His highly-stylized movies capture Preppy characters that seem to have been pulled straight from J.D. Salinger stories.
Not my favorite film of his, but a good one none the less, is the Darjeeling Limited.
A humble little film that chronicles 3 brothers as they travel across India in search of themselves and the men they were supposed to be.
Sure, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Adrian Brody may technically be the stars…….but I think the real star of this movie is the luggage.
Designed by Wes’s brother Eric Chase Anderson, and produced by the then-creative-director for Louis Vuitton – Marc Jacobs, the matching luggage is a metaphor for the emotional baggage the brothers carry around with them after their father’s death.
Italian, Alberto Favaretto was smitten with Wes Anderson’s movies too. A few years ago, he designed a notebook inspired by Anderson’s film, Moonrise Kingdom, that took off like wildfire. So he started making other Wes Anderson influenced pieces; Margot Tenenbaum iPhone cases, Grand Budapest Hotel note cards and Team Steve Zissou swim trunks.
When we last left off….(Before Dolly Parton’s Birthday, of course)
Our young heroes were busy patting each other on the backs for a job well done.
They had continued with the remodel of their master bathroom and completed the daunting task of pouring their own concrete shower pan.
Little did they know…..that everything was about to go to SHIT.
(Sorry about the salty sailor-language, but this one really stung)
After drying overnight,……here’s what we woke to:
Not only does it look bad; but it “crackled” when we stepped on it. And I could feel it shifting a little too.
We’re certainly no renovation experts (this is our first bathroom remodel, after all) but I can tell that it’s probably not supposed to do that.
What went wrong?
We aren’t sure…….possibly the wrong cement? Was it too wet? Not enough sand? Too much humidity?
Doesn’t really matter, we knew it had to come out. So I grabbed a crowbar and a sledge hammer……and worked out a little anger about the situation.
Sadly, it took just a few minutes to remove the day’s worth of hard work we did.
But it wasn’t just the cracked concrete that was wrong………There was more.
(Well, apparently, there a few different ways to make a shower pan, and we were advised by our contractor to back up a few steps……and remove a few feet of the hardie board walls in the shower so a plastic liner can go behind it.
We’ve been following an online tutorial that has some “progressive” suggestions in the area of shower pan installs.
The Red Guard being one of those “progressive” suggestions. It’s a relatively new product, and most contractors will, as ours did, say that although Red Guard is a fine water barrier for the walls, a plastic liner is the best way to go for the shower floor.)
DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!!!!
I apologize once again for the adults only language in this post.
Soooooooooooo, Jamie took a reciprocating saw……and cut out a few feet of the beautifully-installed Hardie board from the shower walls as well.
I’m not gunna sugar coat it,
It stung.
It stung a whole HECK of a LOT.
That’s why I was cussing. And again, I’m sorry.
We hired a professional plumber to fix our “boo-boo” with the concrete……
and install the plastic liner on top of it….the correct way…
About this point,
I stopped taking pictures….
But here’s the summary of what happened next: Jamie reattached the removed Hardie Board wall pieces, slapped mortar over the screws and seams, painted on more Red Guard, and the plumber came back to add one more layer of concrete to the shower floor…..
When we last left off, we were in need a shower pan in our master bathroom shower. (The shower pan is the concrete sub-floor of the shower)
That’s right, we’re working on the master bathroom remodel again……
After quite a bit of ill-advised* research from a website that shall not be named, we settled on Portland Cement for our shower pan.
*(Foreshadowing)
We know that the slope of the pan should be about 1/4″ for every foot away from the drain the pan is.
This keeps the water running towards the drain.
….So to aid in this, Jamie got us a laser level.
He held it at about 1 inch up on the walls and we marked it with a chalk line all around.
Our drain is about 3/4″ above the floor and that 1/4″ slope should take the edges up to about an inch.
Seems about right.
I added water to the dry Portland Cement mix a little at a time, never add dry mix to water – always the other way around, and stirred it with a hoe.
We mixed it until it was about the consistency of peanut butter.
This was a little bit of a bitch.
It’s thick, and hard work. (Not sure how we got a blurry action shot, because this was a slow process…….especially for 2 guys not used to any actual manual labor)
When we felt it was just right,
I plopped a few scoops into the back-end of the shower and started working it with a trowel towards the drain……The drain I covered with painter’s tape so nothing falls in the hole and clogs it…..
….making sure I kept that slight dip towards the drain.
It really went a lot faster than I was expecting it to….and I was pretty damn proud of our work.
Unless you live in an isolated cabin in the woods, of course you have. This time of year….peppermint bark is freakin’ everywhere.
And every time I see it, the prices are even higher.
Wanna know a secret?….This stuff is easy to make.
So easy, in fact, that I’m going to share it with y’all right now.
Ready?
Here’s what you need:
1 Bag of Dark Chocolate Morsels
1 Bag of White Chocolate Morsels
1/4 Teaspoon Canola Oil
1/4 Teaspoon Peppermint Extract
6-8 Candy Canes (Or similar Peppermint Candy)
In a Pyrex bowl, add the canola oil to the dark chocolate morsels….
…and melt in the microwave in 30 second increments.
Stir after each 30 seconds, until all the morsels are melted. (Took 3 rounds in my microwave)
You don’t want it hot…….just melted. (So a little chunky is OK)
Pour the warm chocolate onto a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet.
