Mighty mouse…

Posted on August 25, 2009 by Sue In The City

Many of our friends have had mice in their New York apartments and we’ve really been lucky in that the biggest issue we’ve had to deal with is the occasional (humongous) cockroach. We’ve devised ways to battle the yucky creatures and thus usually only end up with ‘roach carcasses displaying themselves in the middle of the kitchen floor first thing in the morning.

It’s a big city, there are many of us and I guess that you can’t have it all, right? I can handle the occasional roach.

What I was not prepared for was a mouse. Eeeek! After a recent picnic in Central Park we brought some leftover pizza home in it’s (American-sized) box. Considering the fact that it was a vegetarian and that I couldn’t fit it into our fridge, I figured that it would be okay to leave the box out on the kitchen counter for one night and reheat some pizza for dinner the next day. Bad idea…

The next day after our evening run, John was about to jump in the shower and I was going to reheat some pizza for our dinner before we had to head out to meet some friends. Unsuspecting me opened the pizza box and I still don’t know who had the bigger fright – me or the mouse! I remember thinking that it had a beautiful taupe-ey color, but that could also just be a result of the blur as the poor creature scrambled to get down as low as possibly, yet have enough space to still clear the side of the pizza box.

I screamed (like a girl!) and the movement of shutting the lid and moving it out the front door was completely seamless!

We have since found mouse droppings all over the kitchen, had an exterminator in (twice) and have put out mouse traps all over the kitchen – no yields yet. This morning after my run I was chopping banana to add to my cereal when I heard it…peeep, peeeeeep, peeep, peeeeep. It’s a distinctive sound and it infuriated me! So now it’s war. I have pulled all the stops and will not stop until I have had my revenge. (From what I’ve heard about the movie, you can call me Inglourious Basterd for now).

Nina Meet Nina. Nina is my personal mouse-missile. The fluffball will be stayingwith us while her parents are out of town for the next ten days and I hope she enjoys the entertainment this household offers. (Yes, I do feel guilty, but dammit…mouse – go away!)

District 9 – A must see!

Posted on August 20, 2009 by Sue In The City

Last night the Mr took me on a romantic date night that involved eating at a great place called The Fatty Crab (we drank rum and coconut water out of actual coconuts – pity about the New York traffic right outside…I almost felt like I was on a beach somewhere tropical!) and then a movie. After the initial disappointment of having to go see a Sci-Fi flick, I have to tell you that I am blown away by this one.

Created and produced by South African Neill Blomkamp, the cast is all local and it was shot in Johannesburg. I particularly loved the authentic South African accents and really had a good giggle every now and then when a Bliksem or Kak (Afrikaans swear words) made it into the dialogue. Also, I’m pretty sure that everyone who saw the movie will be saying ‘F*k You’ with an Afrikaans accent (which better way to say it in, right?) Without me giving away the whole plot, I’ll just ask that you do your bit for my country and go see it!

You won’t regret it.

NY Half Marathon…We did it!

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Sue In The City

John on the West Side Highway - only 4 more miles to go

After months of training, miles and miles of running, getting sore knees from running with the wrong shoes then spending lots of money on buying new shoes, blisters, cramps, feelings of terrible guilt because I couldn’t get myself out of bed to actually go for that early run, and a lot of carbo loading, we finally did it! The New York Half Marathon is one of the things on my ‘list of things to do’ that I can now safely mark as: Ticked!

After falling ill on Monday last week and eventually spending Friday last week in bed with the most terrible summer cold, my forecast on being able to run was not looking too positive. But I’m a firm believer in ‘Whatever The Mind Can Conceive And Believe It Can Achieve’ and this was put into true practice when I woke up pretty much symptom-free on Saturday morning – the day before the race. I was overjoyed and slightly apprehensive as John and I took our bicycles on a downtown trip in the summer heat, with me checking in with the thumping heart on a regular basis to make sure that it was not failing me. Nope, heart was fine, nose was not too blocked and race was a go.

After two brunches (yes, you read that right, two brunches, at two different restaurants!), we cycled back Uptown and had a lazy sleep, followed by an impromptu dinner party with Rose, Annie and Sam joining us for mounds and mounds of spaghetti bolognaise. Nothing like being forced to eat all those carbs we usually avoid, right? It was great.

Off to an early night of tossing and turning where none of us slept too well (nerves?) and then, all too soon, the alarm went off at 5.15. I jumped out of bed, got dressed after ‘lubing’ my chafing areas and prepared bagels (more carbo loading), pinned our race numbers to our running gear, ensured that satellite connectors were on the right shoes and then we headed out into the humid air. By the time we arrived at our assigned stanchions at around 6.30am, I was already sweating. It was clearly going to be a hot one!

As we waited around for the 7am arm to move into place, the tension started mounting. Rose and I had agreed to run together and I had never been more thankful for having a running partner with me. In between nervous giggles, African bird signalling and some half-hearted stretches, we managed to make it to 7am and finally the shot announced the start of the New York Half Marathon! We were off…on a slow start! I wish I had a camera with me to capture the 10,000 people all starting the race – it looked kind of like a Mexican Wave – the front runners would start bopping up and down and in a wave the ones behind them and then the ones behind them and so forth, til finally it was our turn to start running – what a magical sight!

