Sunday, August 15, 2010

Nora settles in and looks content

"Yeah, this is my new spot! Oh, a couple of days. Why do you ask?" (Sigh)

Saturday, August 14, 2010

The Lucille

On Thursday of this week, Kevin's company had a boatride/lunch for the NYC office. Kimberly agreed to go along, meet the colleagues, and eat. It's a good thing she did because attendance was a little light. Anyway, we got some really good views of lower Manhattan. (Note Kevin's windblown hair in the pic above.)




The trip started an hour late because the captain of the boat wasn't there. But he made up for it by taking it nice and slow around Liberty Island so there were lots of photo opportunities. And so here is a pic of a lovely lady...
(What? just one of them is lovely???)




We watched them loading containers onto ships, and wondered about what was in them and where they were going and just how much frickin' stuff it was.



Here is the Long Island equivalent of the famous Hollywood sign, in case you couldn't figure out that it was Long Island. We were less certain about the names of the other islands...Ellis Island was clear, Liberty Island, Roosevelt Island, too, and we think we knew which was Governor's Island. There were some teeny tiny islands, the kind castaways land on, and one had some kind of weather monitoring devices on it.


We were both surprised to see the Pepsi landmark, as we had heard it was being taken down.

We went under a bunch of the East River bridges. I think this one is the Williamsburg Bridge...I remember snapping it because Kevin wanted a picture of the bridge he rides over to work most days (you can kinda see the train in this picture, too). I guess he looks so happy in the picture because he's not on the train going to work?


We almost missed the cake. We knew there was supposed to be a sheet cake, and we kept waiting for the announcement, and waited and waited until Kevin asked a colleague under his breath "hey, I thought there was supposed to be cake" and she told us that yeah, it was downstairs with the food. So 15 minutes before docking we snarfed down some chocolate cake.



Oh, and did we mention that after almost 2 months straight of sunny, hot weather, this trip happened to fall on a drizzly, cold, gray day?

This boat followed in the Lucille's wake for a while. In the background you can see Lady Liberty, and even fuzzier behind that you can see the container boat lading machinery, probably on the NJ side.


We didn't get a photo of the other boats moored at the marina (one is a huge paddleboat that can hold 400 people) or the pontoon airplane that landed and docked there to much interest and surprise by all of us waiting for the tour to begin.

And happily, neither of us got seasick and there were no tidal waves.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Things I Hate

Oh, where to start?

I hate the driver of this vehicle, who tried to run me off the road as I was driving down Metropolitan Avenue. He decided he didn't want to wait his turn because his time is so much more important than everyone else's. So he tried to get by me on the right hand side, and when I didn't give way he went anyway because he had the bigger car and I found myself veering into the oncoming lane. When I spoke to him about it when I caught up with him a bit further up on Metro at a red light, he was a complete dick. His wife, who he probably beats, was properly upset about the situation, but the world would definitely be a better place without him, and I hope he has a massive coronary while sitting in his living room. Soon. Very, very soon.











I hate the business of leaving flyers and other unwanted crap at people's homes. That's a bad business model, and I'll digress to say that one thing I LIKE is that in NYC you can post that you don't want crappy fliers, oops I mean "soliciations", and then they're legally not allowed to leave them. And so I additionally hate what went on in this picture. Really? You couldn't take your stolen cart with you to deliver the crap (for which I hope you get at least minimum wage)? And who exactly did you think would steal said crap that you needed to chain it up? And you chose that defenseless tree instead of the metal signpost just a couple of feet from it because why? Well, the one right thing you did was choose to park it in front of the house where an ancient old lady lives who doesn't have the wherewithall to chastise you about it; if you had parked it in front of my house you would have gotten an earfull. Well, actually, if it hadn't been Kevin who took the pic you would've gotten an earfull anyway.


I also hate when film or TV is shot on location. It's nothing but an inconvenience for the locals, and it doesn't benefit the locals, except maybe the fuckers who are renting out their home or business for inside shots; not even the local food places benefit since they always have that fucking huge catering truck which idles all day. And it's never for anything good. Check out the name of the filming for this one; I'm sure if I watched it I WOULD be Bored to Death.


