Rancid Bacon and Stolen Eggplant

I have been really busy lately, but somehow, I can't really remember what. My weekend was long as usual, with my 20 hour Saturday (ending with Celia's return from New York, and an impromptu drive to the King of Prussia Mall for the shoe sale at Nordstrom Rack), and Sundays are always a little bit torturous because we can't read on the weekends after 1:00 pm at Eastern State (on account of how busy it is, of course).
However, the big story from last week was my trip to NYC.
I met up with Ekaterina (same girl who flew here to see the Cezanne show at the PMA, but now she is living back at home in Jersey with her parents), and we had a lovely day of museums and walking, and chatting. It was lovely.
We saw some Russian art.
I found an Alfred-Emile Stevens painting (I LOVE this man, but his work is supremely hard to find).
And my card from Eastern State (American Association of Museums membership as a tourguide at an American Museum) got us into the Guggenheim (my first time), although we were a little disappointed that the whole museum was chock full of Frank Lloyd Wright drawings and models (like, no offense, but if you are INSIDE a Frank Lloyd Wright, do you really NEED to see thousands of other examples of a Frank Lloyd Wright?) However, we didn't pay for entrance so it was fine anyway. We even got to a (The?) Museum of American Figure Painting, for the last 5 minutes they were open.

The whole reason we went was, of course, to see the Francis Bacon show at the MET. Neither of us really care for Bacon, although we both know enough to appreciate his influence on art and etc etc etc, however, it was nice to see the show with someone who felt exactly the same as I did. We even saw a few things we liked. And I was impressed by their Popes Room. I sent a text to Peter who loves Francis Bacon, as I was enjoying a beer at a small bar in Chinatown awaiting my bus (or rather, I was enjoying reading Herman Hesse's "Demian" at the BAR part of the bar). The text read "Beer at bar in china town. Bacon was rancid. Ahhaha" And I think that pretty much sums up that day.

Getting back proved to be a little bit of a hassle since I managed to miss the last connecting metro, but eventually found a bus and got home in time to pass out with 8 hours of sleep before work at the bakery next day.

Hans has been a very good boy, and oh how he has grown! I finally bought him a chew toy (with the thought that small and rubber would somehow fool him into believing he was gnawing on my flesh, but he is never fooled for long).
A different set of Lancaster farmers brought me some flowers yesterday, and they look lovely with the ones from last week, which are still doing remarkably well for well over a week of slow and painful deaths.

My two growing tomato plants are doing well.
And I have two cucumbers growing.
And even the pepper.

However, the eggplant (my pride and joy) has disappeared. It was doing so well, too! Well, it is almost the end of August, and I have not yet actually eaten anything from the garden aside from scallions. I have to admit though, that I only water them once a day, and that was pretty negligent of me. And I guess all this nonsense with uninvited visitors helps us with scapegoats, but I still like watching things grow, even if I don't get to eat the produce.