My husband made dinner!!

We are experimenting with vegetarianism.  It has been two weeks and Mr. made dinner tonight-check it out!  Chana Masala, chickpeas in Indian spices with coconut rice and sweet taters.  Soooo yummy!!!

babies and cookies

The first finished craft item of the summer.
C. is pregs and her baby shower is tomorrow.  I offered to bake her favors and here they are.  Three different kinds of shortbread: plain, lemon poppyseed, and pecan.  It makes me want to open a bakery instead of face the prospect of a grueling job search...I have sort of been a cookie machine lately.  On Wednesday I baked 9 dozen cookies for the students at the school where I finished student teaching.  This culminated in a concert Wednesday night where I conducted three (!) pieces.

Bowery Boys

My favorite podcast is the Bowery Boys, NYC history.  They are adorable and chatty and gossipy and cover a new topic weekly.  Recently they covered the history of Roosevelt Island, which is a slender island in the East River.  You can reach it by a bridge from Queens or the F train.  But the more fun route is the Tram!  This lighthouse at the north end was built by occupants of the lunatic asylum.
There was an amazing! community garden and the roses were all in full bloom.
The Good Shepherd chapel and baby geese!

We accidentally improv everywhere

After we looked at the ruins we walked up this hill and found this open field...so lovely and so random.

Then it began to fill with hundreds of people with colored t-shirts and earphones in.  They begin to run around and move with synchronicity.  Turns out we were in the middle of an Improv Everywhere event and all the participants had downloaded a Mp3 with directions.  We left.

Roosevelt Island

I am not sure you can always go all the way to the south end of the island, but it was open the day that we went and there are great views of the UN building and Queens.
These are the Renwick ruins, the remains of a smallpox hospital.  The island was a repository for the infirm, the insane, and the criminal.

Excursion

I am sort of sneaky with my husband. I often have plans in my mind, but I don't ask him if he wants to go. I say mysterious things like, "There is this place that I want check out, it is just around the corner". Then when we are standing in front of it, I jump up and down and clap my hands saying "Can we do it???". And then he can't argue with me. This is the Mount Vernon Hotel or the Abigail Adams Smith Museum. The hotel part means that it was an old fashioned "day hotel", sort of like a country club. The Abigail Adams Smith part means nothing...her husband owned this land and intended on building a country home but did little more than getting the foundation done before he sold it.
This is located on the Upper East Side and our original destination was Roosevelt Island. But... this really was right around the corner.  When we rang the bell a little old guy named Bob opened it and looked at us quizzically.  We asked if there was a tour and he hesitated and then said..."yes, just a minute".  Then he took the two of us on an hour long tour of the eight-room carriage house!  It was absolutely lovely, one of my most favorite things.  If you look very closely at the stonework you can see the date 1799 imbedded on either side of the circle.

Food

Mr. and I are gonna try vegetarianism. This is a layer of parmesan polenta, mozzarella, ricotta, arugula, and eggs in purgatorio- or eggs poached in tomatoe sauce. Really good. Oh, and onion soup too.
My girlfriends, S and C, came over the other day. After we played instruments, ate lunch, walked the dog, and ate dinner; we made whipped cream&raspberries for dessert. We all had too much cream and were addled by the sugar so we just kept stirring and made...BUTTER!

Grapes

Here we are trying to get our money's worth from our robe rentals.
The Titanic before it sinks.
S.'s family- who I adore!  My dad and hers sort of blabbed each other's heads off.
My fam.
The ladies!

Gradumatation

Sooo, my parents are in town to celebrate my graduation from NYU.  The last time I participated in graduation was in 98, so this is sort of weird and wonderful.  We went to the NY Botanical Garden when they arrived (after a three hour delay).  I totally forgot my camera and my dad's was mis-programmed, so we only have pictures "in our minds".  The next day was Mother's Day and I made a big breakfast and then we went downtown.  Every single time my parents come to town- we ride the Staten Island Ferry, at my father's insistence.  So here we are on the ferry- on the prettiest ride so far.  After we took a walk around Battery Park.  I finally got a haircut and then we had the lovliest dinner at The Little Owl.  My fabulous friend L. works there and served us.  We spent two and a half hours eating!
Here we are in the Westside Community Garden having a picnic.  Notice how Sparks is making friends with my mom.
Today (Tuesday) we took a long walk, after the most enormous lunch at Shake Shack, around Central Park.  Aren't they soooo cute?  My dad has been wearing this vivid KU jacket all over town and today another Kansas transplant chatted him up on the street.
Azaleas in bloom..
The graduation ceremony for Steinhardt School of Education (and Human Development and Culture) was held at Radio City Music Hall.  So after the endless speeches, I got to walk across the stage, which was a trip.  But, most importantly, I didn't trip or fall or stumble- phew.

