hello, nyc!

sunday morning, j & i went to brunch at the home of one of her student's parents. the mother lives in a beautiful brownstone in harlem, which she's in the process of rennovating. after a bellini or two, we rode down to central park for j's weekly soccer game. unfortunately, 10 minutes after i left to get to the airport, one of j's friends broke his leg & experienced serious agony. he broke both the tibia & fibula. it doesn't surprise me - the playing surface is really uneven. i'm surprised more people don't get injured! anyway, the person in the top picture, third from right, just got engaged saturday night - congratulations, blue eyes! the one standing with j, o, is from ireland. he & 13 of his friends dressed up as elvis & went on a pub crawl downtown on saturday. unfortunately, we never had time to track them down and take pictures. o seemed to be in fine shape, however, one day after such an event. i would've still been in bed at 4pm.

hello, nyc!

here are some pictures from seva's debut at the knitting factory. rock on, j!!!

hello, nyc!

saturday night, we met my friend j, a.k.a. the minister (he officiated at my wedding), and his girlfriend k somewhere downtown, far far away from where i was staying (125th), for dinner. i'll never ride in a cab again in nyc - talk about motion sickness!!! anyway, we had a nice dinner, & then made our way to j's gig with seva at the knitting factory. it was a late night, but we all had fun!

hello, nyc!

here's a picture of j & c on the... what are those things called? teeter totters? things on the playground are so darn safe these days. anyway, j is having just as much fun, if not more fun, than c. we walked to the riverside park, and the playground in it is one where adults are only allowed if they're accompanying children. those NOT there with children can be fined large amounts of money, in an effort to eliminate child predators.

hello, nyc!

j is modelling how functional c's glasses are during the ride down in the elevator. they can be worn with dark lenses down OR up! how cool is that??!!!

hello, nyc!

n & j's building has a really amazing rooftop, complete with lounges, bbq, & other great things. we all posed on the river side, and then the city side. if i had to live in the city, i'd want a building like theirs!

hello, nyc!

after the wine tasting, we met up with my cousins(?) who live in nyc, who have the ADORABLE daughter c. in this picture, c just woke up from a nap & is getting her hair fixed for a walk to the park. so cute!

hello, nyc!

later in the afternoon on saturday, j & i wandered into a wine bar, somewhere around broadway & 96th st (?), that sold wine only from new york state. we decided to taste a flight of 5 sparkling wines. j's nose was totally stopped up at the time, so she didn't enjoy it as much as i did. the last two were really great!

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...

the departed party

hey streetfighter - these are for you!!! :)

the departed party

some random pics of those involved. so here's the whole reason we had this shindig - j kept winning things in the raffle held at the boulder jousts (climbing competition parties) held at his local climbing gym. the third joust in a row or so, he won the departed on dvd. so, in order to keep his friends, he promised to have a "the departed" party so everyone could watch it. this was months ago. and it ended up being at c's house instead of ours. c has a much bigger tv than we have. i don't know whose idea it was to combine it with making calzones, or why, but it was awesome. thanks c - it was fun (he's the one in the picture below)!

the departed party

this is a picture of the calzone j & i split. isn't it soo beautiful? I LOVE CARBS!!!!!!!!! no salad for me tonight, baby! i can't wait to make them again sometime. already dreamin of the cheesy breadiliciousness...

the departed party

on friday night, j & i went to c's house for some calzone makin' and departed watchin'. here, j & b demonstrate the fine art of dough manipulation. check out the cabernet bottle/rolling pin.

other easter pics...

here are a couple more pictures which i found on my camera... you can see j's beautiful shiner on the left, with the mimosas we enjoyed. on the right is a picture of some chocolate bunnies from my mom - thanks mom! - had to eat the ears first!!! they were hollow bunnies, so quick eatin'. if they were solid, they'd last for months around here. i think i still have chocolate left from my bridal shower...

I'M GOING TO NEW YORK CITY!!!!! YAY!!! NYC!!!! YAY!!! the last weekend in april. can't believe jet blue sold me a ticket for just $238!!! yayayayayay!

pray....

i just read last night on a blog which i read daily that a family friend's daughter has relapsed with leukemia. if you read this, please send them prayers, positive thoughts - whatever your beliefs - that she can acheive temporary remission so that a bone marrow transplant may take place. she's only seven, and relapsing for the second time. PLEASE think of them!!!

soccer injury

at his indoor soccer game on thursday night, j got kicked in the eye by a member of the opposing team. the first picture is from thursday night, and the second is from friday. it's still going through different colors each day. j didn't want to go anywhere big this weekend, so we enjoyed the weather friday night at our local mcmenamins outside for dinner, ran errands & did little tasks at home saturday, and watched a couple movies. we're drinking mimosas now and eating a potato cheesy casserole, and hope to go climbing this afternoon if the weather holds up. happy easter, y'all!

u's goodbye lunch

j & i took u out for a goodbye lunch at the heathman hotel. we all had fabulous croque monsieurs. we all promise to visit you in detroit, u!

u's goodbye party.

here are a couple pictures from a party on sunday in honor of u, who is on her way to detroit right now, as she won a position in the detroit symphony.

dinner with the canadians.

the night after we returned from apalachicola, we hosted our canadian friends p & n for dinner. we ate ribs (which turned out on the crispy side - next time we'll boil them before grilling), asparagus with hollandaise sauce (good job p!), garlic mashsed potatoes, and banana bread pudding with caramel sauce. it was a great time, and something we had been looking forward to for a long long time!

spring break

we left saturday morning at 4:30am from our house to make it to the airport in time for our 6am flight to houston. from there, we had a 4 hour layover before flying to tallahassee. everything went really smoothly, and we picked up our rental car - a jeep commander - at 7:30pm e.s.t, and drove the 1.5 hours to apalachicola. w & b & others were there to greet us, with plates of oysters on the half shell, and dinner. what a great way to be welcomed! j was in oyster heaven.

(battery?) park

here are some benches which were donated by j's family in honor of specific family members in battery park. j's uncle w helped design the gazebo in the center.