July 28 - Flashback!

Another day without a picture... the heat must be getting to me. Anyway, you're actually lucking out because instead of another 11pm picture of the dogs sleeping on the sofa, you get this fun photo from July 2007 when my brother and sister-in-law came to visit with my niece & nephew (Ann & Jack.) The twins were dream guests for Howard... new tug-of-war challengers!

July 27 - Subway Dawg

Dogs are not uncommon on the NYC subway, but usually I only see them in people's arms or in carriers. This guy was just hanging out & keeping cool!

July 26, 2011 - Safety Photo

It was almost midnight and I didn't have a photo for the day... luckily Tom was sweet enough to pose with big baby Howard.

July 25, 2011 - Sleepy Heads

'Nuff said

July 24, 2011 - Almost Ready...

Lots happened in the bathroom over the weekend. We've got a new potty... we've got a new sink... we've got new shower hardware & a new light fixture!!! It's all very exciting and I think a ceremonial ribbon-cutting is close at hand!

July 23, 2011 - Know What This Is?

Any guesses? No, it's not a little tomato... it's a sugar plum! And now I know what to get visions of at Christmas.

July 22, 2011 - Flashback!

Arrrgh! Another day without taking a picture - and I did fun stuff too... I met my friend Katie for a drink after work, I also met up with some friends after that to celebrate my friend Andres' birthday, plus I had a yummy burrito for dinner and watched most of Toy Story 3 with Colleen at home (and yes, I was crying at the end.) But, somehow no picture. Oh well - to the archives!!

This flashback photo is from July 2009 - I took a bunch of black & white shots of the dogs on our porch one afternoon, individually and a few of all 3 together. My favorite individual shots from the day are hanging in our hallway, but this is my favorite group shot.

July 21, 2011 - Gelato Memories

Tom and I went to Italy with his sister and niece last July and had a fantastic vacation. We saw beautiful sights, ate incredible meals and just had a lot of fun in general. And one of my favorite memories is thinking about the countless number of gelato places we tried (and we tried MANY,) including Grom - a popular chain in many cities. We went to the Grom in Sienna & I remember thinking it was one of the best (if not the best) from the entire trip. BUT... I didn't know until a couple months ago that there was a Grom in NYC!! And it's walking distance from my office.

I've resisted stopping so far because daily gelato runs on vacation are great - but in real life they could be trouble.

July 20, 2011 - Hucky's Hat

Hucky let me take pictures of him with Flower Baby on his head... awwwwwww!

July 19, 2011 - A Great Fortune!

Remember when I told you about the dumb fortunes I seem to get all the time? Well, today I got a great one... especially considering today is the day my love life became famous ;) !

July 18, 2011 - Mesa Grill

I caught up with my friends Deb & Anthony for lunch at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. We all took advantage of the special restaurant week menu and I had the following:
1) Cod Fish Cakes
2) Cornmeal Crusted Chile Relleno (pictured)
3) Mexican Chocolate Pudding
It was all delicious - the food and the company!

July 17, 2011 - Sunday Nap

I caught Hucky taking a little nap in one of his favorite spots...

July 16, 2011 - Foxy & Sneaky (#4)

Foxy spotted a kitty hanging out in the very back corner of our yard and chased it behind the garage. There are lots of cats in the neighborhood and I've named all the ones that look like this Sneaky (in honor of the one that snuck into the house and lived in the basement for a few days our first winter.) I have no idea how many individual "Sneakys" there really have been in the past 3 years, but 4 seems about right.

July 15, 2011 - We Have A Floor!

Work continues to progress on the bathroom, and the new floor looks fantastic. It feels like we are getting very close!

July 14, 2011 - A Night on the Town

First - a description:
This shot overlooking Sheridan Square is from an incredible penthouse terrace above the Monster.

Second - the story:
Colleen's show at the Duplex this month was her Bastille Day tribute to Cole Porter ("Pret A Porter") and it is one of my favorites in her Calendar Girl series. Tom and I went with some friends who hadn't seen her perform before and they absolutely loved it, AND the place was packed with people, including some key industry folk who hadn't seen her perform before, and they all absolutely loved it. It was a fantastic show.

Afterwards, instead of going directly home as we usually do, we joined Colleen and several other folk for dinner at a nearby restaurant (Agave - I had chicken enchiladas, yum!) After dinner, we were about to say our goodnights and go, but Colleen had been invited over to the apartment of a friend of her friend Steve R's and asked us (me, Tom, Kevin & Geoff) to stick around to walk her in. We agreed, and on the way Kevin got a text from another friend, Joe, letting us know he was in the neighborhood, so we invited him to come with us too. He met us on the next corner and was with another friend, Steve W (who we hadn't seen in a long time,) so now we were 7 heading up to this friend of a friend's penthouse.

Once inside, we knew we were going to stay for a while. The entrance to the apartment was a stone spiral staircase with a castle-like feel. It opened at the top into a little vestibule area leading to the bedroom, a little kitchen and a living room (all decorated to excess!) It was not a very big place... but then there were the terraces. Off one side of the living room was a decent-sized terrace facing south. It was set up with a dining area and had a gorgeous view of downtown Manhattan. Off the other side of the living room was a gigantic terrace which faced east and north. It had tons of seating and we quickly grabbed spots (and glasses of wine that had been graciously offered) and settled in to enjoy a beautiful evening outdoors and catch up with each other. Another guest at the party was actually someone I met in volleyball but hadn't seen for many, many years and the whole evening became a truly unique, crazy, New York type of night.

