We made it home from the Big Apple to the Minni-Apple, which seems so mini now after fighting through throngs of New Yorkers, ducking through subway doors and trying not to get hit by the relentless traffic eager to plow through red lights. The plane was this little dinky-shit thing that bounced us considerably at the start and end of the flight, but other than that (and me thinking of plane crashes even though mentally I kept telling myself, "it's just turbulence, we're not going to crash you ridiculous paranoid freak") it was quite pleasant as I settled into my library book and got lots read. I swear, though, there's something in the airplane air that makes me sick. I'm super congested and my throat is KILLING me. So I'm sucking down my "special" medicinal tea that my mom got for me and I drink when I'm not feeling well (thanks, Mum!). John's been pretty congested all week (he'll kill me for saying this, but when he's mega congested he snores like a beast--sorry, my love!--) so I think we're going to call it an EARLY night. I was konked and ready for sleep when we stopped by my mom's to pick up our keys, and that was at 7:00!! We decided to just skip the grocery store, grab some takeout and head home to catch the re-run of the Colbert Report that we got to see recorded LIVE!!!! Anyhoo, thanks for reading, sorry this wasn't more precise...my brain is fried! We'll catch you again for our next trip, which will hopefully be soon!
Love to all! ROCK HARD ;)
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Packin' Up
The week went so fast and it's already time to leave! Checkout time is noon, but we'll be heading out about 11:00 to catch the bus to the airport. I figured I'd blog for a little while cuz, well, there's nothing else to do. There's a massive traffic jam outside our window, reminding us that for most New Yorkers it's just another workday. It's sad to leave, but we miss our kitties, and I miss my own bed since it seems I've had nightmares the whole week. Last night my dreams were just strange, not necessarily bad, but still....there's nothing like sleeping on the Sleep Number!!
I had to end my blog early last night due to a dizzy spell that left me wondering if it wasn't just time for bed. I'm still extremely tired and feel like I could sleep the rest of the day. We'll have to get home, get the washing machine going and hit the grocery store since we have zero food in the fridge. We ate everything down really well so we'll have to restock the cupboards and the fridge with fresh stuff. Ugh...
Well, I might sign off. My head has not been in writing mode for this trip at all--I've left out so many little funny details just because I've been too lazy to type it all. But we will be home later this afternoon and hopefully the kitties will be in a snuggly mood ;)
I had to end my blog early last night due to a dizzy spell that left me wondering if it wasn't just time for bed. I'm still extremely tired and feel like I could sleep the rest of the day. We'll have to get home, get the washing machine going and hit the grocery store since we have zero food in the fridge. We ate everything down really well so we'll have to restock the cupboards and the fridge with fresh stuff. Ugh...
Well, I might sign off. My head has not been in writing mode for this trip at all--I've left out so many little funny details just because I've been too lazy to type it all. But we will be home later this afternoon and hopefully the kitties will be in a snuggly mood ;)
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
"Even Stephven"
Oh maaaaaaaan.....The Colbert Report fuckin' ROCKED!!!!!!!! The line waiting was considerably more tolerable than the Daily Show since they had a nice little enclosed area to protect from the wind and cold, and we were 9th and 10th in line so were admitted quickly (well, after the 2 hour wait outside) once they started letting people in. Majorly annoying security check, but to be fair, you can obviously understand why New York would screen people for anything and everything. We were seated in the second row on the very end--right near Stephen's desk and the Eagle's nest that's sitting by it with it's own little spotlight shining on it. Then a comedian dude came out to get us all "pumped" up, and we were told that Stephen would come out and answer a few questions, but I was too chicken to ask any of the three or four I wanted to ask.
1) My number one question that I've been dying to know ever since I read an interview with him and found out he is a HUGE Lord of the Rings geek, he said that when he first saw The Two Towers he hated it because of the whole Faramir issue, so my question would've been: What did you think of the DVD extended edition and do you feel that it tied it all up better than the original release?
2) My second question was going to be a joke, and since the lady who let us into the studio (who also got us all pumped up before letting us in) said that he loves silly questions and he really feeds off of the energy of the crowds, was going to be: Were your scenes with Paul Dinello in Strangers With Candy real? (they were closet-gay teachers having an affair)
3) My third thing was going to be a request rather than a question, which was this: Could you please do the Emanuel dance that you did at the end of one of the Strangers With Candy episodes (that I just can't explain, but it's frickin' HILARIOUS) and I was going to offer him $20 to do it.
