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[thegrimzuera]

Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down into a real-life, real BAD fanfic.

So for the sake of privacy, we’ll say that my name is Zoe. I was raised in heteronormative, Midwestern suburbia. Now for the most part I adore my family and I loved my childhood, but in this case it did not work to my advantage. You see, nobody ever told me I could be gay. Just slipped their minds, I guess. Oops? So for most of my adolescence I walked around like a chump, thinking I was straight. I mean, straight people, you do you! It just didn’t work for me. That in and of itself is Bad Fanfic Trope #1.

I dated this guy on and off throughout high school. We’ll call him Chad. I liked Chad quite a bit. He was nerdy and we had nice conversations. For some reason we just couldn’t click well enough to maintain our relationship long enough that it became permanent (hint: because I was GAY...!). Honestly, we don’t even need to dwell on Chad that much. He’d be the least important part of this story if it weren’t for the fact that during one of our “off again” phases, he met and fell right in love with a person who we’ll dub Sarah.

Here’s where it gets juicy.

Now I’d never met her, but everyone said that Sarah was just like me—but cooler. We were both cute little emo girls, we both liked anime and weird music, and we both for some unknown reason liked Chad. Sarah also had this really amazing accent because she had moved to the states from Wales. All of Chad’s friends called her “British Zoe.” Come to think of it, that title made me a little bitter towards Sarah, and if Sarah ever heard about it, it may have contributed to her feeling bitter towards me too. Of course, being directed to compete over Chad didn’t help.

So Chad dated Sarah for a while, but it was fine, because Chad and I were going to stay friends like the mature 18-year-olds we were. Even though I was still insanely jealous of this mysterious and unattainably cool Sarah person. It was during this time that I figured I liked girls (and boys, I still thought) and as I was toying with the idea of telling Chad about my newly discovered bisexuality, he informed me that Sarah had also come out as bi. Interesting, isn’t it? 👀

I had the opportunity to meet Sarah once. We all went to an anime convention together, and I distinctly remember taking a deep breath beforehand and deciding that this was the day Sarah and I would become friends. There was no need for me to be jealous! If she was as cool as everyone said, then imagine how great a friendship would be. But I was shy. And she was shy. And we had all that baggage between us. I went home that day feeling alienated and disappointed.

Now things began to get messy, because conflicting feelings often do that. I’ll spare you the ugly details, but tell you that my friendship with Chad ended quite abruptly when I discovered that he’d been juggling both Sarah and I romantically at the same time. So I split, made a life for myself 50 miles away, and that was that.

Except it wasn’t. Fast forward about six years—one marriage, one child, one mental breakdown and revelation, and a divorce later. I moved back to my hometown, and one night I walked down the winter streets on the East side with a good friend of mine. I didn’t often come to these parts because I was raised on the opposite side of the city and it was unfamiliar to me. This was actually the first time I’d been here in about...hmm, six years? But one coincidence is all it takes I suppose.

As we walked along, I happened to glance into the front window of a restaurant just off the sidewalk. I had to do a double take, because there was no way that after six years and only one meeting I would immediately recognize...Sarah? Also Chad 😒 I did not say hello. I didn’t know what to do at all! After a mini meltdown, I decided that the best thing I could do was to reach out to Chad on social media.

In truth, I’d wished over the years that I could repair my friendship with Chad—wished that things had played out differently. If we all hadn’t been so dumb, maybe I wouldn’t have lost that friendship. To my great surprise, Chad was very friendly when I reached out. We arranged a time to meet up for coffee, and for several hours we talked and reconciled everything that had happened. We caught up on life, and Chad said that I should hang out with him and his friends—and Sarah—sometime.

I remember the first time I got to spend time with Sarah. It was shortly after that first coffee that Chad, Sarah, and I went to a local pinball bar to play and have drinks. We got together to play board games and have dinner around that time as well. In both instances, I was floored by Sarah’s kindness to me. Despite both of us being rather quiet by nature, we had easy conversation. I also remember feeling like such a dork in comparison. Me and my carefully curated outfits and sculpted hair were overdone and pretentious when compared to Sarah’s shaved head and relaxed wardrobe of black tank tops and some of the coolest pants I’ve ever seen. It was all so effortless for her.

Damn, I wanted so badly to be her friend! Chad kept encouraging me that Sarah thought I was really cool too, but I just didn’t believe it. When I learned that Chad would be moving out of state, I realized I had to stake my claim on Sarah’s friendship fast.

We all got together at Sarah’s new apartment for potentially one last time. Merely stepping foot into this place had my desire to be a part of Sarah’s world skyrocketing. The apartment sat on the East side of town, less than a hundred feet from the very restaurant window where I’d first saw her. It was on the upper level of an old, hipster coffee shop for goodness sake. If I didn’t want to be friends with Sarah just to be friends with her, I certainly wanted to For The Aesthetic.

That night I also met the person we’ll call Katie. This was Sarah’s new roommate. I could just tell as we interacted that evening that something good would come of this. At least, I hoped so. I largely contribute my lasting friendship with Sarah to Katie’s presence, because Katie has such a way about them. They can take even the most shy and awkward folks like me and get them laughing like fools. A little alcohol may have helped as well.

I lamented that night about how lonely I had been, and I did so out loud. That really should be embarrassing, but I’m nothing but grateful for my clumsy and pathetic tongue, because it allowed Sarah to open her mouth and invite me into her life.

“You can be my friend,” she offered earnestly. “Once Chad leaves I won’t really know what to do with myself, so you’re welcome here any time. I mean it!”

And hot damn, was I going to take her up on that. I came home that night absolutely elated. I had found a place to belong. I wrote songs and poetry about how happy I was. I told my parents how happy I was. I had never felt so hopeful, right down to the tips of my fingers. Flowers could have grown straight from my chest that night.

A week or so later, I had plans to have dinner with Sarah, Katie, and another friend of theirs, Rose. I was growing connections. That was also the week that I discovered Sarah and Chad had broke up because of some deeply rooted trash-bag tendencies he’d been revealed to have. We won’t go into that, but Chad was out of the picture, and somehow that raised the stakes. I had no training wheels now, not even in the form of an out-of-state buddy who could encourage me that Sarah truly did want my friendship.

Fortunately, what came to be on that evening with the three almost-strangers was the beginnings of the most instantaneous, wild, and addictive friendship of my life. We talked about everything. We discussed heartbreak, joy, pain, existence as a whole. We sat on a rooftop deck and gazed at the stars, and we immediately planned a get together for the following night where we would meet Lena and Emma, and our core group of instant best friends would be complete.

I can only describe this friendship as a whirlwind romance. These were the true loves of my life, and it had all started with laying eyes on Sarah by means of coincidence or fate that night in the winter—after years of tension and competition! Talk about an Enemies to Friends arc.

But I’m not even done yet.

As I mentioned, our little group became inseparable. We spent all of our time together and poured more energy into our friendship than I had ever given or been given by another adult person. I learned that these people were the coolest to ever exist, and that they thought I was cool too. I finally l believed it, because they wouldn’t allow me to doubt. This was a fierce love.

For some reason, with all this fierce love, I always found myself dying to get closer to Sarah. Closer and closer yet. I also felt particularly protective of my friendship with her. I think this had everything to do with the fact that our friendship was so ill-fated and had been thwarted many times before. I promised myself that I would never let anything or anyone come between us. Sarah was my number one concern.

You can see where this was going.

Bad Fanfic Trope #2: Enemies to Friends [to Lovers]

Now let me just take a pause in our literary journey to tell you some of the reasons I fell for Sarah. Consider this a montage of sorts:

For being a very shy, very introverted person, Sarah lives loudly. She’s the one to show up in the most fabulous, effortlessly cool outfit you’ve ever seen. We once went on a walk to the park with mine and Emma’s kids—Sarah wore black leather hammer pants. She has about ten thousand pairs of black boots, each one unique and quietly elaborate. She just exists this way, never looking like she tries too hard or had to even put thought into her appearance. She just is.

Sarah also loves to dance. And she’s good at it. This was another thing that surprised me, I suppose because I figured that as a self-proclaimed awkward person like myself, she would be too timid to dance. But Sarah can and will dance to anything. Sarah will dance in silence. Sarah also knows and loves every song known to humankind. I’m talking tens of thousands of songs—she knows the lyrics, the albums, the artists, and probably the life stories of said artists.

Sarah is an artist herself. She draws, paints, and does pottery. For my birthday, she threw me the first party I’d had since my absolute failure of a sweet sixteen (in and around eight years prior), baked me the most delicious lavender cupcakes I’ve ever tasted (oh yes! Sarah also is a master in the kitchen!), and gave me the coolest, trippiest, handmade cup. It is my favorite cup. I would probably murder if this cup asked me to.

Most importantly, Sarah is the most kind, gracious, emotionally intelligent person I know. I’ve always been astounded by her ability to forget our past and extend such grace to me. Despite the way we met, she welcomed me into her life. She’s always the first one to check in not just on me, but on all of our friends and even people who have wronged her to be sure that we are all okay. Sarah understands people. She understands feelings and can express them so beautifully when she’s actually given the chance.

We’ve done the whole nine yards over the last year since we met (er, met again). I’m talking midnight kisses, bed sharing, romantic dinners, slow dancing, regular dancing. The problem was in figuring out if it meant anything, because when all your friends are gay, this sort of thing can be confusing.

Nobody told me to feel this way. A smart person would have told me not to. A smart me would have listened. But I love the feeling of falling, so I allowed it. I allowed it and clung to it. It actually happened quite fast. Sarah and I have always been honest with each other; it was something I prioritized due to our rocky beginning. So, when I realized my feelings for her, I wasted no time in asking her on a date.

Sarah said yes, but she also told me she wasn’t sure where she wanted this to go or if she was ready for anything serious. Her relationship with the trash bag had left her pretty severely wounded, and she was understandably still healing from that. And so together we agreed that this would be a date without expectation.

Sarah also told me that she’d never been on a proper date before. Trash bag had never bothered to do that. This was just more motivation to make this a good date. Not to pat myself on the back too hard, but I did a great job. I am good at treating people right. We went axe throwing (yes, very gay, I know), and then had dinner and drinks.

All seemed well, I was happy, she was happy. But, since we agreed that it was a casual date, I didn’t want to apply any pressure by asking her out again too quickly. So I waited and tried to play my hand wisely.

Now during this time, COVID cases were on the rise in my area and in the rest of the country. Hangouts in our tiny group had been easy and safe up until this point because of the nice summer weather and Sarah’s outdoor, rooftop deck where we usually would gather. Winter in the Midwest, however, made that impossible.

Now I thought I might lose my mind if I couldn’t see my people for the entire winter. Fortunately, Sarah asked me to be her “plus one” of sorts—each of the roommates in her apartment got to choose one. Katie chose their partner, and the third roommate in the apartment chose his partner. Sarah chose me.

I say again, you can see where this is going.

Sarah confessed to me that she felt lonely and jealous of her roommates romantic lives. They had partners, she didn’t. They were in love, she wasn’t. But here I was.

Bad Fanfic Trope #3: Fake Dating AU

Now I know what you’re thinking. Why would I do this? Why would Sarah do this? Why, Zoe? Why?

Emotions are a very persuasive bastard, I’ll tell you that. Besides, it made Sarah happy, and I got to go over to my favorite apartment with my favorite person. We actually spent quite a lot of time together in this days.

One particularly magical night for me was the walk we took around a local college campus. This was near Christmastime, so the surrounding houses were all lit up with colored lights and the atmosphere just hit different. Even being out in the open, it felt intimate. We came across the most oddly placed bus stop in the parking lot. Truly it was an island out at sea—it just looked like it didn’t belong there, a little glass building with citrus light leaking out of it.

“That’s a portal,” Sarah joked, spotting it at the same time as me.

I laughed, but I was actually serious when I asked her, “Should we go through?”

So we did. We ventured to the middle of the lot and entered in the left-side door. The inside felt even more otherworldly, and I’m still not convinced that something supernatural wasn’t going on there. But we giggled like kids and imitated the sounds of machine and tearing space-time, and then we stepped out the right-side door.

I’m pretty sure that was the night I knew I was totally fucked. Up until then things had been pretty manageable, feelingswise. But everything about that evening just pumped me up with hope and adrenaline, and whether things went up or downhill from there is kind of hard to tell.

Things really were good! I got to dress up for mini, COVID safe parties and dance in the living room. I got to sleep over on movie nights. I had already been living out my fanfiction dreams to the tune of Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift for the last several months, so what was a few more?

Actually, it was quite painful. I say this was a fake dating AU, but I think I was the only one being fooled—and maybe Sarah too on some level. We didn’t really mean for it to happen this way. I didn’t mean to be the person who couldn’t control her feelings, and Sarah didn’t mean to be the one who led me on. We were supposed to be having fun—and it was fun. Until it wasn’t.

See, holding back your own feelings can be miserable. It’s fun in the moment until you come home to an empty bed and know that nobody will be joining you. It’s fun until you’re reading into every text message and searching for a hidden meaning. Everything somehow felt perfectly aligned and all out of sorts at once.

When I decided I couldn’t take the wondering anymore, I asked Sarah for the chance to talk. She of course said yes, and so we agreed that we’d find some alone time at our next get-together. This happened to be our jazz night party, and Damn, did Sarah look good on jazz night.

We’d had themed parties before, but Sarah really outdid herself this time. She’d taken the lead on this party, and when I walked in I found the entire apartment transformed. The living room furniture had been pushed back to make room for dancing, and the kitchen cart was rolled in as a makeshift bar. The plush bench from the entryway sat in front of a strung-up tapestry as a photo station, and the flat screen was adorned with some sort of “jazz club ambience” from YouTube.

Sarah herself looked like something straight out of the Great Gatsby. I’ll spare you the details because I’m trying not to be too cringe-inducing here, but she was striking and perfectly on theme. I’m pretty sure I looked like a grunge gremlin in comparison, but that’s neither here nor there.

I told her how lovely she looked when I arrived, and truthfully I couldn’t tell if she was the one being awkward or I was. It could have been both, in hindsight, but considering how things went it doesn’t really matter.

It was difficult to focus on the absolute beauty of the party when my hands were trembling and all I could think of was the upcoming talk of be having with Sarah. I didn’t want to look at her too long in case everything went wrong and she didn’t want my eyes on her, but she also looked gorgeous and cool, and she was making us drinks like a real bartender. This was the time of her life, I could tell.

Everyone else was having a good time too. Katie and their partner were two peas in a pod. And Adam (third roommate, thus far unnamed) and his partner seemed pretty much in sappy, romance heaven. It hadn’t been a problem before, but suddenly I wasn’t sure where I fit into this unique equation.

When slow songs came on through the playlist, the couples wrapped their arms around each other and looked fondly into each other’s eyes. Sarah and I danced, but not too close, and I definitely couldn’t meet her eyes right now. It just didn’t feel the same.

We finally managed to get some privacy when the others went on a Taco Bell run. I mentally went over my talking points and tried to prepare myself for what seemed like the most predictable outcome. I would make sure that Sarah felt no pressure with me, because that truly was the last thing I wanted. I would also make my intentions clear—I’d love to go out on more dates with you and just see if there could ever be something between us. Easy as that. I didn’t expect that she would confess her true and undying love for me (I tried not to expect anything really), but a large part of me figured she would at the very least agree to a date or two for the sake of discovery, and maybe she’d even be excited about it. It just made sense to me.

But, even as I was beginning to express my feelings, I could tell the direction this was going. Sarah smiled and said she also felt like we probably needed to talk, and that I was really brave for bringing this up—braver than her, she said. What followed was the kindest, most gentle letting down of my life. Really, she couldn’t have handled that conversation any better.

There were a number of reasons for her decision to turn me down. For one thing, she didn’t want to risk our friendship. We were already so close, and as she’d expressed before, she didn’t want to rush into any serious relationships right now. 100% reasonable. And, it kind of did make sense. It would have been difficult not to become serious very quickly considering how close we were. On top of not wanting to risk our friendship and not wanting anything serious, I suspected that she simply didn’t feel the same way.

At the end of it all, Sarah asked me if I needed some space to process, or if I wanted her to step out of the apartment for a while. That’s right, Sarah literally volunteered to leave her own home during her own party to make me comfortable. I of course told her that was ridiculous and did my best to carry on normally. I wanted to be cool about it for both of our sake. Alas, I ended up making multiple trips to the bathroom for secret crying sessions, and eventually I ducked out early so that I could cry peacefully in my car—and my bed, and my shower, and everywhere else for the next few days.

Yikes. Funny how it hadn’t even hit me until that moment that I’d been making the very same dumb mistakes I read about all the time on AO3. I filled myself up with hope that wasn’t there and nearly ruined everything because of it.

I tried moving on without much luck. I tried remaining friends with moderate success. Perhaps that’s being too pessimistic. Honestly, my friendship with Sarah is stronger than ever. It’s just that almost two months after Jazz Night I finally had to have another talk with Sarah—one where I confessed how hurt I’d been over the whole ordeal. I apologized for my mishandling of the situation, and she apologized for hers. Honestly, we both had a good idea of what we’d been getting ourselves into at the start of it, but we did it anyway.

Am I over Sarah? Not if I’m being honest. But my priority has been and will always be protecting our friendship, and I think she’s on the same page as me there. I hang out with both her and Katie routinely, and I’m doing everything in my power to fix this. I don’t think it’s as big a deal for Sarah as it is me in that she doesn’t have to alter her feelings. I don’t want her to change her behavior either—because our amazing friendship is why I fell for her, she didn’t do anything to make me uncomfortable.

So we’re carrying on. I guess this is an ongoing story, but the fake-dating part is over as are the fanfiction tropes that seem to have overtaken my life for a hot minute. I just thought it was so interesting—interesting enough to share I suppose.

(Honestly part of me things this would make a good story if I went back and documented these events in more detail—like, I dunno, multiple chapters or something idk. If anyone got this far and would be interested in that lemme know. It’s my real life but for once that’s actually quite interesting.)

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[mltrefry-ficwriter]

It Was Always you, Chapter One

It’s International Fanwork day, so I thought I would share the first chapter of my new, multi chapter fic.

Rated T and up

Summery:  A chance encounter during one of the worst times of Ezra Fell’s life reunites him with his once best friend and the one who got away. Though, that would imply he ever had him in the first place. Anthony Crowley and his son, Warlock, relocate to the quieter city of Tadfield from that of London. In the process, manages to find again that one person who always made him feel less alone, the one person he was pretty sure he was never going to speak to again. Together again, the pair repair what they lost, regain the footing time took away, and grow closer than they had been before. But the road to true love never did run smooth (something that’s been true from their very beginning). Their shared and separate histories hang like a cloud, causing them hesitate to cross the final line. But as everything stakes up against them, they’ll realize something everyone else seems to have known from the start: they’re better together than they are apart.

