Other fun and crazy things

We went along to a basketball game in New Jersey to watch the Nets play the Kings. Whenever I have to ride a bus for any real sort of distance, I realize how much I dislike public transport - with coughers and snorters all around me I was wishing I didn't need to breathe for about half an hour! At least on the subway you can escape to another car, and you're never really on the subway for too long anyway.

The game was exciting, and we had hot-dogs to complete the whole experience! My favourite part was one of the motivating songs they play in the background throughout the game. It says "Everybody clap your hands-" and EVERYBODY CLAPS THEIR HANDS!!!!! John says they should try "Everybody buy some Coke" and see what the result is! It had me in stitches every time the song came on.

When the frozen snow started to soften it was a lot of fun to play with. We threw snowballs both at and to the dog. Hilarious! Many hours were spent on such simple fun!

I found an old fashioned milk bar/diner near our place. It had antique coke stuff in the window and the old interior. It reminded me of the scene from Back to The Future, when Marty goes into a milk bar in the 50s. It's been there for ages - since the 20s or something. It ended up being very expensive (a disappointment we often face at the end of a fun meal) but the milkshakes (malts) were sooooooooooooooooo yummy. And now we've done it, we won't have to wonder about it every time we go by. Union square is a pretty cool place to hang out. There is a great book store there that has rare books as well as just about any other book you can think to look for. (Yes Sal, it's the one you went to). We spent an hour or so there with a couple of friends and John picked up a giant old dictionary. We went out with them for coffee in a nice little cafe afterward. This photo was taken before they arrived. It is in the same location as the swimming pool art that we put in a blog a little while ago. I went by the other day and now they have a life-saver ring and something else hanging on it too! All for fun. If I wasn't so worried about being arrested, I reckon I would have enjoyed the view from up there!

I got pink eye (conjunctivitis) last week which bought me a couple of days off school. It was so difficult to figure out how to see a doctor that I almost gave up! The ones I spoke to couldn't see me for a week. Finally I got an appointment with an eye specialist! They did the whole letter chart and everything - most unnecessary. I can't afford to be sick here because not only is it difficult to get to the doctor, but they don't really replace me properly at work, so whoever has my kids has a tough time of it - no real assistance. At least I have health insurance so it isn't too costly - $15 for a normal (?) doctor and $25 for a specialist.

The buttons have popped off my jacket (NOT due to putting on weight) and I've been having trouble finding somewhere to get replacement buttons. There's no Lincraft here! I'm going to explore my options tomorrow.

Every Friday the kids at our school have to have lunch in the classroom because the church needs to use the room we use as our playroom. Today I let my kids build a cubby house. They had a great time despite how squishy it must have been for them. We also had a speech meet earlier this week. The children memorized poems and stories for the meet and presented them without prompts. It was pretty amazing and they did very well.

I think John has mentioned my frozen hair before, but here it is in real life! No wonder I'm finding it hard to shake my sickness.

Down near Chinatown we found some people playing this game of bike polo. They ride their bikes around and try to score goals by hitting a ball with their polo-like sticks. We decided the sticks were home-made using some other sport stick with a bit of pipe on the end. The ball was like the sort kids play hockey or cricket with at schools in Australia - bright coloured and plastic. There are no goalies. Each team has three people. If you put your foot down you have to ride over to the side and tap a cone before joining back in. It was interesting to watch and drew participants from all walks of life.



A couple more of my paintings.