But. I chickened out of asking any of it, cuz I'm a big baby and despise drawing attention to myself in front of crowds. He was very sincere in his answers and seemed like a great guy that you could have a blast going to dinner with. Someone asked him if he was a dog or cat person, and he said he was a CAT person!! YAY! The whole rest of it was just awesome, and totally made up for us missing out on the Daily Show last night. So watch it tonight at 10:30 (Central) or the repeat tomorrow at 7:00 (that is if you have Comedy Central). The guest was Steve Croft from 60 minutes! I told think they did any camera sweeps of the audience, but you can probably hear John & I CACKLING our asses off!
Anyway, we're going to hit the sack now but I wanted to quick post that little bit. Oh, and we had two beautiful trips on the Staten Island Ferry, saw the Strawberry Fields park dedicated to John Lennon, got pics of the apartment where he lived (The Dakota), Central Park, more Times Square, too! Well, we're so beat and I think we may have picked up some icky germs from the subway (despite our best, and in my case, completely anal efforts to thwart them) because I'm so tired, like beyond tired, and all sore throaty and congested.
1) My number one question that I've been dying to know ever since I read an interview with him and found out he is a HUGE Lord of the Rings geek, he said that when he first saw The Two Towers he hated it because of the whole Faramir issue, so my question would've been: What did you think of the DVD extended edition and do you feel that it tied it all up better than the original release?
2) My second question was going to be a joke, and since the lady who let us into the studio (who also got us all pumped up before letting us in) said that he loves silly questions and he really feeds off of the energy of the crowds, was going to be: Were your scenes with Paul Dinello in Strangers With Candy real? (they were closet-gay teachers having an affair)
3) My third thing was going to be a request rather than a question, which was this: Could you please do the Emanuel dance that you did at the end of one of the Strangers With Candy episodes (that I just can't explain, but it's frickin' HILARIOUS) and I was going to offer him $20 to do it.
But. I chickened out of asking any of it, cuz I'm a big baby and despise drawing attention to myself in front of crowds. He was very sincere in his answers and seemed like a great guy that you could have a blast going to dinner with. Someone asked him if he was a dog or cat person, and he said he was a CAT person!! YAY! The whole rest of it was just awesome, and totally made up for us missing out on the Daily Show last night. So watch it tonight at 10:30 (Central) or the repeat tomorrow at 7:00 (that is if you have Comedy Central). The guest was Steve Croft from 60 minutes! I told think they did any camera sweeps of the audience, but you can probably hear John & I CACKLING our asses off!
Anyway, we're going to hit the sack now but I wanted to quick post that little bit. Oh, and we had two beautiful trips on the Staten Island Ferry, saw the Strawberry Fields park dedicated to John Lennon, got pics of the apartment where he lived (The Dakota), Central Park, more Times Square, too! Well, we're so beat and I think we may have picked up some icky germs from the subway (despite our best, and in my case, completely anal efforts to thwart them) because I'm so tired, like beyond tired, and all sore throaty and congested.
No Daily Show
Welp, one of our biggest highlights on this trip did not happen. We got to the Daily Show to find a massive line, and after standing (ugh, MORE standing) forever (45 minutes) in line, they came out, told us it was overbooked by 25 people, proceeded to hand out about 40 VIP tickets, plus about 150 regular tickets, and there was more than 25 of us left out in the blowin' wind, lemme tell ya. They said they could issue us VIP tickets for guaranteed entry at another show, but we won't be here in April, we're here NOW. Those fuckers. So we were disappointed, sulked home through the amazingly frantic and crowded rush hour and just chilled in the hotel the rest of the night watching more News Radio. Which actually was SUCH a relief for me because I didn't think my legs were going to make it home. I drew up a bath to soak for a bit so that was nice. We were going to treat ourselves to some yummy takeout, but not knowing what to order and not wanting to go get anything made our decision to use up some more of our food. It was a pleasant evening, and we decided that we won't mope, we'll just get to The Colbert Report VERY EARLY. We can't bitch too much cuz the tickets were free, so whatever. Of course now that means we're going to have to do MORE standing, we're going to get there the recommended 1 1/2 hours early and I'm sure I'll be a whiney bitch for the duration. Oy, John is SOOOOO patient with me. And he's been such a love making our breakfasts every morning, doing literally all the planning and navigation...he's so wonderful ;) YAY FOR SCHMOOPIE!
