Mama needed a break!

And I didn’t exactly sit on my tush and twiddle my thumbs. I did some home improvement, sharpened my cooking skills, did some knitting, read some books and took up chess.

Ok…I’m trying to take up chess.

I got this book from the library. The authors are a chess master and a chess journalist who, together, wrote this encyclopedic anthology about mastering chess and the book is a supposed to be a consolidated version of that. According to them, I should be able to play a match after one lesson.

Who are they kidding?

I decided I wasn’t going to let that thwart me and I bought a travel chess set. It’s magnetic and has numbers and letters on the corresponding files and ranks; perfect for a beginner like me. It arrived this week. I was so excited! And then I looked at the box and found the following phrase:

I checked the box. It’s made in Poland. Hm…makes me wonder why they have to make that sort of distinction. Anyway, it’s not the nicest set and the magnetic part isn’t terribly strong. I’m going to have to check my receipt and remind myself how much I paid for it. It may be going back.

Maybe they should have employed children after all. JUST kidding.

SIDEBAR: I’ve decided to reduce my writing commitment to once per week minimum. I’ve wanted to start a food blog for quite some time now and, in case you’re keeping score, I did do that last year!

As it turned out, I couldn’t keep up with the demands of a full-time, daily blog and a part-time weekly blog. I also became a vegan so that forced me to rethink my focus, which was never really clear in the first place. Therefore, with a renewed sense of tabula rasa, I’m starting over from scratch.

I love doing things from scratch. Stay tuned.

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Ok well you may have heard of a nifty little gathering called Wine & Canvas. In case you haven’t, it’s kind of like a Tupperware party only better. Why? Because everyone pays the same amount of money and everyone takes away an original piece of artwork.

And there’s booze.

My pal Sarah is starting a Wine & Canvas franchise in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. For those of my readers who are Hoosiers, there are locations in four major Indiana cities. If you look on the Indy franchise calendar, you’ll actually be able to see what paintings are available on which nights and at what locations. Personally, I like this one…

…it reminds me of this tiny street in Manhattan called Minetta. I stumbled upon it during my first weeks living in New York. Unfortunately, there is not a franchise here in NYC. Maybe I have to start a Brooklyn franchise too! Maybe.

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Here is my route:

Leg one is from my house to the Williamsburg Bridge and leg two is heading over the bridge to get to the Lower East Side. That’s 6.39 miles. One-way. As a round trip, that’s nearly as much as I would walk in a regular day just walking dogs.

Thanks, Sandy, for not only leaving me stranded at home for two work days but also for forcing me to hoof it from BK to Manhattan. If you see someone on the Williamsburg Bridge tomorrow morning dressed as a disgruntled MTA customer, it’s me.

Sense of adventure, Amy! SENSE of adventure.

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I know very few dogs who would simply be held like that and used as a key fob. Brilliant.

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I’m not a parent so I don’t usually weigh in on this kind of thing. But I saw a woman today spank her child in public. And then I realized who she was. She’s a woman I often see with another woman and they are usually accompanying six children. Either they work for a daycare center or a preschool (which are essentially the same thing) or they work together privately. I really don’t know. What I do know is that the child she spanked was likely not hers.

Now I can’t confirm that the boy she spanked isn’t hers but most people I know find it unethical to teach their own children in a school setting. And while we’re on the subject of ethics, since when is it ethical for a teacher to physically punish a child?

I’m quite certain it’s against the law.

And while some may brush it off as a minor infraction, I would ask then where the line is drawn. If you allow spanking, what’s next? Why not just hand out paddles to teachers and make students write lines with quills that use their own blood as ink.

Wait…that’s only in Harry Potter. You get my point.

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THIS…is a joke.

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Looks like things have progressed.

Things I’ve learned from the New Yorkers For Beverage Choices website:

• The restriction will not apply to free refills. (Oh no! An obesity loophole!)
• As a New Yorker, I will not have a say this matter. (Daddy Bloomberg says NO!)
• Sugary drinks are not the cause of obesity. (You don’t say!)

After seeing this video, I’m more than convinced that this is the most ridiculous piece of legislation I’ve ever heard. It just sounds ludicrous that a larger soda may be illegal in a few months. Let’s see…what other substances are illegal? Drugs. Plutonium. Soda.

I’m really glad we’ve gotten the scourges of the earth under control.

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I haven’t been able to get a clear shot of that tiny QR code, from my photo or his. And a Google search has not been helpful. Except for the fact that there is some guy in San Francisco doing the same thing as an art installation.

Anyone know anything about the tiny doors? Somebody? Anybody?

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