Catch Up

Yeah, it's been a few days. I've been sick for about 10 days. I've barely left my house since Friday September 9th. I was able to eek out that post about my beloved WGirls because their event is coming up but I haven't had much to say. I figured I'd play a little catch up now before I dive into the Emmy Awards tonight. I'll steal a line from my friend Evangeline who loves TV as much as I do- "This is MY football".

Anyway, so my first PSA is to be careful to wash your apples VERY carefully before eating.  That was how I got sick first. I usually buy organic and wash well, but this time, I didn't buy organic AND I just gave it a quick rinse because I was in a hurry. Well, then I'm reminded by my husband that apples are one of the "Dirty Dozen", the 12 dirtiest (pesticides) fruits out there and I should be more careful. Thank you very much a few bites too late. If you want more info on the fruits and veggies most covered in pesticides, here you go-  http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214.  How do I know it was the apple? Well, I didn't eat anything else out of the ordinary and I got sick shortly after eating the apple. I'm sticking with that as the culprit. So, this sickness lasted about six days and I get to eat nothing but white rice, plain bagels, and chicken broth (from the Kosher Nosh- http://www.koshernosh.com/index.html, which is great BTW).

Around day #3 of that sickness, I started feeling like I was getting a cold or having an allergy attack. It was a cold. I was in denial. Normally I take those Zicam Zavors- http://www.drugstore.com/zicam-cold-remedy-zavors-coated-chews/qxp223562. I love these. And Airborne in pink grapefruit flavor- http://www.drugstore.com/airborne-effervescent-health-formula-pink-grapefruit/qxp154076. I don't care if there are reports that neither of these does anything for you. It's a mental thing. They both taste good and it makes me feel like I have some control. But, I was afraid to take either because of the stomach problem. So, mental or not, it's now September 18, and I'm still fighting this cold.

I have some more PSA's though. We normally go to Bensi in Paramus Park every Saturday night for dinner. It's our thing. I've probably mentioned it in a prior blog. Anyway, that's our thing. But, I was at a 1st b-day party with E this Saturday and we ate lunch/dinner later than usual. When B came home from work we got to talking, he kind of wanted to go to TGIFridays so I said fine. B said there was on up 17N so we left the house around 6p to go there. Yeah, it's out of business. We were passing Macaroni Grill so I asked him if he wanted to try there or go to the Friday's in Hackensack and he wanted to go to Hackensack. Now, I'm all the way up in Ramsey/Mahwah so it wasn't a quick ride.

We get all the way to Hackensack and it was an HOUR wait for Friday's. We went across to Applebees. Same thing. So, I said we should just get pizza in the same parking lot as Applebees. Oh, the pizza place there? "Coming Soon". I just started laughing. We're in Bergen County and we cannot find ONE place to eat without an HOUR or more wait. B said we should just go to a diner. He was ready to naw off his own arm and E was having meltdowns getting in and out of the car. We got on Rt 4 East and decided to go to that new diner- "4 West Diner". We missed the exit. Went to go to a diner in Englewood. Closed.

FINALLY, we ended up at Cassie's on Dean St in Englewood- http://www.cassiespizzeria.com/. We used to LOVE Cassie's. And really, no one can beat or replicate their awesome pear salad. But, our meals sucked. I got lobster ravioli and I don't know, it just wasn't good. B tried their whole wheat personal pizza and he wasn't impressed either. Hopefully they were just having an off night. I will say the actual vodka sauce the ravioli was in was really good. It was the actual ravioli I didn't like. We both highly recommend the pear salad though.

My PSA or moral of the whole sordid story- Either go out for dinner on a Saturday night at Early Bird Special hour- like 5-6p or MAKE RESERVATIONS somewhere. Anywhere that is willing to take them. Who thought Friday's would be so popular when there are six better (in my opinion) restaurants across the street?? I'm not sure we could've even gotten a table at a pizza place in that area (by Riverside Square) if we could even find one. Even Coach House's parking lot was PACKED! I was about to pull into Ikea for food. It's cheap, it's relatively good, and was open.

Today E had his second Teddy Tennis class at the Tenafly Racquet Club. http://www.teddytennis.com/content/what_is_teddy_tennis/index.html. The owner of this Teddy Tennis franchise is REALLY passionate about it and it shows. She LOVES what she does. I wish I could remember her name, but I'm not sure we got it before she really went into detail explaining the whole program. It is GREAT for kids E's age and I guess until 5 years old-ish. At 6 yrs old they have more of an intense kind of program. I'm so glad we did this with E. We get to watch on a TV screen in the waiting area/lobby what he's doing and he seems like he's having a terrific time learning the basics of tennis to music. He said he had a lot of fun so we're happy.

Then we went to the Ridgewood Street Fair which I mentioned in my street fair blog earlier. This is a really good street fair if you have kids. They have a lot of those blow up slides and two bounce houses. I stand by that you need to get there early- It starts at noon, we were there at noon, and we still had to wait on line. Not long lines at that time, but the street part of the event was already almost unwalkable there were so many people. I had E in a stroller which is a pain for everyone because it's tight, but he would have been lost in 5 seconds in that crowd. I can't say they had anything really awesome or different in terms of what was being sold, but there were some nice jewelry stands, the food looked good and it's just a nice event. It's Bergen County so no stores were really open but Ridgewood Coffee Company was booming, they have tables outside to sit and yummy treats to eat.

They have a petting zoo and pony rides, but they animals looked kind of gross. I swear, the pony rides had signs all over them that said "Pet ponies at own risk. They may bite". I find this EXTREMELY odd. What? You can't find some ponies that won't possibly bite the children riding on them. I've never seen that before. I know many people are against these kind of things- traveling petting zoos and the ponies on those metal arms that go around in a circle- I'm not going to debate that. I'm just saying this was a very gross looking animal area and it was go at your own risk.

The Ridgewood Street Fair is always around the third Sunday in September. It was a gorgeous day for it- not too cold or hot, sunny, and no hint of rain.

So, it was a good day for the most part, busy....I seem to be on the tail end of my sickness. But the day would not be complete without a call to Poison Control. What?? Yeah, that's what I said. E got a jellybean sized cut on his nose. I tried putting a band-aid on it and he kept touching it all day. I had the brilliant idea of putting New-Skin http://www.newskinproducts.com/products/liquid_bandage.aspx on his nose instead of a bandaid. Well, it got in his eye. That's not good. So, my last PSA of the night is that if that happens, flush the eye for 10 minutes in warm water and you should be good. E is fine now. But, of course it ranked up up there in the Top 5 scariest moments. Anytime you have to call Poison Control it's a scary moment. You hope it never happens again, yet since kids are kids, I'm sure it will.

On that note, I'm finally getting to watch the Emmy's!