Other than missing Jon Stewart, we made it to the Planetarium and got to see one of the most AWESOME space shows we've ever seen!!!!! It was SO great! And the whole museum was completely packed, as was the space show. We were happy to see that science and natural history are important here. We walked around the museum afterwards and looked at more space photographs, an exhibit about the earth and then footage of the volcanoes at the ocean floor! It was very nice, even the hundreds of kids there were very well behaved, more than I can say for the adults.
So today we're planning on some bumming around taking photos until we've got to stand in another line for a million years (but worth it to see Stephen Colbert!!) and then we're going to try to catch a Staten Island Ferry for a ride later (and probably more standing in line for that). They actually have ferries that run every half hour ALL NIGHT LONG here. It's true this city never sleeps. We almost went to one last night late, but decided we just really wanted to chill. We haven't taken many photos, still have not filled out the postcards we bought and haven't bought much in the way of trinkets.
Anyway, I'll write more later. Hope all is well at home on the range!
Love to you all :)
Other than missing Jon Stewart, we made it to the Planetarium and got to see one of the most AWESOME space shows we've ever seen!!!!! It was SO great! And the whole museum was completely packed, as was the space show. We were happy to see that science and natural history are important here. We walked around the museum afterwards and looked at more space photographs, an exhibit about the earth and then footage of the volcanoes at the ocean floor! It was very nice, even the hundreds of kids there were very well behaved, more than I can say for the adults.
So today we're planning on some bumming around taking photos until we've got to stand in another line for a million years (but worth it to see Stephen Colbert!!) and then we're going to try to catch a Staten Island Ferry for a ride later (and probably more standing in line for that). They actually have ferries that run every half hour ALL NIGHT LONG here. It's true this city never sleeps. We almost went to one last night late, but decided we just really wanted to chill. We haven't taken many photos, still have not filled out the postcards we bought and haven't bought much in the way of trinkets.
Anyway, I'll write more later. Hope all is well at home on the range!
Love to you all :)
Monday, March 20, 2006
Bloody Amazing
Yesterday was great! We started the day with an excursion to Yankee Stadium! We were hoping to get a tour, but the only one that was available was at 2:00 pm and we got there about 11:30 am. Just too long to wait, and tickets were $24 each! Those Yankee bastards just aren't getting that much of my money, dammit! Like Derek Jeter needs anymore money! Plus, the stadium is located in The Bronx, surrounded by some of the toughest neighborhoods in NYC, so we didn't want to be just loitering around the area. We took a few pictures while John moped our wasted trip. We decided that we can make another trip here when the Twins are playing the Stankees and then just catch a whole game :)
After John got over his intial bumminess, we got back on the subway back to Manhattan and decided to find the Museum of Television and Radio. This had to be one of the strangest museums I've ever seen. It was cool, just very bizarre. We caught a few of the listening/viewing rooms exhibits, and and awesome exhibit of The Muppets, which reminded me of little Fiona with her love of Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Elmo. They also had a library of television shows and radio programs where you can reserve any program in their database, and then they bring you to a room where you have two hours to sit and watch whatever you want. So of course, we reserved three season four episodes of News Radio!! The employees, though, were the STRANGEST of all...they all seemed like they should be working in a mortuary or something. But I shant waste time analyzing that ;)
After a slight feeding rampage (I hadn't eaten in 6 hours by this point and was getting the low blood sugar rages), we decided to just chill at the hotel and get a nap in before The Pogues!! At about 7:30 we hopped the shuttle to Times Square to hit the Nokia Theatre. A nice venue, sort of like First Avenue meets the Orpheum, clean, contemporary and AWESOME sound!!!!!! I grabbed a Red Roses For Me t-shirt and some buttons (if you're reading Bill, we got one for you) while we enjoyed some Guiness. We weasled our way to the very front and ended up meeting a couple who'd flown in from Milwaukee for the show. They kept the crowd waiting a good, long time, finally they shined all blue lights at the empty mics and a song sung by the late good friend of theirs, Joe Strummer called "Straight to Hell" was cued while the entire crowd started singing it. They started with "Streams of Whiskey", and after that the set list is a blur. They played a long set plus three encores! Some fun highlights were usual antics by Shane MacGowan--he'd put a glass of water on his head while walking around the stage, try to dance a bit, he'd announce the next song incoherently while the crowd would respond "What???" or "Speak English you drunk!"