NYC Monthly: A Top 10 & the Cover Story!

Your humble host is all over NYC Monthly this April, including this month's Top Ten things to #NYSeeAndDo, plus my very first cover story on the 125th Anniversary of the New York Botanical Garden!  Check them out online or snag a copy in print the next time you're in Midtown; you can find them at Grand Central Terminal or in the lobby of most better hotels.  It's like you have your own personal tour guide.  (Well...you actually do.)

This April, everything's coming up...well, you know...

#NYSeeAndDo, 4/1-4/3

Friday may be April Fools Day, but #NYSeeAndDo is no joke, and I wouldn't leave you without a weekend plan. (After all, Sunday is technically my favorite holiday: Opening Day!)

Me IRL on Sunday

#NYSeeAndDo, 3/25-3/27

Fast cars, fragrant flowers, and a flock of sheep on the Upper East Side: #NYSeeAndDo has all the weekend weirdness your little heart could hope for, courtesy of NYC Monthly...

Hopping AND sheep?? Now that's an Easter .gif!

#NYSeeAndDo, 3/18-3/20

I found you free cookies this Sunday, because that's what friends are for: #NYSeeAndDo, courtesy of NYC Monthly.

"Look to the cookie."

#NYSeeAndDo, 3/11-3/13

It's almost the weekend (and if this weather holds, almost spring!), so I'm more pumped than ever to #NYSeeAndDo some great new things around town. Check out my weekly round-up, courtesy of NYC Monthly, and pass along your own favorite things to see and do as the weather warms up!

#twitterpated

NYC Monthly: Top Ten for March

Step right up, kiddies: we've got the Master, back in his Domain; The Who, hitting 50 at The World's Most Famous Arena; and some very enthusiastic Irish folks (or folks who wish they were Irish) this month in my NYC Monthly Top Ten.  Bonus: can you spot the Billy Joel reference?

[swoons]

#NYSeeAndDo, 3/4-3/6

After a brutal day of fighting with my modem (current score: Modem 2, Leah 0), I'm pumped to look ahead to the weekend, with visions of ice skating and kitty cats and sample sales dancing in my head.  Get a glimpse at all of the things I'm looking forward to in this week's #NYSeeAndDo, courtesy of NYC Monthly, and feel free to share ideas for future posts.  But, y'know, via carrier pigeon, since my email's been spotty at best...

The only thing between my modem and a hammer is imagining Time Warner HQ like this. And wine.
And yes, there are both cats and free wine in this week's #NYSeeAndDo. Pour one out for me.

#NYSeeAndDo, 2/26-2/28

This weekend, New York is full of my favorite things. There's free whiskey (!), a Star Wars costume exhibit (!!), and a Philadelphia tribute in honor of Sly Stallone's Oscar nod (!!!)  Read all about it in my #NYSeeAndDo post over at nycmonthly.com and feel free to send along suggestions for future posts.

Sorry, Leo, but Fozzie is the only bear I want to see on the big screen.

NYC Monthly: #NYSeeAndDo, 2/19-2/21

This weekend, there's a lot happening on stage (from Hall & Oates bringing the Philly to The Garden to The Amoralists Utility, closing Saturday night) and plenty of beer to wash it all down (from New York City Beer Week to The City Bakery's Friday flavor, Beer Hot Chocolate).  Get my guide and drink it all in!

Click #NYSeeAndDo to see this weekend's round-up, then submit your own snaps and snippets on Twitter and Instagram for a chance to be featured in an upcoming post.

#squadgoals

NYC Monthly: Top 10 for February

Better late than never?  This went up online without my even noticing, and is also available in the print version; pick up NYC Monthly when you pass through Grand Central or at better hotels across town and plot a rad February with my monthly Top 10...

Do your little turn during NYFW...

...or see the circus at Barclays Center.

NYC Monthly: #NYSeeAndDo, 2/5-2/7

This weekend is shaping up to be a "Super" (see what I did there??) sunny one here in New York, which means there's much more to do than watch with glee as NFL fans mourn the end of their season [cough 14 days until pitchers and catchers cough].  Escape with a fashionable fairy tale at The Museum at FIT or peer out into the abyss (read: The Jersey coast) at One World Observatory.  Plus: Ice Golf! (??)