And I know I've talked about this one before, but let me mention again that I hate oversized trucks. They don't fit, and so instead they terrorize parked cars, cause noisy traffic jams, drive up on curbs, take down tree limbs and stop signs, and are generally motherfuckers because they think their business is more important than doing the right thing. Here are 2 separate trucks, from about a week apart earlier this Spring.



And I also hate having my picture taken when I don't feel like having my picture taken.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Saturdays at McCarren Park

Our Saturday trips to McCarren Park have been important to us over the last few years and we will miss them. I think we will especially miss the terrific Greenmarket. One of the larger markets, it's a bustling place with vendors of veggies, fruit, cheese, grain, mushrooms, dairy and bakery goods, as well as a lot of neighborhood folk. In addition to our friends at Garden of Eve, we always stop at Red Jacket Orchard for their applesauce, Consider Bardwell Farms (goat cheese), and our favorite New Jersey bakery, for strombolis, olive semolina loaf, or pies. Lastly, Ronnybrook Farms for pints of flavorful ice cream and yogurt.

The Greendome is a quiet refuge. You can almost forget you are in the city once you enter and find a corner of your own to sit for a few minutes. And it is cared for by a mysterious guy who says little and keeps the place up to snuff all by himself.



Thursday, April 15, 2010

Taxes

We did them. Or I should say she did them and "we" got 'em in. I suspect that in most households the burden of preparing the income tax return falls on one partner--probably the same partner that a lot of other burdens fall on. Thanks, hon.

On this day, we usually hear talk of a "Fair Tax"--an idea that comes around and then fades. I won't get into what our pols do with what was, for a brief time, our $, but my views on this Tax Day are:
--Taxes are way too high
--Taxes are way too high because many do not pay and many do not pay enough
--Fixing the above would bring our individual tax burden down, in my estimation, by a third!

--Everyone should pay something
--Taxes should be fair to all and onerous to none, meaning....
--We should not gouge the rich, but they should pay all they should pay. Let's close loopholes!

--Businesses benefit from what tax dollars go to, so businesses should pay taxes (many don't).
--Offshore investments, main offices in foreign countries, and other dodges need to stop.
--Local incentives to business, in the form of tax waivers, serve no one and are unnecessary.
--Non-profits, charities, the religious--should be on the tax rolls.

As one who did not pay for several years and who found out years later when I became more responsible and late filed that I would have gotten money back all those years, I say: Enforcement serves the common weal.

So...File, bitches!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Organic Village

Glendale has a new place to eat--on Cooper Ave. at the underpass--and believe it or not it is a "raw" restaurant called Organic Village. We stopped in for a smoothie on Sunday afternoon, and it was tastey and energizing. Tonight, we were a little lazy/tired and called in for a delivery. We ordered salad, an enchilada, a taco. Then we called back to add chocolate mousse to our order. Tastey, healthy, but maybe just a little high for our budget. This is a place to watch. A new raw food place would not cause a ripple in Bklyn--But here in Glendale?

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Where were we...

....oh, yeah. We spent late afternoon walking around the neighborhood looking for a possible distribution point for the CSA, and we eventually wound up in Forest Park. Near the bandshell and carousel we took a path to the right and saw a greenhouse. It reminded me of our visit to Coe Hall on Long Island. As we got closer, we saw it was pretty beat up and abandoned. There was one guy standing around outside, smoking, and we figured if we were not supposed to be there....well, he would say something. We stepped through the door, turned this way and then that, and we went room to room as I took some pix.

Some of the rooms were pretty lush with ripe, colorful plants, and others were empty, with just hoses, sinks, and old signs and equipment. Off to the side wasa small alcove, with a chair, a radio, and a newspaper and I imagined we had come on someone's cooping spot. Time passed or it didn't, and then we heard steps and someone came by, said he was locking up, and told us we were not allowed in there. So we started back out the way we came. It is sort of a labyrinth in there. Outside, our quiet and mysterious worker was still smoking and looking off into the distance.


Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Earth Day, 2009


This is the composter we saw at the Queens Botanical Gardens on our visit a while back, and it is just right for Earth Day. We also compost here at home, and it is a good thing to do. We save an estimated "1/2 ton" or so per year from going into the garbage--even though the occasional cat, raccoon, or possum knocks off the lid of the compost bin and then...? Water reclamation is next. Anyway, think globally, act locally--and live healthily if just a little.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Oklahoma? OK.