--Shane would change tempo in the middle of songs, at one point during Irish Rover the whole band was just staring at him, stopped playing and he looked around and said, "Whaaaaaaaaaat?" and they said, "Shane, you're going too fast!". He did that also during their last song, Fiesta, but the band would just wait til he came round to the next verse and start in again. He also screwed up by announcing "Irish Rover" when they were actually playing "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn". The crowd was more tame than we expected, but even then there were MANY MANY unrulies. I think a lot of people, mistakenly, think that because this is Irish "Folk" music that it will be a mellow show. This has NEVER been the case with this band, as security always seems to be their number one issue, even more so than many other punk bands we've seen. There were a lot of (what I like to call) "dress-up" punks and full-blooded Irish blokes who seemed more into the drinking aspect of the Irish music than the actual music, so that was a disappointment. There were many fights going on, and since we were right up front, our view would get blocked by the mass of security guards dragging people out of the audience. Though unlike shows in Minneapolis where if you're pinched by security you get tossed out of the club completely, here they simply threw them into a different area of the crowd! At one point, one of the security guards seemed to be seriously injured, but after writhing in pain for a bit, he got up and we deduced that he'd probably just been punched in the gut. Loads of people were photographing and bootlegging video, and they'd get warnings. Interestingly, though, there were Nokia employees wandering around with little printers who would print out your digital photos for you. After the show, we had to go out and buy a couple of the Pogues pint glasses for John. We walked home, Pogues booty in hand and crashed right away.
Anyway, I've rambled on quite long enough. We're off for more New York excitement!
Love to you all :)
After John got over his intial bumminess, we got back on the subway back to Manhattan and decided to find the Museum of Television and Radio. This had to be one of the strangest museums I've ever seen. It was cool, just very bizarre. We caught a few of the listening/viewing rooms exhibits, and and awesome exhibit of The Muppets, which reminded me of little Fiona with her love of Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Elmo. They also had a library of television shows and radio programs where you can reserve any program in their database, and then they bring you to a room where you have two hours to sit and watch whatever you want. So of course, we reserved three season four episodes of News Radio!! The employees, though, were the STRANGEST of all...they all seemed like they should be working in a mortuary or something. But I shant waste time analyzing that ;)
After a slight feeding rampage (I hadn't eaten in 6 hours by this point and was getting the low blood sugar rages), we decided to just chill at the hotel and get a nap in before The Pogues!! At about 7:30 we hopped the shuttle to Times Square to hit the Nokia Theatre. A nice venue, sort of like First Avenue meets the Orpheum, clean, contemporary and AWESOME sound!!!!!! I grabbed a Red Roses For Me t-shirt and some buttons (if you're reading Bill, we got one for you) while we enjoyed some Guiness. We weasled our way to the very front and ended up meeting a couple who'd flown in from Milwaukee for the show. They kept the crowd waiting a good, long time, finally they shined all blue lights at the empty mics and a song sung by the late good friend of theirs, Joe Strummer called "Straight to Hell" was cued while the entire crowd started singing it. They started with "Streams of Whiskey", and after that the set list is a blur. They played a long set plus three encores! Some fun highlights were usual antics by Shane MacGowan--he'd put a glass of water on his head while walking around the stage, try to dance a bit, he'd announce the next song incoherently while the crowd would respond "What???" or "Speak English you drunk!"--Shane would change tempo in the middle of songs, at one point during Irish Rover the whole band was just staring at him, stopped playing and he looked around and said, "Whaaaaaaaaaat?" and they said, "Shane, you're going too fast!". He did that also during their last song, Fiesta, but the band would just wait til he came round to the next verse and start in again. He also screwed up by announcing "Irish Rover" when they were actually playing "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn". The crowd was more tame than we expected, but even then there were MANY MANY unrulies. I think a lot of people, mistakenly, think that because this is Irish "Folk" music that it will be a mellow show. This has NEVER been the case with this band, as security always seems to be their number one issue, even more so than many other punk bands we've seen. There were a lot of (what I like to call) "dress-up" punks and full-blooded Irish blokes who seemed more into the drinking aspect of the Irish music than the actual music, so that was a disappointment. There were many fights going on, and since we were right up front, our view would get blocked by the mass of security guards dragging people out of the audience. Though unlike shows in Minneapolis where if you're pinched by security you get tossed out of the club completely, here they simply threw them into a different area of the crowd! At one point, one of the security guards seemed to be seriously injured, but after writhing in pain for a bit, he got up and we deduced that he'd probably just been punched in the gut. Loads of people were photographing and bootlegging video, and they'd get warnings. Interestingly, though, there were Nokia employees wandering around with little printers who would print out your digital photos for you. After the show, we had to go out and buy a couple of the Pogues pint glasses for John. We walked home, Pogues booty in hand and crashed right away.
