley Cup (a much much smaller version).







All that celebrating left me feeling pooped on Saturday. I went out for breakfast, came back and immediately hopped back into bed. Because I love my bed. Because it's cozy and this is the lovely view from my bed.



Not too many people in New York have a nice tree outside their window. There's nothing more pleasant than cuddling up in bed with a teen novel, basking in sunbeams and listening to the sounds of rustling leaves outside your window...ahhhhh.

Don't worry, I eventually made it out of bed to go eat wings, drink beer and watch football (suck it, USC, but boo, Florida-- BOO!)

This morning I got up bright and early, borrowed the sister and bro-in-law's car, and picked up the girls to go to Woodbury Commons. I've lived in NYC over 7 years and never gone, but it was actually surprisingly pleasant. I got some nice goodies and didn't spend too much money. As a group we walked out with a lot of bags...





...only to find the car's battery was dead BECAUSE I am dumb and didn't realize I had left the lights on all day. The stud muffin 19-year-old security guy gave a us a jump, though, and we managed to make it home. Huzzah!

Tattoed Sisters (So Classy):
My sister and I after the wedding as photographed by Kim


In the papers:

Hershey's is going to introduce an Elvis Banana Creme Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Will it be a hunka-hunka tasty chocolate or all shook up?


One of my favorite things to do in NYC, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opened its fall season at City Center in NYC. I will definitely be going to a few nights using the City Center student rush ticket system (yes, I still use my Columbia ID).