Click #NYSeeAndDo to read the round-up, then share your snaps and snippets on Instagram and Twitter for a chance to be featured in a future post.  Happy weekend, everyone!

It's these guys...

...versus these guys...

...right??

NYC Monthly: #NYSeeAndDo, 1/29-1/31

Winter Storm Jonas stranded me in Philadelphia last weekend and kept me from posting, but I'm back and better than ever: this week's #NYSeeAndDo (click hashtag to read full article) includes a massive new dinosaur at the American Museum of Natural History and my current favorite food obsession, the beet-cured salmon with celery cream cheese and fried capers on a pretzel roll (!!!) at my fellow Philadelphian-slash-New-Yorker High Street on Hudson.

Share your own #NYSeeAndDo snaps (via Instagram) and snippets (via Twitter) for a chance to be included in a future post!  I love sharing what my rad friends are up to, so help a sister out.  I've got two cities to navigate, after all.  First pint at the Bohemian Hall Beer Garden is on me.

NYC Monthly: #HackYourWeekend 1/15-1/17

This just in: my new online-exclusive content for NYC Monthly is live!  We're starting with #HackYourWeekend, a customized itinerary created by yours truly to take you through MLK Day.

Get out there and #HackYourWeekend -- and share your snaps and snippets with @nycmonthly on Twitter and Instagram to show them what great ideas I had (and keep them asking for more!)  I'll totally buy you a pint at Zum Schneider in return.

ProTip: New Year, New Yum

"While the gyms are crowded shoulder to shoulder with #resolutionaries, Team ProTip has a 'New Year, New You' move of our own: New Year, New Yum, including four restaurants that opened in the past month or so to help get your 2016 off to a delicious start."

Give yourself a few new reasons (in Philadelphia and New York!) to get to the gym this January, via ProTip...

NYC Monthly: Top 10 for January

Okay, yes: I've been slacking on my #for# monthly posts.  But!  It's not because I haven't been writing!  In fact, I've even been fortunate enough to be paid for some of it!

Here, a city ski lodge, a cross-town winter sports rivalry, and more in my January Top 10, courtesy NYC Monthly...

ProTip: A Cup of Kindness -- or Champagne! -- for Auld Lang Syne

"Well, 2015, it's been real.  But as we prepare to bid you a fond farewell and welcome a new year, Team ProTip is doing it the way we do best: with amazing things to eat and drink, of course."


Raise a cup of kindness (and a flute of Champagne) to Auld Lang Syne in Philadelphia, via ProTip...

ALL THE BUBBLES.

ProTip: All About That Baste

"Mom always said, 'Life is uncertain; eat dessert first!'  We like her style, so we're pre-ordering our goodies from Jessica Nolen's brand-new The Little Bird Bakery & Cafe.  She's taking Thanksgiving orders now..."

...and if the pumpkin spice blondie chunks I had for breakfast the other morning (no judgement) are any indication, you're going to want to get your order in now before she's booked through next Thanksgiving.

Check out some more of my Philadelphia favorites that are "all about that baste," via ProTip...

#jiveturkey

11 for 11: What I'm Into for November

Happy 11/11!  I totally meant to wait until today to post my 11 for 11: 11 Things I'm Digging in the 11th Month of 2015.  This is not at all because it wasn't ready on the first of the month.  Nope.  No procrastination here by any means.  So!  In no particular order!  My second month-by-numbers post, 11 for 11!

Veterans' Day

Given that today coincides with Veterans' Day, and I seem to have seen more tributes this year than most, consider this mine: to Grampa, to Papa, and to the many other vets in my life who selflessly served so that the rest of us could post tributes on social media.  And indulge in all of the other fun stuff below.









"On Account of Your Love"

My own relentless band-crush on these guys notwithstanding, Brett's latest effort is fall pop perfection. The multi-layered songs progress seamlessly from one to the next, and the only complaint I care to make is that it's not a full-length album, because I've been listening to it on repeat, and I still can't get enough.  Click here and get hooked (and psst: it's also on Spotify).





