We'll be sad to see you go...

Some friends from Mr. D's work are thinking about moving later on this year. I may have stepped in it when I suggested that we take over their apartment (same size, slightly more storage, HUGE terrace). Her husband took it the way I intended, that it could save them some money and we could have a great apartment. She was a little offended, as if she didn't want us to have the apartment even if they weren't there...

Randomness

Some things I thought about this week, but was too lazy to post. Blah.

Rain in New York is the most annoying thing in the world. People forget how to walk and that the umbrella makes them wider than they used to be. For some reason, most people don't "get" that you can close your umbrella under the scaffolding.

More annoying rain problems: my subway station entrance floods. Like walk down to the platform and have to step into a 8 ft by 8 ft by 4 inches deep puddle.

I love the clean apartment. We gave everything except the bedroom a total overhaul yesterday. Everything was spotless - J&R were coming over for dinner and J and I made ravioli and pasta while the boys sat and played video games. J&R do not have a video game player - I have a feeling they might be getting one soon...

Before and After

No, this isn't a post with my elbow in it, and I am alive - it didn't kill me.
Despite the whole elbow thing happening this week, we managed to finish the living room rearrangement. Well sort of finish. In the ideal world where we had infinite money we would probably get a new carpet, the couch from the HGTV Urban Oasis apartment, and maybe a new chair. Eventually, eventually. For now, getting rid of the IKEA bookcases (nothing really wrong with them until the movers punched holes in them when we moved in - so yes, we've lived with them like that for two years) and my old TV stand (when I made the dumbest purchase ever and, in my cheapness, bought the last non-flat screen TV ever made).
So, the old bookcases did not look bad, by any means:
Note: The white thing all the way on the right is a cabinet that we used as a printer/supply stand. Yes, those are Mr. D's socks drying on the Rock Band drums.

This is what new living room looks like:

Not nearly as dark, and not just because the lighting is better. Honestly, part of it is that we got rid of (taking to the Strand (kind of like Half Price Books) and I say taking, because they are boxed up in the bedroom right now) a LOT of our books. While I would like to have bookshelves full of books, we decided to only keep ones we use all the time (ie cookbooks or bar books) or might actually look at again. Lately, we've been reading on the iPhones/Kindle (Mr. D got one for Christmas - actually two in the year of multiple Christmas gifts), so we don't have books, except for cookbooks or ones that are given to us.

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit. The printer is now on the wine fridge, which was previously a junk repository. The only issue now that white cabinet is gone, is that the curtain that just went to the top of it now doesn't cover the newly exposed section of window. The curtains are just panels from Bed, Bath & Beyond, but now they're out of the long ones - everywhere. So a new window treatment solution is in order. Sigh.

Big thank you to Mr. D for arranging for Salvation Army to come pick up the old TV stand (he called Salvation Army, and I talked the doorman into keeping it in the package closet until they came). They're one of the few places that will pick up donations in NYC. We (I) decided the bookshelves were too damaged to salvage - the fact that they nearly fell on top of me while I was taking them apart and wobbled from side to side (as in you could make the shelf not have right angles) made me think Salvation Army wouldn't have taken it anyway.

Life of Leisure

My sister called me last night to see how my week of leisure was going (I finished up work last week and don't start the new job until Tuesday). My week has not been very leisurely. Monday we spent driving back from Mr. D's parents' house, then swapped out the TV stand. Tuesday, I went to the dentist (at 9 am), made sandwich bread (since I had time) and swapped out the old bookcases for the new ones - and it was hot in the apartment - thank you, heat wave (oh, and I made Alton Brown's spaghetti sauce, which probably didn't help the heat situation).

