On the Fifth

One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell
One Fifth Avenue tells the story of the residents living in this notorious NYC apartment. Like any good neighbors there's quite a bit of conflict but also a good neighborly feeling between them all. There's a mix of new faces and old friends as well as a mix between those with old money and new.

When I first started reading this book I wasn't a big fan. There were a lot of characters and I couldn't seem to keep them all straight. Since I could never remember the back story of the character I would be reading about, I never seemed to be able to get into it. But by the time I was about one third of the way through, I finally could tell the characters apart and I was able to finally enjoy the story.

One I got them sorted out my favorite character was Analisa Rice, a former lawyer from D.C.. She moves into the building with her husband whose recently made his wealth through a hedge fund. What I liked about Analisa is that she seemed to be able to see through the fake-ness of the New York high society. So I was a little disappointed when so quickly she seemed to disappear and become like so many of the other characters. It was a bit of a let down, but I was still in for a few surprises from her.

Another resident who I had the opposite feeling towards was Lola Fabrikant, a 20-something party girl from Atlanta. And embody that party girl persona did she, but to the point that it was a little over the top. And yet even though I found her naive and a little stupid at first, her antics started to amuse me and by the end the parts from her point of view were some that I looked forward to the missed.

Another aspect I enjoyed reading about were the bloggers. There were several actually by the books end. It's interesting to me to read a book were there are bloggers included. By the range of bloggers in a book we were able to see how blogging can lead to some awful situations, but on the other hand can make you into someone.

By the end of the book I wound up enjoying it. I wouldn't say the book was what I expected it to be, but I still had fun along the way. It definitely became a fun read, but what I enjoyed most about it were probably all of the different characters, who by the end I could easily tell apart.

~Shoshanah

Backyard Medicine

The last time the boy wound up moving the lawn (that's one of his not so assigned chores because I pretty much refuse to do it), he wound up burning his finger. I'm not really sure what happened, besides the fact that he touched a part that must have been near the engine and was hot. It luckily wasn't anything too crazy, but it still hurt.

Once he was back inside he wanted to know if I had any lotion with aloe vera in it that could maybe help the burn a little. In something of a girl fail, I didn't seem to have a single lotion that was even aloe scented. But it turns out we had something better!
Due to my mom's plant identifying skills I knew that these two cacti-looking plants were actually aloe vera plants. (Although I guess aloe is a type of cactus.) We were able to break off a leaf and use the juice to help out on his finger.
Turns out the aloe plant did its job, and the burn wound up healing without even a blister. While the aloe plant might not be as fun as our apricot tree or our fig tree, I guess its a little more useful. I might just have to throw a few steams in my bag for Florida trip at the end of the summer to sooth my sunburns!

~Shoshanah

Baking Break

For whatever reason lately I've been wanting to bake something. I liked the idea of making some type of bread, but the idea of using yeast scares me a little. So I decided to go the easy way and make a box mix. The original plan was to go with banana bread, but after the boy voiced his opinion I changed it up to blueberry bread.
The directions are quite simple when you're following a box and started with draining and rinsing the wild blueberries provided. (I'm not quite sure what makes these wild blueberries, but if I had to guess its mainly a marketing ploy.)
I then added water and oil to the mix and got ready to add an egg.
When I realized we didn't have a single egg in the refrigerator. I had only assumed that we did since we almost always have eggs in the house, but this time we were out. I did a little research on-line and discover there were a few things that could be substituted for eggs, the easiest (which we had in the house) would be milk. But I called the boy up at work to ask his advice, or if I'm being completely honest it was more to complain about the situation. After talking to him I did the normal thing, turned off the oven and headed to the grocery store to pick up a carton of eggs. Several minutes later I was back and able to add an egg to the mix!
Once mixed I gently folded in the blueberries and we were ready to headed to the preheated (for the second time) oven.
After baking for about 30 minutes and cooling for more we officially had bread. As for the taste, it wasn't amazing, after all its just a box mix. But there's still something about eating baked goods warm from the oven.
Have you ever started cooking something when you realized halfway through you were missing a vital ingredient? And I'd love to hear your suggestions for some good (and easy) bread recipes!

