hello, nyc!

these are pictures of my friend k, and her family. she's someone i met while attending the cleveland institute of music, and we were roommates at a festival in sarasota, fl, where we shared some fun times. she's an excellent violinist, a brilliant person, and probably one of the best moms in the world. anyway, they live in the u.k., but are living in nyc for a year as the hubby researches bone marrow transplants at mt sinai hospital. seeing her & meeting her family was one of my main reasons for visiting nyc this time round. i think her children are SOO beautiful! it was fun to chat, and the carrot cake they shared was fantastic. :)

martinis & such...

i was perusing the top ten emailed articles on the new york times website, and found this article discussing different types of gin & martinis. in the article, it says "gin is the thinking person's spirit." take that, hubby & brother-in-law!!! they sometimes give me so much crap (or at least did in the past) about preferring gin to vodka, thinking vodka is a more complex spirit. HA! gin can stand its ground, thank you very much. anyway, the article describes how a panel tried lots of different gins in martinis, & talks about which ones did well, and which ones were poor in martinis. plymouth came out on top. i don't think i've tried that type yet. guess i have some work to do! :)

hello, nyc.*

saturday morning, j & i met j.b. for brunch at some cafe (forgot the name) - soleil? anyway, the service was awful, but the food was great.* and now j & i know exactly what chicory looks like. good times. j.b. is a trombonist in michael buble's band, and apparently has his own solo album which sounds awesome on his website.* check it out.*

.*

just wanted to mention that this computer is acting up for the millionth time. j & i have decided to purchase new macbook pro tomorrow. this keyboard is not functioning well. the keys on the left end aren't working, including the exclamation point, so please excuse my lack of enthusiasm. don't worry, it's there. :) i have to copy & paste every "a" i use. what a pain.

hmmm... perhaps i should create a code for an exclamation point.

ok. whenever you see a ".*", please interpret it as "woohoooo...".*

hello, nyc

a bunch of group shots from a gathering at the amsterdam cafe on friday night. schlaave, i'm so sorry i didn't tell you the wine was so gross. i was just too shy to say it in front of the waiter. don't worry - you'll still get a free dinner if you finally decide to drag your sorry self to portland... j, i'm so sorry for making you stay up 'til 2am. i hope that cold is gone by now.

hello, nyc

this is slick & his girlfriend s. you're both lookin good...

goodbye to the swedes...

the last night they were here, we all met downtown at the rock bottom brewery for some suds n grub. i arrived last of all because i was teaching until 8:30. rock bottom serves up some killer apple pear crisp, by the way. it's shown in the picture. i highly recommend it...

the swedes left today. :(

so the swedes took off today for seattle. and don't worry, f, we'll mail you your raincoat to your home in sweden. i'm off to the airport in about an hour to fly to nyc. today was such a long day - i hope i sleep well on the plane!

the swedes are here!

on sunday we went wine tasting. we checked out scott paul first (sorry c.n. - we didn't wait for you!). i was surprised - they were only tasting one of their own wines, and the others were french wines. it wasn't very impressive- not what i had expected. we bought a french pommard. we tried to go to lemelson, but it was closed. we finished at carlton winemakers studio, and purchased a few bottles of dominio syrah, lazy river pinot noir, and andrew rich pinot noir.
later that evening, we went to mcmenamin's mission theater & watched the last king of scotland. it was a fantastic movie, but i generally prefer to watch depressing violent movies in the privacy in my own home, where i have the freedom to walk out of the room or fast forward through gruesome scenes.

the swedes are here!

the swedes, f & l, arrived at our house friday afternoon. we all went to the hall street grill for happy hour, & enjoyed our old meeting place. f lived in portland 5 years ago and was here for a year working at intel. he had a conference in san francisco earlier this month, and l joined him a week ago after the conference was over. they hung out in san fran for awhile before driving up here. i was busy with teaching stuff saturday, so j followed them around as they explored downtown portland during the day. in the evening, f & l went grocery shopping & cooked us a traditional swedish dinner, with salad, potatoes, and meatballs. they made a cream sauce to go with it, and we enjoyed lingonberry jam with the meat. REALLY delicious!!!

commuting.

i was reading an article from the new yorker the other day about commuting. it listed the longest daily commute time as seven hours. SEVEN HOURS!!! imagine spending that much time a day getting to work & home again. i can't imagine that. the location of that commute was around silicon valley in california. the writer spent time with people who commute long distances, in areas like the new york metropolis (pennsylvania) and atlanta. i am so incredibly thankful to live in a place like portland. my commute before was around 12-20 min, and now it's only 30 seconds. :) j's commute varies from 20-40 min, depending on traffic. he sometimes bikes to work when the weather is nice. i guess some people have long commutes in this area, for those who choose to live in the columbia gorge area, especially in hood river. however, for most people, commutes are relatively short. housing prices here are nowhere near what they are in new jersey/new york/pennsylvania or california, but they are rising pretty consistently. i feel extremely fortunate to have entered the housing market a few years ago.

simply hilarious.
click on it and check it out.

i just got back from watching the last king of scotland.

this has helped clear my mind.

i still can't quite wrap my mind around the shootings at virginia tech. how could someone rationalize taking that many peoples' lives? religious reasons? unrequited love? schizophrenic? flat out crazy? large quantities of people are killed in iraq & the middle east, with suicide bombers. is this really worse? does the press sensationalize suicide bombers as much? are american lives worth more? i read on another blog, this point exactly. the post discusses many things, including gun control, and how it may have lowered crime rates in britain & australia. i don't really know what the solution is to preventing these mass murders.
last night, william jefferson clinton reminded us that the oklahoma city bombing and the shooting at columbine both happened years ago this very same week.
my heart goes out to the friends & family of those killed, and to the survivors and witnesses of the tragedy.

i get to watch billy clinton talk tomorrow. my hubby and our friend from canadia is going too. billy's talking downtown. and we get to go. yay!

free ben & jerrys ice cream

rumor has it that there's free ice cream tomorrow at your local ben & jerry's ice cream store...

rest of the weekend.

saturday night we stayed in and did laundry & watched the movie "inside man." i'd recommend it. on sunday, i made j get out of bed & go running with me before heading off to run my students' recital in the afternoon. i get more & more nervous for them! they all did a great job. i'm really glad it's over. j came along to help, as did my parents. afterwards, j & i went for a quick bike ride before meeting my parents for dinner for thai food. we tried watching a different movie that night, but ended up just turning it off because it was too damn depressing and basically uninteresting. i don't recommend "friends with money" unless you enjoy watching lots of dysfunctional couples & their sad lives.

trip to the zoo

this peacock was struttin his stuff for a nearby female. what a show!

trip to the zoo

this beast, a musk ox, reminded me of our own little woolly mammoth kitten at home, persia.

trip to the zoo

elephants, and elephant ears. saturday was the 45th birthday of "packy" the elephant. this one in the picture on the left is not packy, but some other elephant. j & i both got elephant ears. i had been looking forward to it ever since he told me a few months ago that they sold elephant ears near the elephant exhibit. my parents would've never ever bought one for me when i was little. HA! now i can do whatever i want! i couldn't finish the whole thing. it WAS made without trans fats, but i didn't feel so good after eating it, either. i don't think i need another one in the near future. big fun, though. big fun!

trip to the zoo

on saturday afternoon, we went to the zoo. if it had been raining out, i would've driven to the coast, but it was sunny, so we stayed in portland. i had to photograph these turtles - it was so funny how they were all hanging out all piled up, and the one on the end looks like he's doing yoga, with his legs hanging down & all...