My OKC trip was a bust for me for the most part, as it was just work, work, work thanks to having our original flight canceled due to the snow storm. Instead of arriving on Monday late afternoon, I didn't arrive until 10am Wednesday morning, freaking out about having to get to the hotel and then set up the booth by 1pm when the exhibit hall officially opened. Poor Kevin didn't even make it to OKC until the middle of the afternoon because I got the last seat for the morning flight.

But one thing I did get to do was to see the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, since on Thursdays it stays open until 9pm. So after the exhibit hall closed at 6pm, I changed out of my cute, pointy-toed kitten-heel shoes into my walking shoes, and off we went.

My main goal was to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit, and it did not disappoint. The first Chihuly piece you see is right at the front entrance; you don't even have to be inside to see it. It extends up to the top floor (there are three floors) and you can see it from each floor.















The third floor held the contemporary art, including all their Chihuly pieces, a large collection worth millions. Generously, photos with flash are allowed in the glassware. It opens without much fanfare, nothing too exciting, maybe if I knew the technique to make the lumps attach to the smooth vase pieces I would be more impressed. The next room is more interesting, with vases that have cherub figurines attached to them. Then some colorful flat shell-like pieces. Okay. It's getting there. More colorful. More interesting shapes.



Then suddenly after a few rooms, you step into a hallway, and above one's head is fabulousness! Hundreds of colorful shapes, as if it is a storage room, lit from above. I looked and looked and looked (and had to go back a second time around).




I was as pleased as could be. But THEN I stepped into the next room, and I'm pretty sure I gasped in delight multiple times. Two 10- or 12-ft boats, filled with gorgeous glass creations. It looked to me as if the exotic sea creatures of some tropical coral reef had gotten into a boat all together so they could go take their vacation on land.









We looked through the rest of the museum in the next hour or so (it's not a very large museum) and ate at the museum café, which was nice enough and definitely convenient for our evening plans, but overpriced. Here are some other photos for your enjoyment.










Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Neighborhood Update: Five Guys

We eat in order to stuff our feelings. So say the therapists. We felt like stuffing our feelings last night after having our flight out of LaGuardia cancelled yesterday morning, and having to settle for a flight out Tuesday evening (with an overnight sleep in the Atlanta airport!). One of us will be on an early flight and the other on a later flight to Oklahoma City. Time is tight, and the clock is running. Krap!

So we decided we could not cook and we should try the newly opened Five Guys which is near Home Depot, in that new strip that has the mattress store, a martial arts academy, GNC, and Panera. There is clearly a business plan at work here: keep it simple, with a limited menu of burgers and fries. The decor is basically white bathroom tile. Budget. The plan also calls for two teenage girls at the front taking orders--very suburbia--and several young preppy white guys (and one preppy black guy) at the grill--very Long Island. The secret is to always start with a good cut of meat, and I will say that their hamburger meat looked nice and fresh and pink. There was a door open to a side room where the meat was rolled into balls and put on trays, and all I could think of was that Chris Rock movie with the drug lab, I cannot recall the name. Piled high in the front were bags of potatoes marked Special: Five Guys. That is a neat touch. I have to say the burger was just a little more than OK; the (Cajun-style) fries were almost a hit with me. But mostly it was blah-shrug. (I was reminded of a burger place that used to be on E91 St and Madison that used to put a cup over the burgers...what was that place?) Maybe Five Guys will do well with afterschool crowd once the new school on Metropolitan opens up, but we will probably let this one go by. For burgers, everyone has a recomendation or two. Mine is this place on Spring St.