Available to read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22701799/chapters/54257413

or under the cut

“Can we go to the park?”

Ezra Fell was brought back into awareness by the simple question posed to him by his nephew, Adam. He looked down at the curly haired boy who stared back with wide, pleading eyes.

It was Saturday, the last Saturday they both had before returning to what was as close to their normal lives as they would ever get again. In some ways, it felt like the first Saturday after the world had ended, in others like it was like the first day of a new life. But that was mostly because Ezra was maudlin, having not slept much if at all the night before.

And, he supposed, it wasn’t like he was going to get any sleep now, so what was the harm in allowing Adam some semblance of normal.

“Yes,” Ezra agreed, and Adam was already up and scrambling to head for entryway where his shoes and coats were.

Ezra rose from the sofa, taking with him his book which had been sitting untouched in his lap.

“How long can we stay?” Adam asked as he pulled on his lace-less trainers.

“I’m not sure.” Ezra replied, though with the weather being very agreeable, it was very likely that they would be there for a few hours. Adam had been cooped up inside for one reason or another for the last two weeks, and for a four-year-old, he’d been quite cooperative.

And resilient. If there was one thing that Ezra had been the proudest of when it came to his nephew, these days it was his way of bouncing back from heart break and tragedy.

Ezra putting on his well-worn jacket: an antique beige jacket from sometime in the 1800s he’d found in a thrift store for an absolute steal. He slipped on his shoes, brown leather dress shoes he had re-soled once a year. He made sure he had his wallet, his glasses should he discover he need them, and grabbed his keys to stuff in the pocket with the book.

Adam put on his jacket; a bright red thing that would keep him just warm enough in the late May weather without causing him to sweat. Once the jacket was on, Ezra ruffled the boy’s dark blonde, curly hair, then opened the door and waved him out the flat. He locked up, making sure it was secure before he followed Adam down the stairs and around to the street. As they walked past the store front of the second hand bookshop the flat was housed above, Adam took Ezra’s hand without prompting.

It was fairly early, something Ezra hadn’t considered when fulfilling Adam’s request. The city of Tadfield, located between Oxford and London, was still fairly quiet. It hadn’t woken up from its Friday night hoopla, there being very few cars and next to no people on the sidewalk as they made their way to the spot Adam favored.

With only one way in (without climbing a massive, wrought iron fence), the East Tadfield Park was a lovely spot. There was a football field near the very back of it, in behind a small coup of trees that hid it and its stadium benches from the general public. There were jogging trails, something that Ezra had been made well aware of numerous times by a very persistent friend. There was a duck pond in the fair left corner from the entrance, and many gardens throughout for those who just want to be among the greenery. And, near the playground to the right of the entrance, was a well-placed coffee stand.

Ezra had been thinking about that as they ambled along, imagining the simple pleasure he may get from a steaming cup of tea, perhaps a scone or a danish, and reading a book while Adam played. It would be very, very close to the way things used to be, when he would watch him for a weekend and they would do this very thing on a nice day.

“Uncle Ezra, look! Look at the car!” Adam said, tugging on his hand and hopping about, pointing at an antique-looking black car parked on the side of the road beside the park entrance. It was one of only three sitting idle, but the look of it-long and sleek and not of the era-made it would have made it stick out.

“It’s very interesting.” Ezra agreed with the boy. “Looks a little too new to be a true old vehicle, though.”

Adam didn’t seem to be listening at this point, his interest diverted to something in the trees overhead. Which, really, was for the best. Ezra’s knowledge on vehicles was extremely limited, boiled down to the basics of the key going into the ignition, and petrol was needed to keep them going. Anything else was taken care of by an annual servicing, and since he hadn’t ever found a need to own one himself, it was pretty much just what he recalled his mum telling him as a teenager.

They turned into the park, quiet except for the sound of a passing jogger on the path, and the distant shift of the playground equipment. Adam remained at Ezra’s side diligently, keeping pace despite clearly wanting to make a run for it.

“There’s another kid there,” He said, tugging at Ezra’s hand while they slowed on approach to the coffee stand.

“That’s excellent,” he smiled down at his nephew. “Perhaps you can make a friend.”

“Hey Mr Fell,” the young employee greeted him with a smile as he came up to the window.

“Mr Nolan, what a pleasant surprise. How are you, how was your break?” He asked.

“Wasn’t bad,” his student asked, smile shifting after a moment. “I’m sorry for your lost. It went around the school why you were gone the week before break.”

Ezra’s smile faltered. “Thank you, Mr Nolan.” And then before the young man could carry on the topic, he asked, “Would I be able to get a cup of tea, and one of those raspberry scones, please.” He then turned to his nephew. “Would you like anything, Adam?”

“No, thank you.” He replied, eyes focused straight ahead at the playground.

Ezra looked to his student, “Perhaps an apple juice for later.” He asked.

The young man looked to Adam with a slight furrow of his brow, then to Ezra, and smiled in a confused little way before going to fill Ezra’s order.

Well, that would take away from the talk of his family loss, now the entire student body will be wondering if he had a son, and if so, then how.

He paid the young man after getting his good, and once they were in hand, Adam took that as his cue to take off. Ezra followed at a slower pace, his eyes focused on Adam as he watched him run between the concrete tables with their matching benches, ignoring the ginger person sitting at one of them.

Something like a pang whipped through Ezra as he remembered a fellow he once knew with a similar shade, who also happened to like wearing blacks and grays. Who was also slender.

A reminder of another thing lost. It was best he brought his book after all.

Ezra settled at the other table, eyes scanning the equipment for Adam as he disappeared for a moment, resurfacing at the top of one section to catch up with the dark-haired child who was already there.

“Stay where I can see you, Adam.” He called, a reminder to stay where he was more than anything else. There were enough trees about that he could hide easily, and Ezra knew he wouldn’t be able to handle losing sight of him during an impromptu game of hide-and-seek. He grinned at his nephew, seeming to have found a playmate for the morning, then settled on the bench.

He’d just removed his scone from its brown, paper bag when he heard the very quiet, very disbelieving, “Ezra?”

He turned to the man at the other table, the only other adult at the park, the voice a little too familiar.

He was utterly taken aback by the sight before him. “Oh,” he gasped. “Anthony?”

He couldn’t imagine the odds. After so many years of seeing tall, slender ginger men around the city, and occasionally on his pop overs to London, he had long come to expect the disappointment at finding a stranger instead of his long-lost friend. To find him now, in Tadfield East Park, seemed utterly ridiculous.

He’d changed just enough to not be recognizable at first. For one, Anthony had always had shorter hair, styled in such a lazy way that was always considered cool. Now he sported longer locks, his natural wave coming through in the ends. It was half up at the moment, a small knot or bun at the back where it was tied. There were also a pair of very fancy sunglasses covering his very unique eyes.

“Holy shit.” Anthony said softly, nothing but surprise in his tone, and Ezra barked out a laugh with equal feeling. Anthony turned sharply toward the jungle gym, then sharply back. “You? You’re?” he pointed toward the equipment.

“I’m here with the little blonde boy, yes.” He nodded. “And you, you’re?”

“My son, Lock, yeah.” Anthony replied like he still wasn’t sure this was real. He shook his head. “I can’t… how long have you been here?”

“About five minutes,” Ezra replied with a smirk, and Anthony grinned.

“Not-, Tadfield. How long have you been here in Tadfield?”

“Oh, about five, almost six years, now.” He replied. “How about you?”

“We just moved here from London earlier in the week.” Anthony replied, the disbelief returning. “I… my shop. I… I have a shop here. I… I work from it more than I do London.” He explained.

“Oh,” Ezra perked up. “Well, that’s lovely. I think you’ll like it here. It’s not as busy as London, admittedly. It’s just above a town in size, sort of a very small city. Nightlife might leave something to be desired, of course, but-”

“When did you get married?” Anthony interrupted.

Ezra wasn’t sure it was because he was babbling, his hands were flapping about in that way they did when he ramble or was nervous (or was nervously rambling, which he was not, of course), or if it was because some part of Anthony’s brain still hadn’t caught up to their present situation. Ezra didn’t need to see his eyes to know they were wide, still filled with surprise, and half unfocused. They were, at one point, best friends. Had been until about eight years before, no more than ten.

It took a second for Ezra to realize what Anthony had asked him. “Oh.” He frowned. “I’m not. Why would you think I was?”

Anthony stared at him a moment before gesturing broadly in the direction of the boys who were playing quite happily together.

Ezra looked at the boys, then back at Anthony, pursing his lips as his frown deepened.

“He looks like you did, when we were kids.” Anthony explained. “Least from what I saw as he ran by.”

“Oh,” Ezra understood. “Oh, he’s not… he’s not mine. Well, I suppose he is now.” He added sadly. “He is, was, I mean…. Eliza’s his mother. But she passed.”

“What?” Anthony said, before shaking his head. “I mean, sorry. I’m so sorry. Oh, Ezra, you… I can’t imagine, I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you.” He managed, then remembered he had tea that might help to wash away the sudden lump in his throat.

“How… how did she… when?” Anthony stammered, and he reached up to remove the sunglasses.

Ezra wasn’t sure what brought the tears to his eyes: the still raw grief of losing his sister, or the beautiful sight of Anthony’s eyes. A pale, near-golden brown with a spot at the top and bottom of each eye, perfectly aligned with the pupil. He could understand the need for shades, Anthony’s eyes would draw a double take, almost looking like snake eyes if one looked quick enough. Ezra remembered it had been a common lament of his friend’s when they were younger.

He missed them.

“About two weeks ago,” he replied, just a little watery. “Car accident. She and the man she’d been seeing, they were taking a trip up North,” Ezra gave a weak smile. “Gavin had asked me for permission to marry her, and he was going to propose.” He sniffed, clearing his throat. “The police aren’t sure what caused the accident. It’s possible Gavin lost control of the car, or there was an animal in the road. But either way, the vehicle… it was horrendous, I’m told.”

“I’m so sorry, truly.” He shook his head, looking at the boys again before turning back to Ezra. “Your mum must have taken it hard.”

“Mum’s been gone about four years now, just before Adam turned one.”

“Fuck,” Anthony said, shaking his head. “That is the worst. What about… his dad?” Anthony asked, looking at the boys.

Ezra followed his gaze, and his heart was momentarily lifted by seeing Adam’s smile, hearing his laugh as he and Lock played a game of some sort.

“Not in the picture.” Ezra replied. “He never was.” Anthony nodded in understanding. Which, of course, had made Ezra wonder about his situation. “What about Lock’s mum? Or… other dad?”

Anthony smirked. “She’s, uh… not in the picture, either. Not-not that I wanted her in the picture, or anything. She, umm, we, uh… it doesn’t matter. Point is, she’s not in Lock’s life. Just the two of us.”

There was a lull of silence between the two of them, and Ezra belatedly realized his heart was hammering. Had it been like that since the moment he realized Anthony Crowley was there, one table over? Or had it begun to race as they began speaking, how telling this man who was both a total stranger and the one person left who knew -truly knew- who he was about his recent heartbreak.

And when had they locked eyes? When had they begun to hold each other’s gaze?

Looking down, Ezra had suddenly remembered he had food.

Without hesitation, he broke off a bit of his scone and stuffed it in his mouth, focusing his attention on Adam and Lock for a while, finding it charming that the two of them took to each other so quickly.

In his periphery, he noted Anthony getting up, moving somewhere behind him. Probably to the coffee cart, and a quick glance over his shoulder confirmed it. He bowed his head back over his breakfast, realizing only now that in his early fog of fatigue that he’d fed Adam but not himself.

He ate without savoring, a crime in his own books, and by the time he had finished, Anthony was returning. To his great surprise, he settled in next to Ezra, leaving enough space between them that their elbows shouldn’t bump overmuch. It almost felt like being pressed up together, given how long it had been since they were in each other’s presence.

There was a companionable silence between them, and Ezra couldn’t help but side-eye Anthony. And, he realized, Anthony was doing the same with him from time to time. His sunglasses were perched on top of his head, having probably put them back on to order and removed them to a point when he returned. They would smile shyly (or slyly, as Anthony often looked) at each other when they were caught, but would just take a sip of their drink, turn to the boys, then start the whole thing over.

“So, what have you been up to? Tell me about this shop you mentioned.” Ezra said, shifting himself a bit more toward Anthony.

“Oh, well,” Anthony stammered a little. “Garden. It’s called the Garden, uh…. Dad… he wouldn’t release my trust fund to me. Still hadn’t proved myself… to his liking, I guess. So, I earned money doing gardening work. Seemed better than trying to earn experience interning with one of the companies in London, certainly better paid. I worked for a really well-to-do family until,” He paused, his face turning a deep red. “Well, until I didn’t. Made enough to buy a small little hole in the wall shop in Soho. Turned it around, made it a thing. Still did the arrangements and what not, but sold actual plants, too. Herb plants, a few dwarf fruit trees, basic houseplants, too. Did really well, coulda gone on just being there forever and probably wouldn’t have wanted for anything. Then, well, not long after Warlock he gave me my trust, and I knew I wanted bigger. Something like a nursery. Couldn’t do that in London, not the size I wanted, so I found a spot out here.”

“Eliza was very fond of The Garden, so I’m aware it does well.”

“Liza was a customer, was she?”

“Much as she could be.” Ezra nodded.

“Huh.” Anthony said, looking over at the boys a moment. “So, anyway, yeah. It’s… that’s my shop. I worked out there most days, back in the green house, or doing arrangements. Started to hate living in London, and with Lock, well….”

“You called him Warlock earlier.”

“Yeah, that’s his first name. Call him Lock most of the time.”

Ezra hummed in understanding, though he admittedly had some questions about the name. He let it go, for now. He could feel something building here, something delicate on firm foundations long buried and only just being uncovered.

“Your parents must be pleased to have a grandchild at least.” Ezra added, a smirk curling his lips in spite of himself. “Your father especially, what with the ever so coincidental timing of you getting your trust fund just as your son is born. He was always very set in the belief of what it takes to be a real man. Must have been overjoyed with the fact that you followed the proper urges and reproduced.”

Anthony snorted. “He was bloody over the moon. Thinking I was all straightened out. No pun intended.”

“I do recall you saying in University that he was overly concerned with your ‘behaving in unpredictable ways and hanging around the wrong sorts’.”

“Mmm,” Anthony said as he took a sip of his coffee. “Yeah, that was how he put it, alright. Mind, that started well before I left home.”

“He never did like me.” Ezra said, unfazed.

“Still wouldn’t.”

“Quite right,” Ezra agreed. “As I am still very much the ‘wrong sort’.”

“Not any of the better sort myself.” Anthony mumbled against the lip of his coffee cup.

Ezra looked him over, feeling his heart warm up and sigh as he took in Anthony’s profile. “So, you said Lock’s mother isn’t in the picture, but you never said if you had a partner.”

“Not anymore.” Anthony replied, setting his cup back down, rolling it between his hands. “Was seeing a bloke for a bit, but wasn’t anything terribly serious, and with the move? Just easier to call it off.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Ezra said, and if there was a small, quiet part of him that was lying, it didn’t matter.

The sad thing was, when it came to Anthony, it never did.

“Don’t be.” Anthony shrugged. “What about you? Not married, but seeing anyone?”

“No,” Ezra laughed. “No, I’ve been single for a while now.”

“How is that possible?” Anthony asked, and Ezra shook his head at the tease.

“You and I both know I was never what anyone might call fit, but it seems I’ve only gotten softer with age.” He said, glancing down at the pudge that accumulated over the years. A sweater vest over his typical button up tended to hide it somewhat, but it was there all the same, made more obvious by sitting. “I’m hardly anyone’s type.”

“You’ve always been too hard on yourself,” Anthony chided gently. “There was that loud American in university, the one that took a shine to you, what was his name?”

“Gabriel,” Ezra said, hoping the heat he felt didn’t reflect in his cheeks.

“Yeah, Gabe. I believe you called him-”

“Please, don’t.” Ezra asked earnestly, and Anthony laughed.

“Alright, but you see my point, yeah? He fancied you. Lots of blokes, and even a few oblivious women fancied you plenty.” He commented.

“Can we change the subject, please.”

“You brought it up.”

“I asked if you had a paramour, not to rehash bygone days.” Ezra pointed out, taking a sip of his cooling tea.

“Suppose.” Anthony agreed.

He sighed with relief; glad they weren’t about to head right for the rocky waters of their past. No need to spoil a perfectly pleasant morning with all that nonsense.

 ~C~

 Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

It had been a mantra of Crowley’s almost the entire time since being unexpectedly reunited with one Ezra Fell.

When he wasn’t screaming that single word in the void of his mind, there was also still lovely and bright, fuck me this is actually happening, and I’m an idiot.

He didn’t think anything so world shifting would happen when he got up that morning. Warlock had woken him up, having slept in Crowley’s bed the night before, the house still new and unfamiliar, the boxes mostly packed except for the very bare essentials. The little guy had been hungry, but of course having nothing really ready to go, and no proper food in the new house, Crowley decided breakfast out was in order. A quick search on his phone showed a coffee cart in a park about a mile from the house. The park had a playground.

Well, he was hoping that maybe Warlock would go down for a nap later in the day, and what better way to better the odds than to have him run about in the fresh air. The weather was fine, a first for the last week, and so there really wasn’t any reason not to go ahead with the idea.

He loaded him into the Bentley, a custom-made car that looks like a 1930s model on the outside, but had all the accommodations of a modern vehicle. They drove the mile, a distance that seemed a little pointless now, but would come in handy later when the worn-out Warlock would’ve whined about needing to walk.

They had muffins, and when the pastry was gone, Warlock took off for the alluring jungle gym.

Not long after, no more than five minutes after they’d finished, another little boy tore past Crowley, and he prepared himself to spend a bit longer than anticipated by pulling out his phone to entertain himself.

And then he heard it. The voice that lingered in his dreams and that he never really thought he’d hear again.

He’d been almost scared to say anything, but his name fell from his lips like it had been perched there. In some ways, it was, having never left them, not really.

“Ezra,”

“Oh, Anthony.” Ezra gasped, staring at him as if he wasn’t sure he was real.

“Holy shit.” Anthony had said, and the laugh that came from Ezra was like warm sun after a long, cold winter. It was real, it was pleased, and it had meant those three typed words in an email forever saved in Anthony’s inbox had been real.