Two hours and fifteen minutes later we crossed the finish line – drenched to the bone, with aching muscles and the widest grins on our faces you can possibly imagine. John had been done for quite a while (naturally Mr Athletic completed the entire race in 1hr 45mins!) and I think I finally hit that elusive ‘Runner’s High’ when we crossed the finish line! Wow – what a feeling! We ran around the entire Central Park and then down to the bottom of it, out onto Madison Avenue and straight down through Times Square. Nothing I have ever done can compare to running through Times Square with no pedestrians, no cars, just loads of supporters, singers, a huge karaoke band (Rose and I did a little jig-n-run as we passed the stage) and all those lights. It was pure magic.

Over the course of the 21.1kilometers there were about 11 watering holes where we stopped for Gatorade, energy bites and water, water, water. Another highlight was getting ‘hosed down’ by the randomly placed ‘fountains’ (volunteers holding huge hoses with sprayers attached that went a long way towards cooling down the overheated runners) – by the end of the run Rose and I were both soaked. Sweat or water? Probably a little combination of both.

Would I do it again? Mmmmmm…not so sure about that. But this one, at least, was pure magic!

Sushi Shame

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Sue In The City

I think it’s fair to say that I have had my fair share of sushi in this great city. You can have sashimi and rolls, deepfried to live and everything inbetween and it’s usually available at a corner near you (or maximum 15 minutes away, courtesy of the local delivery man). I have never had the experience that we had this evening, though.

John and I are both still battling with my cold and his man flu so we made a pact to eat out or order in every night this week, to ease the burden of cooking on us both. Also, it’s been so hot that the idea of spending any more time than strictly necessary in the kitchen fills us both with dread and horor. So last night we had Indian at a local restaurant, the night before we ordered some Thai and the night before that we had burgers at our favorite outdoor spot, Pier I.

Tonight we decided to go for sushi. We have a great service here called Seamlessweb.com. It’s an online food ordering service and they promise delivery from about 50 different restaurants within 15 – 45 minutes. That’s my kind of take out! We always order from the same reliable sushi place, so tonight we decided to be daring and try something different.

The warning bells should have gone off when we saw the four $$$$ signs next to this new place called, Sushi of Gari, but we figured it’s sushi. How bad can it be? Right? Now we have the sushi order down to a T. Between John and I we usually order five rolls and sometimes we’ll throw in an order of Edamame or a soup, but we’ve figured out that five rolls fills both of us up with a couple of pieces to spare. Our standard sushi order usually comes to about $35, give or take a few.

So tonight’s order was no different. We ordered five pretty standard options and didn’t think too much of the fact that it said ‘Per Piece’ above the description. I said to John that I’m sure it’s just a language thing – they must mean ‘Per ROLL’. Well, after waiting 45 minutes, our rumbling tummies were so happy when the delivery man finally rang the bell. Only to deliver this:

$38 worth of sushi...Ugh!

$35 dollars for five squished pieces of mediocre sushi. Yuck! I was so upset by having been done in like that it almost spoiled my mood completely. Lucky for me, John quickly got our standard order in and within 15 minutes delicious, cheap, fresh sushi was delivered to our door. That’s more my style!

B-list Brunch

Posted on August 9, 2009 by Sue In The City

Yesterday, after running 10 miles (Yes, I did it!), I met my friend Justin for brunch at Cookshop, a new trendy restaurant on 20th Street and 10th Avenue, thinking that we would have a mimosa and brunch and then go for a walk on the new Highline Park that has just opened. Now, one thing I never knew about running 10 miles…it gives you an appetite! I was starving.

Running late, I got the following sms from Justin, “They seated me – your mimosa has been ordered. Mark St James and Amanda from Ugly Betty are two tables over”. Turns out, Betty herself was also there and as Justin and I tucked into our brunches, the waitress led another couple over to the table right next to us. While neither Just nor I could come up with the guy’s name, he was also an actor – if I happen to spot him somewhere, I’ll be sure to let you know. Just as we were contemplating mimosa number two (what better way to celebrate 10-miles on a Saturday with, right?) the waitress brought another known person over, this time to the table right behind us – Kristen Schaal (better known as Mel in Flight of the Concords).

Justin and I had to have a big giggle - we had clearly selected the hottest place for brunch! (Although I have to admit that I had no hand in venue selection, and I probably would not have recognized anybody other than Mel without Justin’s keen celeb-spotting eye!)

Woke up this morning with a sore throat – not a good sign, considering that the NY Half Marathon is six nights away…

Summer in the city

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Sue In The City

I realize that it’s been a while since my last post, and I also realize that it’s probably not the best way to go to start the whole blogging process again with a rant about the heat, but the truth is that it is un-friggin-bearable in New York at the moment! Oh my word…it’s like living in a sauna. If the airconditioning unit is not on full blast, there is no sleeping, no eating, no watching TV and definitely no working!

This morning I got out of bed and stepped from the cool confines of our airconditioned bedroom into the hallway where the heat hit me in the face with full force! ‘Whoa’, I thought, ‘is this even possible?’ Turns out it was. And it is.

It.Is.So.Damn.Hot.In.Here…

Biggest problem with the heat is that it makes it near impossible to be outside – nevermind run outside. Now usually I would not let this stress me, but with the New York Half Marathon only 10 days away, you better know that I am stressing! Oh boy…please let tomorrow be a cooler one?