The Beast

Today, Sarah, Wes and I braved to ride the Beast. It's a half hour tour owned by Circle Line that speeds you along the Hudson River from mid-town to the Statue of Liberty and Back. It was fun. Our captain was MAD DOG - pictured below with his head on the body of a dalmation for no explicable reason. I don't find dalmations that beastly. Our tour guide was some other random guy with a headset that we couldn't hear because we were sitting in the back on the motor. From time to time, if he felt we weren't getting sprayed enough by the East River - we were going about 50 mph - he would spray us with one of several weapons ranging from water balloons to a bevy of super soakers to your garden variety garden hose.



Here we are pulling out of the harbor.



Here are some shots of the city from the water.




The Empire State Building


A view of the financial district before the new Freedom Tower is built.

Accidental Closeup

Beauties and The Beast

Statue of Liberty

The Beast stopped for a few minutes so we could take pictures of the green lady. Here are Sarah and me posing individually.

Sibling Non-rivalry

My lazy Saturday was pleasantly interrupted by a visit from my brother, his wife and their son. I love my nephew. He's darling. At 18 months he has already developed a charming and disarming personality. I love children. I worked at the Children's Center at my college part time. I was a teacher for a couple of years. I'm looking foward to having one or two of my own in the near future. While every child is unique they share common behaviors. For example, toddlers can not have their picture taken on their level without coming up to the camera and touching the lens. My nephew is no exception. Here are my attempts at photographing him at his level.

Funny

Watch this video. Just do it. Trust me.

Valerie and The Half-Blood Prince

This morning I picked up my Harry Potter book at the post office. Last week, as you may recall, I missed the early morning delivery and then later when I went to the PO, it was still on the truck. I wondered why the mailman didn't just leave the plain brown box that they normally leave by our front door when we get something from Amazon. You know, I did ask when I went to get it last week. The post office said they didn't want to risk someone stealing the book from our doorstep. But again, why would someone steal a plain brown box?

I got my answer when I picked this up today.

Amazon might just as well have printed STEAL ME on the box. My goodness. What if you were sending this is a surprise to someone? They wouldn't be surprised. They would know as soon as they saw the box that BOOK 6 was in their hands. Granted, the packaging is nice but I really resent having to have waited all week to finally get my hands on the sixth book of this beloved series.

I've started and I am about to retreat into YEAR 6 at Hogwart's but before I do, I wanted to leave you with this link to some negative anti-US propaganda from North Korea. Be warned there is bad language and somewhat violent imagery.

Where Do You Belong?

I'm a Ravenclaw!

Tom Cruise Is Nuts

Yeah. You need to check this out. I love the contribution of humor this person is making to a world worried about suicide bombers on the morning commute.

Prickles

Today, I learned from five year old E thought that the spots on my face are called prickles and that I was the only one of her friends that had prickles. I didn't have the heart to tell her that they were called freckles but had to at the end of the day when her mother said she wanted me to tell her the right word. E asked me today how a big person and a little kid could be friends. I thought that was a very mature and introspective question. I told her that we could be friends because we liked similar things and that we liked talking to each other. That seemed to satisfy her curiostiy and she moved on to something else. When I told her mother what she asked me, E looked at me with reproach - like I had betrayed a confidence. From now on, I will respect her privacy unless she tells me something weird or creepy which I will immediately report to her mother.

It reminded me of how I used to feel when I was a kid but didn't know the words for it. Little kids have NO privacy. It must be frustrating for them to always have people asking them how they feel, what they did in school that day, what their favorite color is or what they have to be when they grow up. It must also be frustrating not to be able to make your own choices and to constantly have someone telling you what to do. I remember how that feels.

Do you?

Hot Thursday

It was another hot day. At 9am, it felt like I was standing in Noon sun on the subway platform.I tried to capture the intensity of the sun's heat bouncing off the off-white aluminum walls of the 30th Avenue station but came up short with the below. I've been sweating all day, even in my somewhat air conditioned office and now in our warm living room. Soon I'll be laying down in the bedroom where I've been set the AC to 66 degrees. I can't take this heat.

