academia hell

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have been procrastinating on my presentations for the first journal club of the academic year, and now it's have-to-do-it-time. article topics? msk. if any of you know me, you know how much i just love msk imaging. double bah.

yesterday, i did manage to head to ippudo for a nice post-call lunch with one of the irish body imaging fellows who, i kid you not, was the only caucasian in the restaurant. the pork buns were so worth the trip there. too good, peoples, too good. also had the miso ramen. the broth was way better than the actual ramen noodles, which was kind of disappointing, coming from the "king of ramen." whatevs. i would still go back,...but there must be better ramen somewhere in the city...will find it, don't worry.

call update

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it sucks.

bah to weather; meh to on-call

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on-call this saturday, which thankfully doesn't start until 1pm, so i just recently woke up.

silver lining? the weather is disgusting. not a bad day to have to be on-call afterall...

intermix warehouse review

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made it to the intermix warehouse sale tonight at the metropolitan pavilion. intermix is a store i love, but too moderate in price points for me to actually purchase items there at the full price. there were a lot of clothes at the sale. some nice pieces from DVF, elizabeth & james, and thread social. the only problem? i searched thru racks of clothing trying to find the right size. the closest i got was size 2 for the elizabeth & james and thread social pieces i was interested in.

elizabeth & james cascade dress. (the one for sale was in ochre)

tragically, the elizabeth & james dress size 2 was still loose, they (ie. olsen twins) really should have sized that thing a 4.

thread social one shoulder dress with knot detail.
(the one for sale was navy blue)

the thread social size 2 did fit o-k, but it was not greatly discounted and still was $309(!) bastards.

i ended up getting a casual flannel slim fit dress from american colors by henry lehr.

if ur in the city and interested in picking up pieces from this intermix sale, run, don't walk...small sizes are going fast.

i also finally got my zannclip in the mail. alas, too lazy to walk to barney's and buy one. i'm hoping it lives up to all the hype.

large platinum plate zannclip.

my hair is long enough to waste a lot of shampoo (as my sister would say). let's see if this clip can hold it all up.

angel lee & morgane le fay

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was post-call on tuesday and spent a lazy afternoon downtown shopping. the angel lee sample sale was boasting $5 costume jewelry from such name brands as bcbg, banana republic, french connection, j crew et al. there were also actual angel lee items for sale, but those were way over $5 and really, costume jewelry is not worth >$5. i did pick up a few necklaces and a bracelet:

i also dropped by the morgane le fay sample sale. there were loads of items at this sale, mostly a lot of ethereal pieces from the spring/summer collection. i spent over an hour searching through racks of merch before finally settling on this piece:

i heart this dress. totally wearable. could be worn casual or dressed up. i think it may even be made work-wearable if paired with a blazer/jacket.

other events this week? well, today was the jimmy choo sample sale. but hours were totally not work-friendly.

tomorrow, hoping to check out intermix's warehouse sale...will highly depend on when i get off work. bah.

food blog weekend

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sam's right...this blog is slowly changing into a food blog.

bouley and it's tasting menu on saturday were everything that fine dining is cracked up to be. just not something that i could do every weekend.

because i was surrounded by foodies (fine foodies) this weekend, i was taken to this store:

la maison du chocolat

i didn't buy anything on saturday when we were there (for fear of spoiling my appetite for bouley)...and really, this place is as far from cheap as you can get. irregardless, i want to go back and try this:

macaron

in particular, i want to try the rigoletto (chocolate caramel macaron).
i have KY to thank for my new food obsession. thanks.

friday food finds

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decided to go to jewel bako friday night (way too hot outside for ramen at ippudo). decor at jewel bako was fairly nice. we had:

trio of tartares blue fin tuna, salmon and yellowtail, served with lotus root chips. ex-cellent.
unagi with shrimp, golden tobiko, avocado and kaiware. really good.
scallops with yuzu zest, avocado, scallions and chive oil. meh.
salmon with shiso furikake, bonito flakes and white miso. only good.

i would go back just for the trio of tartares...it was that de-licious.

since we were in the east village anyway, we walked to butter lane for dessert. we tried:

vanilla cupcake with caramel frosting. too good.
chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting. only good.

after, we checked out the japanese grocery store (conveniently on the way to the subway) that my cousin showed me the other night. i bought the usual things that i like, but also got some green tea tapioca balls and black tea mix to make bubble tea. the store also had my favourite aloe vera drinks (or at least a different brand of the aloe vera drinks i like).

original flavour.

