Jazz Brunch at the Algonquin

We must add, another highlight to the weekend was the Jazz Brunch at the Oak Room (where Harry got his start) at the Algonquin on W44th.
Ms. Barbara Carroll was quite elegant and charming, as she performed semiclassical to bebop. The perfect compliment to the stately morning was the poached Atlantic salmon, served refreshingly chilled with dill crème fraiche and black olive tapenade, not to be outdone by the heartiness of the eggs benedict. One word to describe it: Merveilleux!

Family Outing

We had an amazing (but busy) week hosting family... The City at Night was simply breath-taking. Dad had great style. Went to K-Town on W32nd.
Did a lot of walking... Love the yellow cabs.

Shot of the 'rents in DUMBO (Empire-Fulton) park. A classic Brooklyn Bridge backdrop...

The best way to organize?

Since our last post was on personal organization, we figured we'd run with the theme this week. We're not huge on fancy electronic gadgets. We still use an almost-decade-old Palm-based PDA to organize our lives at a daily/weekly level. For monthly/yearly organization, we use a paper calendar. We like the paper format for long term planning because we can compare different months side-by-side, color code items (with one of our 6 colored highlighters!) and share this information with others without going into the nitty-gritty. Any tasks for the day/week - the Palm works well with its little "alarm" reminder.
But what if the Palm was to go dead one day (any day now), could we even go completely non-PDA? We think something like Muji's Chronotebook may work just as well (here's why). If you like visual in-your-face reminders, a neat idea like this may work for you. If you like to do long-term planning on paper (or on your wall), check this out. If you're tight on funds, any notebook or a huge piece of contruction paper at your local dollar store will do. It's your life... be creative!

Cozier way to organize

Check out the adorable post-its, stickers, magnets...
(The jstory website is entirely in Korean, however you can browse by clicking on "next>>" at the bottom of the site. Items like these and more sold here.)

Beware of Dog... Cat... Horse?

Forget the boring, mass-produced, plastic signs... get a Nepali portrait of your pet! These unbreakable metal signs are hand-painted by Nepali artists. No two signs are alike... you can even arrange for a custom commission.

See their latest artwork here.

How to rile up the Chinese government

1. Use Skype to call your friends in China
2. Use words such as "democracy", "Taiwan independence" and "voice of America", all in one sentence.

The Chinese government is monitoring the conversations of Skype users, scanning all communications for sensitive keywords. The data, including users' text messages and personal information is then being stored in publicly accessible servers.

Credit Cards Overseas

Every cent counts during a financial crisis, especially when the dollar is weak and you're traveling abroad! Minimize losses on foreign exchange fees with these credit/debit cards...
Capital One is great for travel, because they forgo the foreign transaction surcharge, as well as conversion fees.

Brooklyn Cityscape

More of our Photography...

Food Network's "Ultimate Cheesecake" Recipe Trial Run

Spotted this recipe during a late-night TV binge. With 300+ reviews and a five-star rating on foodnetwork.com, it looked like a winner.

The water bath trick is a bit of a pain. But ensures a light, fluffy, supersmooth cake. Ignore the recipe suggestion of 325 degrees. I bumbed it up to 375 and left the cake in the oven to cool down for a bit. My group of picky taste-testers agreed that this one definitely earns five stars!

Today, the story breaks

Photojournalist James Nachtwey, for the past three decades, has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues. However, when certain stories he wanted to cover - such as Romanian orphanages and famine in Somalia - garnered no interest from magazines, he self-financed trips there. In 2007, he was awarded the TED Prize, which comes with $100,000 and one wish to change the world. These photographs and this project are his wish, to tell the story of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and TB.

Greener, Sleeker Water Bottle?

You've seen it all... Nalgene... Sigg... Are you now ready for KOR ONE? After 3 years of design work, a new healthy & sustainable way to stay hydrated...

Their on-line store debuts at 9AM PDT today!

What is BPA, PETE , LDPE, HDPE? Water bottle types explained here.