Early Mornings

I woke up like this.

The sun set at 4 freaking 41 today.  From now through January, we'll be logging fewer than 10 hours of daylight daily between dawn and dusk.  And rather than succumb to the menacing ogre of Seasonal Affective Disorder that's lurking just outside the window (side note: Seriously?  They actually named it SAD??), I'm taking the twilight bull by his murky horns and making sure that I'm awake for every one of those sun-soaked minutes, even on crummy cloudy mornings like today.

Tompkins Square Park

Hat tip to the boys of Mumford and Sons, who were kind enough to write their last album with me in mind (I think).  I'm especially hooked on the first track, which references one of my favorite places in New York thanks to the weekly farmers' market, the dog run where I could (and do) spend hours watching the puppies play, and its proximity to my current favorite tapas spot (though, sorry, seating is limited, and I'm keeping that one to myself).  Listening to "Tompkins Square Park" blur into "Believe" on the album is a perfect song-to-song transition, but if I had to separate them, it would be the wistfully honest first half for me every time.

Pomanders

Photo courtesy crafthubs.com

T'is the season!  I'm as fed-up with the Starbucks cup controversy as anyone, but it doesn't dampen my festive spirits in the slightest, and pomanders are the ultimate sweet-smelling transition from Halloween pumpkins to Christmas snowflakes.  I picked up a jumbo-sized container of whole cloves and a sack of oranges, and as soon as I get my hands on some decorative ribbon, I'm hanging these suckers all over The Treehouse.  They smell great, and pressing cloves into orange peels is amazingly cathartic after punching away at the keyboard all day.




Thirteen Ways of Looking

I've Tweeted it before, and I'll say it again: having a new Colum McCann book to read, ready and waiting on the kitchen table, makes every night feel like Christmas Eve.  I finally cracked the cover on this one this week, and true to form, I'm nearly through it, though I appreciated the short story format for slowing me down in a way that his novels can't.  For my money, there isn't a writer practicing who uses verbs to better, more vivid effect; reading McCann is like living inside a world so breathtakingly clear that sometimes you have to stop, look around, and just sigh at the gorgeous sight of it.








Philadelphia

My abiding love for The City of Brotherly Love is no secret, but these days, I'm spending more time there than ever and feeling equally nostalgic and satisfied.  (Don't panic; I still don't plan to leave Manhattan permanently in anything other than a body bag or an urn.)  But laughing with colleagues over kung pao wings at Whetstone Tavern, putting together IKEA furniture and celebrating with late-night pizza and beers, slurping a quick bowl of French onion soup at Parc on my lunch break, saying "yes" to a second (and a third!) glass of wine at Tria Fitler Square, waking up to the goofy gallumphing of my best friend's adorably stupid dog...it has been really, really nice.  XOXO, indeed, Philadelphia.


Polenta

Having made fast friends with my 2-burner cooktop, I've moved back into culinary experimentation mode, and none has been more successful than my noodling (see what I did there??) with polenta.  If I had known it was this easy, I'd have been living on the creamy, cheesy stuff for years.  The best batch so far was thanks to a homemade veggie stock that I prepped and froze last winter, but as soon as I get to the grocery store to re-up on mirepoix and Parmesan for grating, you better believe I'm sitting down to a steaming bowl of the good stuff, then saving half to griddle up in a hot pan the next day for lunch.  I also batched and froze a caramelized onion and tomato fra diavolo sauce that goes quite nicely over a polenta cake or two, thankyouverymuch, so if you're interested in sampling the latest of my white-fluffy-carb-and-dairy-fat fiending, invite yourself over.  You supply the wine; I'll whip up the creamy, corn-y goodness.




Jaunty Hats

You're welcome for Colin Farrell and Elmo.

My pixie cut is growing out, thanks in equal parts to my disinclination to pay for regular trims and the surprisingly healthy glow of my natural hair color, fully exposed for the first time in, conservatively, 10 years.  Without a screaming blonde dye job to shadow-box my natural curls into a corner, I'm a few months from lady-like chestnut waves.  Until then, however, it's each strand for itself as the curls grow in, leaving me looking not unlike a holiday holly plant (read: pointy).  To that end, I am taking my hat collection out for a few spins 'round the block, so if you spot a stylish gal in a skullcap, do say hello -- just don't try and steal my hat.  It's a jungle under there.