Yesterday I took the dog to the park, did some "fitness yoga" on the on-demand exercise channel, then collapsed, took a shower, and made some ravioli. The ravioli turned into a disaster; when I went to take the food processor bowl out of the fridge, the top popped off and half of the shrimp paste plopped in the refrigerator and then on the floor - fail. When Mr. D came home, we stopped by Eataly - which is basically an Italian food store/restaurant/theme park started by Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, and maybe someone else - in the hopes that we would be able to eat there. Umm, the hordes of people (literally) and hour-long wait to eat in the pizza section led us to eat elsewhere (craftbar - yum). We did see Mario walking around helping the employees. He's kind of like part of the family - we did go see Avatar with him (or, his family was sitting next to us in the theater - same thing. If you watch MasterChef (of course we do - it's a reality show with food), then you know that Joe Bastianich is the token jerk on the judges panel who rarely has anything nice to say and throws food in the garbage.

Today, I plan to take the dog to the park, take some change to the Coinstar machine, order the last piece of the bookcase (we weren't sure we were going to get it), sell the books we don't need anymore, make red beans & rice, and make another batch of ravioli (chicken this time). Order the bookcase, done. Dog park, on my way so I can get iced coffee (we're out). In order of probability of happening today - red beans, ravioli, coinstar, and books - I still have tomorrow off, so the last two could happen tomorrow (except I remembered that I have to do laundry so we can pack for our trip to NC - not the coast, so no real Earl worries).

Things I made from Ratio this week: bread, mayonnaise (a bit of a fail, but I'm not sure exactly why), pasta for the ravioli, and filling for the ravioli. Have I mentioned I love this book?

Before and after (so far) pictures of the bookshelves:

Use Video Games for Good, not Evil

Yesterday afternoon, my boss invented a report for us to do for a client for Monday, which left me to do some formatting for a PowerPoint, and we did not finish until 6:10 pm. On a Summer Friday*.

Anyway, as I suspected, Mr. D beat me home, but had not taken the dog out yet. Usually the dog-taking-out schedule is that I take her out in the morning, then when I get home, and Mr. D takes her out at night. There is a unspoken agreement that if Mr. D gets home first, he will take the Soosh outside. When I got home yesterday, Mr. D was plopped on the couch with the dog playing video games. "Have you taken the dog out yet?"

"No, I just got home from work, when would I have had time to do that."

In my head: "I don't know, the cowboy on screen is already halfway to wherever, how much time did that take?"

Out loud: "Hmm, fine. Do you want to take the dog outside or make dinner."

Him: "I'll make dinner."

Best deal I ever made. Not that dinner was going to be too difficult, some fish fillets with veggies from our CSA box (tomato and mozzarella salad and sauteed squash). Yumm.

*Summer Fridays are a weird thing. My brother-in-law asked my sister why we had summer Fridays, when our business wasn't necessarily seasonal. I think it's more of a New York, Northeast type of thing. Basically everyone gets out early on Friday, though some companies are just having off on alternate Fridays. Our office is a little more frustrating; since it's not a set time, we can't make plans dependent on our leaving early.

Saturday Adventures

Today was gorgeous. The heat wave finally broke and the high is only in the eighties. In celebration of the lovely change in temperature, I suggested we head out to Pier I (recognize it? - I ALWAYS want to go there). To get Sasha excited about our trip, I started packing her bag early. She fits into Mr. D's gym bag (not that he uses it for the gym, ours is in the building), and when we take her somewhere like Pier I, the bag has a bottle of water, a little tupperware for a bowl, treats to bribe her with on the subway, and a greenie and tennis ball to occupy her while we are wherever we are going. She definitely found the pocket with the treats.

We put Sasha into the bag and took the subway up to Columbus Circle, stopped at the cigar store so that Mr. D could get his fix, then walked over to the river and up to Pier I. We walked down the pier and sat on the bench watching the boats while Mr. D finished up his cigar.

We ate lunch and Sasha entertained herself by going bananas and turning into Kujo anytime she saw a pigeon. After lunch we wandered through Riverside Park, plopping down under a tree for a while to read/let Sasha recoup:

Weekend Activities

This weekend tacked on another two days of record heat (hence my really short post on Saturday). I was miserable. For example, we had J of R&J over for dinner while R was out of town, and I couldn't even change out of the shorts and tank top I had on all day. Sorry, J. We made chicken in almond butter sauce with cold, roasted zucchini, and homemade bread (zucchini and chicken from the Silver Spoon cookbook, and the bread from the Ratio cookbook). J brought over peach buckle, which is a cake-y thing made in a cast iron skillet.