~Shoshanah

Mystery Fruit Revealed

Since we moved into our new house we've always known there was a fig tree and a satsuma tree. But when we talked to the old owners I remember them mentioning a third tree. Except I couldn't remember the type of fruit it was, nor which tree it was. I been anxiously awaiting to see if any other trees in the backyard with sprout fruit and we finally have a winner!
It looks like we have an apricot tree! The tree is a lot smaller than the other two, which means a lot less fruit. I'm hoping in the years to come it will keep growing to at least match its brother fruit trees, but we'll see. Right now there's only these two on the tree (along with another one that's already half eaten by birds or something).
They're not ripe yet, but hopefully they will be soon. I was temped to trying one now, but figure the waiting will be worth it. Hopefully that is the case. And hopefully when I try it I can confirm these actually are apricots. I mean they're fuzzy, and they look to be the right size, so what else could they be?

Since I've already exhausted questions regarding what type of fruit you'd like to grow, let me know if you truly think this is an apricot tree. (And please say that I'm right!) Or if you really want, tell me what fruit you'd grow yet again!

~Shoshanah

Would You Like Salt With That?

Salt
The first time I saw a preview for the movie I was a little disappointed that it seemed to give away the plot completely for this movie. Luckily I found that not to be the case. Salt tells the story of Evelyn Salt a CIA agent who may, or may not, be a Russian spy.

I wasn't really looking forward to seeing the movie, so in a way it did exceed my expectations. The movies was filled was twists and turns, whenever it seemed we had finally figured out the truth something else would change a few scenes later. But even with all these plot twists the movie was still fairly easy to follow.

There are a lot of good action scenes and chase scenes, and overall it really wasn't as bad as I predicted. It's a fun movie that has its moments. You could definitely do worse than this movie, but on the other hand it isn't anywhere near the best movie currently in theaters.

~Shoshanah

Fro-yo Fix

Last night after sushi at Geisha, we decided to stop next door for frozen yogurt at Yogen Fruz. (And when I saw "we" I really mean I since the boys hates almost all sweets. Instead he was a few storefronts down trying samples of hot sauce and alligator at the Beef Jerky Outlet. I guess he had his dessert of sorts.)

The concept at Yogen Fruz is to take blocks of frozen yogurt and blend it with frozen fruits. They also have a few syrups like mint that you can blend with as well. Then they have a few fun toppings (aka chocolate, granola, cereals) to sprinkle on top.

I decided to go with mango and kiwi blended with low-fat vanilla and top it with white chocolate shavings. I was actually a little disappointed with the lack of color. The people in front of me blended with raspberries and strawberries and theirs was a nice pretty pink.

I can't compare this to Pinkberry since I still haven't been (there aren't any in Baton Rouge, and I've never taken the time to go while I've been in California), but I think it could compare favorably. It wound up being a nice satisfying dessert, that even makes you feel a little good about yourself because its almost healthy. I wouldn't list it as my all time favorite dessert, but I'd definitely be willing to try it again. And next time I'll be sure to pick flavors that make a prettier color. Maybe chocolate fro-yo blended with raspberries? I'm getting hungry already!

~Shoshanah

Theater Thursday

I decided to change things up a bit and participate in Crazy Shenanigans' Theater Thursday. Instead of posting a review of a movie that's currently in theaters I'm posting a review of one that's on dvd (and has been for a long while). This week I'm talking about...

A Little Princess
I still remember when this was released in theaters in 5th grade. Not because I saw it, but two of my closest friends did. I even remember when it was released in theaters in hopes it would do better and a pretty abysmal opening (that's actually what this poster is from). But even then I didn't see the movie. It was only when it was released on VHS that I finally saw it and fell in love.

A Little Princess is the movie version of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Little Princess. Growing up I love the book version, the Shirley Temple version, and even the her book Sara Crew or What Happened at Miss Minchin's which is a shorter version was actually published before The Little Princess. So it was really no surprise that I loved this version too. The movie did take a few liberties from the book by moving it to NYC, changing the time period slightly, and changing the ending.

This is one of the first movies that I remember crying while watching. Even know watching the end with Sara and her father I can't hold back the tears. Even though I have this movie practically memorized and know exactly how its going to end I can't help it.

As silly as it may sound considering I'm in my mid-20s this children's movie is still one of my all time favorites. Whenever I find it on TV I'm sucked in to watching it, even though I own at least 2 copies of it. I can't wait to be able to share it with my future daughters someday, if only so I have an excuse to watch it again myself!

Anyone else love this movie? Or are there movies from your childhood that you still consider to be one of your all time favorites?

~Shoshanah