The Rivers (East and Hudson)

Until the Polar Vortex descends, it's likely that you'll find my be-hatted self biking the fringes of Manhattan island, particularly the gorgeous Hudson River Bike Path, a ribbon of green that hems the island and also happens to take me within coasting distance of some of my favorite places to stop for a mid-ride snack.  Looking out over the water, waiting for winter to descend, there's a freshness to the air, and with it, a spring to my step.  Er, pedal.


Indoor Sports

"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!"

Get your head out of the gutter (unless you're a strikingly handsome 30-something New Yorker who would like to show a lady a good time, in which case: call me); what I mean are alternatives to softball now that the weather is too cold for the city to issue field permits.  In addition to Flywheel (see also: 10 for 10), I'm playing in an overnight indoor softball tournament this month, and I'm open to any and all other suggestions about how best to stay active now that it's dark before dinner.  Thoughts??  Send 'em along!

10 for 10: What I'm Into for October

Oh, how I've missed you!

With apologies for the uncustomary delay in new content, I'm incredibly excited to be back on my blog, and I'm kicking October off with a bang: 10 things I'm digging as we enter the 10th month of the year.  And you're welcome: none of them are #pumpkinspice (although, yes: I am baking Mama Blewett's pumpkin bread right now.  But more on that in a minute).

In no particular order, my first-ever first-of-the-month post: 10 for 10

"Let It All Go," by Birdy + RHODES

Every month needs a soundtrack, and this one is mine, not just because of the ethereally autumn-inflected video (which: wow) but also for the message of the song, newly near and dear to me: "If we're strong enough to let it in, we're strong enough to let it go."  This is exactly the kind of moody, empowering-yet-reflective anthem to reach for during an end-of-summer break-up.  Not that I would know.  Ahem.  [furiously swipes tear from corner of eye; clears throat]

The Leaves in Central Park
Okay, maybe it's ultra Basic White Girl of me, but I'd like to think that my New England childhood entitles me to a certain degree of fondness for foliage.  And while it ain't the White Mountains or Acadia, Central Park is my leaf-peeping place of choice.  Whether ambling through The Ramble or sitting high above it all at Robert (if you haven't been: GO NOW), I can't get enough of the trees in Central Park.




"Cooking"

Not quite actual size.  But actually my entire kitchen.

Yes, I said "cooking," in quotes, because my apartment has been without gas for nigh on two months now with no sign of it coming back before Thanksgiving at the earliest.  Thank you, ConEd.  Turns out they found a similar problem in our basement to the one that caused an explosion elsewhere in the East Village and leveled three buildings back in March, so better safe than sorry, yada yada yada.  I'm all for not exploding, but two months without the ability to boil water has made me one cranky carb hound.  So I bought a two-burner cooktop, jerry-rigged it into a power strip with my microwave, toaster oven, and coffee machine, and will be spending this month experimenting in "cooking" without a kitchen.  Look, I'm not saying it won't be a cookbook idea some day.  Mom's pumpkin bread is in the toaster oven right now, for crying out loud.

Amy

Having waited pretty much as long as I could before it leaves theaters entirely, I'm finally planning to see Asif Kapadia's documentary, Amy, this week.  Bring on the black eyeliner and urges to get irresponsibly drunk at karaoke.




Play-Off Baseball

Greg Bird is the word.

Sure, eeeeeeveryone act surprised that I'm pumped for the post-season.  My loathing for the NFL notwithstanding, there's still nothing better than October baseball.  Deadspin has been posting a hilarious series of profiles of every team, in case my tutorial on baseball didn't get you invested, and any time someone calls Mets fans "sad-sack, semolina-smelling, self-deprecating fucking ninnies" or describes Lucas Duda as "a big strong dufus who hits home runs," well, that's my brand of sports journalism right there, folks.  Now if only the Yankees would start hitting better than our fans catch.