Sunday, we hung out with J again and went to see SALT. We convinced Mr. D to go, despite the poor Rotten Tomato ranking - he's usually a stickler. I thought it was great - I mean, not fabulous or deeply meaningful, but definitely a fun way to spend a few hours in the air-conditioning.

Not that we don't have air-conditioning at the apartment, but, and I never thought I would say this, I miss the Texas heat. In Texas, no one is silly enough to venture outside to walk anywhere, much less the grocery store, like I did. As I tried to explain to our doorman, it may be hot, but no one goes outside until twilight. You go from your air-conditioned house to the air-conditioned car, to the air-conditioned store. Not from your air-conditioned apartment, to your un-air-conditioned hallway/elevator, to the sweltering subway station, to walk to your air-conditioned office. Disaster. Luckily, it cooled off today, but we'll just have to see about tomorrow.

I have two new heroes

The first is my husband. He apprehended someone on the street this weekend. No, really. We were going to look for a pair of pants for Mr. D, walking along the street, when we saw one guy (gesturing as if he had been robbed) running through the streets chasing another guy. For some reason, two tour-bus ride hawkers were also chasing the duo. The ran across the intersection across from us, then the "robber" came running towards us. So Mr. D just stuck out his arms and stopped him! No, really. Then the bus ticket guys came over and held the guy while the other guy came over to yell at him, and someone else started calling the police, so we headed out on our way.

Hero number two is AB - from her facebook status, it sounds like she is in labor! Hooray - go A!

Random thoughts

• When I said "on the wagon," what I should have said is that I am hobbling along next to the wagon. Which means that I have been to the gym twice in the past two weeks (or twice in the past 10 days, technically).
• My dog is super-cute tonight. She has this game where she holds her stuffed animal in her mouth and plays soccer with the ball. Tonight she's in the mood to go get it twice, then take it back to her bed, until I get comfortable on the couch again.
• Did I mention we went to Mr. D's coworkers apartment to watch the Fourth of July fireworks? And that immediately after the fireworks, another guest plugged in his camera and we all had to watch 70 photos of the fireworks show that we just watched?
  
• I finally updated my Goodreads shelf, but I don't know why I didn't get a notification that Michelle was waiting to be my bookshelf friend (or whatever they call it). Notes on the books:

1. I guess I am technically still reading "Too Big to Fail," but it's not exactly a read-before-lights-out-in-bed book, unless you want to immediately fall asleep.
2. I have been reading "Guns, Germs, and Steel" since we got back from Italy in May. Normally, I don't read this slowly, but it's a dense book. Interesting, but dense.
3. As soon as I finish #2, I'm going to read the new Stieg Larsson (sp?) book, but if I give up #2 now, I don't know if I'll have the willpower to go back.
4. I am always reading Ratio (a present from J&R). I lurve it - I have used it to try to get away from recipes without creating disasters, but this would be an excellent choice for anyone trying to learn how to cook, too. Michael Ruhlman (blog here) wrote the book to explain the most basic recipes in cooking, from a chart he found in a professor's office at cooking school (which he wrote about in one of his other books). I use Ratio all the time, but I still feel like I should use it more (I have another post on this in me, but it will need a few days to put together). In the meantime, check out Michael Ruhlman's blog, where he elaborates on some of the ratios in each post (unless he's having fun adventures, like eating his way through cured meat in Italy), and you can always click on the book on the right to find out more about the book.
   