Anyway, I've rambled on quite long enough. We're off for more New York excitement!
Love to you all :)
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Day Two
What a walk! We started the day nice and leisurely with breakfast by Schmoopie. After lounging a bit, we set out about 10:00 AM. We hopped our first subway and then walked to the site of the World Trade Center. A sad way to start the morning; I couldn't help but shed tears as we looked into the empty hole that remains. I did not think I would cry, but all the footage from that day started replaying in my mind. There was a hushed, respectful silence of the crowd as many people there looked at the devasted area. It did seem to have a strange smell to it, kind of dusty. People were taking pictures and video, though we refrained as we usually don't think of gravesites to be appropriate photo opportunities. It was tremendously windy today, but at the site it was eerily still. We decided not to linger too long as I started to really get emotional when we walked by the photos and timeline they have posted on a fence in front of all the construction. After our silent lament, we left to find Battery Park.
It was SO windy, I have to say it felt colder today that it has at home recently. Battery Park is right on the Hudson River which was beautiful. There were tumultuous waves, and we took pictures of the Statue of Liberty from the edge of the park. I got a few pictures of the park areas that reminded me of the footage from Desperately Seeking Susan, though I don't think we were in the same area as they were in the movie....darn it! It was just too busy, too windy and too cold to mess around with being a stickler for finding the exact area. My sister will appreciate the photos, though, as both she and I are big fans of the movie ;) There were THOUSANDS of tourists, and it didn't take us long to decide that an 1 1/2 hour wait for a ferry to the Statue of Liberty was out of the question today! We decided just to buy some New York gear and move along to our next stop.
It doesn't seem like only two stops should take so long, but it was quite a lot of walking, and in the nasty wind and cold we'd worked up an appetite so we wandered around until we finally came upon a Subway. A touch of the crabbies had hit me (low blood sugar and completely snarled hair is never a good mix) so we chilled for a bit and regained our strength for more walking! We decided to find CBGB's next! I'm always surprised when people aren't familiar with the legendary CBGB's, but in case you don't know, it's one of the most famous punk rock clubs anywhere!! It was the starting place of the original punkers themselves, the Godfathers of punk rock, The Ramones. After many years in business, it will be closing this November, and we had to make our punk rock pilgrimage. We even got to get a close up look of the owner who was wandering about!! He's just as hairy in person as he is in pictures ;) It's nothing more than a shitty hole-in-the-wall type of place, but just thinking about all the wonderful talent and pure energy that those walls have seen, it was pretty cool. So I got a red and black "girly" CBGB's t-shirt. I said I would never buy an unofficial CBGB's shirt--and now I've got one right from the bar/gallery! The gallery side had a bar, lots of funky photos (that included pix of Joey, Dee Dee & Tommy Ramone, Sid Vicious, Steve Jones, Stiv Bators, Iggy Pop, Joe Strummer, Stan Lee playing with The Damned, Lux Interior, and Doyle from the Misfits), different kinds of *unique* art and where they sold all the t-shirts. I was surprised that they had more photos of Sid Vicious than of The Ramones. We didn't actually go into the club part of CBGB's since it didn't appear to be open yet. We took a bunch of photos and also of the street "Joey Ramone Blvd" that was dedicated to him after he died. What a highlight!!!
Then off to TEANY (singer Moby's vegan tea shop) which once we got there, I felt too stupid to venture into and so we just took pitcures of me outside the door. *Blush* I'm an idiot sometimes. Quickly we found Joe's, The Art of Coffee and stopped in for a couple of *delicious* latte's, a chocolate cupcake by Amy Sedaris and a much needed rest for our feet. After that, a swift run through the Gourmet Garage to try to find Amy Sedaris' cheeseballs, to no avail. We left with just a regular brick of cheddar and a couple of other things and headed off to find a subway home. Point of note: the subway system here is a lot more confusing than any other city with rail systems we've been in. And we witnessed a couple of dudes that seemed to be starting on of those "fake fights that turns into a real fight" so we hurried on our way. Right outside Grand Central Station we just happened upon a big protest that we almost joined in, but we had no more energy so just hustled on back to the hotel.