KITTEHS

Got a cat?  Need someone to come over and pay it an inordinate amount of attention for a few hours?  Because I'm considering a second career as a cat petter.  My dear MadCat headed up to that big cheddar cheese buffet in the sky last month (seriously, the cat must have thought that she was a mouse, such was her adoration for cheese), and while I'm definitely not ready for a new kitten, I can't resist petting friends' cats any chance I get.  So if there's a feline in your life that needs a little Elmyra action, I'm your gal.




Red Wine in a Box

Okay, guilty: I always love box wine.  But as the weather gets cooler and my apartment gets cozier, nothing beats a box of red in the evenings, and I'm not talkin' Franzia.  My favorite wine shop, Discovery Wines, carries a terrific Portuguese blend by Alandra for $18 (which works out to $4.50 a bottle, or less than a dollar a glass, which is exactly the kind of math I don't mind doing), and it beats the heck out of the Rat White Wine that my best friend and I both bought, separately, only to find that it was bad earlier this year.  Lesson learned: do not purchase unknown box wine in New Jersey, no matter how affordably priced -- and if you do, speak up and save others from your fate!


Adult Coloring Books

Go ahead, print your own!

No, I am not kidding.  I fell down a BuzzFeed rabbit hole one night (yes, okay, say it all together: after too much box wine) and stumbled upon this, then promptly forgot about it until a few days ago, when I decided that all of those articles that say you should stop staring at a screen an hour before bed might be right (they are).  So I Googled "adult coloring books" and printed off the first page that struck my fancy.  It may or may not now be fully colored in and hanging on my refrigerator.








Window Screens

Summer is over, which means that The Treehouse is no longer a festering fifth-floor hell hole (I swear, I love my view, but I hate my south-facing windows in August).  So off to the hardware store I went, and with screens in place in the living room, bathroom, and both bedroom windows, my casa is cool and crisp as can be.




Bike Rides

With softball winding down for the season (what is this "one game a week" crap, anyway??), I have to get a little more creative with my exercise.  Enter my trusty orange Schwinn and my latest obsession: Flywheel, which -- not to sound like a SoulCycle flake -- is a damned good workout.  Interested in trying it out?  The first ride is free, and I'll totally cheer you on (and help you when you can't unclip your shoes at the end of class).




Coming soon: the triumphant return of TueDuesday, and next month, 11 for 11!  What are you into for October?  Tell me in the comments or catch up with me on Twitter or Instagram.

TueDuesday: The Pitter Patter of Little Feet: How to Thwart a Roach Invasion

Welcome back to TueDuesday: A Weekly Series on Self Improvement (and Self Preservation), where I’ll share some of the hard-earned tips and tricks that have made their way up my sleeve after well over a decade of living alone in the city. 

TueDuesday goes out to all of you who have ever bravely moved into your very own apartment, only to encounter a cockroach the size of a well-fed hamster.  Barefoot.  In the middle of the night.  To all the ambitious drinkers who ever wanted to score the bartender’s number (and to the many of us who have failed, only to bravely try again).  To the pasta fiends.  To the Facebook lurkers.  To the happy, the hopeful, and the possibly hung-over guys and gals like me, navigating the city streets – or the country roads – without benefit of a map or a significant other.  Whether you’re chronically single, newly separated or happily coupled up and just looking for a way to make the occasional table for one a little more fun, there’s something here for you.

Like what you see?  Pass it along!  Strongly disagree?  Say so in the comments!  (Respectfully, please; after growing up with the last name Blewett, my ego can only take so much.)  Have an idea for a future TueDuesday post?  Send it over!  And keep in touch, via Twitter @LeahKBlewett and Instagram @leahkblewett.

Happy TueDuesday!

TueDuesday, July 7, 2015

The Pitter Patter of Little Feet: How to Thwart a Roach Invasion

Years ago, while living alone in Philadelphia, I was awakened at about 3 a.m. by the sound of my cat doing…something.  There was skittering and scratching, and this from a not particularly active feline whose mousing days were, even then, long behind her.  I flicked on the light beside my bed and looked over to find my mild-mannered kitty putting up a convincing fight against a roach that could have been a teenaged guinea pig.