Dog Park Outing

Yesterday was really hot, and I didn't feel like moving, much lest taking Sasha out on my own while Mr. D was at work, so we definitely owed Sasha a trip to the dog park. To make it a fun trip for all involved, we stopped by Stumptown Coffee on the way there. I love getting breakfast there, the restaurant next door makes the pastries, so they have delicious mini banana breads, croissants, and pretzel rolls with brie, as I found out this morning. Happily, they also make iced coffee, but you may have to ask for cold-brewed, which is good, since a steaming cup of coffee was not feeling particularly refreshing this morning.

Unfortunately, once we got to the park, there weren't any tennis balls, so poor Sasha had to sit there and actually meet other dogs. Boo. Until she discovered some gingko branches that had fallen on the ground. She goes NUTS over gingko. Apparently it is supposed to be good for dogs, but at the least, it's not hurting her, so once in a while, I'll pull a leaf off the tree outside work and bring it to her. See how happy she is?

Mr. D's iPhone

My husband is one of the luckiest people on the face of the planet. As an early anniversary gift, we got each other the new iPhones. Mr. D took care of everything, calling AT&T the week before to see how much it would cost to set up, then logged on the day of the pre-order launch and ordered the phones, so that we would have them the first day.

Fourth of July weekend we were walking over to the pier for our lunchtime picnic, and Mr. D was checking the map to see which street went over to the right pier, when he DROPPED it. Right on the ground and cracked the glass in the back. Sad Mr. D. Sad me.

UNTIL I remembered that we bought it on our AMEX, which has buyer protection, so Mr. D called them and started the claims process. They hadn't gotten back to us yet, but he thought that they would need an estimate of how much the repair would cost, so he made an appointment at the Apple store.

When we got there, they were running a little behind, and Mr. D was more than a little impatient, and after half an hour, they called his name. We show the woman behind the counter the phone, and she says she has to go talk to her manager. She comes back to us and says that the problem is that Apple is going to get the parts in, but hasn't started shipping them or even set a price yet. Pause. Sad Mr. D. Sad me. THEN, she says that since she felt bad for us, and we had gone to all the trouble to get the phone, they were just going to give Mr. D a new one!!!!

Happiness ensued. Yay Apple!!

Meatopia

Today we went to Governor's Island for the first time - for Meatopia! We met J&J from Mr. D's office at the ferry building to take the boat across to Governor's Island, and made it onto the 11:00 ferry, which meant we got there with time to spare for the 11:30 kick-off time. Disaster. When we got to the ticket booths, we realized that the line was longer for people who had pre-purchased tickets, than for the cash line. Umm, and the people who bought them on-site didn't have to pay a service charge. AND since it was taking so long, they stopped IDing people in the pre-order line, so we had to go to the cash line (which was empty at the time) to get our wristbands. Fail, Meatopia, fail.

The rest of Meatopia was not a fail. I cannot help but compare it to the Big Apple Barbecue, though the events were really very different. Big Apple Barbecue was restaurants from around the country bringing the foods that they make every day, but Meatopia was really about New York chefs creating barbecue, whether it was something they made every day, or something they created for the event. Another fun part of the event was that the chefs were the ones actually cooking at the event, so you were able to see chefs like Jonathan Waxman and Amanda Freitag, who are on TV all the time, working the grill and they actually handed you the food.

The food - soo good. We started out with delicious smoked duck tacos, and wound our way through the tents eating for a while, then we went over to the "beer garden" (read: tents set up behind ropes) and rested in the shade, sitting on a blanket I had brought while enjoying some cold ones. The we realized we should improve upon our planning, and went out in search of more food, which we brought back to the beer garden and ate with our cold ones. YUM!

Back on the Wagon...

...the exercise wagon, that is. The heat wave, along with social events, this week really cut into my "exercise" routine. Usually I try to walk to work at least 4 days a week, and if the weather is really nice, and dinner is simple, I'll walk home. Walking to work in 100-degree heat should not be attempted - walking to the subway is miserable enough; so this past week, I didn't walk to work. Most days this week, I made up excuses to not go to the gym. Monday after Fourth of July got too busy, I forget why Tuesday didn't work, Wednesday I had to make desserts for a going away party, then a going away dinner Thursday, and last night, drinks with J that turned into dinner with J&R.