I forgive you.

He had never dared follow up on it, even if it seemed he was allowed to. He’d realized what an ass he’d been to the man he considered his best friend, to the one person who had always been in his corner, and seemed to care for him unconditionally. Who may have even loved him in that same way. But he wasn’t brave, not when it came to his heart, not back then.

But now?

He still wasn’t brave, but he was trying to be. Trying to muster the nerve to make sure this very tentative connection could remain. It was too soon for all his buried affections to rise from the earth, but they were coming back regardless of what Crowley wanted. They didn’t care that there were years of history that the other wasn’t part of. Crowley had a child now, one with a parentage that he had to keep very, very quiet. Hell, Ezra had a child now, in a way. And he’d lost all his family, all that remained with the exception of Adam.

Yet despite that, he still seemed very much the Ezra Crowley knew. He still dressed like a man much older than he was, still spoke in that posh way, with fussy manners. He still had that wit, that ability to make a subtle dig that anyone who didn’t see his less angelic side believe was a state of fact or quiet sort of compliment.

Crowley wanted desperately to be back in his orbit, to have more mornings like this.

He’d have to be careful, though. He already came too close to a sore spot, bringing up Gabriel.

“So, does Adam go to nursery?” He asked. A safe topic, bringing things back to the boys. Kids were always a safe topic, Crowley found, when speaking to other parents. And while Ezra wasn’t exactly Adam’s parent, he was filling that role now, and knowing the Fells, he likely had a pretty big part in Adam’s upbringing from the get-go.

“He does.” Ezra confirmed, any wilting of that brilliant, bright mood of his automatically fading as he grinned. “Little Duck, not far from here.”

“Little Duck!” Crowley crowed. “That’s where Warlock’s going, starting Monday.” He grinned, all teeth. “What about his primary? Where’s he going?”

Ezra wilted again, just a little. “He’s been accepted in Tadfield East Elementary.” He replied, still grinning but much less so. “Eliza was quite pleased, what with it being not too far.”

Shit.

“Warlock’s going there, too.” Crowley said, still pleased but much more subdued. “He was a bit sad about starting a new nursery with only a few months to go, then worried about starting school in general. ‘Course now,” Crowley said, turning back to the boys as they ran about, smiling and laughing, whatever game they were playing agreeing with them both.

“Yes, I do recall big changes being easier to take when you made a friend,” Ezra replied with a smirk, peeking at Crowley from the corner of his eye.

“Be something else, wouldn’t it? The boys being best friends, too? Next generation of Crowleys and Fells?” Crowley said with a smile, trying his damnedest to mask the tremor that came up the second he realized what he said.

“Too?” Ezra asked, and Crowley prayed to someone, anyone, that he hadn’t mis-heard the hope in Ezra’s voice.

“Well, I’m new-ish. Got the work friends, of course, but none of them have kids. And you and me, well….”

“Do you still drive like an absolute insane person?” Ezra asked curiously.

“I’ve… toned it down since becoming a father.” He said, and noted the curl of Ezra’s lip.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Ezra replied, taking a sip of his drink. “It would have been dreadful to have to yell at you to slow down if we ever went anywhere together.” He glanced at Crowley. “I mean, if the boys are going to be friends, which if they way they are getting along is any indication, it’s a sure thing. Well, I’m sure we’re going to find ourselves in each other’s company quite often.”

“Still take your tea the same? Could have it ready when we’re meeting up here. Bound to happen, as you say.”

“I do.” Ezra replied. “And you? Still prefer your coffee black?”

“Like my soul.”

“Oh, please.” Ezra scoffed. “You were always one of the nicest-”

“Shut up!”

“-nicest people I’ve ever met. If your soul is black, then I would be loathed to find out the state of mine.”

“Says the-”

“Don’t say it,” Ezra didn’t really protest.

“-the angel.”

Ezra blushed, trying not to look so pleased, but Crowley could tell he was. The nickname, which was more a pet name in Crowley’s mind, had likely not been used since last time he spoke it.

“You never…,” Ezra started after a moment. “You never… kept in touch. I guess, I just assumed that maybe….”

“Maybe, what?”

“That maybe you had a reason to apologize that really had nothing to do with me.” Ezra turned to him then, the nervous worry in his eyes breaking Crowley’s heart. Ezra’s hands fidgeted around the cup in his grasp, and if it hadn’t been there, Crowley was sure they would be flapping about. “I’m not sure, maybe you felt obligated, or perhaps there was something happening in your life that you felt you needed to clear the air with others. Your note came just as I was leaving Oxford, which would mean, of course, that I wouldn’t have access to that electronic mail account anymore. I… I often wondered…. Oh, listen to me, ruining a perfectly good-”

“What did you wonder, Ezra?” Crowley asked softly, the name he would have said lodged in the back of his throat, waiting for permission to be set free again.

“…I had wondered if maybe you were hoping I would never have received it. So, you could have had a perfectly valid response if someone, I don’t know who, were to ask you why we stopped speaking.”

“No, that’s not… that’s not why. I… I just… things were….” Crowley stopped when he felt the warm press of Ezra’s hand on his, and he stared at it dumbfounded.

How often had these casual touches passed between them? How often had they held hands as they walked about the Oxford campus before Crowley changed schools? How many times had they lounged as teenagers, Crowley resting on the ground or floor in front of a bench or sofa Ezra was on, their hands resting in or on one another’s? He’d taken it for granted, not realizing how tactile his friend had been until Ezra was gone and casual touch was far less frequent.

“You don’t need to explain,” Ezra assured gently. “It was ages ago now. And while I may have wondered if you… it doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”

Crowley looked at that hand covering his and tried to will his hand to turn, palm up, so he could grasp it. The most he was able to do was move his thumb so it rested against Ezra’s.

“I didn’t want to stop speaking with you.” He managed to say. “Not ever.”

“Nor I.”

“Good,” Crowley said firmly. “So, we’ll just… forget the last ten years never happened, least as much as we can.”

“Had it really been that long?” Ezra asked softly, sadly.

“Yeah.” Crowley answered in the same tone.

“Well,” Ezra took a breath, straightening up, and unfortunately pulling his hand away. “We shall put it behind us then.”

“Great plan,” Crowley agreed, straightening from the slouch he hadn’t realized he’d gotten into himself. “Gimme your phone, I’ll put my number in it. Had to change it once.”

Ezra reached into his pocket, and Crowley held out his hand while taking a peek at the boys, seeing them sitting on the sand animatedly discussing something. He felt something placed in his palm, and looked down at the small, lightweight device still lit up from Ezra bringing up a new contact page.

Crowley blinked at it, then threw his head back and laughed.

Ezra huffed, “What? It’s a touch screen!”

“It’s bloody ancient.” Crowley laughed.

“It’s only six years old! Hardly ancient.”

“Oh, Ezra, for technology that’s virtually the stone age. It has buttons on the bottom, honest to God buttons. And, the size, it’s so small.” He said, turning it about. “Oh my… it’s a bloody Nokia!”

“It’s a perfectly acceptable and functional device. It has applications, even.”

Crowley was still giggling as he began to put in his contact information. “I suppose, considering how long it took Liza and I to convince you just to get a flip phone.”

“I do text message now.” Ezra said proudly. “Not often, mind you. I still prefer to simply call someone.”

“I am not at all surprised.” Crowley said as he moved on to the messaging app, sending himself a text message. He heard the ding in his pocket, but decided not to bother with it just yet. He’d save it later, after they parted ways and went home, before he began to unpack while Warlock played or slept.

“So, what did you end up doing? Tell me about it.” Crowley asked as he gave Ezra’s phone back to him.

“Well, I teach English….” He started off, and they continued on talking and catching up until the boys came over complaining of being hungry.

They parted ways, though it seemed none of the four wanted to. There was a promise to the young ones that they’d see each other at nursery on Monday, but between the adults there was nothing more than a chance of running into one another.

At least, not yet, because as Crowley drove a tired, slightly cranky Warlock back home, he was starting to think of a dozen different ways he could see Ezra again.

[dragon-stones]

Toddler Madness

Chapter Name: Park Aftermath Part: 3 Pairing: Frostiron     Rating: T Summary: Loki isn't doing too good after Bruce hulked out. But, at least Tony's there to help him out. And Tony has some important phone calls to make.

Find on AO3 and FF.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How are you doing?”

Tony ran his fingers through Loki's jet-black hair. He’s been doing this for at least an hour, calming the distraught Trickster. Loki’s head is against Tony’s shoulder and his fingers touching the cool metal of the reactor in Tony’s chest. The god’s breathing had evened over that time and his heart calmed too. And tony is glad for this. At least he knows that Loki is recovering from what happened earlier. Tony snorts, he has a few words for the paparazzi that had ruined the day. But that’s for another time.

“Tired, hot, and sweating,” Loki grumbled. The God is regretting his choice of clothing for the day.

“Well, you are wearing ten pounds of armor and five pounds of leather.” The inventor smirked. He can feel the snort Loki gave. “That doesn’t work well against New York heat.”

“Fury never told me what was going on. So, I had gotten battle-ready as a precaution.” The trickster grumbles bringing his hand up to fan his face.

“Okay, I’ll give you that.” Tony huffs, indeed it’s very hot out and the Stark isn’t going to complain about the other’s grouchiness. “It’s going to be a long walk back to the Tower.”

“I dread this walk.”

It’s been at least an hour and a half since the two had gotten up and started their trek back to the Tower. And over that time, they have been stopped many times. Mostly cause many people wanted to see a half-naked Stark up close. Some even got hands or tried too. Much to Loki’s annoyance. The trickster is sweating, his clothes sticking to his frame, and his head is beginning to hurt. After the fiftieth time of being stopped, the two are finally walking again. Loki leaned his body against Tony’s, he’s feeling so ill.

“The next mortal that comes up and tries to touch you, I’m ripping their arms off.” Loki hisses under his breath.

“Loki, no need to get violent.” Tony patted the Norse deity’s shoulder in a comforting manner. “I’m known for being a playboy.”

Another growl leaves Loki’s lips, nostrils flaring. “You’re mine. Playboy or not.”

“Sure, dear, sure.” Tony snorts amused.

Loki lets his eyes wander the buildings of New York. To think that he wanted to take over the planet and had destroyed this city. He can still see the slow repairs. Loki shivers, remembering what had happened to him with Thanos and the Chitauri. But with the help of the Avengers and Thor, Loki had begun to recover. Though he still fears that Thanos will come for him. But, he knows that Thor is speaking with Odin about this. That was until the thunderer turned into a toddler.

“You think the kids are okay?” Loki turns his eyes to Tony.

Tony rubbed the God’s back. “Pepper’s looking after them,” Tony noted the relaxed look of the Trickster’s face.

“My head hurts.” The green and black cladded being whined, leaning more into Tony’s frame. “I feel like I’m about to be sick.”

Tony let a small smile pull on his lips. “Heat and stress. Once we get to the Tower, you can relax and cool off.”

Loki had finished the bottled water long ago. His mouth parched, like the desert sands of the middle east. And the sun is beating New York with its heat and the Trickster is beginning to pant. Tony did his best to keep the God in the shade, but it still didn’t help. Oh, Norns, what did he do to deserve this?

“Tony!”

The inventor looked up and smiled. Oh, thank the gods, help has arrived. It’s Happy, his driver. He’s been with Tony for a while and he’s a very reliable man. The man had a bottle of water in his hands and Tony smiled big again. Finally some relief for him and the Trickster.

“Happy, you are a God sent.”

Tony called out in a please tone. Happy gave them the bottle and within a few seconds, the water is gone. They headed to the car. “Come on, RG, get in.” Tony urged the male into the car. Soon Tony and Happy hopped in.

“Step on it, Hap,” Tony called from the back.

Once at the Tower, Tony helped Loki to the elevator. The two leaned against the back wall, Loki’s head nestled in the crook of Tony’s neck. The Norse being inhaled the musty scent of the mortal and sighs. Tony smiles and runs his fingers through black hair. The elevator dings and opens to the floor. Tony walks Loki to his room and gets him settled into his bed. After getting him into more comfortable, cooler clothes. Now nestled on his green and gold bed sheets, Loki buries his head into his pillow. He’s wearing a green t-shirt and a pair of gray shorts.

“Can you see how the kids are doing?” Loki mumbles. Starting to fall asleep.

Tony shakes his head in amusement. “Yeah, I can see how they're doing?”

“Do you want me to keep an eye on Mr. Laufeyson, sir?”

The A.I.’s voice spoke up and startled Loki. Tony chuckles as Loki settles back into his bed. The inventor placed a blanket up to Loki’s waist as the Trickster yawned, nuzzling his face into his pillow. His green eyes half-hidden by his eyelids.

“Tell that voice to use my name. I don't...like...Laufeyson…” Loki’s eyes closed and soon his snoring.

“You heard him, Jar,” Tony called to the A.I. softly, not wanting to wake the sleeping god. He headed out of the room and closed the door. “And, yes, do keep an eye on him.”

“Understood, sir.”

Tony walked to the penthouse and found Pepper sitting on the sofa, holding a sleeping Peter. Or what appeared to be a sleeping Peter. Pepper looked up and smiled as Tony approached the couch. Peter lifted his head, blinked for a few moments and lay his head back down on the woman’s shoulder. Guess he’s not sleeping. Looking around Tony didn’t see the other kids. Where did they go? Playing hide and seek?

“How're the little brats?” Tony jests with a smile on his face. Making Pepper smile as well.

“Their not brats, Tony. And they're fine, napping away.” The CEO rolled her eyes, a smirk pulling on her lips. She’s used to the billionaire's way of joking. “Bruce had a hard time, though.”

Tony noted the tone in Pepper’s voice had become low. “Can’t blame him. Not after he hulked out.”

Peter lifted his head and babbled in his baby way. Whether he sensed the change in mood or noticed the dropping face, he didn’t like it. So, he wanted to change it. And what better way than to get Tony to hold him. Or get attention to be focused on him. Worked both ways.

“Hey, little guy.” Tony muses as Pepper hands the baby to him. Said baby giving a wide smile. “what ya doin?”

“Wanting you.” Pepper snorted, rubbing her nose. Something about Peter seems to help calm Tony. It’s strange, but she isn’t going to question it. Strange is the least descriptive word she’d use for today. “So, what happened?”

“Well, a package came to the tower. It was opened and everyone around it turned into toddlers. Or in Peter’s case, a baby.” Tony justered to the baby on his shoulder. Who’s happily drooling on his shirt again. Why his shirt? “Fury called Loki and that lead to a small...disagreement. After that, we took the kids to get lunch and headed to the park. But that's ruined cause of the media and Loki having an episode. Bruce than hulked out.”

Pepper nodded. At least that explained why five adults become toddlers and Peter became a baby. The redhead didn’t even question what Tony had told her. Having once dated him for a few years and being the CEO of Stark industries. She knows that strange things can happen in Tony’s presence. Tony is like a beacon for weird and strange. “And why did Loki have an episode?” Pepper asks as Tony leans against the sofa. Tony points to the TV and Pepper unmutes it. It’s about Tony, Loki, and the kids. At one point the news shows what happened at the Park. Including Loki being shoved, falling, and having an episode. And then Bruce Hulking out. Pepper looked at Tony with an unamused look. “Nevermind.”

Tony blinked and straighten up. “That reminds me...I have a few calls to make.” The billionaire startled walking to the minibar. He wasn’t there for a drink, but the phone.

“So, what we gonna do about dinner?” Pepper asks, arms dangling off the back of the sofa.

“Not a clue,” Tony called.

Pepper figured as much. With most of his team being toddlers and a baby, not much thinking has been done with the short amount of time. It’s hasn’t even been a day and shits been thrown into the deep end. Loki’s out of commission for the rest of the day. When he has his episodes of flashbacks, he tends to sleep for at least twelve hours or more. Loki’s a light sleeper, but with his flashbacks, he falls into a deep sleep. So the God of Mischief is a no-go for now. Pepper spots Peter falling asleep on Tony’s shoulder and smiles. That baby spider is cute, she’ll admit to herself.

“I think it’s time Peter has a nap.”

Tony looked at the infant on his shoulder and mentally agreed with Pepper. The little spider child is drooling on his shirt, half his fist tucked into his mouth. Why do his shirts end up with baby drool? What about his clothes attracts babies to drool all over them? Tony’s not complaining about it, but it’s a bit annoying feeling your shirt wet with saliva. Looking up, Tony saw Pepper standing up and walking over to him. She held out her arms and he understood what she means.

“Yeah, he’s about to hit the snooze button.” Tony passes Peter to the redhead, though the kid does give a little whine of protest. “Relax buddy, I’ll see you at dinner.”

“Still haven’t figured what we’ll do,” Pepper interjected with a knowing look.

“Yeah...still working on that.” Tony mumbles.

But, first, a few phone calls need to be made. And maybe a drink.

[instantdeerlover]

10 Food & Drink Pop-Ups In NYC This Summer (1) added to Google Docs

10 Food & Drink Pop-Ups In NYC This Summer (1)

Right now, there’s something comforting about the inherent transience of a pop-up. While the newness and strangeness of, well, everything might have us in a perpetual state of Monday-morning-after-a-long-weekend, new and different is what we expect from pop-ups. Whether you’re looking for a glimpse of normalcy, or you just want to try some wagyu beef corndogs, check out the 10 pop-ups on this guide.

the spots  Kate Previte Holy Ground $ $ $ $ American ,  Steaks ,  BBQ  in  Tribeca $$$$ 109 W Broadway

Holy Ground’s space in Tribeca isn’t a standard venue for a BBQ spot. Instead of paper napkins and canned beer, you’ll find red leather booths and martinis. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that its pop-up isn’t traditional either. They’ve put a custom smoker and grill on the back of a 1966 Chevy pickup truck, which they park in front of various partner-restaurants around the city. On Wednesdays, you’ll find them at Ray’s on the LES, Friday and Sunday at Donna in Williamsburg, and Thursday through Sunday at Elsewhere in Bushwick. Perhaps most fitting given their current setup, they’re also operating out of the parking lot of Joe’s Auto Repair, next to We Got Company, in Williamsburg on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

 Max Flatow Celestine $ $ $ $ Mediterranean ,  Middle Eastern  in  DUMBO $$$$ 1 John St

The outdoor patio at Celestine is always impressive. It’s on the waterfront in Dumbo, and its views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline will make you understand why so many people take their wedding photos a few steps away. And this summer, it’s hosting Bad Trip, a pop-up serving fantastic cheeseburgers and frozen cocktails. Order at the outdoor counter and find one of their seat-yourself tables from 2-8pm Wednesday through Friday, and 12-8pm on weekends.