and peach flavour.

i'm hoping they're good.

saja sample sale review (that's not mine)

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racked.com gave the exact (well, almost... ok, not really, except the part about hunting for sizes) same review for the saja sample sale:

http://racked.com/archives/2009/08/21/above_the_fray_137.php#more

waiting for weekend

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with no days of pre-call or post-call, it is a full work week. meh.

last night i went out for pommes frites and dollar-sushi. (yes, you read that right. dollar-sushi). first stop, pommes frites. i may have to eat fries every week until i have tried all the dipping sauces. last night, we had the cheese sauce, sundried tomato mayo, & parmesan peppercorn mayo. the next ones i want to try are mango chutney mayo and grilled eggplant mayo. (as per recommendations). second stop, dollar-sushi. it may sound totally sketchy, but it was surprisely o-k. the place was packed, which is generally a good sign. after, i was too lazy to walk to butter lane to get "the better cupcake." (next time...)

tonight, i was contemplating checking out barney's warehouse sale which started today. after reading some stories online of the queue to get in this morning and the lack of any worthy sales, i passed and decided to check out the saja sample sale in the lower east side. i'm glad i did. although the sample sale was a disaster with absolutely no rhyme or reason to the way merch was put on the racks...there were a lot of great deals. trying to look thru the racks was deadly. i don't know why, but there were a lot of tiny asian girls there. and asian girls can get mean when they are shopping for deals, peoples. i snagged this small sized dress (which were few, most of the merch was size 6), as angry little asian girls watched with envy.

saja cowl neck dress in moss print. (retail $470! who would pay this, really?!!) sample sale $70

finally friday tomorrow! want to try one of ippudo or jewel bako .

this weekend: visitors! saturday night booked at bouley. the tasting menu. all i can say is, it better be good, peoples. it better be really good.

for the love of everything high-waisted and belted

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here's that high-waisted bcbg tulip skirt that i bought earlier this summer.

here's the high-waisted bcbg skirt that i bought today.

bcbg high-waisted yellow stella skirt. (was $108) now $25.62!

spring/summer clearance now on. everywhere.

and the best is yet to come later this week and next week...

sweetface & laura merkin

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earlier this week i checked out the sweetface sample sale. there were good deals to be had with jennifer lopez's contemporary line sweetface, seeing that the line was cancelled earlier this year. i picked up this emerald silk dress.

the detailing is all in the back, with ruffled straps and an asymmetrical ruffle down the back of the dress.

today i was post-call and after lunch in koreatown, i headed to the lauren merkin sample sale after hearing that there was a great collection of discounted clutches up for grabs. true to word. i got this one.

lauren merkin tatum patent croc amethyst clutch.

i also stopped by the frank tell sample sale (which only had 10 pieces for sale, i kid you not) and the cynthia rowley sale. the cynthia rowley dresses were greatly discounted, all pretty much under $100, but i didn't see anything that i liked.

now for food thoughts....

momofuku milk bar review:

cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookie. surprisingly, a fan.

compost cookie. not a fan.

banana cake (banana cream, hazelnut crunch, gianduja fudge). huge fan.

crack pie (toasted oat crust, gooey butter filling). not good at all.

pommes frites.

being a huge french fry fan, it's surprising that i haven't tried this place yet. i pass by it everytime i'm in the east village since it's so close to my cousin's place. 25 different dipping sauces?! and poutine?!! yes.

i may have to have french fries for dinner one night next week.

this week's sample sales

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sweetface & jlo by jennifer lopez blowout sample sale
august 11-13

dolce & gabbanna sample sale
august 13-15

cynthia rowley sample sale
august 13-16

out of all of these, most interested in cynthia rowley. here's where being post-call august 13 comes in handy...

the goods

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here are those cute, off-white booties that i snagged at the dsw gucci fiasco.

perfect for fall wear.


mara hoffman sample sale find.

double layer asymmetric swing dress. (retail $396) sample sale $75

i like it better belted.

the inner layer is a strapless sheath dress.

bcbg belt. (faves, of course).

weekday shopping, it's possible

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i made it to the mara hoffman sample sale tonight. it was manageable chaos with the after-work crowd and totally worth the trip downtown. as advertised, merchandise from the spring/summer collection and samples were 80% off, and nothing was priced over $100. there were gorgeous dresses, in small sizes, and after trying on about 10 of them, i picked out one amazing one (pics later...too lazy now). there were also some cute maxi dresses. the sale runs until sunday, and i'm hoping that prices will drop on the last day (as they often do). might be worth checking out again this weekend.