Now it's cracker time as we take a little rest at the hotel. I'll relax a bit and then try to post some of our photos of today :)
It was SO windy, I have to say it felt colder today that it has at home recently. Battery Park is right on the Hudson River which was beautiful. There were tumultuous waves, and we took pictures of the Statue of Liberty from the edge of the park. I got a few pictures of the park areas that reminded me of the footage from Desperately Seeking Susan, though I don't think we were in the same area as they were in the movie....darn it! It was just too busy, too windy and too cold to mess around with being a stickler for finding the exact area. My sister will appreciate the photos, though, as both she and I are big fans of the movie ;) There were THOUSANDS of tourists, and it didn't take us long to decide that an 1 1/2 hour wait for a ferry to the Statue of Liberty was out of the question today! We decided just to buy some New York gear and move along to our next stop.
It doesn't seem like only two stops should take so long, but it was quite a lot of walking, and in the nasty wind and cold we'd worked up an appetite so we wandered around until we finally came upon a Subway. A touch of the crabbies had hit me (low blood sugar and completely snarled hair is never a good mix) so we chilled for a bit and regained our strength for more walking! We decided to find CBGB's next! I'm always surprised when people aren't familiar with the legendary CBGB's, but in case you don't know, it's one of the most famous punk rock clubs anywhere!! It was the starting place of the original punkers themselves, the Godfathers of punk rock, The Ramones. After many years in business, it will be closing this November, and we had to make our punk rock pilgrimage. We even got to get a close up look of the owner who was wandering about!! He's just as hairy in person as he is in pictures ;) It's nothing more than a shitty hole-in-the-wall type of place, but just thinking about all the wonderful talent and pure energy that those walls have seen, it was pretty cool. So I got a red and black "girly" CBGB's t-shirt. I said I would never buy an unofficial CBGB's shirt--and now I've got one right from the bar/gallery! The gallery side had a bar, lots of funky photos (that included pix of Joey, Dee Dee & Tommy Ramone, Sid Vicious, Steve Jones, Stiv Bators, Iggy Pop, Joe Strummer, Stan Lee playing with The Damned, Lux Interior, and Doyle from the Misfits), different kinds of *unique* art and where they sold all the t-shirts. I was surprised that they had more photos of Sid Vicious than of The Ramones. We didn't actually go into the club part of CBGB's since it didn't appear to be open yet. We took a bunch of photos and also of the street "Joey Ramone Blvd" that was dedicated to him after he died. What a highlight!!!
Then off to TEANY (singer Moby's vegan tea shop) which once we got there, I felt too stupid to venture into and so we just took pitcures of me outside the door. *Blush* I'm an idiot sometimes. Quickly we found Joe's, The Art of Coffee and stopped in for a couple of *delicious* latte's, a chocolate cupcake by Amy Sedaris and a much needed rest for our feet. After that, a swift run through the Gourmet Garage to try to find Amy Sedaris' cheeseballs, to no avail. We left with just a regular brick of cheddar and a couple of other things and headed off to find a subway home. Point of note: the subway system here is a lot more confusing than any other city with rail systems we've been in. And we witnessed a couple of dudes that seemed to be starting on of those "fake fights that turns into a real fight" so we hurried on our way. Right outside Grand Central Station we just happened upon a big protest that we almost joined in, but we had no more energy so just hustled on back to the hotel.
Now it's cracker time as we take a little rest at the hotel. I'll relax a bit and then try to post some of our photos of today :)
HAIR!
If you can stop laughing at my wall of hair, you can see the Chrysler Building behind me!! We couldn't get the flash to behave, this was our crappy little camera since we didn't want to mess around with the digital 35mm and all the security b.s. This wasn't even close to the windiest spot up there!!!! WOW!
St. Patty's Day On Top Of The World
We spent our evening last night at the top of the Empire State Building!! It was absolutely beautiful--worth the 45 minutes and mega security hassle. There were throngs of people, but probably nothing compared to daytime tours. We thought it was simply amazing to see all of New York lit up from so high above the city. They said the visibility was 25 miles last night! The wind, though, my gawd, the wind was fiercely bitter. We didn't stay very long, but we left with a few trinky-dinks for the family :) Everything was completely over-priced so we didn't get everything we wanted for people, but we'll hit other touristy stores I'm sure. Plus we got suckered into paying $27 for the pictures they took of us plus a CD full of pictures of the view (which I thought was worth it cuz I love cheesy crap like that) but as one guy put it, "There's a new hustle on every floor" because people just line the tour line and try to get you to buy more crap, audio tours, "express" tours, etc. We'll have to post some of our first pictures!
