The Tour De Brooklyn

Last Sunday, we went on an 18-mile organized bike ride from hip Williamsburg to charming Red Hook and back. But for some reason the route in between was through some of the shadiest parts of Brooklyn. I saw Bed Stuy the only way a blonde girl in a pink shimmery bike helmet should see it: with a police escort.

All 2,500 bikers lined up at the start.

Brian "Armstrong" Jordan with a camera on his handle bars and a smile on his face.

Just imagine how much honking there was when they stopped traffic on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway so a bunch of yuppie bike riders wearing goofy outfits could cycle across.

Brian had his camera on the "stop motion" setting and captured this super cool video of the ride. It's worth waiting till the end when we break off from the pack at mile 16 to eat eggs and drink mimosas.

Rooftop + Garden + Brooklyn

The sage and chives are BFF.

Mint's purpose in life is to be muddled

with some sugar and covered in rum.

I always forget about the parsley and buy some at the store.

Unacceptable.

Ain't nothin' in life that I like better than

bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes.

Our jalapeño plant has seen better days. We kept him indoors and pampered him all winter long. We finally put him back in the glorious sunshine and he starts fading. Wuss.

The basil is threatening to bloom.

Luckily, I could eat caprese salad for breakfast.

Our lilies are the supermodels of our rooftop garden.

They just stand around making the vegetables feel ugly.

Don't tell my husband but I think the gardener is sexy.

Look how green his thumb is. H-O-T.

It breaks my heart to see all of those roofs going to waste.

But at least we don't have to see our neighbors sunbathing.

Memorial Day Picnic in Prospect Park

We arrived early to get things properly set up...

"When you picnic or camp you always need a good log.

That's just how I was raised."

--Brian Jordan

Brian's thought bubble:

Hmm, it's heavier than I thought.

I'll just have to roll it. Like a man.

Casey's thought bubble:

That is the biggest stick I have ever seen.

If you try to throw it I'll try to bring it back.

Thanks to George for organizing a lovely Memorial Day Picnic in Prospect Park. Brian and I made sausage wraps (which blew some Yankee minds) and Joel made his amazing white wine potato salad. Amy of course supplied potato chips and Erin brought her favorite picnic beverage: red wine mixed with Sunkist soda which she swears they serve at the Hotel San Jose. Things got a little tense when Brian scolded me for buying Mexican beer on Memorial Day. But a few Tecates later he didn't seem to mind so much. Joel and Kathryn's 2-year old son, Jackson, kept us entertained by letting his wind up airplane loose to terrorize other picnickers. All in all, it was a wonderful way to memorialize.

Brian makes a new friend

Brian: Hey, look there is a tree right by me.

Claire: There sure is.

Brian: Give me your hat and your sunglasses.

Claire: Why?

Brian: Just do it.

Claire: Fine.

Brian: Does this tree look like my friend?

Claire: Sure baby, it looks like your friend.

Casey: My humans are crazy.

How to enjoy a movie you know is going to be terrible:

(i.e. Sex and the City 2)

Tip #1: Go with great people.

Maggie and I posed on the silly (but irresistible) red carpet while

Erin and Kathryn ran to the liquor store (more on that later).

Tip #2: Have low expectations for the movie

and high expectations for the theater.

We went to NYC's fancy Ziegeld Theatre.

Who needs a plot line when you have chandeliers?

Tip #3: Drink.

We ignored the gimmicky (and non-alcoholic) beverage selection

and instead each had our own miniature bottles of champagne

that we snuck in like mature adults.

Tip #4: Bring a bottle opener.

Who knew that instead of corks mini champagnes have beer caps?

I got them open but it wasn't pretty or classy. And now I have this champagne snakebite

Tip #5: Laugh at everything.

I'm not sure if I was supposed to find so much of the movie comical but I laughed at the parts that were trying to be funny, I laughed at the serious parts that were so cheesy they were funny, and I laughed at the sad parts that were so poorly acted they were funny.

(Note: This technique also worked well for me when I saw Miami Vice in the theater. At one point I realized there was one other person in the packed theater laughing at all of the same inappropriate times as me. It was Quentin Tarrantino! True story.)

