Sometimes, rarely, never

Love this image.

Can you guess where in NYC I took this picture?

Today on Apartment Therapy: Kitchen I'll give my riff on this week's NY Times Dining articles. This picture fit right in with their market theme.

Sad, sad toaster

R* and I are a little bit sad about our toaster.

My mom and dad gave it to us for Christmas and by February it was already busted. The bread won't spring up any more. If you wiggle and jiggle the handle just right, it might come up. I usually end up breaking a rule that most hold almost as sacred as not tearing the tags about poly-fiber-fill off their pillows, and stick a knife into a toaster and pull out the toast. (We usually remember to unplug it first). It's kind of like Operation.

Our new dishwasher was next to break, followed by the microwave. The silver lining: Since Sears missed their appointment to fix the microwave three times, they sent us a gift card for $75. Kinda cool.

The toaster market is be crowded at the low and high price points, full of throw-aways that cost $20-ish and $289.98 behemoths by Dualit and KitchenAid. This Cusinart toaster seems like an okay mid-price option, but I think its fake-retro style is ugly.

$30o for a toaster is crazy, right? And then you get to buy it a cage like it's a poodle. Plus we keep the toaster in the pantry and the rich toasters are too heavy to carry back and forth from pantry to counter.

Even with these appliance woes, we're not nearly as sad as this see-through toaster. Can you listen to this song while you browse Sears.com to give us toaster buying advice? Stainless steel, two slice would be cool, and let's avoid Kennmore brand. This is my choice. Do you agree?

A Cortland apple for my teacher

Today is my dad's birthday. Today's also my first day writing as the New York City co-editor for Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen. At first, the two events seem unrelated, but they aren't. Not really.

My first post as NYC co-editor on Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen is about New York State apples, many of which are grown near Cortland, NY where both my mom and dad grew up. There's even an apple named after little Cortland. (It bugs me that many Manhattan retailers lable them "Courtland" apples.)

My dad teaches me about patience and persistance. These values are easy to forget in the topsy-turvy world of Internet marketing in Manahttan. Dad continues to hang in there with his tough career and has taught me to do the same. I graduated from college with an English degree wondering if I'd ever have a shot at being a professional writer of some stripe: today's the day!

Dad is there to rescue me from so many jams. He's rushed money for lunch or a forgotten field trip to my elementary school and begged the cleaners to stay open for a few more minutes so he could pick up the white band uniform pants and race them to the stadium before my fieldshow performance. In college, he took me to the bank to sign my first loan agreement, so that I could buy myself a computer and get connected to the Internet.

After graduation, Dad was quick to start tracking the stocks of the Web marketing start-up I worked for and all our competitors. Dad could also give R* some competition as far as the person who appreciates my cooking the most. I love going home to Bethlehem, Pa. to grill with him and catching him peeks into the pots and taking a slurp hours before dinner's served.

I think dad likes banannas -- the number one seller in the produce aisle -- over apples, but I still want to wish him a Happy Birthday! And thank dad and mom, my grandmother, my brothers BC and MK, R*, my friends and everyone else for their help.

I will be posting daily (M-F) on AT: K. Posting on the ElectricStove will slow down a bit, but I still plan to post here too.