John slept like a rock. I didn't sleep well, I had worries all night and woke up a couple of times. John just made us some yummy egg sandwiches, OJ, tea and coffee and we're just catching up on the weather. It's going to be in the 40s but with winds up to 30mph! So a little chilly, we'll have to dress for that. We're still deciding what we want to do today. I'll post later when we're back!
Love to you all, hope the weather is getting better there!
John slept like a rock. I didn't sleep well, I had worries all night and woke up a couple of times. John just made us some yummy egg sandwiches, OJ, tea and coffee and we're just catching up on the weather. It's going to be in the 40s but with winds up to 30mph! So a little chilly, we'll have to dress for that. We're still deciding what we want to do today. I'll post later when we're back!
Love to you all, hope the weather is getting better there!
Friday, March 17, 2006
How Yooo Do-un?
We've arrived in Detriot for our 1.5 hour layover. The flight from Minneapolis was uneventful, other than me having to pee whenever the seatbelt sign went up. We got a few zzz's in which was actually quite nice and I'm not groggy and crabby like I usually am after a nap. We're already missing the kitties, though Boo Boo left John with a little souvenier on his right thumb before we left! Her little way of getting back at us for leaving her alone with Vesta! Now we're having a snack, stretching our legs a bit and I'm typing this into Wordpad since they charge for Wifi here. Welp, next stop, Newark!! We shall write more from the hotel, probably :) YAY!
Later......
Here we are!! We made it to New York unscathed! The city is completely packed with people, it's like a busy little ant colony, most of whom are wearing glittery green hats, beads, t-shirts, and face paint for St. Patricks Day. Our hotel is perfect, a tall tower but we're just on the 4th floor. It's got a kitchen so after grabbing a yummy lunch at a little cafe on 39th & 3rd, we stopped off at a nearby grocery store and stocked up on some good stuff. We're planning on eating breakfasts and dinners here at the hotel and then just grabbing lunches and snacks, if needed, when we're out and about. Now we're relaxing with some tea and the weather channel. . It's beautiful here now, sunny and 45 degrees! We'll be heading out a little later to check out the Empire State Building (that for some reason I keep calling the Eifel Tower, no this is NOT Paris...) so we'll have to give the lowdown on that :) I'm sure it'll be cool, but just like looking down from any tall building.
Later......
Here we are!! We made it to New York unscathed! The city is completely packed with people, it's like a busy little ant colony, most of whom are wearing glittery green hats, beads, t-shirts, and face paint for St. Patricks Day. Our hotel is perfect, a tall tower but we're just on the 4th floor. It's got a kitchen so after grabbing a yummy lunch at a little cafe on 39th & 3rd, we stopped off at a nearby grocery store and stocked up on some good stuff. We're planning on eating breakfasts and dinners here at the hotel and then just grabbing lunches and snacks, if needed, when we're out and about. Now we're relaxing with some tea and the weather channel. . It's beautiful here now, sunny and 45 degrees! We'll be heading out a little later to check out the Empire State Building (that for some reason I keep calling the Eifel Tower, no this is NOT Paris...) so we'll have to give the lowdown on that :) I'm sure it'll be cool, but just like looking down from any tall building.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Baby I'm Ready To Gooooooo
We are soooo ready to go on vacation!! I've been a crabby little biddy and John has been anxious for the past two weeks. The break from the mundane will be most wonderful. We're super-jazzed because we just found out today that we got tickets to The Colbert Report!!!!!!!! So the breakdown so far is this:
Arrive NYC on St. Patrick's Day: avoid as many unruly drunks as possible, go see the Empire State Bldg which is open til midnight, thankfully, or we'd probably never even bother with it.
Saturday: not sure, John's got this all mapped out....probably Yankee Stadium, maybe CBGBs.
Sunday: The Pogues!
Monday: The Daily Show!
Tuesday: The Colbert Report!
