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.)

Having this just makes me happy, somehow.

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

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.

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.

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!”

Using Webtender’s “In My Bar” app, you click off everything you have, and it tells you what you can create. I just picked out a few random ingredients, and got results such as Doug’s Modified Cement Mixer, Dr. Raspberry, and the Green Widow.

Dr. Raspberry is Chambord with Dr. Pepper over ice. As I tend to pour Chambord into lots of things–ice cream, champagne, bad white wine–and am a big DP fan, I’m pretty likely to try this one.

The below is not on that website, but I think it appropriate to share here:

Hello Kitty Martini

3 oz strawberry vodka
1/2 oz gin
1 1/2 oz peach schnapps

Shake, pour into a martini glass, and garnish with a strawberry.