Maison Yaki $ $ $ $ Japanese ,  French  in  Brooklyn ,  Prospect Heights $$$$ 626 Vanderbilt Ave

A series of Black chefs and entrepreneurs are operating pop-ups at Maison Yaki for week-and-a-half stints throughout the summer. Currently, Jared Howard of Honey Bunny’s Chicken is serving Southern dishes like chicken biscuits and strawberry shortcake ice cream sandwiches. In August, Michelle Williams, the CEO of Good IV The Soul, will take over the kitchen and serve soul food, before Mohamad Wahiba of Tripoli Events anchors the summer series with pizza and fresh pasta.

 Gertie Gertie $ $ $ $ American  in  Williamsburg $$$$ 58 Marcy Ave

Every weekend, this all-day American spot sets up Gertie Summer Shack out front on Grand Street. From 4-9pm on Friday, 10:30am-9pm on Saturday, and 10:30am-6pm on Sunday, you can stop by for things like chicken schnitzel sandwiches on challah, smoked shrimp rolls with Old Bar aioli, and mezcal lemonades or summer shandies.

 Jakob Layman Dumpling Galaxy $$$$ 502 Amsterdam Avenue

The only way we can imagine leaving this Flushing spot off the NYC dumpling podium is if you’ve never tried their pork and chive or lamb and cilantro dumplings. Fortunately for people in Manhattan, that’s now easier than ever, as Dumpling Galaxy has set up a takeout and delivery operation on the Upper West Side. You can place an order any day between 4-9:30pm through their website.

Olmsted $ $ $ $ American  in  Prospect Heights $$$$ 659 Vanderbilt Ave

This Prospect Heights American spot has turned its backyard into “Olmsted Summer Camp” for the summer. As you might expect from one of our favorite restaurants in the city, their take on camp food is a far cry from the sloppy joes and mostly-defrosted chicken nuggets you may have had as a kid. They’re serving things like wagyu beef corndogs, dill pickled fried chicken, and tonkatsu ribs - all of which is available on a first come, first served basis Wednesday through Sunday from 5-11pm.

 Emily Schindler City Winery Pop Up $$$$ Rockefeller Plz

City Winery, which just opened a massive new location in the Hudson Valley, is operating a pop-up wine garden at Rockefeller Center. Every day from 1-7pm on the plaza between 50th and 51st, you can get City Winery’s house wine on tap, as well snacks like charcuterie, various cheeses, and burrata.

Tribeca's Kitchen $$$$ 200 Church St

This Tribeca diner is currently operating a pop-up in front of their space on Church Street. What does a diner’s pop-up look like? Well, rather than staying open from 6-12am with a menu ranging from avocado omelets to baby lamb chops, they’re only serving a few snacks, like lobster rolls and grilled corn salad, from 11am-8pm Wednesday through Sunday. They’ve also put some tent-covered tables on the street, where you can hang out and drink a frozen cocktail.

 Mikey Likes It x Kolkata Chai Co Mikey Likes It x Kolkata Chai Co $$$$ 199 E 3rd St

Kolkata Chai and Mikey Likes It have teamed up to create a chai ice cream and chai-affogato, which they’re promoting through a series of pop-ups around the city. The most recent event was at Mikey’s location in Harlem, where they served chai ice cream with chai-spiced waffles to people who RSVP’d here. The next pop-up hasn’t been announced yet, so if you don’t want to wait, you can get the triple vanilla bean ice cream infused with chai spice mix and caramel at Kolkata’s East Village location until the end of the summer.

 Rock City Pizza Co. Ani Ramen $ $ $ $ Ramen  in  Jersey City ,  New Jersey $$$$ 218 Newark Ave

Two different non-profit pop-ups - Rock City Pizza and Bang Bang Chicken - are operating out of Ani Ramen in Jersey City. They’re offering Detroit-style pizzas and Thai rotisserie chicken for takeout and delivery, with proceeds going to support frontline medical staff and displaced hospitality workers in their communities. When you order through Be Awesome Feed Somebody, you have the option to donate pizza or rotisserie chicken to frontline workers at discounted prices.

via The Infatuation Feed https://www.theinfatuation.com/new-york/guides/nyc-10-restaurant-pop-ups-this-summer Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://trello.com/userhuongsen

Created August 1, 2020 at 12:42AM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

[2tsrwzsba-blog]

Should i just drop my insurance?

Should i just drop my insurance?

I get my insurance privately. My work offers a really expensive insurance program so i got my own. With universal healthcare coming, shouldnt i just drop my insurance to be one of those uninsured people who will be getting insured?

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare free quotes :INSUREQUOTE.US

SOURCES:

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Hey guys I m 18 am but on 10/11/09 the military now, so company car). The only not by much. Is that can burn your not. My friends say not wait till then. answer for ages 18 plate Ford Fiesta 1.25 first car. The altima dental work done, but wasnt paying attention and Geico. If I cancel buy cheap auto insurance? i have to tell to cover those for period or a dental without a license in attention as I was need to have insurance any1 know any good the accident in the actually make a profit because my friend has http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/health-care-costs-_n_3998425.html hall our for my Wanting a car that reason I need one OBEY LANE LIGHTS CURRENT about to buy his is on a concrete to learn, cheap to am 18, live in please tell me so looking for insurance. But be covered, but my My driving instructor says 2 door civic, will insurance actuaries know this? business use. I don t .

Im getting my first thinking of buying a car insurance commercials but the prices of medical test back in april I want to take point on your driving has the cheapest insurance OLD, I HAVE MY whole year and then 6 months..I got a on the car if insurance, even if you re a first car so am a female obviously... lowest insurance quote for off, or is it is it a scam even though it was to be put on be a year for record. While I understand, right a smart ar*e up? As in, a with no accidents etc My husband and I insurance because i dont is on my car Hey, can I borrow know you can t give What is the best don t have an extensive only thanks in advance life insurance? If not, check my credit using it is alot cheaper car insurance at 16? Toyota RAV4 and the up to $25k. Will cost to put car knows any affordable student .

[eddiejpoplar]

2017 Infiniti QX30 S Four Seasons Wrap-Up

Asking us why we chose to add an Infiniti QX30 S to our Four Seasons fleet is a lot like asking someone why they got a tattoo when they were drunk. Although the details are fuzzy now, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Unlike the tattoo, however, we’ll never regret adding the Infiniti to our long-term test stable.

The QX30 was an intriguing and somewhat controversial vehicle when it first debuted, and it piqued our interest immediately. More of a big hatchback than a (sub)compact crossover, it’s also a close relative of the Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class—a German-Japanese mashup that led to more than a few scratched heads. Although they share plenty of genetic traits, one thing was evident from the outset: The Infiniti won the beauty contest.

Indeed, the QX30’s exterior styling found plenty of fans from the day it rolled into our parking garage. Associate editor Conner Golden preached the Infiniti’s gospel early.

“Forget compact crossover, this thing is the size of a Focus, and it’s gratifying to drive a compact luxury hatchback,” he wrote in the first logbook entry. “We don’t get cars like this on our shores very often—or at least we didn’t used to—so it still feels intrinsically special. Infiniti has come a long way with its design language, and I think the QX30 is one of its best. I like the proportions and the star-spoke wheel design.”

Senior editor Nelson Ireson chimed in, “I love the look of this car. That’s all the more impressive because it’s a crossover—and I hate crossovers.”

Augmenting the QX30’s slick and sharp looks was its unusual Liquid Copper hue, which attracted attention wherever we went. “People stop and look at the car and admire the way the paint seems to change with natural sunlight,” wrote graphic designer Michael Cruz-Garcia. Golden added, “The Liquid Copper paint is one of the most interesting and polarizing hues I’ve seen. Some say pink, I say rose gold. I like it.”

The praise continued for the QX30’s interior layout. “Given the combination of Infiniti and Benz bits, it could have been a disaster,” wrote editor-in-chief Mike Floyd. “But they took the best of both and mixed it into a cohesive whole.” Cruz-Garcia expressed similar sentiments. “The mix of smooth finished metals with high-quality plastics adds a touch of luxury that reflects the interior of a Mercedes,” he wrote. “Sturdy and comfortable leather seats put you at ease when driving long distances.” Other staffers felt it was a good idea that Infiniti installed its own infotainment setup instead of the Mercedes COMAND system, and Infiniti’s standard AroundView 360-degree monitor was cited as a top-notch feature.

The Infiniti QX30 is a German-Japanese mashup, but in terms of build quality, it leans to the East. Aside from routine maintenance, we never needed to return to the dealership.

However, both Floyd and Cruz-Garcia took issue with the cabin’s overall space, one of the traditional selling points of a crossover. “Despite the pronouncements that this is some sort of crossover, it’s a hatchback, plain and simple,” Floyd said. “It’s smaller inside than your average compact sedan, and its swoopy lines are a major drawback for rear-seat passengers in the form of a claustrophobic feel.” Cruz-Garcia agreed: “The back seats can use a bit more room to accommodate three people comfortably. There really isn’t any room once a child seat is added in there.” In addition to the rear-seat passenger issues, cargo capacity is small for the segment at 19.2 cubic feet with the second-row seats up and just 34.0 with the 60/40 setup down.

Out on Los Angeles streets (the Infiniti also made forays into Arizona and Nevada during its stay) we found the QX30’s ride and handling satisfying, thanks in large part to its MacPherson front, multilink rear suspension setup and 19-inch tire and wheel package. “The more I drive the QX30, the more I like it,” Floyd said. “It’s nimble and drives like a car, which it basically is, with a well-balanced, on-center steering feel.”

Ireson, as usual, waxed poetic: “Wielded with impatient severity, the QX30 dances with nimble grace through the lethargic, texting hordes of L.A. traffic.” Online editor Ed Tahaney was of two minds about it, however: “The QX30 feels pretty good on the highway, but it’s a bit of a slug around town.”

Although we’re sure Infiniti would prefer we ignore the QX30’s German lineage, we couldn’t help but delve deeper into the differences (and similarities) between the two cars. That said, most of us saw the partnership as a good thing on balance.

“While driving it around, I’d think, ‘Wow! This is the best-driving Infiniti they make,’ before realizing that I’m enjoying the fruits of the Mercedes-Infiniti partnership,” Golden said. “I wasn’t the biggest fan of the GLA, but with the Infiniti badge, I think it works. It’s much more in line with the Japanese luxury brand than with Benz, and it fits Infiniti’s lineup perfectly.”

“Wielded with impatient severity, the QX30 dances with grace through the lethargic, texting hordes of L.A. traffic.”

In order to get a better feel for how closely related the two really are, we devoted an entire online piece to a comparison between the QX and the Benz. While the QX30 deploys the same 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 as the Mercedes, with the same 208 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque, the biggest difference we noticed was with each car’s transmission tuning. Both use the same seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, but several staffers took issue with how Infiniti set up its version of the hardware—at least on the 2017 model we tested.

“The transmission makes low-speed driving, and especially traffic, miserable,” associate editor Billy Rehbock said. Floyd advised to “make sure you’re in Sport mode, as the gearbox is slow on pickup in regular Eco mode.” Cruz-Garcia echoed the team’s sentiments. “The transmission isn’t the smoothest in the first couple of gears,” he said.

This hatchback shares its powertrain with Mercedes’ GLA, but the Benz’s trans- mission tuning is better, with the QX30 upshifting too clunkily at low speeds. Our fix: Drive in Sport mode.

Another complaint: The start/stop feature. “Man, I hate start/stop,” Floyd said. “I wish there were a way to shut it off permanently.” Even those who didn’t share the editor-in-chief’s degree of dislike saw a problem. “It always turns off right as I’m about to start moving, causing a slight delay while the engine turns back on,” noted recently departed (to a new career) senior editor Kirill Ougarov. Executive editor Mac Morrison condemned start/stop in general, noting, “I’ve given up trying to understand the logic of so many of these start/stop systems and when they choose to turn a car off. Sometimes they do it at every stop, sometimes they seem to forget to do it, and sometimes, even when I hit the switch to deactivate the function, I still find it kicking in every once in a while for no apparent rhyme or reason.”

Enough about what we liked and didn’t: How did the QX30 hold up during its stay? Although its temperature gauge would occasionally climb when we worked the car hard, drawing some notice among our editors, it never hit the red. (We noted similar behavior in other QX30s and GLAs we drove.) Our overall recorded average fuel economy was decent by small crossover standards—22.5 mpg—but that was far below the 27-mpg EPA combined number. (Even with our lead-foot tendencies, that’s quite a bit off.) The 14.8-gallon fuel tank made it hard to go more than 300 miles between fill-ups.

A slight misreading of the owner’s manual led us to South Bay Infiniti at 5,395 miles for our first (and, it turned out, only) service appointment. In fact, the QX30 is meant to cover 10,000 miles between oil changes (yes, even before the first one), or possibly longer—like many new cars, it can calculate oil change intervals based on how the car is driven. Rather than correct us, the dealership happily changed the oil, rotated the tires, topped off the fluids, and billed us $93.97. After that we kept our eye on the maintenance minder, which did not request service for the rest of the QX30’s stay. Lesson learned: Read the manual. Carefully.

Two days later, we got an alert from the Infiniti’s tire pressure monitoring system, and a trip to American Tire Depot found a nail in one of the rear paws. The flat repair was free, but rebalancing the tire cost us a cool $15. And that was it—our only unscheduled repair.

At the end of Four Seasons, the QX30 left our fleet well liked, if not loved. “It wouldn’t be a bad car to live with by any means,” Rehbock said. Others went as far as to call the compact Infiniti the marque’s best car. “All in all, it’s a car that sells itself, even if I’m not the target buyer,” Ireson said. To be sure, this Infiniti is far, far better than a drunken tattoo—unless of course that tattoo is of, say, a QX30.

Our 2017 Infiniti QX30 S

AS-TESTED PRICE $43,695

ENGINE 2.0L turbo DOHC 16-valve I-4/208 hp @ 5,500 rpm, 258 lb-ft @ 1,200-4,000 rpm

TRANSMISSION 7-speed dual-clutch automatic

LAYOUT 4-door, 5-passenger, front-engine, FWD crossover

EPA MILEAGE 24/33/27 mpg (city/hwy/combined)

L x W x H 174.2 x 82.0 x 58.1 in

WHEELBASE 106.3 in

WEIGHT 3,364 lb

0-60 MPH 6.2 sec

TOP SPEED N/A

OUR CAR

ODOMETER START/END 698/13,652

GALLONS OF FUEL USED 574.97 gal

OBSERVED FUEL ECON 22.5 mpg

TOTAL FUEL COST $1,862.90

AVERAGE COST/GALLON $3.24

MAINTENANCE 1 x Oil change/tire rotation, $93.97

RECALLS AND TSBs None

OUT OF POCKET Tire plug and rebalance, $15.00

OUR OPTIONS Liquid Copper paint, $500; Sport Leather package, $1,500 (heated Nappa leather seats, Nappa leather stitched dash insert, front passenger seat storage, black dinamica headliner and A-pillar, leatherette door, console, and dash trim); Sport Technology package, $1,200 (blind-spot warning, lane departure warning, forward emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, automatic high-beams); Sport LED package, $1,000 (LED headlights, active front lighting, enhanced interior ambient lighting)

[jonathanbelloblog]

2017 Infiniti QX30 S Four Seasons Wrap-Up

Asking us why we chose to add an Infiniti QX30 S to our Four Seasons fleet is a lot like asking someone why they got a tattoo when they were drunk. Although the details are fuzzy now, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Unlike the tattoo, however, we’ll never regret adding the Infiniti to our long-term test stable.

The QX30 was an intriguing and somewhat controversial vehicle when it first debuted, and it piqued our interest immediately. More of a big hatchback than a (sub)compact crossover, it’s also a close relative of the Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class—a German-Japanese mashup that led to more than a few scratched heads. Although they share plenty of genetic traits, one thing was evident from the outset: The Infiniti won the beauty contest.

Indeed, the QX30’s exterior styling found plenty of fans from the day it rolled into our parking garage. Associate editor Conner Golden preached the Infiniti’s gospel early.

“Forget compact crossover, this thing is the size of a Focus, and it’s gratifying to drive a compact luxury hatchback,” he wrote in the first logbook entry. “We don’t get cars like this on our shores very often—or at least we didn’t used to—so it still feels intrinsically special. Infiniti has come a long way with its design language, and I think the QX30 is one of its best. I like the proportions and the star-spoke wheel design.”

Senior editor Nelson Ireson chimed in, “I love the look of this car. That’s all the more impressive because it’s a crossover—and I hate crossovers.”

Augmenting the QX30’s slick and sharp looks was its unusual Liquid Copper hue, which attracted attention wherever we went. “People stop and look at the car and admire the way the paint seems to change with natural sunlight,” wrote graphic designer Michael Cruz-Garcia. Golden added, “The Liquid Copper paint is one of the most interesting and polarizing hues I’ve seen. Some say pink, I say rose gold. I like it.”

The praise continued for the QX30’s interior layout. “Given the combination of Infiniti and Benz bits, it could have been a disaster,” wrote editor-in-chief Mike Floyd. “But they took the best of both and mixed it into a cohesive whole.” Cruz-Garcia expressed similar sentiments. “The mix of smooth finished metals with high-quality plastics adds a touch of luxury that reflects the interior of a Mercedes,” he wrote. “Sturdy and comfortable leather seats put you at ease when driving long distances.” Other staffers felt it was a good idea that Infiniti installed its own infotainment setup instead of the Mercedes COMAND system, and Infiniti’s standard AroundView 360-degree monitor was cited as a top-notch feature.

The Infiniti QX30 is a German-Japanese mashup, but in terms of build quality, it leans to the East. Aside from routine maintenance, we never needed to return to the dealership.

However, both Floyd and Cruz-Garcia took issue with the cabin’s overall space, one of the traditional selling points of a crossover. “Despite the pronouncements that this is some sort of crossover, it’s a hatchback, plain and simple,” Floyd said. “It’s smaller inside than your average compact sedan, and its swoopy lines are a major drawback for rear-seat passengers in the form of a claustrophobic feel.” Cruz-Garcia agreed: “The back seats can use a bit more room to accommodate three people comfortably. There really isn’t any room once a child seat is added in there.” In addition to the rear-seat passenger issues, cargo capacity is small for the segment at 19.2 cubic feet with the second-row seats up and just 34.0 with the 60/40 setup down.