Slide the cookie sheet into the fridge to cool for about 10 minutes.
This is the perfect time to break up the candy canes.
Place them, unwrapped of course, into a sealed freezer bag and bang them with a meat tenderizer (or hammer if you need to work out some frustrations) ’till they are in chunks.
I said Chunks……NOT a fine powder. Don’t go all crazy on them.
Now, melt the white chocolate morsels in the microwave too. Be sure to add the peppermint extract first.
When the white chocolate is completely melted, took me 3 30 second rounds again, pour it over the cooled dark chocolate and spread evenly.
While the white chocolate is still soft…immediately sprinkle the broken candy cane pieces all over the top.
You may need to press them into the chocolate a little to make sure they stick.
Now let this cool in the fridge for about 1/2 an hour……until it’s hard.
Use a cleaver, or similar big knife, to cut the bark into strips….
…..then break it apart into smaller chunks.
I simply up-cycle Romeo Y Julieta cigar boxes (smoke shops usually give these away for free) for packaging.
(The cigar boxes remind me of the ladies who would bring Rice Crispy Treats in old Buster Brown shoe boxes to church pot-lucks)
Just add a bow and a sprig of pine….ohhh, and a candy cane if any are left.
The older I get…..the fewer material things I really want for Christmas.
This year, instead of buying each other things we don’t really need, Jamie and I decided to take a short trip.
So we boarded Harley, asked our friend John to pick up our mail, and cashed in miles on 2 tickets to Bright and Shiny New York City.
Of course we’ve both been before…..just not together.
We found a hip, little (I mean seriously little; 80% of our room was bed) hotel in midtown about 4 blocks from the Empire State Building.
The rooftop bar offered up this view of that beautiful building.
Breathtaking. Am I right? That view sold us on the hotel….the Archer, BTW. (we had a similar view from our room as well)
Christmas in New York, how magical. Allow us to share a little of it with y’all.
I wouldn’t be a very good Catholic if I didn’t stop by St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Our Hotel was right next to Bryant Park/NY Public Library, and since the Holiday Market at Bryant Park was recommended by just about everyone….we waddled over there to shop, watch the blury ice skaters…..
and drink hot cider…
We started our Sunday early, before the gangs woke up, and took the subway down to Battery Park.
Hazy day, but you can still see Lady Liberty in the distance. (She’s that little grey pointy-thing between us)
There’s a new-fangled type of carousel in Battery Park now.
The Seaglass. Instead of horses there are fish. Abstract fish. And the whole building is shaped like a nautilus.
Only 5 bucks? How could I not ride?
Jamie sat this one out. Which worked out pretty well because he could video me twirling by.
You have to pay attention, I go by fast, but I’m the big creepy guy in the green sunfish.
We walked. We walked A LOT. 7 miles on Saturday night alone, and then another 13 miles from Battery Park to Macy’s on 34th. We just got caught in the energy of the city and kept going. Good thing we brought sensible shoes. (Not the cute shoes we usually travel with).
Speaking of Macy’s. A million years ago I cut my teeth with that company learning to do department store visuals.
How great are these windows? One of my absolute favorite Christmas traditions is A Charlie Brown Christmas.
The tacky 1960’s Christmas trees were the best part. They looked like vintage beaded parade floats.
Lord & Taylor did a fanciful candy shop theme….Here’s 10 seconds of ginger bread men…..
We came to window shop. Since store windows are in my blood……and bi-monthly paycheck……I’m not easy to impress. Bergdorf Goodman did just that. Every window inch was covered in Swarovski crystals……
……except for Poseidon – or Neptune, depending on whether you’re Greek or Roman – he was covered in pearls. I hope the pictures show just how stunning these beauties were.
Saks Fifth Avenue, another company on my resume, put on quite a show as well. Everything in the Windows was a frosty,layered banquet in the Winter Palace. There were touches of Lady Gaga, the Ice Queen from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and a little Circ de Soile sprinkled on top.
But the real show wasn’t inside the windows. Every 10 minutes the entire building lit with a Winter Palace light show.
Because we couldn’t see everything we needed to see from the street level, we took the elevator to the Top of the Rock.
The 70th floor of Rockefeller Center. The observation deck is open until 11pm most nights, we went about 9pm, and well worth the effort. Not too cold. Not too many people. It was just right.
The view was Spec-Tac-U-Lar. One a clear day, you can see for 50 miles in all directions……but we only seemed to take pictures of the Empire State Building.
We left unseasonably-warm Dallas for even MORE unseasonably-warm New York. Monday was a record/breaking 67 degrees. Good thing we brought extra sweaters. (Yeah Right. Should have brought shorts.)
We started Monday with the latest New York tradition (at least, for everyone we know that visits there)….coffee at Ralph’s Coffee at the Polo store on 5th Ave.
Then a brisk walk to Central Park.
The Bethesda Fountain in Central Park is one of my favorite spots in the world. The story from the Bible is that the Angel Bethesda blessed the waters to give them healing powers.
Ironically, the water was drained.
Guess we’ll have to remain all “unhealed” until the next trip.
Not a whole lot of shopping on this trip. It was about the experience, remember? But I did commemorate my blurry photo of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree……
…… with a pretty similar looking Ornament.
Much better than any physical gift, our whole Christmas in New York City experience was just priceless.
(Well I guess we could add up all the receipts……..ugh)
THE CAVENDER DIARY 