I was biking the Summer Streets in NYC yesterday (excuse the sweaty photo), and look who I ran into!

This is Wind-Up Hello Kitty, a cast bronze statue by artist Tom Sachs on display in the courtyard of Lever House (Park Avenue and 53rd Street). Sachs’ other works in this exhibit include Miffy and Kitty fountains—water pours from the eyes, which I find a little disturbing—and a 10-foot My Melody sculpture.

From a 5/4/08 NY Times article:

“Even as an artist I get caught up in the grind of running a small business and keeping things going,” Tom Sachs said, discussing a 21-foot-tall bronze Hello Kitty that rises up behind the fountains at Lever House. “This windup Hello Kitty is an expression of how automated my life can feel sometimes. Maybe that’s why she’s the biggest one in the show and looks like she’s about to fall over.”
Read article…

Though I don’t know how I feel about “crying” Hello Kitty, it was certainly the cutest rest stop! (In second place came the irresistible kids giving out cupcakes and lemonade, collecting donations for New Orleans. A distant third goes to the mule at the Juan Valdez coffee stop.)

“Enjoy your frosty beverage,” says Hello Kitty. “I’ll keep it that way!”

Having this just makes me happy, somehow.

You have to get your vitamin c somewhere, why not via tasty snacks shaped like Hello Kitty, her friends, and accessories?

I should be better about taking my daily vitamins. Or should we all just ingest more candy—I mean “fruit flavored snacks”—and soda?

A sweet friend of mine picked up this faux Hello Kitty belt buckle for me at a street fair in Brooklyn. It’s cute, but just a bit off in several ways that make her look possibly on the evil side. What do you think?

Meanwhile, I killed the gingerbread. I was attempting to bake above sweet friend and her boyfriend my grandmother’s famed gingerbread with lemon sauce. I perhaps need to rethink my opinion that I have any talent at this.

Should I fill the hole with ice cream?

I’m going to power on and make the sauce, hopefully some of it is salvageable. It’s just, um, not my best work as a baker. I suspect I overbeat it and/or put in too much of some liquid or another. Though it can’t be all my fault. My oven heats at random. I should get an oven thermometer. Or a new kitchen…

Luckily, there is still the possibility that it will taste yummy.

I am a bad blogger. Very sorry, dear readers (if you are out there), I haven’t been in a HK bloggy mood lately.

To tide you over until I am inspired…

I received several Hello Kitty items for Christmas and my birthday, including plastic bowl/cup with Hello Kitty AND a castle on them, hairbrushes, toothbrush, earrings, a box picturing Kitty by a fountain, and others I’m forgetting. I think the best, though, are my new favorite pjs. They’re very comfy, and I’ve been pretty much living in them at home.

When you are feeling blue - on a rainy day, no less - there is nothing like a chance HK find to brighten your day a teeny bit.

I know this is probably posted everywhere on Sanrio-related blogs, but I feel I am required to make note of it, too!

Hello Kitty made her Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade debut this year.

I had a call from my mom when the balloon appeared on tv, “Just wanted to make sure you saw Hello Kitty. Ok, bye!”

Here is the most random Hello Kitty item I own. A co-worker saw this and picked it up for me a few years ago. Squeeze the handle, she’ll grab things for you!

I suppose I must prove I belong here every once in awhile.

I have collected these bags of cuteness over the years. Five were gifts, two I bought myself. (Several friends are probably shocked I only own seven.) The majority of the small purses I carry are probably Hello Kitty. Why not, right?

I don’t need more (seriously), but I really kind of want this one.