Ever since the pandemic, “curbside pickup” seems to be a very popular option for people who just want to order online and pick up in-store without doing any shopping. As someone who really does not enjoy going to malls and browsing, and absolutely hates trying on clothes, this would generally appeal to me. However, it doesn’t always work out when you designate what you want, choose the location of the store for in-store pickup, and then you get an email hours later stating that said-item, which was supposed to be in stock at the store, is no longer there. Sephora has a sale until November 6, so I thought I would take advantage of it… And while I did, I only was able to successfully get 1 out of three desired items. What’s the point of doing in-store pickup and shopping online then? At that rate, I might as well just shop in the store, ensure they actually have what I want, and then buy! It felt like a total waste of time even going on the site. I got a cancelled order message twice in the last two days for two different items, so I am not a fan of the current state of Sephora online ordering/in-store pickup.

Every year since we’ve moved into this building, Chris and I have embraced paying it forward and passing out candy to trick-or-treaters in our building. We usually buy our massive bag of candy in August or September from Costco. We also are usually pretty generous about how much candy we give. While many apartments or houses may just give one or two pieces of candy, we’ve given handfuls of candy to kids who stop by. Part of the reason for that is that we have SO much candy, and I definitely don’t need more candy lying around this apartment to tempt me. The other reason is that the candy assortments are rarely all types of candy we enjoy.

Well, apparently this year, our building management screwed up. The building manager was out on vacation the last week and a half, and it slipped her mind that Halloween was on the day after she came back from vacation. Nothing was socialized about which units would like to sign up to pass out candy to hopeful trick-or-treaters, so no one even had the ability to sign up until yesterday, which is such short notice to have a sign up sheet set up… and then to actually SHARE that sheet with all parents who have kids participating. So when Chris stopped by the lobby to see the list of apartment units participating, it looked like there were barely even ten units signed up. And at this rate, it’s unlikely that many units with hopeful children even knew that our building was even participating in trick or treating at all!!

I guess yet again, we’re going to have a ton of leftover candy this year…

In the last several years, we’ve battled a couple of small “infestations” in our apartment. Twice, we’ve experienced the teeny tiny cigarette beetles, which likely came in through a pantry item that was purchased. Twice, we’ve experienced a mini fruit fly infestation. Once, it was in our old apartment, and in the last couple weeks, I’ve noticed we’ve had fruit flies that just would not go away, even after I was killing at least one a day by squashing them. So I had to bring out the weapon of choice: apple cider vinegar. I used the same method in our previous apartment, adding a few tablespoonfuls of ACV to water, then adding a few drops of liquid dish soap to break up the water tension. These little traps in bowls laid out in areas where they like to fly are a sure-fire way to eliminate these pests. In the first week, we had already killed about eight of them. And after I replenished my last small bowl on the dining table, it already has six dead ones floating on top. In the last three days, I’ve seen zero fruit flies anywhere in the entire apartment.

“You’re committing genocide in this apartment!” Chris exclaimed, as he saw me peer over the bowl to see how many dead fruit flies were in it.

As far as I am concerned, this is not genocide; this is keeping our apartment pest free without using anything toxic. I am winning, and those pesky fruit flies are losing. That’s the circle of life.

In the last two years as we’ve really felt the impact of inflation, not just through our grocery bills, but also our restaurant bills, every time I go out to eat, I wonder whether what I’ve paid for, whether it’s food or drink, is really “worth it.” It seems like the more we go out, especially when we’re socializing with friends, it’s more and more impossible to see main dishes cost less than the high 20s. In many cases, main dishes seem to be up in the 30s and 40s, and that’s even during lunch/brunch times when people generally will assume that the cost of a meal will be lower than at dinner time. Today, we went to Park Slope to meet friends and dine at Masalawala & Sons for brunch. Masalawala is owned by Unapologetic Foods, a food company also responsible for one of our favorite Indian places in Long Island City called Adda. They like to market themselves as being “unapologetic,” authentic to the regions of India they represent, and also at reasonable, “not” expensive price points. But I couldn’t help but blink a few times when I saw that their main (“large”) format dishes were in the high 20s, 30s, and even 40s. The portions were decent, but even some of the appetizers, which were quite small (meaning, among four of us, we’d probably have a bite each at most), were around $20. Without even really thinking about it or over ordering in the least bit, when we split the bill, it ended up evening out to about $65 each. This wasn’t even supposed to be a fancy or “special occasion” meal. It was just meant to be a casual brunch catch-up with friends on a typical Saturday.

The food was definitely good and different than the average Indian restaurant. The decor was beautiful on the inside, complete with flowers, endless brightly colored wall paintings and interesting decorations adorning the walls and ceilings. I also really appreciated the super clean and muraled bathrooms, both of which had a changing table (which, of course, I was excited by, and Kaia was even more excited by because she knows what the changing tables look like before they are pulled down, and she insisted upon a diaper change before beginning lunch because she had had a heavy pee diaper. She kept yelling over and over, “Change diaper! Change diaper!”). The service was really friendly and attentive. It’s not that I could really critique anything about the restaurant at all. The price points just felt very steep. As I told Chris after, as he had commented about how steep the prices were, I told him that unfortunately, a place like this could not be a reliable everyday “neighborhood restaurant” where you’d stop by without thinking… because it would just hurt the wallet too much. But it seems like almost every restaurant that isn’t a total hole-in-the-wall is like this now in New York City. Once upon a time, we used to spend $8-15 on lunch. Then it became $20 for a weekday work lunch. Now, you’d be lucky to get out spending $25-30, and that’s before tax and… of course, tip. It almost just makes you want to eat even more of your meals at home now.

When I first moved to New York in 2008, a cousin was living in a tiny studio apartment in a brand new building in Forest Hills. I really knew nothing about Queens, so I didn’t know anything about Forest Hills. At the time when I used to go visit him, I’d wonder why Austin Street was so dull. It was mostly a bunch of generic chain restaurants, sub-par pizza and Italian/American spots, and a couple of Asian fusion type restaurants. It was NOT a place I would ever consider a foodie/dining destination.

Well, Fast forward 15 years, and I love Forest Hills as a place to eat. A lot of those chains I was not a fan of are now gone, replaced by individual businesses as well as some small New York chains like Tacombi. Forest Hills also has a number of notable and authentic Chinese restaurants, ranging from Shanghainese to Sichuanese, and having gone to a few of these places, the quality is really, really good. Today, I came out here to dine with friends who live here, and we ate at the very first ramen restaurant to open in Forest Hills years ago. Their first location was in Astoria, and they decided when branching out that their second location would be in Forest Hills. Listening to their wait staff and kitchen staff, the employees are actually almost all Japanese, which was also remarkable and not something I would have imagined 15 years ago when my cousin lived in this neighborhood. And nearby, there are also other interesting, lesser known cuisines: Georgian, Uzbeki, just to name some. It’s been fun to watch Forest Hills evolve and be another place to go to for food.