i can't believe it, but it's (finally) open

and hopefully people will love oulu as much as most people seem to love gstaad. there's nothing at the website yet www.oulunyc.com, but you can see a photo of our green wall on the dwell magainze blog. super cool, right?

it's been a rough few weeks. my hands are stiff every morning. i call it "tool grip hand". i've been in the hardware store 10,000 times. the guy that owns the place is such a grump. everyone dreads going over there. i've cut myself a million times on everything from the head of a swinging hammer to a sheet rock knife to just the rough edge of a sheet of plywood and i stabbed myself in the leg with a small nail connected to a large piece of molding once, but once was enough.

we threw a party for ant's family and family friends on wendesday night and that morning at 9 a.m. i was still spackling walls and painting. i kept telling people not to touch anything half joking, but the bigger half serious. we still have a lot to do, but at least we're open.

it hasn't really processed fully that we have a second place yet. i'm not excited - exactly. i feel like a foreigner in the new bar. all the staff is new. they really react to us like we're the bosses, with frozen smiles and guarded responses. i feel funny telling them what to do about this and that. when you walk in, it smells like fresh cut wood and paint for a couple of minutes, but then you don't notice it anymore. it's too clean, if something could be too clean. it's really beautiful, better designed than gstaad possibly, but it doesn't feel like home like gstaad does. i guess it won't be long before it's full of junk that i'll refuse to throw out "in case we need it later" and it'll have desks and scars and stories and gum under every table and shoe prints on the wall.

right now, i'm so behind on my work at gstaad, i don't know where to start. my desk is a mess. i've got some save the dates to get out to the wedding girl for my andebobandy project. i haven't even closed out all of last months financials. poor neglected first child, poor neglected new enterprise. i need to spend some serious quality time with both.

as soon as i get some photos, i'll post them of the new baby. till then you can visit her. 160 n. 4th street in williamsburg. right next to the san loco, where i've had everything on the menu.