Christmas Eve

Sal and I walked Colby through Central Park. It is in-between seasons at the moment. The leaves are off the trees, but there is no snow on the ground yet. We wandered awhile and then had pretzels by the portrait artists.

We went to mid-town for a late lunch and then looked at a train display inside the citigroup building.

We then caught the subway to Queens for dinner with friends. We had a brilliant night of food, wine, games and good company. The tree was impressive, with decorations that our friends had collected over the years.

ASPCA

While killing some time in Midtown, I came across this cool van that was driving around with homeless animals in the back - hoping to find homes for them for Christmas. The ASPCA is the RSPCA of America.

Sal's first night with us

My sister, Sal, has come to visit us here. It's so exciting! I caught the subway out to meet her and ended up waiting at the wrong gate. She came out from somewhere else and snuck up behind me. Funny!
We subwayed home and did a quick change before heading out to a party with people from my work. After that we went out for pizza at a little deli. We wanted Chipotle, but it was closed! Who closes at 10pm in this city!!!

Ice skating

We decided to take up ice skating. Bryant Park has free ice skating if you have your own skates and locker lock. So... being tight... we bought a couple of pairs of skates and dug out some padlocks and we're set. We're now able to skate a couple of nights each week...for FREE! The music is always good, and it's a great atmosphere. I've only fallen once (and pulled the kid in front of me to the ground also!)

Our New Apartment

We've been living in our new place for a couple of months now, and have grown to love it. It is so convenient. Anyway, we haven't shown you what it's like, so I dug out some photos. We have a few additions since these photos were taken - a sofa, TV we found on the street and a couple of other extras, but you'll get a sense of the place anyway.

Our street.

Our building.

Our living, dining, sleeping, studying etc. room. (The only real room in the apartment!)

Bathroom and Kitchen. And that's the inside!

Our backyard.

Any pond in a desert...

Well since no one else has written a blog for about a month I thought I’d better do one…

Here in New York they have two free newspapers, AM NY and Metro. Both of them compete for the most widely read newspaper, which is greatly helped by the fact that every weekday morning they put people at every entrance to the subway on Manhattan (not sure about the other boroughs) to hand out the free papers. The people are always nice, and say ‘have a great day’ or something similar when you take a paper from them. They are always smiling, despite the time of morning or the cold. They are often loud (in a cheerful way) and will joke with you if you look like you have a sense of humour.
The other day Pen and I went ice skating at Bryant Park (which is free – Fish) in the afternoon. As we were walking to get the subway we passed one of these people handing out free papers. This was a little odd to start out with, as I have only ever seen them in the morning, and she was the only one there (usually there are two per subway entrance and we were near three or four entrances). We could hear her talking from a distance away, which is usual, but as we approached we realized that she did not sound too cheerful. We didn’t think much of it and started to walk past her. Then we heard her go ballistic at someone who had put their purse on her stack of papers. She was yelling things like “THAT’S NOT A TABLE” and “GET YOUR STUFF OFF THERE”. We thought this was a bit odd, as they are usually so happy. It then hit us what she was saying while we were approaching… “If anyone asks me directions again I’m charging them fifty bucks” and “I’m not here to answer questions”, and other not so cheerful remarks. I thought this was hilarious (like a Santa moving his knee before a kid sits on it or something), so I stopped to watch her for a little bit. It turns out that Pen and I must have been walking without paying attention, as everyone else was avoiding her like the plague (which is not easy at Bryant Park, as it’s a busy part of town).
I thought it was so funny that I wanted a photo of her, but I thought she’d yell at me if she caught me. So I made Pen stand next to a bush or something and I had my camera phone out looking like I was going to take a photo of Pen. Then when she turned her back I swung around and took a shot of her!
Last week I worked as an IT geek at Pen’s school (I also taught 3rd grade history for fun… what do I know about 3rd graders or history!). Pen walks to work, so I walked with her last week. On the way we passed a supermarket that had a gingerbread display in the window. It was huge; there was a little village, a sled with reindeer, trees, and gingerbread men hanging from the roof. I won’t describe it too much, you can see the photo, but this was just a normal supermarket, not a big fancy store or anything. Amazing.

We’re doing a music video for Christmas, so if we know you and you would like one please e-mail us (if you click the link on this page then it comes from anonymous and you won’t get one).

Thanksgiving Day

We stayed in New York City for Thanksgiving weekend and opted to dog-sit for my headmaster. So, we did normal Thanksgiving things, but also did doggy things - lots of walks, plays in the park etc. It was fun. It was a cold, wet day, but we decided to go to the Macy's parade anyway because we knew we couldn't really NOT go. It's such a New York icon! So, we sat freezing, under umbrellas and got soaked through. At least I did because I didn't really dress appropriately. On the bright side, we DID actually get front row seats on fancy bleechers for the show. People on the other side of the street were standing squished together, tip-toeing to get a good enough view. When we could bear the cold no longer, we headed home (on foot through the park) for our Thanksgiving turkey. It was a fun first Thanksgiving, even though I was eating turkey for weeks afterward!

New York Marathon

Being a runner (though not at my best) I just had to go along to see the New York Marathon. As it turned out, the Marathon passed by at the bottom of our street, so this wasn't a difficult task at all. I watched the tail end of the wheelchair competitors and then the leading professional women.

After that I went shopping on 5th Avenue (where the trendy shops are), visited the MoMA again at a more leisurely pace (which was EXCELLENT) and then, feeling over-inspired (artistically and physically) decided to go for a run. During the run I encountered the tail end of the marathon. Colbs and I ran around the outer edge of Central Park and then back home. So, I guess you could say that I ran shoulder-to-shoulder with the New York Marathon runners!