Out on Los Angeles streets (the Infiniti also made forays into Arizona and Nevada during its stay) we found the QX30’s ride and handling satisfying, thanks in large part to its MacPherson front, multilink rear suspension setup and 19-inch tire and wheel package. “The more I drive the QX30, the more I like it,” Floyd said. “It’s nimble and drives like a car, which it basically is, with a well-balanced, on-center steering feel.”

Ireson, as usual, waxed poetic: “Wielded with impatient severity, the QX30 dances with nimble grace through the lethargic, texting hordes of L.A. traffic.” Online editor Ed Tahaney was of two minds about it, however: “The QX30 feels pretty good on the highway, but it’s a bit of a slug around town.”

Although we’re sure Infiniti would prefer we ignore the QX30’s German lineage, we couldn’t help but delve deeper into the differences (and similarities) between the two cars. That said, most of us saw the partnership as a good thing on balance.

“While driving it around, I’d think, ‘Wow! This is the best-driving Infiniti they make,’ before realizing that I’m enjoying the fruits of the Mercedes-Infiniti partnership,” Golden said. “I wasn’t the biggest fan of the GLA, but with the Infiniti badge, I think it works. It’s much more in line with the Japanese luxury brand than with Benz, and it fits Infiniti’s lineup perfectly.”

“Wielded with impatient severity, the QX30 dances with grace through the lethargic, texting hordes of L.A. traffic.”

In order to get a better feel for how closely related the two really are, we devoted an entire online piece to a comparison between the QX and the Benz. While the QX30 deploys the same 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 as the Mercedes, with the same 208 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque, the biggest difference we noticed was with each car’s transmission tuning. Both use the same seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, but several staffers took issue with how Infiniti set up its version of the hardware—at least on the 2017 model we tested.

“The transmission makes low-speed driving, and especially traffic, miserable,” associate editor Billy Rehbock said. Floyd advised to “make sure you’re in Sport mode, as the gearbox is slow on pickup in regular Eco mode.” Cruz-Garcia echoed the team’s sentiments. “The transmission isn’t the smoothest in the first couple of gears,” he said.

This hatchback shares its powertrain with Mercedes’ GLA, but the Benz’s trans- mission tuning is better, with the QX30 upshifting too clunkily at low speeds. Our fix: Drive in Sport mode.

Another complaint: The start/stop feature. “Man, I hate start/stop,” Floyd said. “I wish there were a way to shut it off permanently.” Even those who didn’t share the editor-in-chief’s degree of dislike saw a problem. “It always turns off right as I’m about to start moving, causing a slight delay while the engine turns back on,” noted recently departed (to a new career) senior editor Kirill Ougarov. Executive editor Mac Morrison condemned start/stop in general, noting, “I’ve given up trying to understand the logic of so many of these start/stop systems and when they choose to turn a car off. Sometimes they do it at every stop, sometimes they seem to forget to do it, and sometimes, even when I hit the switch to deactivate the function, I still find it kicking in every once in a while for no apparent rhyme or reason.”

Enough about what we liked and didn’t: How did the QX30 hold up during its stay? Although its temperature gauge would occasionally climb when we worked the car hard, drawing some notice among our editors, it never hit the red. (We noted similar behavior in other QX30s and GLAs we drove.) Our overall recorded average fuel economy was decent by small crossover standards—22.5 mpg—but that was far below the 27-mpg EPA combined number. (Even with our lead-foot tendencies, that’s quite a bit off.) The 14.8-gallon fuel tank made it hard to go more than 300 miles between fill-ups.

A slight misreading of the owner’s manual led us to South Bay Infiniti at 5,395 miles for our first (and, it turned out, only) service appointment. In fact, the QX30 is meant to cover 10,000 miles between oil changes (yes, even before the first one), or possibly longer—like many new cars, it can calculate oil change intervals based on how the car is driven. Rather than correct us, the dealership happily changed the oil, rotated the tires, topped off the fluids, and billed us $93.97. After that we kept our eye on the maintenance minder, which did not request service for the rest of the QX30’s stay. Lesson learned: Read the manual. Carefully.

Two days later, we got an alert from the Infiniti’s tire pressure monitoring system, and a trip to American Tire Depot found a nail in one of the rear paws. The flat repair was free, but rebalancing the tire cost us a cool $15. And that was it—our only unscheduled repair.

At the end of Four Seasons, the QX30 left our fleet well liked, if not loved. “It wouldn’t be a bad car to live with by any means,” Rehbock said. Others went as far as to call the compact Infiniti the marque’s best car. “All in all, it’s a car that sells itself, even if I’m not the target buyer,” Ireson said. To be sure, this Infiniti is far, far better than a drunken tattoo—unless of course that tattoo is of, say, a QX30.

Our 2017 Infiniti QX30 S

AS-TESTED PRICE $43,695

ENGINE 2.0L turbo DOHC 16-valve I-4/208 hp @ 5,500 rpm, 258 lb-ft @ 1,200-4,000 rpm

TRANSMISSION 7-speed dual-clutch automatic

LAYOUT 4-door, 5-passenger, front-engine, FWD crossover

EPA MILEAGE 24/33/27 mpg (city/hwy/combined)

L x W x H 174.2 x 82.0 x 58.1 in

WHEELBASE 106.3 in

WEIGHT 3,364 lb

0-60 MPH 6.2 sec

TOP SPEED N/A

OUR CAR

ODOMETER START/END 698/13,652

GALLONS OF FUEL USED 574.97 gal

OBSERVED FUEL ECON 22.5 mpg

TOTAL FUEL COST $1,862.90

AVERAGE COST/GALLON $3.24

MAINTENANCE 1 x Oil change/tire rotation, $93.97

RECALLS AND TSBs None

OUT OF POCKET Tire plug and rebalance, $15.00

OUR OPTIONS Liquid Copper paint, $500; Sport Leather package, $1,500 (heated Nappa leather seats, Nappa leather stitched dash insert, front passenger seat storage, black dinamica headliner and A-pillar, leatherette door, console, and dash trim); Sport Technology package, $1,200 (blind-spot warning, lane departure warning, forward emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, automatic high-beams); Sport LED package, $1,000 (LED headlights, active front lighting, enhanced interior ambient lighting)

[jesusvasser]

2017 Infiniti QX30 S Four Seasons Wrap-Up

Asking us why we chose to add an Infiniti QX30 S to our Four Seasons fleet is a lot like asking someone why they got a tattoo when they were drunk. Although the details are fuzzy now, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Unlike the tattoo, however, we’ll never regret adding the Infiniti to our long-term test stable.

The QX30 was an intriguing and somewhat controversial vehicle when it first debuted, and it piqued our interest immediately. More of a big hatchback than a (sub)compact crossover, it’s also a close relative of the Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class—a German-Japanese mashup that led to more than a few scratched heads. Although they share plenty of genetic traits, one thing was evident from the outset: The Infiniti won the beauty contest.

Indeed, the QX30’s exterior styling found plenty of fans from the day it rolled into our parking garage. Associate editor Conner Golden preached the Infiniti’s gospel early.

“Forget compact crossover, this thing is the size of a Focus, and it’s gratifying to drive a compact luxury hatchback,” he wrote in the first logbook entry. “We don’t get cars like this on our shores very often—or at least we didn’t used to—so it still feels intrinsically special. Infiniti has come a long way with its design language, and I think the QX30 is one of its best. I like the proportions and the star-spoke wheel design.”

Senior editor Nelson Ireson chimed in, “I love the look of this car. That’s all the more impressive because it’s a crossover—and I hate crossovers.”

Augmenting the QX30’s slick and sharp looks was its unusual Liquid Copper hue, which attracted attention wherever we went. “People stop and look at the car and admire the way the paint seems to change with natural sunlight,” wrote graphic designer Michael Cruz-Garcia. Golden added, “The Liquid Copper paint is one of the most interesting and polarizing hues I’ve seen. Some say pink, I say rose gold. I like it.”

The praise continued for the QX30’s interior layout. “Given the combination of Infiniti and Benz bits, it could have been a disaster,” wrote editor-in-chief Mike Floyd. “But they took the best of both and mixed it into a cohesive whole.” Cruz-Garcia expressed similar sentiments. “The mix of smooth finished metals with high-quality plastics adds a touch of luxury that reflects the interior of a Mercedes,” he wrote. “Sturdy and comfortable leather seats put you at ease when driving long distances.” Other staffers felt it was a good idea that Infiniti installed its own infotainment setup instead of the Mercedes COMAND system, and Infiniti’s standard AroundView 360-degree monitor was cited as a top-notch feature.

The Infiniti QX30 is a German-Japanese mashup, but in terms of build quality, it leans to the East. Aside from routine maintenance, we never needed to return to the dealership.

However, both Floyd and Cruz-Garcia took issue with the cabin’s overall space, one of the traditional selling points of a crossover. “Despite the pronouncements that this is some sort of crossover, it’s a hatchback, plain and simple,” Floyd said. “It’s smaller inside than your average compact sedan, and its swoopy lines are a major drawback for rear-seat passengers in the form of a claustrophobic feel.” Cruz-Garcia agreed: “The back seats can use a bit more room to accommodate three people comfortably. There really isn’t any room once a child seat is added in there.” In addition to the rear-seat passenger issues, cargo capacity is small for the segment at 19.2 cubic feet with the second-row seats up and just 34.0 with the 60/40 setup down.

Out on Los Angeles streets (the Infiniti also made forays into Arizona and Nevada during its stay) we found the QX30’s ride and handling satisfying, thanks in large part to its MacPherson front, multilink rear suspension setup and 19-inch tire and wheel package. “The more I drive the QX30, the more I like it,” Floyd said. “It’s nimble and drives like a car, which it basically is, with a well-balanced, on-center steering feel.”

Ireson, as usual, waxed poetic: “Wielded with impatient severity, the QX30 dances with nimble grace through the lethargic, texting hordes of L.A. traffic.” Online editor Ed Tahaney was of two minds about it, however: “The QX30 feels pretty good on the highway, but it’s a bit of a slug around town.”

Although we’re sure Infiniti would prefer we ignore the QX30’s German lineage, we couldn’t help but delve deeper into the differences (and similarities) between the two cars. That said, most of us saw the partnership as a good thing on balance.

“While driving it around, I’d think, ‘Wow! This is the best-driving Infiniti they make,’ before realizing that I’m enjoying the fruits of the Mercedes-Infiniti partnership,” Golden said. “I wasn’t the biggest fan of the GLA, but with the Infiniti badge, I think it works. It’s much more in line with the Japanese luxury brand than with Benz, and it fits Infiniti’s lineup perfectly.”

“Wielded with impatient severity, the QX30 dances with grace through the lethargic, texting hordes of L.A. traffic.”

In order to get a better feel for how closely related the two really are, we devoted an entire online piece to a comparison between the QX and the Benz. While the QX30 deploys the same 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 as the Mercedes, with the same 208 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque, the biggest difference we noticed was with each car’s transmission tuning. Both use the same seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, but several staffers took issue with how Infiniti set up its version of the hardware—at least on the 2017 model we tested.

“The transmission makes low-speed driving, and especially traffic, miserable,” associate editor Billy Rehbock said. Floyd advised to “make sure you’re in Sport mode, as the gearbox is slow on pickup in regular Eco mode.” Cruz-Garcia echoed the team’s sentiments. “The transmission isn’t the smoothest in the first couple of gears,” he said.

This hatchback shares its powertrain with Mercedes’ GLA, but the Benz’s trans- mission tuning is better, with the QX30 upshifting too clunkily at low speeds. Our fix: Drive in Sport mode.

Another complaint: The start/stop feature. “Man, I hate start/stop,” Floyd said. “I wish there were a way to shut it off permanently.” Even those who didn’t share the editor-in-chief’s degree of dislike saw a problem. “It always turns off right as I’m about to start moving, causing a slight delay while the engine turns back on,” noted recently departed (to a new career) senior editor Kirill Ougarov. Executive editor Mac Morrison condemned start/stop in general, noting, “I’ve given up trying to understand the logic of so many of these start/stop systems and when they choose to turn a car off. Sometimes they do it at every stop, sometimes they seem to forget to do it, and sometimes, even when I hit the switch to deactivate the function, I still find it kicking in every once in a while for no apparent rhyme or reason.”

Enough about what we liked and didn’t: How did the QX30 hold up during its stay? Although its temperature gauge would occasionally climb when we worked the car hard, drawing some notice among our editors, it never hit the red. (We noted similar behavior in other QX30s and GLAs we drove.) Our overall recorded average fuel economy was decent by small crossover standards—22.5 mpg—but that was far below the 27-mpg EPA combined number. (Even with our lead-foot tendencies, that’s quite a bit off.) The 14.8-gallon fuel tank made it hard to go more than 300 miles between fill-ups.

A slight misreading of the owner’s manual led us to South Bay Infiniti at 5,395 miles for our first (and, it turned out, only) service appointment. In fact, the QX30 is meant to cover 10,000 miles between oil changes (yes, even before the first one), or possibly longer—like many new cars, it can calculate oil change intervals based on how the car is driven. Rather than correct us, the dealership happily changed the oil, rotated the tires, topped off the fluids, and billed us $93.97. After that we kept our eye on the maintenance minder, which did not request service for the rest of the QX30’s stay. Lesson learned: Read the manual. Carefully.

Two days later, we got an alert from the Infiniti’s tire pressure monitoring system, and a trip to American Tire Depot found a nail in one of the rear paws. The flat repair was free, but rebalancing the tire cost us a cool $15. And that was it—our only unscheduled repair.

At the end of Four Seasons, the QX30 left our fleet well liked, if not loved. “It wouldn’t be a bad car to live with by any means,” Rehbock said. Others went as far as to call the compact Infiniti the marque’s best car. “All in all, it’s a car that sells itself, even if I’m not the target buyer,” Ireson said. To be sure, this Infiniti is far, far better than a drunken tattoo—unless of course that tattoo is of, say, a QX30.

Our 2017 Infiniti QX30 S

AS-TESTED PRICE $43,695

ENGINE 2.0L turbo DOHC 16-valve I-4/208 hp @ 5,500 rpm, 258 lb-ft @ 1,200-4,000 rpm

TRANSMISSION 7-speed dual-clutch automatic

LAYOUT 4-door, 5-passenger, front-engine, FWD crossover

EPA MILEAGE 24/33/27 mpg (city/hwy/combined)

L x W x H 174.2 x 82.0 x 58.1 in

WHEELBASE 106.3 in

WEIGHT 3,364 lb

0-60 MPH 6.2 sec

TOP SPEED N/A

OUR CAR

ODOMETER START/END 698/13,652

GALLONS OF FUEL USED 574.97 gal

OBSERVED FUEL ECON 22.5 mpg

TOTAL FUEL COST $1,862.90

AVERAGE COST/GALLON $3.24

MAINTENANCE 1 x Oil change/tire rotation, $93.97

RECALLS AND TSBs None

OUT OF POCKET Tire plug and rebalance, $15.00

OUR OPTIONS Liquid Copper paint, $500; Sport Leather package, $1,500 (heated Nappa leather seats, Nappa leather stitched dash insert, front passenger seat storage, black dinamica headliner and A-pillar, leatherette door, console, and dash trim); Sport Technology package, $1,200 (blind-spot warning, lane departure warning, forward emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, automatic high-beams); Sport LED package, $1,000 (LED headlights, active front lighting, enhanced interior ambient lighting)

[quandqry-blog]

Muse Sheet

Everything you need to know on Franklin Mendel/Quandary under the cut.

General Info

Full Name: Franklin Mendel

Name Origin: Franklin - liberally free-thinking (Middle English); Mendel - comforter, guardian (Yiddish)

Nickname: Frank/Frankie - self-explanatory, really; Mend-All - as one of the more...grounded associates, Franklin’s established himself as quite the handyman in Nygma’s ranks and a jack-of-all-trades, taking up various roles when required. 

Alias: Quandary - a state of perplexion and uncertainty over what to do during a difficult decision, typically of a moral nature.

D.O.B.: 19/07/87

Place of Birth: The Bowery, Gotham City East, USA - the lowest of the low, the worst Gotham has to offer. Bordered to the north by Crime Alley, the Bowery is home to Crown Point, a smaller inner-district ridden with crime, homelessness and prostitution. Underdeveloped and laden with the circulation of illegal drugs, police activity is at a minimum within the Bowery, while independent gangs rule the streets. 

Ethnicity: Sicilian - born to Sicilian immigrants, Franklin identifies strongly with his roots, identifying more with the culture and history he was born into than that of the US he was raised within. 

Religion: Roman Catholic - he was raised as such by his parents up until adolescence, where he started to assume a more casual degree of practice. While he acknowledges the concept of Catholicism as part of his heritage, Franklin isn’t an especially strict follower of the teachings, and would likely be considered a lapsed Catholic by most.

Place of Residence: The Cauldron, Gotham Central, USA - known for it’s organised crime, the Cauldron was run by Mickey Sullivan and the Irish mob - a sub-organisation of assassins who operated beneath Falcone - until Holiday wiped them out during Thanksgiving. As a gesture of goodwill, the territory was transferred over to the Sabatino crime family, Gotham’s oldest Italian mob, where it developed a reputation for housing and producing the city’s most feared hitmen.

Brief Description of Home: Franklin rents a top floor apartment on the outskirts of the Cauldron, consisting of a general living area and a sorry excuse for a bathroom tucked behind the door. He’s made a few repairs here and there to ensure everything’s functioning, but, if it weren’t for the blanket over the sofa - no bed, you see - or the coffee pot by the window, you’d be hard-pressed to believe anyone was living there. It’s poorly lit, cast in dreary greys and browns, and you’d be able to cross from one side of the room to the other in about three steps. Hardly ideal, but, in terms of putting a roof over his head and a minor base of operations, it serves its purpose.

Brief Description of Local Area: Much like your typical Gothamite, Franklin’s desensitised to the morbid ways of life within the city. Murder, theft, folk going missing overnight - hell, the middle of the day - are so commonplace, they’re scarcely worth fussing over - and, when you consider just how brutal the Cauldron can be, well, everything’s scaled up to eleven. Paranoia runs rampant in the streets, with friends turning each other over to the mob for a hefty fee, and blood will be spilled over petty disputes. Still, it’s ideally situated for ease of access to other areas of Gotham, and the Stacked Deck’s a fairly decent watering hole, if you can stomach the clientele. 

Current Occupation: Henchman - well, if we’re being official. It’s a fairly broad term, so he’s dabbled in his fair share of laundering, theft, murder, extortion, blackmail, getaway driving, etc. in his service to the Riddler. 