Somewhere in there we also need to hit my foodie stuff: Amy Sedaris' cupcakes & cheeseballs which are reportedly sold somewhere in the Village (which is conveniently located in the same area as her apartment where she makes them); Moby's vegan tea shop, TEANY, and maybe we'll take photos of Bobby Flay's restaurants. If Jamie Oliver's restaurant is still around, I'll have to eat there, no question. And I'd love to see where the lovely Ms Julie Powell, my all-time office drone hero, lives, but she recently moved and I've been lazy about keeping up on these details in the blogs. Plus, it would just be weird to be wandering around with a camera asking about The Powell's because that's something that she would notice and blog about, and I'll be DAMNED if I'm going to go down in blogging history as some crazy lady wandering around trying to take pictures of a bloggers apartment.
On the kitty front: Mom will be taking care of the babies. Hopefully they won't give her much trouble. We're hoping that Boo Boo will see the error of her ways in her hatred of my mom (because she took her to the vet ONCE 10 years ago and the cat refuses to let bygones be bygones) and realize that hey, mom isn't so bad, she's feeding me, cooing at me and at least she doesn't chase me around the condo like that madwoman, Vesta!!! We'll be calling the machine to leave the cats messages. Dorky, we know.
We've got most everything packed already. The real trick will be getting to the airport. We wanted to take the LRT, but we'd have to walk about 1/2 mile to the darn station that is now covered in icey snow with two check-in bags and two backpacks. So we'll probably cab it. Oh, and this is going to be at 4:00 in the morning, cuz we need to get to the airport by 5:00. I guess we'll be going to bed about 6 pm on Thursday night!! GEEZ!
Anyway, I'm off to think of something to fix for dinner to use up the rest of the fresh stuff. Next blog will probably be from the original big city itself!!
ROCK ON!!!!
Arrive NYC on St. Patrick's Day: avoid as many unruly drunks as possible, go see the Empire State Bldg which is open til midnight, thankfully, or we'd probably never even bother with it.
Saturday: not sure, John's got this all mapped out....probably Yankee Stadium, maybe CBGBs.
Sunday: The Pogues!
Monday: The Daily Show!
Tuesday: The Colbert Report!
Somewhere in there we also need to hit my foodie stuff: Amy Sedaris' cupcakes & cheeseballs which are reportedly sold somewhere in the Village (which is conveniently located in the same area as her apartment where she makes them); Moby's vegan tea shop, TEANY, and maybe we'll take photos of Bobby Flay's restaurants. If Jamie Oliver's restaurant is still around, I'll have to eat there, no question. And I'd love to see where the lovely Ms Julie Powell, my all-time office drone hero, lives, but she recently moved and I've been lazy about keeping up on these details in the blogs. Plus, it would just be weird to be wandering around with a camera asking about The Powell's because that's something that she would notice and blog about, and I'll be DAMNED if I'm going to go down in blogging history as some crazy lady wandering around trying to take pictures of a bloggers apartment.
On the kitty front: Mom will be taking care of the babies. Hopefully they won't give her much trouble. We're hoping that Boo Boo will see the error of her ways in her hatred of my mom (because she took her to the vet ONCE 10 years ago and the cat refuses to let bygones be bygones) and realize that hey, mom isn't so bad, she's feeding me, cooing at me and at least she doesn't chase me around the condo like that madwoman, Vesta!!! We'll be calling the machine to leave the cats messages. Dorky, we know.
We've got most everything packed already. The real trick will be getting to the airport. We wanted to take the LRT, but we'd have to walk about 1/2 mile to the darn station that is now covered in icey snow with two check-in bags and two backpacks. So we'll probably cab it. Oh, and this is going to be at 4:00 in the morning, cuz we need to get to the airport by 5:00. I guess we'll be going to bed about 6 pm on Thursday night!! GEEZ!
Anyway, I'm off to think of something to fix for dinner to use up the rest of the fresh stuff. Next blog will probably be from the original big city itself!!
ROCK ON!!!!
Thursday, January 12, 2006
I Know It's Not Til March, Buuuuutttt....
We're SO super-jazzed!!! We received our Pogues tickets in the mail today and John booked our flights last night! Whoo-hoo! We are getting that travel bug big time, but I know it'll really hit us in mid-Febuary when the weather is back to being shite. It was like 40 degrees today, so we're not complaining a bit. Once the deep freeze hits again, and who are we fooling-we know it will, the hubster and I will be needing to get away. Even if it's cold out East, it can't be as cold as this tundra!
NEW YORK, NEEEWW YOOOOOOOOOOOORRK!
NEW YORK, NEEEWW YOOOOOOOOOOOORRK!
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