Speaking of stuffing one's feelings, one of our local squirrels made a big catch a few weeks ago--a giant piece of bread almost a big as he is! Here is a pic of the happy critter.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Lincoln Logs

Happy Birthday, Abe Lincoln, 200 years old! I've been thinking how to honor him and we watched a show on PBS last night with ol' Skip Gates talking about 16, and now I am thinking about Lincoln Logs which is stupid but related. Today I learned that the toy was invented by one of the children of the great architect of the previous century Frank Lloyd Wright! My mind wanders and wonders and I think if we cleared our land, could we put up a new house made of Lincoln logs--a real one? Here is something I got off their site, and I think it might be tight, but it is nice and maybe we could scale it down just a scosh. Queens needs more variety in housing styles--barns, silos, castles, half-built-into-the-earth homes, geodesic domes, all kinds of alternative housing ideas....And people going by might appreciate a Ponderosa style for a change. Ah, just one of my thoughtexperiments. I could just go to Home Depot and buy a log cabin-type shed and put it out back. I love our purple house too much to change, even if there is a possum living in our basement! But that's another story! Happy 200th, Abe.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Kirby Flurby


Just for fun, here's a picture I took of Kevin when he was walking our neighbor's dog, Kirby, on New Year's Day. We like Kirby, he's a good dog except when he's pulling too hard on his leash (can you remember the Marmaduke cartoons, when he was being walked?...that's what it's like with Kirby).

I call him Kirby Flurby. I guess because I must always create baby names for pets.
At least I'm not as bad as the kids of the woman my father dated for a while when I was kid. They had a cute little black dog, some kind of terrier I guess it was, and his name was "Alvin Baby Puppy Wuppy Locomotive Choo-Choo Train".


The Shocking Story of Two Brains Revealed!

The hubby and I don't always get along. Well, what couple doesn't fight? But he and I are really opposite in a lot of ways, and sometimes, well, it causes friction between us. More than I'd like, and sometimes I'm needlessly ferocious with him. Sometimes the things he does and says just drive. me. INSANE.

Well, the other day the source of it all was brought home for me (so to speak).

A bunch of months ago we bought some wood frames at Michael's, the craft store next to Trader Joe's--it was pre-Nora, for sure, because one of the frames is a collage with six spaces, clearly meant to display pictures of six cats--the kind you're meant to decorate yourself. I had painted one shortly after purchase, but the other two languished in the plastic bag we toted them home in, often treated roughly by the cats who enjoyed anything from sitting on them to scratching at the contents.

So over the new year's weekend, I picked them up one afternoon when we didn't have anything else planned, and suggested we paint one each. So we spent a few hours with little paint brushes in hand, glass of water turning ever darker gray, politely sharing the little tubs of water-based paint that children use, decorating the frames. I restrained myself from irritatedly telling him multiple times that he was leaving blobs of paint on the frame, he was wasting paint that way, and they would run before they dried and so probably would be altered from what he intended to paint...aka "he was doing it wrong." (Just another example of potential friction.)

When we were both done to our satisfaction, we prepared and ate dinner, and afterwards the frames had dried enough to put the glass back in and prop them up. I placed them side by side, and suddenly in front of me was clear proof our brains are COMPLETELY different. I knew beforehand that there were some basic differences between us, but it didn't ever sink in the way it did then. I felt like the heavens had opened up and sunlight had poured into an area that had previously been darkly shadowed. See for yourself. I bet you won't have any trouble picking out which one is mine, and which is his. 'Nuff said.


Saturday, December 27, 2008

Stuff I Like














These two birdhouses are on "the other side of Doran Avenue," as you go toward Atlas. It's a nice block to go through on a sunny afternoon, with houses that show work and imagination. An old guy sitting on his porch with his dog told me his neighbor makes the birdhouses and gave some to the other folks on the street. Imagine! I wish I was creative enough to do that--maybe set up our garage with a jigsaw, some wood, and work a few hours each weekend. It would not take much except for that one missing element: talent. Well, I have the talent to discover things on my little excursions around and around....

When we were in Kansas City, we came upon a small cul-de-sac in the Crossroads Arts District. There we saw an open lot with trees, and then we noticed they were filled with birdhouses. You could miss them--they were sort of hard to see at first unless you walked into the lot and went under the trees. Quite a happy small-scale art project it is. There were also some nicely painted birdhouses along the street.


Now I am thinking they are birdfeeders, not birdhouses, but I am not sure. More whimsical little things I noticed around the Glendale neighborhood are this little man-figure that stands on the sidewalk of the auto repair on Metropolitan just past Aubrey, and this little car, which I see everywhere. The owner is happy to tell one and all about it, and I have spoken to him several times. He tells me that his GemCar E2, is a good investment and good for the environment--and very rideable in NYC. I say Yeah!













And then there's that purple house on 88th street with the cats in the windows!