Tomorrow we're off to Meatopia - the barbecue festival on Governor's Island, which should be fun, since meat is always good, especially when barbecued, and we haven't been to Governor's Island yet, which is supposed to be lovely.

Excursion

This past Saturday (aka July 3rd) we took R of R&J (J in Maine visiting family) out to the Pier I Cafe, which is located (drumroll, please) on a pier! Pier I is just south of the Boat Basin, which is the "famous" place people go. We were attempting to go to the Boat Basin last summer, but a friend told Mr. D about Pier I, so we went there instead, and I haven't let Mr. D try to take us (and by us I mean Sasha and me) to any other spot. Why mess with a good thing, once you've found it - and Pier I has great burgers and great garlicky-parsley fries.

As I mentioned, we take Sasha with us, since it is outdoors, and this week was no exception, but this time, we took her on the subway (in a gym bag, with the top open, from Mr. D's office. When we got to the cafe, we were pleasantly surprised with how deserted it was, usually it is packed with people, and you have to hunt for a table, but because of the holiday, most tables were empty. We pulled up to a shady spot, and Sasha and I waited while the boys grabbed us burgers and a pitcher of beer - yum!

A family with a little boy sat down behind us, and the little boy (Teddy?) came over and asked to pet Sasha. Unlike some NYC kids who have no idea what dog manners* are, he gave her the back of his hand to sniff. Most of the time, Sasha does not like kids, since they tend to run, scream, and (shocking) try to pet her, but she seemed to tolerate this one, so I handed him a french fry to give her (ok, not the healthiest thing for her, but she was going to get one from me anyway). Ta-Daaaa!! Sasha loves Teddy. Teddy loves that Sasha loves Teddy. Teddy asks Mr. D for another fry. Sasha and Teddy rejoice. We keep talking, with an eye on Sasha to make sure she's still ok with the whole situation, when Teddy reaches over to Mr. D's basket and takes another fry. We all exchange a quick laugh, but it wasn't really a big deal, so we went on talking. Midway through the next sentence, Teddy reaches for another french fry (at this point Sasha is in love). He didn't even hesitate, and even examined them (with his eyes) to see which one he would choose next. When he grabbed this one, his parents spotted him, so Teddy had to go find another dog to say hello to, but we (well, at least I) still thought it was hilarious.

*Seriously, people. When I was growing up, we learned that not all dogs like to meet new people, or sometimes aren't feeling well, whatever, so you are supposed to hold the back of your hand out for them to sniff. Things you should not do are: try to pet them straight out; scream around them; run at them; run around a dog park with a ball in your hand holding it straight up (really - we saw a kid do this while his parents were there!).

ps - why doesn't blogger think ok is a word? I mean it's not, but what would someone be trying to say that looks like "ok"

Confrontation

Today was hot, like Houston hot. Despite the fact that our real estate agent was convinced that south-facing windows were ideal for our northern climate, I know better. Growing up in Texas, you know that south-facing windows are the equivalent of having your oven on with the door open (without the potential for gas-poisoning). Given the heat, Mr. D and I decided to check out a movie (Cyrus - very good, you should go see it).

We bought the tickets when we entered the theater, and since we used our loyalty card, we got a coupon for a free large drink & popcorn or a free ticket, which is exactly as it is written on the coupon. This theater chain has been running the promotion at least since I was in college, so 10 years (yes, that's scary). I really wanted a soda, so we decided to go ahead and use the coupon to get a popcorn - until the kid behind the counter tried to tell me it was for a soda or a popcorn.

Me - "No, it says popcorn and drink or ticket"

Kid - "No, it's for a popcorn or drink or ticket"

Mr. D - "That doesn't even make sense, a popcorn is $5, and a ticket is $13"

Kid - "Sorry, it says popcorn or drink or ticket"

Me - "No, look - putting coupon in his line of sight - popcorn AND drink OR ticket"

Kid - "I'm sorry, that's not what it means"

At this point, I marched over to guest services, which was conveniently located 10 feet away and asked a "manager." He immediately agreed and literally shouted across the lobby to the kid.