Subway Shenanigans

Opera

Mariachi

Hipsters

View from the Q

I hope he took the elevator

Iron Butterfly

BJ as MJ

My Obsession with Skincare Products

I know my lot in life. I've got very fair skin and if I'm not careful I will look 40 when I'm 30, 60 when I'm 40, and it just gets exponential from there. That's why I am always on the hunt for promising skin care products. I spend hours reading (and clipping out) articles about cleansers, moisturizers, masks, sunscreens (loads of those) and anything else that promises to correct what's already been done or wage war against what's coming.

However, I recently decided to go big picture with this. I don't need the perfect product, I need the perfect REGIMEN. I am in NO WAY a dermatologist (although I've visited many) but I've tried to compile all of my learning into a cohesive and complimentary daily routine for myself. Some of these products I've been using for years but I've also added a few that employ the buzz words I've been hearing lately (i.e. antioxidants, peptides, glycolic acid, etc).

In the event that someone out there is as obsessed with skin care as I am, I thought I'd reveal my plan of attack and why I chose it. So here we go, I am beginning the countdown to perfect skin (or at least as close to perfect as a melanin-challenged person like me can get).

Morning:

1. Neutrogena Acne Wash- I've read about so many cleansers but this classic has the right amount of salicylic acid for me. It isn't too harsh but keeps pimples away so I don't have to use any other acne medicines. Plus, it's cheap and there are other areas worth spending more on.

2. DDF Mesojection Healthy Cell Serum- This is a new one for me. I'm not sure about this "mesojection" business but this serum has the two things my skin apparently needs at least every 12 hours: antioxidants and peptides. Note: this one is the priciest in the line up but you only have to use a few drops at a time and similar products are the same price. (I looked into a Murad equivalent that was $5 more.)

3. Clinique All About Eyes Rich- I like Clinique products because they're as good as but not as expensive as some of the top tier brands. I chose this eye cream because I found that many others I tried weren't moisturizing enough. And I want as much moisture as possible around my peepers to keep the crows feet at bay.

4. Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream- I love this stuff so much that I use it twice a day. I hear that retaining moisture is key to fighting off wrinkles. This cream (don't confuse it with Cetaphil lotion) doesn't have any treatment additives so it's purely for moisturizing purposes, but that makes it a great complement to the aforementioned serum. Best of all, it's cheap and super duper gentle.

5. Super City Block Face Protector SPF 40- Ahh, my darling sunscreen. Brian and I pretty much only fight about one thing: sunscreen. I am the SPF enforcer and not at all subtle about it. (Which is highly ironic because my mother and I fought like crazy about sunscreen when I was little. She gets full credit for my skin not being completely hopeless.) I've tried many brands of daily SPF but I'm on tube #3 of this stuff. It's thin enough for everyday use and while it's not exactly tinted, it has a great highlighting effect that evens my skin tone so I can skip any foundation and go straight to powder from here. (I object to tinted sunscreens because they are never the exact right color and Brian has had to lick his thumb and wipe them off my face one too many times.) This one isn't super cheap but it's not so expensive that I'm scared to slather it on which is absolutely what we should all be doing.

Note: I realize I've got a lot of products piling up here. But everything I read says to moisturize before you put on your daily SPF, so I just wait a minute or so while the serum+Cetaphil combo sinks in before I put on the city block. Maybe ladies with less dry skin could skip the Cetaphil part or use something lighter if this is just too much. I actually just discovered that Cetaphil has a moisturizer with SPF 50 that I might try if I fall out of love with this combo.

Night:

So the only extra thing here is the DDF Glycolic 10% Toning Complex that I just started using after cleansing and before seruming. The goal with this product is exfoliation and cell regeneration. I chose a chemical exfoliant over a physical one (things with beads or particles in them) because those make my face red and fussy. Another popular way to exfoliate is with retinoids. The Rx retinoids I got from my dermatologist were too strong and I almost got this over-the-counter option but then I read an article about how dermatologists can instantly tell if you've used retinoids because of how thin they can make your skin. I might try them again one day when I start really losing the battle against time. For now, I'm going to stick with glycolic acid. To start I'm only using this toner every other night but will build up to every night before long which will hopefully coincide with my skin becoming fabulous.

Well, there's my new skin care regimen in all its glory. If you've made it this far you might also be interested in some of the latest skin care articles that inspired this latest countdown.

One from Real Simple (about correcting sun damage)

One from Lucky (more focused on clearing skin but still interesting)