Income Level: Ehhh, it’s flimsy at best. He doesn’t have a conventional job, so there’s no money being made in his name. Whatever he does earn with Nygma tends to be split ten ways with other crooks, and deposited into cliched we’re obviously criminals swag bags, so, you can bet he’s not seeing a dime of that from all the times he’s spent behind bars...Good job he’s low maintenance, huh?

Education Level: As an orphan growing up in the East End of Gotham, Franklin never had access to nor the opportunity for a formal education. He was sitting around the sixth grade when his parents died, but everything he learned from that point on came from a significant degree of self-learning. Rarely would you find the urchin without a book, lost within the depths of literature and the human psyche. And, street smarts sure go a long way.

Do They Drive?: You’ve heard the saying like a duck to water, yes? Well, Franklin’s got a knack for that sort of thing, being able to adapt and account for numerous setbacks in areas he’s barely familiar with. He’s got a Mercedes S63 Coupe from Johnny Sabatino, as a gesture of their friendship and familial ties, but he’s rarely ever found himself needing to drive, when the labyrinth of Gotham’s a much more efficient means of crossing the city. He’s not beyond taking up the role of getaway driver when required, though. 

Sexual Orientation: Demisexual - while he’s not beyond acknowledging someone’s attractive and breaking into a sweat on the subway, Franklin predominantly experiences secondary sexual attraction, in that a foundation of trust and familiarity must be laid out before considering any partners. Unfortunately, this may come across as being fairly prudish, or not getting laid ‘enough’, but, for Frank, the attraction/appeal simply isn’t there until he’s made the connection, at which point, the notions become a tangible force.

Romantic Orientation: Aromantic - while the definition of aromantic varies between individuals, for Franklin, the concept of romance seems arbitrarily and inconsistently defined. It’s foreign territory, uncharted land. An entirely abstract notion. Now, he’s experienced passionate friendships which fall outwith typical ‘platonic’ boundaries, but the concept of romantic idealisation and elevating one person over another on account of some trivial feeling seems well and truly illogical. His love is based on practical conditions - constancy, loyalty, trust, action - not chemical highs and giddy emotions.

Physical Appearance

Height: 6′1″ [1.88m]

Weight: 187lbs [85kg]

Body Type: Franklin has a fairly lean, nimble physique - while proportionate and somewhat defined, he’s not especially athletic. Shoulders, chest, calves, quads - they’re all there, present, accounted for, but not to the extent of, say, a model or trainer. It’s a practical mass, gained through everyday labour and hardship, not the product of ego or vanity. 

Eye Colour: Dark Green.

Hair Colour: Light Brown 

Hair Style: Fairly short at the back and sides, with just enough heft to naturally quiff at the front.

Skin Tone: Light Olive - not as prominent as, say, other Sicilians, but definitively not white, either.

Prominent Features: He’s got an arrowhead-esque range of moles upon the head of the left deltoid, and a nasty scar on the inside of his bottom lip, courtesy of the Sabatino initiation process.  A tattoo of his parents’ initials on the inside of his left ankle, and one at the base of spine - domando, Sicilian slang that combines the Italian for query and demand. A few scars and bruises here and there from the previous week’s scrapes, but nothing too permanent or long-term, ‘til next time.

Dress Style: In spite of his line of work, Franklin isn’t a flashy sort of guy - if anything, his wardrobe’s the goldilocks zone of comfort and practicality, while maintaining that dreary pseudo-noir Gotham aesthetic. Long sleeved sweaters, cotton shirts, military jackets, grey denim, contrast jumpers, shirt jackets, leather boots, etc. etc. Greys, browns, greens. Everything you’d expect from a mobster-turned-Riddler henchman.

Accessories: He wears a brown leather watch on his left wrist, and used to carry his mother’s engagement ring around on a silver chain, but pawned it off in his youth for petty change during an all-time-low.

Grooming: Besides a light stubble every now and again, Franklin’s fairly well-maintained - not to the point of excess, mind you, or devoting too much time to his appearance; mostly the I woke up like this, groggily ran a brush through my hair and voila! look. You know the type.

Speech and Language

Rate of Speech: Franklin has a fairly fast, almost erratic, means of communication. It stems from finding difficulty in making the connection between his thoughts, what he wants to say and actually saying it in a way you’ll understand. By extension, if he’s ever explaining something, he’ll typically make a conscious effort to slow down, to ensure you’re keeping up - it may come across as condescending at times, but, hey, you’ll know all about it if he is.

Accent/Dialect: He boasts a fairly prominent New Jersey dialect, with the trademark diphthong and underlying slur. On paper, coffee and chocolate become ‘caw-fee’/’chawk-let’, park and dark become ‘pah-k’/’dah-k’. He’s aware of the negative stereotypes surrounding the dialect the ‘lazy’ pronunciation of vowels and absence of r’s, but he’s not going to go out of his way to mask or distance himself from it. Far as he’s concerned, it’s part of who he is.

Tone: The tone of his voice is comfortably within the middle ranges, not especially high, nor particularly deep; somewhat rasped in the lower regions, heavily accented when caught in the moment. Rarely will you ever hear him raise his voice, either, for there’s a distinct sense of control and reservation at play - it’d be illogical for him to be saddled by emotion and impulse, so you’ll find he conducts himself with a calm, authoritative air.

General Speech Pattern: For the most part, Franklin’s just your everyday Gothamite - he may be in Nygma’s employ, but he’s not going to run around using flowery language, accusing everyone of being imbeciles, flaunting his intellectual superiority through antiquated words. He values words, he values meaning, so he can often come across as being fairly reserved in terms of interaction, for he's pretty damn selective in what he says, speaks only when there’s a point to be made or a conversation of value.

Mannerisms/Demeanour: In contrast to Nygma’s theatrical flamboyance, Franklin’s much more...reticent. It may be mistaken for a brooding, stoic disposition, but he’s much more sure of himself and his ability to get his point across without the grandeur Nygma so readily employs. He’s calm, cool, collected. Patient. Not so easily riled. Truth is, he often finds himself cringing when Nygma gets in the zone, since the whole ordeal’s so painfully obnoxious, but, hey, gig of the century.

Typical Posture: He’ll typically stand straight and proportioned, but not rigid. Circumstance may see him slouch a tad if he’s been lingering for a particular length of time, but, generally speaking, he’ll remain upright to the best of his ability. 

Common Gestures: Franklin has a tendency to fold his arms so that each thumb rests under the bicep, while his fingers lightly tap upon the top. It’s not so much a sign he’s uncomfortable or anxious, more...a means of occupying himself, stimulating his mind and body, where it’s otherwise lacking. The occasional foot-tap makes an appearance, too.

Everyday Behaviour/Habits

Finances: As mentioned during the ‘income level’ section, every penny Franklin makes comes from his criminal activity with Nygma. There’s no need for him to be cautious or prudent with regards to his spending habits, for he spent so much of his life on the streets anyway that the concept of money seems pretty damn nonsensical. If he wants something, he can simply take it, for he’s already damned as far as a criminal record goes. Besides, he’s not exactly high maintenance - he’s pretty much living on microwave meals, take-outs, a few repair materials and strong black coffee.

Vices: Franklin’s partial to the odd glass or two of Amaretto, with a large bottle tucked away in his apartment. One’s kicking about somewhere in Nygma’s HQ, but its current whereabouts are, as yet, unknown. He’s also dabbled in weed from time to time, but nothing so extreme as to impair his judgement or performance. Nor does he bolster an addiction.

Daily Routine: It’s nigh impossible to map out a typical day for Franklin, since so much could change on the turn of a dime. He’ll roughly wake for around 8-9am, take a leak, brush up, etc. etc., keeping his phone nearby in the event Nygma calls, then grab breakfast on-the-go as he paces across Gotham to find intel of his own, people to extort, victims to test. Nygma’s not exactly running a criminal empire, so Franklin doesn’t need to be on his hands and knees 24/7 for him, he’s got a life outwith being a henchman. Having said that, should he not be required, he’ll be left with a significant amount of time to fill, prompting him to either make some repairs back home, check over everything at HQ, or take one of Nygma’s traps for a spin. Coming home, it’d be your standard washing away the blood of your victims, watching mostly-static over a microwave meal, then curling up on a ratty sofa with no remorse for the people he killed. Not his fault they didn’t have what it takes to survive. Clearly didn’t want to live enough.

Skills/Talents: Critical thinking; innovation; diplomatic; articulate; intuitive; adaptable; integrity; polyglot; mechanical engineering; woodwork; psycho-analysing; philosophical; light-footed; silk touch; quick-witted; driven. 

Weaknesses: Franklin doesn’t do too well when it comes to being called out or contradicted - his thoughts essentially haze over, struggling to overcome the sudden obstacle, leaving him pretty damn stuped. While boasting a mean right hook, he’s also not the most skilled fighter, meaning he could easily go down if outnumbered or overpowered. 

Hobbies: Woodwork; learning; geocaching; poker; hiking; orienteering; camping.

[More to add.]

[itsworn]

Over 8,000 Cars Visit the 18th Annual PPG Syracuse Nationals

Nothing says summertime fun better than plotting out an adventure in your hot rod. It’s a time where you can pack a bag, top off the tank, and enjoy the driving experience while you cross the country on both highways and back roads. There’s just something so cool about the excitement that attending a big national event generates as you roll into town to check it all out. Celebrating its 18th year, the PPG Syracuse Nationals is one of the largest rodding events on the East Coast. The weekend horsepower festival welcomed well over 8,000 cars again this year, with everything from hot rods and customs to classic trucks, restos, and race cars, leaving you awestruck. Thanks to thundering V-8s accented by an endless stream of candies, pearls, and metallic colors, the stage was set for a wicked weekend.

Taking place at the immaculate New York State Fairgrounds, the event unfolds over 365 acres once you arrive. It features plenty of cool tree-lined streets to cruise on, accented by a myriad of classic old-time buildings, vintage horse and livestock barns, and state fair–styled eateries, offering plenty of meals you’ll remember since you were knee-high to a Deuce bumper. It’s an event with plenty of neat things to check out, including a huge grouping of vendors spotlighting all the latest updates for your ride, scheduled tech seminars from industry leaders, including PPG, TREMEC, and Inland Empire, to name but a few. You could have participated in the Tucci Hot Rods Pro Pick while also checking out the live bands performing on multiple stages throughout the weekend and dazzling nighttime fireworks displays.

Looking for more, the Old-Skool Roundup in a separate open-air pavilion had its own unique vibe for traditional hot rods and customs, fueled by plenty of kulture and its own swap meet and energized live Rockabilly performances, while Gasoline Alley showcased an extensive array of classic vintage race cars. The competition of the Select Six for the Winfield Award, presented by custom car legend Gene Winfield, generated plenty of excitement, and this year’s award winner was Bruce Leven with his 1951 Ford coupe. The legendary Arties Party pinstriping and panel jam to benefit The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central New York had custom-designed artwork auctioned throughout the weekend.

When Sunday arrived it was time for the exclusive Syracuse Nationals giveaway program, featuring the Garage Gear Giveaway to one lucky winner. By the end of the weekend over 8,000 cars had rolled through the gates, along with over 80,000 visitors. Thanks to the support of the Central New York Car Club Association (the host of the show) and area service clubs, donations were made from proceeds of the event in the amount of $20,000 plus $66,000 from the Panel Jam auctions to a number of local charities. This brought the 18-year donation total close to $1.1 million. This event continues to grow with each passing year, and we can’t wait to check it out again in 2018! We’re only touching the surface here regarding all the fun this event includes. You can check out more at rightcoastcars.com.

LS Transplants

If you are transplanting an LS GM engine into an older vehicle, most will require adapter plates that move the engine 1 inch forward to allow clearance for the coil on the passenger-side valve cover.

 Rob Purcell | 1932 Ford | Harriston, Ontario, Canada Nothing says hot rod better than a hopped-up Deuce pickup with a wicked mill. Attitude comes from a 3-inch chop accented by shortening the bed 14 inches. It sits on Deuce ’rails with a heavy dose of PPG black gloss and power added from a 341ci Desoto Hemi wearing a Gear Drive log intake topped with a squadron of Holley 94-series carbs.

David & Deana Thomas | 1935 Chevy | West Chester, PA Traditional MetalCraft modified every inch of the sheetmetal except for the cowl vent and grille shell. It features a wedge-chop of 5-1/2 inches rear and 6 inches front with the body covered in PPG Elysian Green. A chassis from Ionia Hot Rod Shop sets the stance while riding on Halibrand wheels with power from a dual-quad-fed Chevy 327 V-8.

Mark Sansone | 1952 Chevy | Hilton, NY With plenty of contemporary elegance and numerous subtle details, the body wears a mile-deep coating of black gloss. A Chevrolet Performance supercharged LS9 crate V-8 adds a healthy 638 hp to the mix for moving the big-inch Budnik wheels wearing Nitto rubber. Inside Rich Perez designed a breathtaking red leather interior and console.

Ron Ellis | 1941 Willys | Wilson, NY There’s just something about a low-slung 1941 Willys that raises adrenalin levels. Built at The East Coast Hot Rod Garage it features plenty of meticulous fabrication while sitting on a custom Art Morrison chassis and rolling on classic Halibrand wheels. A Ray Barton 525ci Hemi with dual quads gives it go, accented by Axalta Applegate Blue vibe and a Dean Alexander leather interior.

Vern & Dave Gray | 1932 Ford | Hemlock, MI This sedan was being built into a show car in the late ’50s but was never completed, being put into storage in 1959. Recently discovered, the father and son team brought it back to life with a two-deuce-fed 390ci Cadillac V-8 linked to a 1939 Ford trans. The body glows in dark red cherry pearl and is filled with a vibrant white interior with red piping.

Terry Cook | 1955 Chevy Bel Air | Mt Vernon, MO Terry’s Pro-Tour Bel Air left us admiring its many body mods and stance thanks to an Art Morrison chassis with 18-inch Foose wheels wearing Michelin rubber. Finished in a dramatic PPG green and charcoal pearl, the blacked-out trim gives it a sinister look. An aluminum 434ci small-block has plenty of go, accented by an interior from OZ Customs.

Ed Sears | 1941 Ford | Annapolis, MD Pure elegance describes this pickup with its subtle body updates and classic custom-blended PPG Light and Dark Brown Sugar coating from One-Off Rod & Custom. A 276ci Flathead V-8 is dressed to impress while Vintage Air and Classic Instruments add to the Lucky 7 Rod Shop leather interior.

Jon Centracchio | 1932 Ford | West Springfield, MA Looking like it stepped straight out of a little book, this Deuce personifies cool with its perfect chop ’n’ channel, Edmunds two-pot-fed 303ci Olds V-8 and PPG Purple–coated body. Traditional details make it a standout with bits like an original Dago dropped axle, split 1932 Ford bones, Frankland quick-change rear, and 1940 Ford steelies with Firestone/Coker wide whites.

Fred Provenzano | 1950 Lincoln | Massapequa Park, NY It’s rare to see a 1950 Lincoln, let alone one that has undergone the full custom treatment. Starting with a well-balanced chop, the body was shaved and treated to a lustrous coating of PPG black cherry pearl. Inside the team at GilliN Auto Interiors filled the business office with fully handcrafted appointments using Ferrari-grade leather in a double-stitch diamond pattern.

Jeff Benson | 1932 Ford | Canandaigua, NY For a unique Deuce Jeff had Jay Panganelli hand form the body, grille shell, headlights, taillights, and gas tank all from 0.080 aluminum along with the windshield from stainless steel. Power comes from a hopped-up Flathead V-8 nailed in a custom chassis by Barry Brown’s Riter Automotive with Rocket Racing Solid-series wheels completing the look.

Steve Ramsey | 1963 Ford Falcon | Maryland

While honoring the 18th Syracuse Nationals it was a perfect time for STREET RODDER and Ford Performance to recognize street rodders who install a late-model Ford engine in a Ford hot rod or custom. While canvassing the massive confines of the New York State Fairgrounds we found Steve Ramsey’s immaculate 1963 Ford Falcon Futura Gasser making its debut, featuring a Ford Performance 427ci aluminum crate V-8, which caught our immediate attention.

Nothing says hot rod better than a Gasser, with its mile-high frontend accented by an adrenalin-charged V-8. If you grew up in the ’60s they were a main attraction at any drag racing event. For Steve Ramsey of Fallston, Maryland, getting indoctrinated into the world of hopped-up cars was as easy as walking into his dad’s auto repair shop. It was the place to be in the ’60s if you wanted to have the latest speed equipment installed on your ride. Before long Steve began spinning wrenches himself and by age 12 he purchased his first car, a 1955 Chevy coupe. He started frequenting local dragstrips to see the blistering times drivers were laying down on the strip. One thing he never forgot was the adrenalin rush he experienced while watching drivers pilot their wild Gassers down the track.

The thought of building a period-perfect Gasser had always lurked at the back of his mind. He started his search for a suitable roller and it didn’t take long till he located a stalled hot rod project close to home. The car was a 1963 Ford Falcon Futura that was on its way to becoming a race car at some point, a roughed-out roller at best stripped of all its driveline. A deal was made and the project was hauled back to his shop for evaluation.

As owner of both Ramsey Ford and Elkton Ford, both located in Maryland, the availability of Ford Performance parts gave him the opportunity to inject some serious venom into the project. Having worked with Dave Vrankin of Forest Hill on prior builds, it was a perfect opportunity to have him spearhead the project.

A decision was made to retain the factory unibody while adding plenty of extra strength. For starters the rotted floors were replaced along with adding custom frame connectors, gussets, and crossmember to make the platform rock solid. Out back a Strange Engineering 9-inch rear was packed with 3.70:1 gears linked to matching 31-spline axles. It’s suspended in place by a combination of custom era-correct ladder bars linked to a wishbone, Panhard bar, and QA1 coilover shocks. Up front it’s all business with a Speedway Motors Gasser front axle kit, including a straight front axle linked to 1949-1954 Chevy spindles deftly matches to semi-elliptical springs and tube shocks. Slowing the beast you’ll find a Wilwood Engineering master pushing fluid though stainless lines to matching 11-inch front discs wearing four-piston calipers, combined with 10-inch Ford drums out back. Anchoring it all to the street are a pair of Rocket Racing 15×6 front Launcher-series wheels with 15×8 rear Injector-series wheels all wrapped in rubber from M&H.