Horrified, I leapt out of bed, then back onto the bed, because ARGHH BARE FEET, then back off the bed and, with trepidation, into the kitchen.  Scanning my meager rack of pots, I decided I’d never fully recover from roach guts on the underside of my favorite (read: only) frying pan, and anyway, aren’t you not supposed to squish them, because then the babies come out??  At this point, Madison was losing interest in her plaything, which I suspected was not long from beating a hasty exit into my bookshelf and forcing me to tear my apartment apart in terror in the middle of the night, so I grabbed a plastic pint container that most recently held wonton soup, edged back into the main room of my studio apartment, and wielded my MSG-coated weapon: I trapped the little fucker under Tupperware.

You guys, the roach was so big that it moved the Tupperware.  You truly haven’t lived until you’ve witnessed Roachzilla hauling ass towards the crack in the floor and dragging a clear-ish pint cup along with it.  Beyond repulsed, I grabbed a Norton’s Anthology of American Literature off the bookshelf and stacked all 1,200 pages of it on top of the container.  Roach: contained.  Leah: pale, shivering, indecisive.  What the hell do I do now??

I did what any sane 20-something living alone would do.  I wrapped myself up in a robe and marched down the hall to the elevator, took it down to the lobby, and pretty-please begged the doorman to help me.  He came upstairs, marveled at my make-shift roach trap, then unceremoniously lifted both book and cup and stomped the creepy little thing underfoot.

“Oh, my God!  Doesn’t it let the babies out when you squish them??”

He assured me that it did not (“That’s only the black ones; this is a brown one,”) and wished me a good night.  I put plastic bags over both my hands, unspooled about 10 feet of Bounty for protection, swaddled the wet heap of roach guts, and tied it off in both plastic bags, then took it down to the garbage room, because no fucking way was I sleeping with that nightmare in my apartment, no matter how dead it looked or how many layers of Quicker Thicker Picker Upper were between me and its still-twitching hairy roach legs.

So you see, I know a thing or two about creepy crawlies.  And while I’ve learned some good tricks in the intervening years since my After-Hours Philadelphia Cockroach Showdown, I remain as repulsed as ever by the idea that they are, occasionally, found in just about all city apartments.  (Remember that the next time you’re watching House Hunters and coveting some charming brownstone.  Those things have basements.)  What follows are a few of my favorite tricks for showing los cucarachas just who’s boss.

First, look for signs of six-legged life.  Little heaps of black dust in corners of cabinets?  You might have company.  The internet alleges that roaches hate tea tree oil, but I’m not so sure; these things can survive a nuclear explosion, and I’m supposed to believe that I can get rid of them with the same stuff I used to heal my belly button piercing when I was 16?  I want stronger weaponry.  Those electric, plug-in repellants are actually surprisingly effective, though limited in range; if you’re worried about bugs in more than one room, I’d pick up a couple, just to be safe.  Prevention is also key: if there are gaps around your windows or doors, seal the crevices with caulk.  The same goes for gaps around your bathroom sink, and with a resounding hat tip to my Aunt Kelly, a mesh sink strainer in your kitchen will protect the drain, because yes, roaches are absolutely gross enough to hang out down there waiting for the last of your greasy grey dish water to wash by, then scale the pipe.  Blech.  If you’re still noticing unwanted houseguests, it’s a good idea to see if your building offers exterminator services.  Many co-op boards have a guy on call, and in some cities, exterminators are required to visit all rental units once a month.  I heart NY.  Otherwise, it doesn’t hurt to bring in a pro, and don’t worry about seeming gross – if you’re the one calling the exterminator, there’s no way you’re the nastiest apartment he’s seen even today, let alone of all time.  Hoarders are real, folks.  Finally, try not to be too squicked.  Yes, roaches are horrifying, especially when they catch you by surprise (shout out to the dearly departed little punk who thought my headboard was a good place to scamper – SQUISHHHHHHHHHH!!!), but at the end of the day, they’re just another city dweller trying to eek out a living.  And we’re much, much bigger than they are.  Thank God.

Next Week: Is it hot in here??  It can’t just be me, because we’re learning Things You Can Do With Your Toaster Oven!!!