Blogathon 2005

On August 6, 2005, I'll be participating in Blogathon 2005 which is meant to raise money for charitable causes.

Go here for details. I'm having a little trouble figuring out how to get sponsors but I'm sure I'll figure that out later. I gotta' get going to work. Yawn.

Electric Bill

If you are new to this site welcome to my world. Sometimes, as in this post, I ask questions of the readers that I want answers to. They are not rhetorical so if you know the answer to today's question please leave it in my comments section below. Thank you.

We got our first electric bill of this hot air conditioned summer. It was double what it is normally and maybe a little bit more. So now we're conserving energy and only have the AC on in the room that we're in. Right now, we're in two rooms so I'm letting Jon have the AC in the bedroom so he can sleep but our living room is sooooo freakin' hot and uncomfortable.

So. Yes. I'm complaining about the weather again and if you don't like it, LUMP IT.

Does anyone know what that expression means or where it comes from? Again, the expression
"IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, LUMP IT"
or
"IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, YOU CAN LUMP IT"

The People We Love To Hate

I've been doing some blog surfing and found this interesting website.

I feel like supporting this effort.

Please visit The People We Love To Hate

I.V.A.

IVA rates the five gayest superheroes ever and it's pretty funny.

It's his July 17, 2005 post.

Enjoy.

James Doohan Dead at 85

Jon called me from the NY Post to give me the sad news that James Doohan, famous for playing Scotty on Star Trek, died at the age of 85 from pneumonia and Alzheimers. I grew up on a diet of Star Trek and public television. At an early age I was fascinated with the sci-fi classic and often imagined that cast in the roles of my 6 inch tall imaginary friends. I was sad to hear that he contracted Alzheimers and now to hear that he's passed on. I'm sure he was loved by not only his fans but by his family as well.

With that said, here is my favorite line from the Newsday Obit:
He accused Shatner of hogging the camera, adding: "I like Captain Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill. He's so insecure that all he can think about is himself."

Today Was Tuesday All Day Long

This morning I walked out of my nice cool air conditioned apartment into an oven. It was very hot out there, at least 80 something by 9am. By the time I got to the office I was already tired.

Here I am walking onto the fifth floor. I'm a little weary because I was worried that it wasn't going to be a very good day.

And I was right. While it wasn't a terrible day, it wasn't exactly wonderful. It was just one of those days that didn't seem to end and where you don't seem to get any validation for being in the office. About 8pm my coworker, her daughter and I went to dinner for some Korean style Chinese food. Yummers. The Korean restaurant was near the DREADED 34th Street station which I went to after dinner to go home.

I usually write about the 34th station being hotter than hell but the 34th Street N/R/W platform does have one redeeming quality and that's the REACH NEW YORK project


It's an interactive sound installation - hmmm - uh - it's a big green bar with 9 or 10 sensors and when you pass your hand over the sensor it play sounds on the opposing platform. There's also one on the other platform and if you find some willing participants, you can have a conversation made of animal noises and musical notes across the train tracks. I captured a couple of people playing with it while waiting for my train and yes the platform was hot as hell.



The train finally came and not a moment too soon because I was starting to loose essential bodily fluids through my wide open pores.

Here I am on the subway after a long, hot day. Notice the bloodshot red rimmed eyes and the unnatural blush in my cheek.

We Find the Defendant Incredibly Guilty

"Whom has Max Bialystock harmed? Not me. Not me."

Jon and I watched The Producers tonight. I've seen the movie so many times. I've also seen the Broadway show so many times. And guess what. The movie is still better.


"No way out. No way out."

MOMA

Not a lazy Sunday.

This morning Jon and I met with our photographer at 10am. I woke up early and blew out my hair and donned makeup for the first time this summer. We shot our engagement photos in Astoria Park - which I'm sure will be nice. I love our photographer. Then we joined Ion and his wife at the recently renovated and reopened Museum of Modern Art. The new space is beautiful with elegant lines and beautiful lighting.




Highlights include this lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany.


This Picasso (one of 50 Picassos in the MOMA collection).


This Matisse.


This glass house designed by famous architect Philip Johnson which you really can't see in this picture because of my unabashed mugging.

FOR WENDY