We then sort of cut in front of one guy, but we had already waited in line, and when we told him that, he was ok. When we walked up, the girl behind the counter was CONSOLING our guy, for having difficult customers. Right, even though if he had actually read the coupon, much less known about the promotion that has ALWAYS been in place, or even THOUGHT that the CUSTOMER might be right, this could have all been avoided.

I was quite proud of us, as I was the one who stood up for us, and Mr. D didn't start yelling at the guy (though it came close when he heard the girl consoling him).

Me = Big Wuss

As you may have read, I had two near-fainting spells this weekend (no, AB, I'm not pregnant). Saturday, I had some cereal and a banana for breakfast, but no coffee. Before brunch, we went hunting around some antique stores for nothing in particular. The first was the flea market located in the parking garage, which is always interesting, if not for the people watching, then for looking for the booth that is all paintings of naked men (which, alas, was not there this weekend, or they have switched out their stock of art). I had seriously misjudged how sticky it would be in the parking lot, so we wound up walking over to the big antique center, where they have the crazy furniture and chandeliers, usually in great condition. There, we saw a pair of rocking horse-sized sheep with chrome faces and real hides - for only $25,000 - we're nt sure if that was each or for the pair.

We still had time to kill, so we went to a smaller antique store that was the mecca for individual salt cellars. This is a big deal, as maybe 15 years ago, my mom started collecting individual sets of salt and pepper shakers. She started with ones she found at antique stores, but once people found out, it started to go downhill from there. One year, I painted a small set, but the people started getting her sets that were, shall we say, a bit larger than individual size. This past year, I was looking for a unique set for my mom, and couldn't find them anywhere. Lo and behold, we saw at least 20 different individual salt cellars at this store. Amazing!

Anyway, about this time, I started to feel a little light-headed, but soldiered on to walk through another store on our way to lunch. After a few minutes, it was too much, I felt hot and light-headed, so we headed to brunch a few minutes earlier, where I started drinking water and some tomato juice to try to combat either dehydration or lack of food. After brunch and an excellent viewing of American Idiot, I felt much better.

Until the next day, when my mom and my sister ventured out with me to explore Central Park, where swinging on the swings set off my next fainting spell. A few sips of water and a rest on a bench and I was good as new.

I have a theory - most of the time at work, I drink a coffee in the morning, then refill the cup at least 5 times throughout the day. This is when I'm not doing anything aside from sitting in the air-conditioning. Doing something on less water must have set the whole fainting situation off.

So Tired

Apparently, I have at least one more post with this title, but I am so tired. This time, it is because my parents, brother and one of my sisters and her husband is in town. I think that I have literally been in perpetual hydration since they got in on Friday, which means I had near-fainting spells both yesterday and today.

Friday afternoon, my mom and sister, who came in at lunch-time, spent the afternoon walking around near my office, until I was able to get out of work. Until my boss told us that we should try to work all afternoon - so I had my mom and sister come visit and spring me from work :) - convenient, eh?

We walked up to the Highline Park (which is a park that was built on top of the old elevated railroad line) and followed it up to Chelsea Market, where we bought ingredients to make dinner for the three of us, Mr. D, and my brother, who was coming in that evening. We used the garlic from our farm share box to make a delicious shrimp scampi, and used the lettuce as the base of a salad - yumm. Then, we finished it off with some Fat Witch brownies.

Barbecue!

So hopefully it is a myth that eating too much smoked meat can cause cancer, since we managed to indulge a lot, not as much as we could have, this weekend at the Big Apple BBQ. Mr. D first went to this festival 3 years ago, when he was working up here for his summer internship at the firm he works for now. That year, he was excited because Dinosaur BBQ had come into the city for it.