If you’re going to make a statement you’d better have plenty of horsepower underhood to back it up. Steve went to Ford Performance for their fire-breathing 427ci small-block all-aluminum crate V-8 packing 600 hp right from the factory. Hand assembled by the Ford Performance team, it’s packed with a speed shop full of go-fast goods. Starting with an aluminum four-bolt main block filled with a Scat forged steel crank linked to matching H-beam connecting rods topped with forged Mahle pistons getting bumped by a solid steel billet roller cam. Up top a set of CNC ported Ford Performance aluminum “Z” cylinder heads make plenty of power when fed by a Hilborn eight-stack injection system. It sparks to life through an MSD ignition and dumps gases through custom fenderwell headers by Vrankin to 3-inch exhaust with SpinTech mufflers. The goods move through a Ford C4 trans warmed over by Performance Automatic of Frederick, Maryland, to a custom aluminum driveshaft.

Vrankin then started on bringing the battered old body back to life. He replaced the rear quarters while also removing the stock shock towers to accommodate the new V-8 and adding a six-point rollbar. The doors, front fenders, and fiberglass hood were then fitted to the car and the shell was completely metal finished. Vrankin then coated the body in Axalta Astro Blue metallic, bringing it all to life. Brightwork from Paul’s Chrome Plating added the final icing. To add the perfect era-correct Gasser style to the interior the stock dash was filled with Auto Meter gauges to monitor the vitals while a Mooneyes steering wheel carves the course and a Hurst Quarter Stick pulls gears. Bux Customs of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, created a period-perfect business office covering a set of 1967 Mustang buckets in a combination of blue and white vinyl while also crafting custom door and side panels accented by blue loop-style carpeting. An American Autowire kit installed by Vrankin completes the job. Congratulations to Steve who will receive a limited-edition jacket as the award winner.

The post Over 8,000 Cars Visit the 18th Annual PPG Syracuse Nationals appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network http://www.hotrod.com/articles/8000-cars-visit-18th-annual-ppg-syracuse-nationals/ via IFTTT

[manchattanskyline]

Downtown to Midtown and Back Again.

Manhattan Bridge, Manhattan- side traffic exit

A sleepless , and I mean totally sleepless, night followed. I was at the reception desk at 6 am , sharp, being firm but fair to begin with but this quickly deteriorated into out-and-out begging for a room on the other side of the building. I was given sincere apologies and informed that another room would be free, the following day. One more night in the noisiest room from Hell. OK, it had to be done. We didn’t have a choice. Being terribly stiff-upper-lipped about the whole thing, I decided that this was not going to ruin the holiday, or even the day. I slapped on some make-up on my far-travelled, sleepless, dehydrated face and we set off in to the slightly warmer climes of -2 degrees C. It had snowed the day before so I thought it would be a good idea to go all the way up to Central Park, while the snow was still hanging around, so that we could see some iconic ‘New York in the snow’ sights. Despite the joys of free wifi in the hotel and the excitement of using Google Maps in New York, it was a bit further than I’d anticipated. We soon stopped at a lovely looking coffee shop called Think Coffee, at the lower end of the hugely historic Bowery.  The Bowery has seen some good times, bad times and downright dangerous times. From being one of the first roads built in New York, showing Houdini’s first solo show and spawning the birth of punk rock in America ( see CBGB’s &  The Ramones ) there’s a rich history and culture about the place, although the lower end is now mainly populated by restaurant equipment and lighting shops.

There are still some original stores here, like the cash register store which has been selling and repairing the things since the turn of the century ( the 1900 one). There are some beautiful old fashioned elaborate models in the window, as well as rows and rows of spare parts, inside.There’s also The Bowery Mission, a men’s shelter set up in 1879, and at it’s current location since 1908, which still provides help and shelter to Lower Manhattan’s homeless.   A lot of the shops and buildings have laminated posters in their windows, telling you the history of that building. I think we managed to read most of them, over the next ten days, but I’m sure there are a few that eluded us.

The Bowery, Downtown

The Bowery, Downtown

We settled down in the warm – sweet- pastry smelling coffee shop to a crispy  artisanal ( I use that word with a wry smile) almond croissant and a steaming- creamy cappuccino. Sat in the corner window on a real leather seat, at an impossibly small table, we had a perfect view of the whole world passing us by. Every age, race, gender and sexuality passed by that window, as two NYPD cops were handing out leaflets on the corner of Bleecker St and The Bowery. What struck me was how much interaction there was between the NYPD and the general public. Despite the corruption which we know still exists within the organisation, it’s clear that New Yorkers do, ultimately, trust their police force. They know that they keep their city safe, that they have and will continue to sacrifice much, for New York and it’s visitors. In the UK, we rarely have anything to do with our Police force unless we’re in trouble, as a suspect or a victim! People were having cheerful conversations with these cops, thanking them for their work and wishing them a good day. As one older woman touched the arm of one of the cops, all I could think was ‘ are you crazy, he’s got a gun!’. And they do have guns. And batons. And stab proof vests. I have my opinions on armed Police but here, in this city, with it’s issues and it’s not so distant history, I found myself feeling a little more open minded on the subject.  There’s an eclectic 1990s mix-tape playing in the coffee shop and suddenly it’s the Spice Girls. New York is already giving me so much life, so much to see, so much to hear, so much to smell. What have we given New York? The sodding Spice Girls. I feel like I ought to rush up to the counter to apologise. I could have sat in that window seat for the next ten days, just soaking in the action on that cold street corner. We had a good way to go yet and so we bundled back up, taking care to dispose of our individual items in the appropriate recycling bins, and pushed on, back up The Bowery, towards Midtown and Central Park.

Each new block gradually became a little busier with more business-types. The buildings got newer, shinier, squarer and taller and we found ourselves walking over more and more subway vents and bigger crossings. A note about crossing the road in New York. First of all, a really good way to judge a native New Yorker, or someone who’s been here more than twenty-four hours, is to see how far out in to the street they stand when waiting to cross. new comers (like us) dilligently stay on the pavement (sidewalk) whilst inevitably looking the wrong way first. Natives stand a good few feet out, confident that not only are they looking the right way, but that are close enough to the sidewalk to jump back from a speeding truck and far enough out to accurately judge the first opportunity to cross.

About those ‘walk’ ‘don’t walk’ signs. First off, the original style ones were replaced in 2004 when the city replaced them with pictograms (a white pedestrian for ‘walk’ and a red hand for ‘don’t walk’. This does make me a little sad but it also makes it a lot safer for the hundreds of thousands  of non-English speaking visitors and new residents of the city. Secondly, you learn pretty quickly that these signs are an optimistic suggestion, at best, and a dangerous assumption at worst. Whilst here are enforced rules in New York regarding jay-walking, from what I could gather the general rule is ‘walk’ means you can cross but the traffic might still run you over, a ‘don’t walk’ means you can cross but the traffic will actively go out of it’s way to run you over. If there is no sign, look both ways, say a little prayer and run across with your eyes closed, keeping at least one other person (a loved one if needs must) between you and the oncoming traffic.

We passed men practising ballet at the barre, in what looked like a shop window but which was probably a studio / gym. we casually spotting a giant red Jeff Koons “Balloon Rabbit” in the foyer of an office building and lamented the deaths of what seemed like hundreds of discarded Christmas trees, permeating the air with their piney-scent as they lay on their sides, covered in a very festive dusting of snow and awaiting their fate (Sssssssh, don’t tell them!). There were tiny dogs wearing coats and shoes and women with huge leather tote handbags and even bigger headphones. The air felt crisper and cleaner as we approached the lower East side of the Park. Suddenly the soaring Empire State Building, the ominous Trump Building (this was only days away from the inauguration) and the ornate Plaza Hotel give way to wide-open walk-ways, trees, grass and sky. Sky! Something we hadn’t seen an awful lot of since crossing 14th St and passing the Flat Iron Building  There was a incredibly smug-looking woman running in Central Park. To be fare, who wouldn’t be smug if that was your local running track, and although our faces hurt from the cold and our legs ached from the rather epic trip from Lower East Side to Upper West side (yes, yes, we should have taken the Subway) I was nothing but ecstatically happy.

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Jeff Koons’ Balloon Rabbit

The Flatiron Building

The Chrysler Building

Central park Ice-Rink

That bridge, Central park

I felt like I knew my way around Midtown better than I did Downtown, only because that’s the area I’d stayed in before but having already had a glimpse of the more residential and daily-functioning of Downtown, I was realising how showy and over-polished the upper areas of Manhattan were. This is where the iconic skyscrapers and word-renowned department stores and, yes, the money, reside. All these things make for great photos and certainly have the ‘wow’ factor but they are also the tourist traps and the over-priced attractions and are a million miles away from the soul of New York. This is one version of New York, one of a hundred, that gives you a totally different experience of the city from the one you had a block away.

A quick jaunt in to the park and out again on the lower West side at Columbus Circle, along  West 59th street, back to The Plaza (where we’d be having afternoon tea on Friday) and then back down Fifth Avenue at a leisurely pace towards our main food destination of the day, the world famous Katz’s Deli. After turning the map round a few times to re-orintate ourselves and almost bumping into Helena Bonham-Carter (yes, really) we arrived at our neon-lit destination. You know, the one in ‘When Harry Met Sally’ , where Meg Ryan demonstrates to Billy Crystal the acting skills of the female species. A quick scan of the walls of the giant dining area, every inch covered with photos of the deli’s owner and staff with movie stars, sports personalities, politicians and the odd U.S President, proves that that’s not all it’s known for. What Katz’s does best, beyond the fame and the hype and the celebrities, is really, really, really, really, really good food. We opted for table service as the counter service ordering was a little confusing and we really needed a sit down. I had the pastrami on rye, with pickles, and a home-made lemonade (Katz’s own brand). The meat was hot, the bread was soft and the pickles were amazing. The sandwich itself was huge and whilst I ate half without a struggle, the second half proved a struggle and was beaten I ate some meat off the remains half and then had to concede that I was already way past being just ‘full’. My dessert tummy was not, however, and so we both ordered a plain New York cheesecake. It would have been rude no to.

Katz’s, That’s all!

Always busy and the huuuuge serving counter.

Pastrami on rye, lemonade and a whole plate of pickles

Even Leo’s been here.

As we slowly (very slowly) rolled back down Houston St towards The Bowery, we passed two stalwarts of the Lower-East side culinary scene: Russ & Daughters and Yonah Shimmel’s Knish Bakery, both Jewish in origin and both promising familiar and mind-boggling delicacies, alike. We resolved to return and visit these establishments, later on in our trip.

When we returned to our hotel room, we were tired and aching and full to bursting. It would have been dangerous to lie down so we caught up with a bit of social media, posted some photos and watched a bit of TV. The local New York channel was concentrating on the up-coming inauguration and the protesters we had passed, on Fifth Avenue. living in a city I was, of course accustomed to seeing familiar streets not he news but this was different. This was world famous streets and world changing events that we had ben privy to, just a few hours ago. Before we got too comfy and fell asleep, we took a quick look at the map and went on a min-advendure to Little Italy. Mr Manhattan has Italian heritage so we were interested to see a) how much of it still there and b)whether or not we had room for a canoli. it was well and truly dark now and as it was a Tuesday evening, also pretty quiet everywhere. We had a bit of a reccy and made a not of some places we’d like to come back to, to eat, and then found ourselves in a gorgeous old corner cafe, Caffe Roma. Proudly situated on the corner of Mulberry and Broome, this place had been here since 1880 and didn’t seem to have changed much. A large glass display counter showcased plate after plate of pastries, cakes and biscuits. The decor was most definitely original and the chairs were the old decorative wire kind, and reassuringly uncomfortable.

display counter of wonders

Old School

Espresso and canoli

Original ceiling, light fitting and shelves

Outside sign

Turns out we did have room for canoli, and an espresso. We had a further mooch around the neighbourhood, now being squeezed by the ever-spawling Chinatown to the South and the multi-million dollar brownstones of Greenwich Village to the North. Having long been deserted by all but a handful of the descendants of those brave and trail-blazing immigrants, the popular restaurants and bakeries remain but you know that no new arrival to this city could ever afford one of those apartments, five stories above our heads, sporting a smart fire-escape and potted palms.

Welcome

A small selection of Ravioli

Oldest Cheese Store in America

Sofia’s, Mulberry Street

With no room left in our tummies and no elasticity left in our leg muscles, we sauntered back to the hotel, and our Subway train soundtrack.

Manhattan Bridge from our hotel window. No zoom.

Read the first entry of this travel diary, here. New York Travel Diary: Day 0

New York Travel Diary: Day 1. Downtown to Midtown and Back Again. A sleepless , and I mean totally sleepless, night followed. I was at the reception desk at 6 am , sharp, being firm but fair to begin with but this quickly deteriorated into out-and-out begging for a room on the other side of the building.

[instantdeerlover]

10 Food & Drink Pop-Ups In NYC This Summer added to Google Docs

10 Food & Drink Pop-Ups In NYC This Summer

Right now, there’s something comforting about the inherent transience of a pop-up. While the newness and strangeness of, well, everything might have us in a perpetual state of Monday-morning-after-a-long-weekend, new and different is what we expect from pop-ups. Whether you’re looking for a glimpse of normalcy, or you just want to try some wagyu beef corndogs, check out the 10 pop-ups on this guide.

the spots  Kate Previte Holy Ground $ $ $ $ American ,  Steaks ,  BBQ  in  Tribeca $$$$ 109 W Broadway

Holy Ground’s space in Tribeca isn’t a standard venue for a BBQ spot. Instead of paper napkins and canned beer, you’ll find red leather booths and martinis. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that its pop-up isn’t traditional either. They’ve put a custom smoker and grill on the back of a 1966 Chevy pickup truck, which they park in front of various partner-restaurants around the city. On Wednesdays, you’ll find them at Ray’s on the LES, Friday and Sunday at Donna in Williamsburg, and Thursday through Sunday at Elsewhere in Bushwick. Perhaps most fitting given their current setup, they’re also operating out of the parking lot of Joe’s Auto Repair, next to We Got Company, in Williamsburg on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

 Max Flatow Celestine $ $ $ $ Mediterranean ,  Middle Eastern  in  DUMBO $$$$ 1 John St

The outdoor patio at Celestine is always impressive. It’s on the waterfront in Dumbo, and its views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline will make you understand why so many people take their wedding photos a few steps away. And this summer, it’s hosting Bad Trip, a pop-up serving fantastic cheeseburgers and frozen cocktails. Order at the outdoor counter and find one of their seat-yourself tables from 2-8pm Wednesday through Friday, and 12-8pm on weekends.

Maison Yaki $ $ $ $ Japanese ,  French  in  Brooklyn ,  Prospect Heights $$$$ 626 Vanderbilt Ave

A series of Black chefs and entrepreneurs are operating pop-ups at Maison Yaki for week-and-a-half stints throughout the summer. Currently, Jared Howard of Honey Bunny’s Chicken is serving Southern dishes like chicken biscuits and strawberry shortcake ice cream sandwiches. In August, Michelle Williams, the CEO of Good IV The Soul, will take over the kitchen and serve soul food, before Mohamad Wahiba of Tripoli Events anchors the summer series with pizza and fresh pasta.

 Gertie Gertie $ $ $ $ American  in  Williamsburg $$$$ 58 Marcy Ave

Every weekend, this all-day American spot sets up Gertie Summer Shack out front on Grand Street. From 4-9pm on Friday, 10:30am-9pm on Saturday, and 10:30am-6pm on Sunday, you can stop by for things like chicken schnitzel sandwiches on challah, smoked shrimp rolls with Old Bar aioli, and mezcal lemonades or summer shandies.

 Jakob Layman Dumpling Galaxy $$$$ 502 Amsterdam Avenue

The only way we can imagine leaving this Flushing spot off the NYC dumpling podium is if you’ve never tried their pork and chive or lamb and cilantro dumplings. Fortunately for people in Manhattan, that’s now easier than ever, as Dumpling Galaxy has set up a takeout and delivery operation on the Upper West Side. You can place an order any day between 4-9:30pm through their website.

Olmsted $ $ $ $ American  in  Prospect Heights $$$$ 659 Vanderbilt Ave

This Prospect Heights American spot has turned its backyard into “Olmsted Summer Camp” for the summer. As you might expect from one of our favorite restaurants in the city, their take on camp food is a far cry from the sloppy joes and mostly-defrosted chicken nuggets you may have had as a kid. They’re serving things like wagyu beef corndogs, dill pickled fried chicken, and tonkatsu ribs - all of which is available on a first come, first served basis Wednesday through Sunday from 5-11pm.

 Emily Schindler City Winery Pop Up $$$$ Rockefeller Plz

City Winery, which just opened a massive new location in the Hudson Valley, is operating a pop-up wine garden at Rockefeller Center. Every day from 1-7pm on the plaza between 50th and 51st, you can get City Winery’s house wine on tap, as well snacks like charcuterie, various cheeses, and burrata.

Tribeca's Kitchen $$$$ 200 Church St

This Tribeca diner is currently operating a pop-up in front of their space on Church Street. What does a diner’s pop-up look like? Well, rather than staying open from 6-12am with a menu ranging from avocado omelets to baby lamb chops, they’re only serving a few snacks, like lobster rolls and grilled corn salad, from 11am-8pm Wednesday through Sunday. They’ve also put some tent-covered tables on the street, where you can hang out and drink a frozen cocktail.

 Mikey Likes It x Kolkata Chai Co Mikey Likes It x Kolkata Chai Co $$$$ 199 E 3rd St

Kolkata Chai and Mikey Likes It have teamed up to create a chai ice cream and chai-affogato, which they’re promoting through a series of pop-ups around the city. The most recent event was at Mikey’s location in Harlem, where they served chai ice cream with chai-spiced waffles to people who RSVP’d here. The next pop-up hasn’t been announced yet, so if you don’t want to wait, you can get the triple vanilla bean ice cream infused with chai spice mix and caramel at Kolkata’s East Village location until the end of the summer.

 Rock City Pizza Co. Ani Ramen $ $ $ $ Ramen  in  Jersey City ,  New Jersey $$$$ 218 Newark Ave

Two different non-profit pop-ups - Rock City Pizza and Bang Bang Chicken - are operating out of Ani Ramen in Jersey City. They’re offering Detroit-style pizzas and Thai rotisserie chicken for takeout and delivery, with proceeds going to support frontline medical staff and displaced hospitality workers in their communities. When you order through Be Awesome Feed Somebody, you have the option to donate pizza or rotisserie chicken to frontline workers at discounted prices.

via The Infatuation Feed https://www.theinfatuation.com/new-york/guides/nyc-10-restaurant-pop-ups-this-summer Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://trello.com/userhuongsen

Created July 31, 2020 at 11:42PM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

[jesusvasser]

2017 Infiniti QX30 S Four Seasons Wrap-Up

Asking us why we chose to add an Infiniti QX30 S to our Four Seasons fleet is a lot like asking someone why they got a tattoo when they were drunk. Although the details are fuzzy now, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Unlike the tattoo, however, we’ll never regret adding the Infiniti to our long-term test stable.