my second stop was the misoreno sample sale which has been ongoing this week, advertising merchandise from miss sixty & energie, with nothing over $29.99. true to word, prices topped out at $29.99, but the miss sixty dresses and skirts (which is what i was looking for) were total crap.

since i was downtown anyway, i bravely decided to check out the dsw gucci sale. earlier this week dsw had been advertising that they would be receiving stock from a secret designer thursday, and pretty much half of the city knew that it was gucci. the only words to describe the scene when i arrived at the dsw union square store was crazy madness. shoppers there weren't going crazy, they were already cr--aazzy. they were elbow to elbow and madly grabbing at merchandise as it was being stocked. gucci bags which retail at $1200 were priced at $400. there were also wallets, luggage tags, scarves, belts, and keychains. but by far, the deal to be had were the shoes. there were some really nice knee-high boots and classic pumps (both of which i do not need at the moment). what i considered the best deal were the booties. good enough of a deal to purchase? yes.

after lining up in dsw to pay (which btw took almost an hour), i headed down the block to pick up some food from trader joe's. at least the queue wasn't as deadly there.

tomorrow is the kenneth cole 925 technology silver edition footwear collection release at the rockefellar store. the black booties and flats in the collection are probably worth checking out in person. apparently mr. cole, himself, will be at the release to sign your shoes (if desired).

mission accomplished

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i went out for brunch on sunday to this restaurant called dovetail. the food was pretty amazing. if you are planning to visit me in the city, you will likely be dining there.

while in the upper west side, i dropped by loehmann's to look for rain boots. of course, i didn't find any. i found these instead:

pour la victoire red patent leather flats. $40 (original retail price $220)

seeing that i wasn't finding what i was actually looking for, i headed back to the upper east side and decided to look around my own neighbourhood for rain boots. i don't want to bore you with all the stores that i actually went to (there were a lot...i even went to bloomingdales, where hunter rainboots were in the three digits. outrageous, no?) after going into what felt like a million stores, i went to payless. yes, payless. did i find rain boots there? no. but the sales lady there advised me to go around the corner to daffy's. so i did. there were definitely cheap rain boots there, but not in my size. so i thought to myself, what's the equivalent store of daffy's in the city (but not really)? that's right, strawberry.

black rain boots from strawberry. $19.99

there you go. 3 stores that i would never go in otherwise (payless, daffy's, and strawberry). enlightening. here's to dry feet.

lazy weekend shopping

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the things i really need to do this weekend, ie. laundry & groceries, haven't been done yet. perhaps tomorrow.

this morning, i got up relatively early to go look for 2 things: walking sandals and rain boots. why i need these 2 items is obvious. walking around in flip-flops just doesn't cut it in the city, esp when you are walking around a lot. the rainy weather for the past few weeks has totally scared me into buying rain boots. it's disaster to try and walk in the city with "normal" shoes when it's raining and it's just desirable to start the work day off with dry feet.

so, where to go? of course, dsw, union square. i tried desparately to find something here, but just couldn't. the rain boots were disgusting and there were no decent sandals. after half an hour, i headed to the next best option, which would be loehmann's, and i found these.

tahari gladiator sandals. $30 (totally discounted)

for some reason, i still remember when gladiator sandals were trending...(i was in amsterdam, 2006). i didn't really think the trend would last, but surprisingly it has. these shoes were super cheap and are totally walkable.

while at loehmann's, i also picked up a summer dress.

necessary objects summer dress. $19 (total deal)

walking back to catch the subway, i passed by the chelsea housing works thrift store. now believe me, peoples, i'm definitely not a thrift/consignment store kind of shopper, but i've read about housing works infamous $20 all-you-can-stuff-bag events and so i stepped into the store to check it out. forget everything you think you know about thrift stores for a second and think about a thrift store that has labels. people who drop off their clothes here for resale (or donation) probably can afford to do so. not sure that i would ever buy clothing or shoes here... but accessories are a totally different story. i bought this gorgeous, soft leather adjustable belt which was like new.

ellen tracy belt. $12 (seriously)

it was a productive morning. in the afternoon, i went to the met with one of the other radiology fellows to check out the model as muse exhibit....(why does naomi campbell always look like she can kick your ass in her photos?). it's a beautiful day in the city (mostly due to the fact that it's not raining, for once)... will head out for dinner laters.

tomorrow i really need to find rain boots. planning to hit up the upper west side loehmann's, here's hoping.