Happy Bastille Day - Vive la joie de vivre!!

July 13, 2011 - Rain, Rain, Rain

We were celebrating our friend Jack's birthday* at a restaurant called Taboon** in Hell's Kitchen and a huge crazy rainstorm came out of nowhere. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was super windy and a ton of water just seemed to crash down on everything. Weather!

* Happy Birthday again, Jack!

** Taboon was fun! The Middle Eastern food was delicious and the place was really cute. The only slightly negative thing was the slow bartender - he couldn't keep up with us :)

July 12, 2011 - Subway Smoke

So I was on the subway and just as we were pulling into a station there was a really loud "POP" from within my car. Everybody started looking around and we all quickly saw one of the overhead lights starting to smoke. Luckily, we were in the station and could all simply leave the train (we didn't need to be told to evacuate)... but within under about 10 seconds the whole platform was covered with a yellowish, stinky, fog and it would have been really scary if it had happened outside of the station.

July 11, 2011 - Harry Potter Mania

I happened to be walking past Lincoln Center last night, where fans had been waiting for up to 6(!!) days for a chance to see their favorite stars at the premiere of the final part of the final movie in the Harry Potter series. I was too far away to really see what was going on as I tried to get through the mob scene, but there were a lot of screams just when I took this picture, so I've decided that Emma Watson was blowing kisses to the crowd at that moment... and I got one - Yay!

July 10, 2011 - Family Portrait

The kids were all posed together for a picture, so I took one!

July 9, 2011 - The First Tomato

Yay - we're getting tomatoes in the backyard (our plants are as tall as our fence.) It's a crazy little patch of home-grown goodness and I can't wait till we get some that are ready for eating!

July 8, 2011 - Meet Tom, Guide to Broadway

Pretty much everyone who knows Tom knows that he loves seeing Broadway shows, but you should also all know he's not just a fan... he's like a personal guide to Broadway.

Here is why:

1. He has been to almost every single one of the Broadway theaters and knows basically every insider tip for getting discount tickets (read them here!)


2. He was an official reviewer on Broadway.com's Word of Mouth panel, not once, but twice because people liked him so much he was asked back as an "All Star" (watch one of his reviews here!)


3. Every person we know who comes to visit NYC and wants to see a Broadway show asks Tom for a recommendation. My family, his family, our friends, and (here comes the connection to the photo above) a group of theater-lovin' women from the Washington DC area.

"What," (you may be asking in regards to that last bit,) "are you talking about, and what does it have to do with the picture?" Well... one of Tom's co-workers from the DC area and her friends come to New York every year to see shows, and they always get their recommendations from Tom. He's like their own Ben Brantley (NY Times chief theater critic.) And this picture was from just after they treated us to dinner while they are in town as a thank you for all his suggestions over the years. So there you go, my point is made. Q.E.D.

July 7, 2011 - Foxy on the Floor

Foxy and I were wrestling around a bit on the living room floor and she was having a great time (although it wasn't a great photo op because she was so wiggly.)

July 6, 2011 - T-Shirt Awesomeness

It takes a special kind of guy to wear this shirt... he'd be, like, a hero in high school.

July 5, 2011 - The Bird Lady

I was walking through midtown and saw a SWARM of pigeons around this lady... she was tossing food (I'm assuming) to them and they were going crazy. I really hope they don't figure out it's coming from that bag, because she wasn't very big and those nasty birds could probably give her a fight if they chose to make a grab for it.

July 4, 2011 - G'bye Old Shoes

For some reason, Tom's closet became the repository for all my old pairs of running shoes. He spent the day clearing out some of his old clothes, so it was only fair (and long overdue) that I did the same with the shoes I don't wear anymore.

I was happy to get rid of the black ones, which I wore the least because they made me feel like Frankenstein, but a part of me wanted to keep at least the pair I wore in my first marathon (2nd from the right.) I don't know if it was a coincidence or not (Tom had control of the remote at the time,) but it was probably good that we happened to catch a little bit of the show "Hoarders" yesterday... it's much easier to say, "Goodbye old shoes! Thanks for the fun & memories!"

July 3, 2011 - Sunday Nap

Tom & Huckleberry took a little nap on the sofa, and I couldn't help taking a photo because they were both so cute!

July 2, 2011 - The CSA

Tom and I are members of a CSA (community supported agriculture) again this year, but we switched to a different one because the Saturday morning pick-ups are much easier to manage than last year's Tuesday evenings. So far we have been really impressed with the quality of the produce as well as how organized everything is. The challenge is still trying to enjoy everything we get, but it sure is fun having a reason to try out new recipes every weekend!

FYI - our CSA has a blog if you want to see what we've been getting and our farm has a great website too (gardenofevefarm.com).

July 1, 2011 - Canada Day

It's Canada Day, so Tom and I celebrated by going to see one of our favorite Canadians - Stephen... at the Farm! On the specials menu was one of my favorites - the buffalo mozzarella, arugula & apple salad. It. Was. So. Good. Oh. My. God.

June 30, 2011 - Battery Gardens

I attended an event at Battery Gardens, at the tip of Manhattan in the corner of Battery Park next to South Ferry. Boy, was it pretty down there! It was a beautiful evening and the view of the harbor & Governors Island were fantastic. I had no idea this place was there, but it was a great discovery and I'll remember it the next time I'm looking for an interesting spot to get a drink or snack.