The QX30 was an intriguing and somewhat controversial vehicle when it first debuted, and it piqued our interest immediately. More of a big hatchback than a (sub)compact crossover, it’s also a close relative of the Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class—a German-Japanese mashup that led to more than a few scratched heads. Although they share plenty of genetic traits, one thing was evident from the outset: The Infiniti won the beauty contest.

Indeed, the QX30’s exterior styling found plenty of fans from the day it rolled into our parking garage. Associate editor Conner Golden preached the Infiniti’s gospel early.

“Forget compact crossover, this thing is the size of a Focus, and it’s gratifying to drive a compact luxury hatchback,” he wrote in the first logbook entry. “We don’t get cars like this on our shores very often—or at least we didn’t used to—so it still feels intrinsically special. Infiniti has come a long way with its design language, and I think the QX30 is one of its best. I like the proportions and the star-spoke wheel design.”

Senior editor Nelson Ireson chimed in, “I love the look of this car. That’s all the more impressive because it’s a crossover—and I hate crossovers.”

Augmenting the QX30’s slick and sharp looks was its unusual Liquid Copper hue, which attracted attention wherever we went. “People stop and look at the car and admire the way the paint seems to change with natural sunlight,” wrote graphic designer Michael Cruz-Garcia. Golden added, “The Liquid Copper paint is one of the most interesting and polarizing hues I’ve seen. Some say pink, I say rose gold. I like it.”

The praise continued for the QX30’s interior layout. “Given the combination of Infiniti and Benz bits, it could have been a disaster,” wrote editor-in-chief Mike Floyd. “But they took the best of both and mixed it into a cohesive whole.” Cruz-Garcia expressed similar sentiments. “The mix of smooth finished metals with high-quality plastics adds a touch of luxury that reflects the interior of a Mercedes,” he wrote. “Sturdy and comfortable leather seats put you at ease when driving long distances.” Other staffers felt it was a good idea that Infiniti installed its own infotainment setup instead of the Mercedes COMAND system, and Infiniti’s standard AroundView 360-degree monitor was cited as a top-notch feature.

The Infiniti QX30 is a German-Japanese mashup, but in terms of build quality, it leans to the East. Aside from routine maintenance, we never needed to return to the dealership.

However, both Floyd and Cruz-Garcia took issue with the cabin’s overall space, one of the traditional selling points of a crossover. “Despite the pronouncements that this is some sort of crossover, it’s a hatchback, plain and simple,” Floyd said. “It’s smaller inside than your average compact sedan, and its swoopy lines are a major drawback for rear-seat passengers in the form of a claustrophobic feel.” Cruz-Garcia agreed: “The back seats can use a bit more room to accommodate three people comfortably. There really isn’t any room once a child seat is added in there.” In addition to the rear-seat passenger issues, cargo capacity is small for the segment at 19.2 cubic feet with the second-row seats up and just 34.0 with the 60/40 setup down.

Out on Los Angeles streets (the Infiniti also made forays into Arizona and Nevada during its stay) we found the QX30’s ride and handling satisfying, thanks in large part to its MacPherson front, multilink rear suspension setup and 19-inch tire and wheel package. “The more I drive the QX30, the more I like it,” Floyd said. “It’s nimble and drives like a car, which it basically is, with a well-balanced, on-center steering feel.”

Ireson, as usual, waxed poetic: “Wielded with impatient severity, the QX30 dances with nimble grace through the lethargic, texting hordes of L.A. traffic.” Online editor Ed Tahaney was of two minds about it, however: “The QX30 feels pretty good on the highway, but it’s a bit of a slug around town.”

Although we’re sure Infiniti would prefer we ignore the QX30’s German lineage, we couldn’t help but delve deeper into the differences (and similarities) between the two cars. That said, most of us saw the partnership as a good thing on balance.

“While driving it around, I’d think, ‘Wow! This is the best-driving Infiniti they make,’ before realizing that I’m enjoying the fruits of the Mercedes-Infiniti partnership,” Golden said. “I wasn’t the biggest fan of the GLA, but with the Infiniti badge, I think it works. It’s much more in line with the Japanese luxury brand than with Benz, and it fits Infiniti’s lineup perfectly.”

“Wielded with impatient severity, the QX30 dances with grace through the lethargic, texting hordes of L.A. traffic.”

In order to get a better feel for how closely related the two really are, we devoted an entire online piece to a comparison between the QX and the Benz. While the QX30 deploys the same 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 as the Mercedes, with the same 208 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque, the biggest difference we noticed was with each car’s transmission tuning. Both use the same seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, but several staffers took issue with how Infiniti set up its version of the hardware—at least on the 2017 model we tested.

“The transmission makes low-speed driving, and especially traffic, miserable,” associate editor Billy Rehbock said. Floyd advised to “make sure you’re in Sport mode, as the gearbox is slow on pickup in regular Eco mode.” Cruz-Garcia echoed the team’s sentiments. “The transmission isn’t the smoothest in the first couple of gears,” he said.

This hatchback shares its powertrain with Mercedes’ GLA, but the Benz’s trans- mission tuning is better, with the QX30 upshifting too clunkily at low speeds. Our fix: Drive in Sport mode.

Another complaint: The start/stop feature. “Man, I hate start/stop,” Floyd said. “I wish there were a way to shut it off permanently.” Even those who didn’t share the editor-in-chief’s degree of dislike saw a problem. “It always turns off right as I’m about to start moving, causing a slight delay while the engine turns back on,” noted recently departed (to a new career) senior editor Kirill Ougarov. Executive editor Mac Morrison condemned start/stop in general, noting, “I’ve given up trying to understand the logic of so many of these start/stop systems and when they choose to turn a car off. Sometimes they do it at every stop, sometimes they seem to forget to do it, and sometimes, even when I hit the switch to deactivate the function, I still find it kicking in every once in a while for no apparent rhyme or reason.”

Enough about what we liked and didn’t: How did the QX30 hold up during its stay? Although its temperature gauge would occasionally climb when we worked the car hard, drawing some notice among our editors, it never hit the red. (We noted similar behavior in other QX30s and GLAs we drove.) Our overall recorded average fuel economy was decent by small crossover standards—22.5 mpg—but that was far below the 27-mpg EPA combined number. (Even with our lead-foot tendencies, that’s quite a bit off.) The 14.8-gallon fuel tank made it hard to go more than 300 miles between fill-ups.

A slight misreading of the owner’s manual led us to South Bay Infiniti at 5,395 miles for our first (and, it turned out, only) service appointment. In fact, the QX30 is meant to cover 10,000 miles between oil changes (yes, even before the first one), or possibly longer—like many new cars, it can calculate oil change intervals based on how the car is driven. Rather than correct us, the dealership happily changed the oil, rotated the tires, topped off the fluids, and billed us $93.97. After that we kept our eye on the maintenance minder, which did not request service for the rest of the QX30’s stay. Lesson learned: Read the manual. Carefully.

Two days later, we got an alert from the Infiniti’s tire pressure monitoring system, and a trip to American Tire Depot found a nail in one of the rear paws. The flat repair was free, but rebalancing the tire cost us a cool $15. And that was it—our only unscheduled repair.

At the end of Four Seasons, the QX30 left our fleet well liked, if not loved. “It wouldn’t be a bad car to live with by any means,” Rehbock said. Others went as far as to call the compact Infiniti the marque’s best car. “All in all, it’s a car that sells itself, even if I’m not the target buyer,” Ireson said. To be sure, this Infiniti is far, far better than a drunken tattoo—unless of course that tattoo is of, say, a QX30.

Our 2017 Infiniti QX30 S

AS-TESTED PRICE $43,695

ENGINE 2.0L turbo DOHC 16-valve I-4/208 hp @ 5,500 rpm, 258 lb-ft @ 1,200-4,000 rpm

TRANSMISSION 7-speed dual-clutch automatic

LAYOUT 4-door, 5-passenger, front-engine, FWD crossover

EPA MILEAGE 24/33/27 mpg (city/hwy/combined)

L x W x H 174.2 x 82.0 x 58.1 in

WHEELBASE 106.3 in

WEIGHT 3,364 lb

0-60 MPH 6.2 sec

TOP SPEED N/A

OUR CAR

ODOMETER START/END 698/13,652

GALLONS OF FUEL USED 574.97 gal

OBSERVED FUEL ECON 22.5 mpg

TOTAL FUEL COST $1,862.90

AVERAGE COST/GALLON $3.24

MAINTENANCE 1 x Oil change/tire rotation, $93.97

RECALLS AND TSBs None

OUT OF POCKET Tire plug and rebalance, $15.00

OUR OPTIONS Liquid Copper paint, $500; Sport Leather package, $1,500 (heated Nappa leather seats, Nappa leather stitched dash insert, front passenger seat storage, black dinamica headliner and A-pillar, leatherette door, console, and dash trim); Sport Technology package, $1,200 (blind-spot warning, lane departure warning, forward emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, automatic high-beams); Sport LED package, $1,000 (LED headlights, active front lighting, enhanced interior ambient lighting)

[eddiejpoplar]

2017 Infiniti QX30 S Four Seasons Wrap-Up

Asking us why we chose to add an Infiniti QX30 S to our Four Seasons fleet is a lot like asking someone why they got a tattoo when they were drunk. Although the details are fuzzy now, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Unlike the tattoo, however, we’ll never regret adding the Infiniti to our long-term test stable.

The QX30 was an intriguing and somewhat controversial vehicle when it first debuted, and it piqued our interest immediately. More of a big hatchback than a (sub)compact crossover, it’s also a close relative of the Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class—a German-Japanese mashup that led to more than a few scratched heads. Although they share plenty of genetic traits, one thing was evident from the outset: The Infiniti won the beauty contest.

Indeed, the QX30’s exterior styling found plenty of fans from the day it rolled into our parking garage. Associate editor Conner Golden preached the Infiniti’s gospel early.

“Forget compact crossover, this thing is the size of a Focus, and it’s gratifying to drive a compact luxury hatchback,” he wrote in the first logbook entry. “We don’t get cars like this on our shores very often—or at least we didn’t used to—so it still feels intrinsically special. Infiniti has come a long way with its design language, and I think the QX30 is one of its best. I like the proportions and the star-spoke wheel design.”

Senior editor Nelson Ireson chimed in, “I love the look of this car. That’s all the more impressive because it’s a crossover—and I hate crossovers.”

Augmenting the QX30’s slick and sharp looks was its unusual Liquid Copper hue, which attracted attention wherever we went. “People stop and look at the car and admire the way the paint seems to change with natural sunlight,” wrote graphic designer Michael Cruz-Garcia. Golden added, “The Liquid Copper paint is one of the most interesting and polarizing hues I’ve seen. Some say pink, I say rose gold. I like it.”

The praise continued for the QX30’s interior layout. “Given the combination of Infiniti and Benz bits, it could have been a disaster,” wrote editor-in-chief Mike Floyd. “But they took the best of both and mixed it into a cohesive whole.” Cruz-Garcia expressed similar sentiments. “The mix of smooth finished metals with high-quality plastics adds a touch of luxury that reflects the interior of a Mercedes,” he wrote. “Sturdy and comfortable leather seats put you at ease when driving long distances.” Other staffers felt it was a good idea that Infiniti installed its own infotainment setup instead of the Mercedes COMAND system, and Infiniti’s standard AroundView 360-degree monitor was cited as a top-notch feature.

The Infiniti QX30 is a German-Japanese mashup, but in terms of build quality, it leans to the East. Aside from routine maintenance, we never needed to return to the dealership.

However, both Floyd and Cruz-Garcia took issue with the cabin’s overall space, one of the traditional selling points of a crossover. “Despite the pronouncements that this is some sort of crossover, it’s a hatchback, plain and simple,” Floyd said. “It’s smaller inside than your average compact sedan, and its swoopy lines are a major drawback for rear-seat passengers in the form of a claustrophobic feel.” Cruz-Garcia agreed: “The back seats can use a bit more room to accommodate three people comfortably. There really isn’t any room once a child seat is added in there.” In addition to the rear-seat passenger issues, cargo capacity is small for the segment at 19.2 cubic feet with the second-row seats up and just 34.0 with the 60/40 setup down.

Out on Los Angeles streets (the Infiniti also made forays into Arizona and Nevada during its stay) we found the QX30’s ride and handling satisfying, thanks in large part to its MacPherson front, multilink rear suspension setup and 19-inch tire and wheel package. “The more I drive the QX30, the more I like it,” Floyd said. “It’s nimble and drives like a car, which it basically is, with a well-balanced, on-center steering feel.”

Ireson, as usual, waxed poetic: “Wielded with impatient severity, the QX30 dances with nimble grace through the lethargic, texting hordes of L.A. traffic.” Online editor Ed Tahaney was of two minds about it, however: “The QX30 feels pretty good on the highway, but it’s a bit of a slug around town.”

Although we’re sure Infiniti would prefer we ignore the QX30’s German lineage, we couldn’t help but delve deeper into the differences (and similarities) between the two cars. That said, most of us saw the partnership as a good thing on balance.

“While driving it around, I’d think, ‘Wow! This is the best-driving Infiniti they make,’ before realizing that I’m enjoying the fruits of the Mercedes-Infiniti partnership,” Golden said. “I wasn’t the biggest fan of the GLA, but with the Infiniti badge, I think it works. It’s much more in line with the Japanese luxury brand than with Benz, and it fits Infiniti’s lineup perfectly.”

“Wielded with impatient severity, the QX30 dances with grace through the lethargic, texting hordes of L.A. traffic.”

In order to get a better feel for how closely related the two really are, we devoted an entire online piece to a comparison between the QX and the Benz. While the QX30 deploys the same 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 as the Mercedes, with the same 208 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque, the biggest difference we noticed was with each car’s transmission tuning. Both use the same seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, but several staffers took issue with how Infiniti set up its version of the hardware—at least on the 2017 model we tested.

“The transmission makes low-speed driving, and especially traffic, miserable,” associate editor Billy Rehbock said. Floyd advised to “make sure you’re in Sport mode, as the gearbox is slow on pickup in regular Eco mode.” Cruz-Garcia echoed the team’s sentiments. “The transmission isn’t the smoothest in the first couple of gears,” he said.

This hatchback shares its powertrain with Mercedes’ GLA, but the Benz’s trans- mission tuning is better, with the QX30 upshifting too clunkily at low speeds. Our fix: Drive in Sport mode.

Another complaint: The start/stop feature. “Man, I hate start/stop,” Floyd said. “I wish there were a way to shut it off permanently.” Even those who didn’t share the editor-in-chief’s degree of dislike saw a problem. “It always turns off right as I’m about to start moving, causing a slight delay while the engine turns back on,” noted recently departed (to a new career) senior editor Kirill Ougarov. Executive editor Mac Morrison condemned start/stop in general, noting, “I’ve given up trying to understand the logic of so many of these start/stop systems and when they choose to turn a car off. Sometimes they do it at every stop, sometimes they seem to forget to do it, and sometimes, even when I hit the switch to deactivate the function, I still find it kicking in every once in a while for no apparent rhyme or reason.”

Enough about what we liked and didn’t: How did the QX30 hold up during its stay? Although its temperature gauge would occasionally climb when we worked the car hard, drawing some notice among our editors, it never hit the red. (We noted similar behavior in other QX30s and GLAs we drove.) Our overall recorded average fuel economy was decent by small crossover standards—22.5 mpg—but that was far below the 27-mpg EPA combined number. (Even with our lead-foot tendencies, that’s quite a bit off.) The 14.8-gallon fuel tank made it hard to go more than 300 miles between fill-ups.

A slight misreading of the owner’s manual led us to South Bay Infiniti at 5,395 miles for our first (and, it turned out, only) service appointment. In fact, the QX30 is meant to cover 10,000 miles between oil changes (yes, even before the first one), or possibly longer—like many new cars, it can calculate oil change intervals based on how the car is driven. Rather than correct us, the dealership happily changed the oil, rotated the tires, topped off the fluids, and billed us $93.97. After that we kept our eye on the maintenance minder, which did not request service for the rest of the QX30’s stay. Lesson learned: Read the manual. Carefully.

Two days later, we got an alert from the Infiniti’s tire pressure monitoring system, and a trip to American Tire Depot found a nail in one of the rear paws. The flat repair was free, but rebalancing the tire cost us a cool $15. And that was it—our only unscheduled repair.

At the end of Four Seasons, the QX30 left our fleet well liked, if not loved. “It wouldn’t be a bad car to live with by any means,” Rehbock said. Others went as far as to call the compact Infiniti the marque’s best car. “All in all, it’s a car that sells itself, even if I’m not the target buyer,” Ireson said. To be sure, this Infiniti is far, far better than a drunken tattoo—unless of course that tattoo is of, say, a QX30.

Our 2017 Infiniti QX30 S

AS-TESTED PRICE $43,695

ENGINE 2.0L turbo DOHC 16-valve I-4/208 hp @ 5,500 rpm, 258 lb-ft @ 1,200-4,000 rpm

TRANSMISSION 7-speed dual-clutch automatic

LAYOUT 4-door, 5-passenger, front-engine, FWD crossover

EPA MILEAGE 24/33/27 mpg (city/hwy/combined)

L x W x H 174.2 x 82.0 x 58.1 in

WHEELBASE 106.3 in

WEIGHT 3,364 lb

0-60 MPH 6.2 sec

TOP SPEED N/A

OUR CAR

ODOMETER START/END 698/13,652

GALLONS OF FUEL USED 574.97 gal

OBSERVED FUEL ECON 22.5 mpg

TOTAL FUEL COST $1,862.90

AVERAGE COST/GALLON $3.24

MAINTENANCE 1 x Oil change/tire rotation, $93.97

RECALLS AND TSBs None

OUT OF POCKET Tire plug and rebalance, $15.00

OUR OPTIONS Liquid Copper paint, $500; Sport Leather package, $1,500 (heated Nappa leather seats, Nappa leather stitched dash insert, front passenger seat storage, black dinamica headliner and A-pillar, leatherette door, console, and dash trim); Sport Technology package, $1,200 (blind-spot warning, lane departure warning, forward emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, automatic high-beams); Sport LED package, $1,000 (LED headlights, active front lighting, enhanced interior ambient lighting)