Umm, have you noticed

that I am pretty much done with school work. I have one day of classes left and one final to take. Then I am finished and graduate on the 11th! My parents are coming, which will be fun. Then I have to deal with the grim task of getting a job. A few things have already cropped up, so I am hopeful. But for the next week, I feel that I deserve to please myself and look into the hearts of flowers.
The above tulip is mine- a crazy ruffled thing. And look at Sparks! So cute! I know, I say that all the time, but it is true. Plus in photos you can just enjoy his cuteness and not deal with the wild behavior. He actually hates to have his picture taken- imagine a thought bubble above him that says "Oh Mommy, your dork, I will look at you with a happy face for about...a nanosecond, so get it right. Ok, can I have a cookie?"

My tulips

So some of these technically are not my tulips, but whatever.
Not my tulips
Ummm, not my tulips...
Still, not mine.
Ahh, here they are. And they are rather late blooming and random. Note to self, for next year, tulips look better in clumps.

Bike Adventure

These photos are all backwards...so today Mr. and I decided to take a bike ride. We went down to the Bike and Roll place on the West Side Highway and 43rd and rented some. Then we biked the Greenway all the way to Battery Park. It sounds like a long way, but it was absolutely not and we had a two hour rental and took lots of time to stop and look at the view and google interesting things along the way. In addition, this bike path is the only place I would ride a bike in Manhattan- I am a total wuss on the street. We veered off to look at some buildings on Charles Street and it was too nerve wracking...We also rode through the parks in Battery Park City- so lovely, so..suburban. There is a memorial for the Irish Potato Famine that also raises awareness of world hunger. I had always wanted to check it out and it was conveniently located on our path (see the bottom photo). Besides that Battery Park is an interesting destination that we rarely visit. We walked back north, through a funny Romanian Street Fair, which had exactly nothing to do with Romania.


I really was luring Mr. along because we have a banh-mi obsession. When I was at the yarn shop, we would always order Nicky's, which were sandwiches like I have never had before. Mystery meat, carrots, cucumber, cilantro, and jalapeno on a French baguette. Come to find out, from the NYTimes, that these are Vietnamese banh-mi and are the latest sandwich craze. So we taste tested two new shops: Paris Bakery and Banh-mi Saigon. First, we ate Paris- which were ok. They are known for the bread baked fresh every hour- but the meat was a bore and kind of flavorless. Then we went to Banh-mi Saigon which is a stand in the back of a jewelry store. Very tasty meat, kind of sweet and less than $4. I recently brought home sandwiches from Num phang- which we really tasty (but twice as expensive). The cocunut shrimp would be worth it again...But can I say, I think Nicky's is the best and I knew it before the NYTimes!

My greatest joy in living in Manhattan is finding little signs on buildings that tell you about some famous person or thing that happened there. So the disk with William Bartham's name on it, is embedded in the sidewalk on Broadway and Maiden Lane and used to have a clock in it. The timepiece is gone, but the compass remains to remind New Yorkers that, despite what we all say, Manhattan is not due north-south. We walked all the way to City Hall and behind the Supreme Court building to the site of Five Points, the infamous slum. It now is a huge park teeming with the latest immigrant community, the Chinese. There was some really intense games of Mah-jong and a band...and a crazy Chinese lady in a sombrero- ah NY.

Beginning of the best day

We need to visit the park at least every day, because the cherry blossoms are all floating down...I am going to bury this comment here (but I have to say)- I love my husband! He is so great and we have the most fun together. Today was just...sigh...the best day!
OMG- soooo cute!

So fast

Sparks shows his appreciation for the cherry blossoms. They came and went so fast!