Last year, we missed the festival for a wedding down in Dallas (which was one of the best receptions ever - featuring Pappasito's catering), so this was the first year we were able to go. Mr. D started talking about it last month. When we checked out the tickets, it was too late to buy the "fast pass," but luckily no tickets are needed to just show up. Mr. D sent out an email to all those who had come up from UT to see if they wanted to meet up with us.

One of them reported smelling the smoke in the elevators of his building before he left work on Friday afternoon. We anxiously checked the website the night before, only to find out that one of the guys manning the pit crew from the Salt Lick was injured, so they couldn't make it. :( Big amounts of sad faces here.

We got to the park right at 11:00 am, and people were already lined up at the tents, but the people we were meeting weren't there yet, so we wandered around to get the lay of the land. We found the spot to get wristbands was open near the beer tent, so we checked that off the list. Tagging along with us was the Sasha, so Mr. D stopped with her in the dog run, while I went to the assigned spot. Typically, I managed to miss the people we were supposed to meet, as they were on the other side of the corner, so Mr. D saw them as he walked up. :)

We split up so as to get the most out of our line-waiting time. Mr. D grabbed some brisket and baked beans and I snagged some babyback ribs. My line was moving really fast, so I was able to scout out a picnic table, with enough spots for four of us, and by two more people from Mr. D's work joined us, we were able to all squeeze in. Mr. D took the opportunity to head off and grab a basket of sausage w/ pimento cheese, and by the time we finished that, the rabble around us was ready for us to give up our seats. We headed over to the beer tent and had a beer (it was by the music stage, but you weren't allowed to take the beer out of the beer area to wait in line - poor planning). Before we headed out, we stopped at the dessert tent and had blueberry crisp/brownie's a la mode. Yum!

Unfortunately. we decided to grab a coffee and some pastries this morning on our way to the dog park. I say unfortunately, because we wound up dilly-dallying in the park until it was almost time for the tents to open back up. The pizza dough rising in the kitchen was turned into dinner, and we decided to lunch at the festival with two different kinds of babyback ribs. (insert drooling noise here) :)

Hanson?!?

Please excuse the picture - I didn't want anyone to see me outside the deli at work stopping to take a picture of the poster wall, much less the Hanson poster , so I had to do it super-fast and super-secretively. I am sure I did not succeed, I'm just not capable of it. I don't know which is weirder - that Hanson has a new album, or that they actually look kind of cute...

Doorman Strike

One of the hot topics here in New York is the "Doorman Strike," which is formally known as the building worker's strike, or something like that. The building worker's union and the realty board are in negotiations for the new contract, but if a deal is not struck by midnight, the strike is scheduled to begin at 7 am tomorrow. The big joke is that people with doormen won't be able to open their own doors. Being lucky enough to live in a building with doormen, I would like to clarify that that is NOT the problem I am most concerned with.

First of all, the doormen rarely actually open the door for me, or anyone in the building, as they only do that when there are two of them on duty and there isn't a crush of people at the desk. Our doormen provide a great deal of security, they are familiar with the delivery people who come to the building and know the residents (all 50 floors of us) by name if not by sight. If you happen to lock yourself out of your apartment, you can check out the spare key from the desk. Since we have lived here, I have never been concerned about the people who are in our halls, because our doormen keep such a close eye on the guests.

Among the people who will strike are the people who take care of the trash. At buildings with as many residents as ours, staff processes the trash that comes down the trash chute, puts it through the compactor, and re-bags it in sturdy garbage bags. Some of the people on my floor cannot manage to use bags that close, much less get them all the way in the chute - what is going to happen when residents are supposed to bag and put their own trash on the curb? Grossness, that's what. Trash that is normally stacked in straight lines is going to form mountains that will break and spew trash, which means rats and roaches will come. Eww. Eww.

Hopefully, the two sides will come to a resolution - despite the fact that the union has threatened to strike 5-6 times since, there has not been a strike since 1991. Let's hope the streak holds. :)